Pitching, Pitchers, and Baseball

In 1971, Ferguson Jenkins started 39 games and completed 30 of them.  In 1974, he started 41 games and finished 29.  In both of those seasons, he completed more than four times the number of complete games that any team had in 2017.  In fact, the 59 games he completed in those two seasons equals the number of complete games that all 30 major league teams had in 2017. 

To show that Fergie was not a one-off, Rick Reuschel, who pitched from 1972 to 1991, had 102 complete games in his career, including twelve in 1987, which was double the number of complete games that any team had in 2017, except the Indians, who had seven.

For another comparison, I looked at the box scores in the print editions of Wednesday’s and today’s Chicago Tribune.  There were thirty box scores (some from late Monday; the rest from Tuesday and Wednesday).  In those 30 games, only twice did a team use just two pitchers.  (Obviously, there were no complete games).  Twelve times a team used three pitchers, and the remaining 46 times the team used four or more pitchers.  Excluding the two extra-inning games, you still have 42 out of 56 times that a team used four or more pitchers.

Obviously, everybody knows this is happening.  I just thought it was interesting to see some numbers showing it.  It would be more interesting to see a comparison of the average numbers of pitchers used per game from today versus the number used 40 or 50 years ago.  The real question, however, is what effect it is having on the game.