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Pitchers getting hurt at an alarming rate | Ed Rendell

Today's pitchers are unable to show the type of endurance found in such pitchers as Nolan Ryan, Robin Roberts

BASEBALL SEASON has been underway for eight short weeks, but, unbelievably, in that time period, 108 major league pitchers have gone on the disabled list.

The worst-case scenario is the Seattle Mariners, who have their first four starters on the DL and had eight pitchers go on the DL in the first eight weeks. That might seem unbelievable, but the Mariners are not alone.

The Los Angeles Angels have had nine pitchers on the DL. The Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays have had seven each. The Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, LA Dodgers, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves have all had five.

This is mind-boggling. What is the cause of it? Is it overwork? Clearly not! Today, starting pitchers rarely exceed 100 pitches per game and only a few pitch more than 200 innings a year. For example, in the 2016 season, only 16 major league pitchers completed more than one game the entire year and eight of them had more than two complete games. The American League leader was the great Chris Sale, with six, and the National League leader was Johnny Cueto, with five. In 2015, six pitchers led MLB, with four complete games.

Going back over baseball history, these numbers seem ludicrous and unimaginable. This hardly is a recent phenomenon. In the last 18 years, only James Shields has had more than 10 complete games, and he had only 11, in 2011.

But consider the case of two of the hardest throwers of their eras, Nolan Ryan and Robin Roberts. Ryan spent an incredible 27 years pitching in the majors, racked up 222 complete games and 5,386 innings pitched. From 1972 through 1977, he had more than 20 complete games in five seasons, with a high of 26 each in 1973 and 74. From '72 through '80, he failed to reach 200 innings only once (198 in 1975). He threw 3322/3 innings in 1974, and 326 in 1973. In 1989, at the ripe old age of 42, he pitched 2391/3 innings. Ryan pitched until he was 46 and still threw in the low 90s even then.

The Phillies' own Robin Roberts pitched for 19 years in the bigs, completed 305 games and pitched 4,6882/3 innings. He won 20 games or more each season from 1950-55, and completed more than 20 games from '50-56, including 33 in 1953, 30 in 1952 and 29 in 1954.

Good grief! Ryan and Roberts' statistics are startling.

If you want a real laugh, consider that 113 big-league pitchers have completed more than 50 games in a year, with the top being Will White who completed 75 games in 1879, for the Cincinnati Reds. Like White, all of them pitched in the 19th century when there were no relief pitchers and no disabled list.

Given that this modern-day injury issue is clearly not the result of overwork, what could possibly have caused this almost untenable situation?

I spoke to my friend Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the White Sox, about this and he thinks that it actually is overwork, because many players began pitching way too much, as far back as Little League. Though most Little Leagues now have pitch-count limits, a lot of young, gifted players now pitch 12 months a year on multiple teams. They don't play any other sports, so the cumulative wear-and-tear on their arms by the time they get to the big leagues is far greater than pitchers from other eras.

That undoubtedly is a factor to be considered. Reinsdorf referred me to Don Cooper, the White Sox pitching coach, who is considered by many to be the best pitching tutor in the majors. Cooper pointed out that the lower workloads could well be symptomatic of the fact that there are far more relief pitchers than there were in the old days. Because of this, Cooper said, pitchers used to pitch with ailments that today would send them to the disabled list.

Cooper said he thinks the main culprit is pitchers' delivery and arm action. He said too many pitchers today either don't have the right delivery or the proper arm action when they're on the mound. He said he can look at film of young pitchers and predict with some degree of certainty those who will run into arm problems. He got into trouble once when, in Steven Strasburg's rookie year, he opined that Strasburg's delivery and arm action would likely cause him to suffer injury. He was berated by the Nationals front office, but Strasburg soon went on the DL for the first time.

I always had thought all of these injuries were caused by fairly new types of pitches. I figured that throwing sliders and splitters put more wear-and-tear on an arm than just fastballs, curveballs and changeups, the repertoire of most pitchers in the past.

Cooper disagreed and said that no matter what pitch you throw, it comes down to arm action and delivery. He is probably right, but someone better find a solution to this problem, because the carnage that has occurred in the first eight weeks to MLB pitchers is shocking.

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