Yu Darvich of the Texas Rangers made the suggestion that MLB would cut down on injuries to pitchers if they had a 6 man rotation. This way the pitchers would get more rest between starts. For starters if that happened................ 1) No more 20 win seasons 2) No more 200+ innings pitched 3) No more 30-35 starts 4) The 25 man squad would have to be expanded because you'd be carrying more pitchers then position players. But my biggest question would be how the hell did they do it in the 60s & earlier when there were basically 4 man rotations & pitchers weren't having all these surgeries.
I'd much rather see Teams go back to Complete Gamer 4 man rotations, when necessary. Shades of the 71 O's: Cuellar, Palmer, Dobson, McNally..... Use a 5th starter to spot the other 4, and pitch long term relief, when not starting, eg: Grant Jackson...... http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/BAL/1971.shtml
You can't help but marvel when you look at that pitching staff that year. 4 20 game winners A feat achived only once before by the White Sox in 1920. Cuellar IMO was very under-rated. A 4 time 20 game winner, 6 times throwing at least 250 innings & he pitched until he was 40. HOFer Jim Palmer 8 time 20 game winner with 4 300 inning seasons pitched until he was 38. McNally was a 4 time 20 game winner & 5 times pitched over 250 innings but retired early due to contract dispute. And Dobson just petered out toward the end of his career. I bring these numbers up because to the best of my knowledge with all the games they played & all the innings they pitched none of them ever had a major injury, which was a pattern back then. So why all the injuries now & whats the cause? Something to think about.
This almost makes me wonder if today's mentality, and ST approach is the problem. Which Torre brought with him, as well as other Mgr's. Pitch 'em 6, and shut 'em down with a strong BP.....not a bad concept, & changed the face of the game as we've known it. Not bad, when one can bring a game win down to only 6 innings. BUT- like you said, the injuries, off the charts (and I prefer the games & philosophy of yester-years, CG SP's).... I can't help but think, Spring Training and Off Season, eg, lack of training arms, shoulders, bodies to go a longer distance. Not many Olympic Sprinters, does one see in a Decathlon, or Marathon event. I was lucky to see the O's and A's play each other (in Oakland) in those late 60s, early 70s...As great as seeing Koufax and Marichal, or Gibson and Koufax/Drysdale, et al. I long for the days of CG'ers. The 05 Playoffs, were great in this respect. SP's got to close out what they began, until Ozzie realized his BP needed work too.... A Feat (like you said Rick), we Will Never See Again....
And no one seems to be able to answer the question or perhaps the right people aren't asking it, "Why all the injuries now & not 40, 50, 60 years ago". Who or what is to blame? And when you find out........FIX IT!
