Pitch Count Coaching in Major League Baseball

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Somewhere along the line, baseball managers came up with the pitch count. The premise is that a pitcher can only pitch so many pitches in a game before tiring out. Somewhere about 120. So, when he reaches that count, you pull him out. You do it because if he is tired, he’ll make mistakes, and if he’s tired, he may injure himself. If he’s recovering from an injury, you don’t want him to get reinjured. How bout letting him heal up before using him if you’re that worried? So nowadays, you won’t see many pitchers pitch a complete game even if he’s winning and having a good night.

I think this kind of thinking is complete bull.

Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan, one of the best pitchers of all time was on ESPN not long ago and he said if a pitcher can’t pitch a whole game, you work him harder and get that strength built up so he can. Nolan Ryan pitched 27 seasons of major league ball. He had 222 complete games. He once pitched 259 pitches in 12 innings against the Royals in 1974. He has more no hitters than any other pitcher. Ya think they ever considered pulling him because of pitch count?

Now here’s something else about pitch count managers that drives me batty. Since they are so absorbed in this pitch count deal, they won’t pull a pitcher when the need to. They make excuses like, I don’t want to use my bull pen so soon in a game. Instead they would rather lose 10-0. Tonight, July 23rd, 2010, I’m watching the Yankees play the Royals. It’s a record type of night. Jorge Posada already hit his 1000th RBI in the first inning. A-Rod is sitting on 599 homers and tonight he could get number 600. Bannister has already given up 4 runs in the first inning. How ‘bout a high run count? He walked one and hit another with a pitch. How about number of batters to get on base in a row count? The announcer said Bannister sometimes takes a couple innings to settle down. So, as a pitch count guy, you keep him in. But, in the later innings after you replace him for having a high pitch count, you don’t have a pitch count for your relievers. Now, you’ll put in a reliever for one inning or maybe to pitch to just one batter. What kinda crap is this?

Batting coaches will even get involved in this. They say a batter who can make a pitcher pitch 6 or 7 pitches to him is a good at bat. Doesn’t matter that you strike out. They say that the count for that pitcher will get high quick and his manager will pull him when he gets to his pitch count high and that’s a good thing. Oh, a good thing that you get a fresh pitcher coming at you? Batting coaches will have a batter take the first pitch no matter where it’s thrown. Pitchers know this from the scouting report and what you’ll see is a batter taking strike one every time he comes to bat. A waste of a good pitch. I’ll tell ya what, if a pitcher is having a good night, the batters can’t wait for him to get pulled. If he’s having a bad night, they want him to stay in forever.