Pitch Counts....Why Has It Changed???

I'm certainly no expert in this matter, but I've heard that the slider and the split finger fastball do create a torque in a pitcher's delivery that probably risks injury more than say your basic fastball, curveball, change-up pitcher.   That may have alot to do with why so many pitchers experience arm trouble and are on and off the DL so often.  Its quite possible the Ryan just came from a better gene pool than everyone else as he's just a freak of nature.  Ryan also didn't mess around with sliders and split fingers either. 

Also in the day of the 6 and 7 innings starts we see today, I believe pitchers are putting more maximum effort into their pitching than pitchers of the past.  Back in the day of many complete games, pitchers were of the mindset that they were going to pitch at least nine innings that day and paced themselves accordingly. 

Thats my input...what do you think?   I also second bigd's compliment to you Steve

I'm certainly no expert in this matter, but I've heard that the slider and the split finger fastball do create a torque in a pitcher's delivery that probably risks injury more than say your basic fastball, curveball, change-up pitcher.   That may have alot to do with why so many pitchers experience arm trouble and are on and off the DL so often.  Its quite possible the Ryan just came from a better gene pool than everyone else as he's just a freak of nature.  Ryan also didn't mess around with sliders and split fingers either. 

Expert or not, you've provided me with the first idea that I can research for an actual explanation. Maybe it does have something to do with the assortment of pitches used now as opposed to the few they used way back.....And thx for the complinent KidDude.

Detroitbrewers, you had me splitting my sides with ur take on the way of life in the new age!

From a pitching standpoint a split finger fastball produces no more torque than a regular fastball on the arm. Sliders do, but pitchers in days of old threw the slide piece so that really doesn't matter. My feeling as a former pitcher is the shrinking strike zone where they expect the pitcher to place it on a tee for the hitter in order to facilitate more offense is largely responsible. Pitchers are being forced to throw more pitches per inning therefore the amount of IP goes down. Also having to pitch a stressful inning of thirty pitches in one inning does more wear and tear than three quick innings of 10 to 15 pitches per inning. Go back to the real strike zone and you may see innings pitched go up.

Very interesting Adrian, especially from a former pitcher. There were so many less runs (and therefore less pitches thrown) scored in those days, that it very well can have attributed to an increase in the number of innings able to be thrown.