also there is torque on the elbow for a lot of pitchers when they throw. the arm comes straight out from the shoulder socket and from the elbow to the end of the arm acts like a lever. and there is torque on the shoulder when you cock your arm to throw. think of it like the pitching machines in the batting cages. when you look at the ptcher from the front, it doesn't appear to twist. but if you look at him from the side it's more noticeable that the arm is moving in a circle. just like the top of a jar is moving in a circle when you apply torque. the shoulder, elbow, and wrist all "snap" at some point in the throwing motion. that's what somebody was talking about when they said it's an unnatural motion
Excellent question, and some very valid and interesting responses.
I feel that most pitchers below the elite level now have a much more defensive approach in which they throw more pitches outside the strikezone, trying to make hitters get themselves out, instead of beating them with their stuff.
This inevitably raises pitch counts and makes the complete game a comparitive rarity.
Still, makes work for relief pitchers, I guess.
Can you imagine the reaction of the players union if relievers were made redundant by starters going 9 innings every night?
I watched an interview with Mark Gubicza last night. He was a former starting pitcher for the World Champion 1985 Kansas City Royals. That staff comprised of Brett Saberhagen, Gubicza, Danny Jackson, Buddy Black and Charlie Liebrandt for most of the season. He was saying that for most of the season the Royals only carried 9 pitchers on their roster. That was only 23 years ago. I just heard a few days ago that some team is currently carrying 13 pitchers on their 25 man roster. Wow, have times have changed just in the last generation.
That staff comprised of Brett Saberhagen, Gubicza, Danny Jackson, Buddy Black and Charlie Liebrandt for most of the season. He was saying that for most of the season the Royals only carried 9 pitchers on their roster.
And if memory serves, all but Liebrandt had their careers shortened by arm injuries. Liebrandt, a soft tossing lefty, couldn't throw hard enought to hurt his......lol
Actually all 5 of them pitched in the majors for 10+ years, although Liebrandt is the only one to pitch past the age of 35. However, if you take any given 5 man staff from the past 25 years or so you probably wouldn't find many instances where all 5 of them pitched for 10+ major league seasons.
I think the health of a pitchers arm has more to do with his mechanics and how well he takes care of himself with proper training than whether he throws 100 pitches or 120 pitches or whether he pitches 180 innings or 230 innings.
And though they all did pitch 10+ years, they all had arm injuries around age 27 and or had many trips to the DL thereafter. For the most part, none of them ever regained their pre-injury effectiveness or if they did, couldn't sustain it for long and had to become a reliever.
And though proper mechanics are a big part of it, very few pitchers HAVE proper mechanics. That's why pitch/innings limits are important. The longer a pitcher with less than perfect mechanics is out there, the greater the risk. Not everybody can have Ryan, Seaver & Koosman (amongst others who pitched effectively, without too many injuries for a long time) type mechanics.
