I have a novel solution: pitchers are only allowed to throw knuckleballs. Everyone wins here. Pitchers don't get hurt. Fans get to watch knuckleballs. Hitters get to alternately look silly and hit BP homers. Fans get to watch homers.
From a fan perspective, i may be alone in this. But after having the pitch clock and knowing that 2:30 games exist, i would rather jam a hot poker in my eye then go back to having to sit through 4 hour games daily. Hopefully theres a solution that can keep stars healthy and keep games shorter.
I know Trevor is a former pitcher and has his inherent bias, but you have to look at the push for max velo as a MAJOR contributor. Prior to about the 90's, starters pitched every 4th day instead of 5, pitched quicker for more innings (ex, look at the number of complete games), relievers often pitched multiple innings.
The reason so many pitchers are getting hurt is because they are not eating enough sourdough bread. There is a study being done (its in the early phases) that shows that pitchers who eat sourdough bread get hurt less than those who just eat normal bread. Instead of trying to patch the problem by slowing the pitch clock just mandate that each pitcher needs to eat sourdough bread every day.
And this is how misinformation gets spread on the internet. 😂 I heard it was Wheaties. Tommy John himself wrote the paper ya know, The guy who invented the surgery.
dont forget the butter milk. studies show that increased butter milk intake has shown to turn ligiments into something that resembles iron rod mixed with bungie cord. that kid from the movie that pitched for the major league drank butter milk
Probably has a lot to do with that any MLB pitcher probably has 50,000 throws on their arm by the time they're drafted. My cousin who was drafted in a super late round the second time, college, already had a dead arm. My uncle had him playing/pitching year round from 5-22.
Sorry to hear about your cousin's sustained injury after many years of training to be an mlb pitcher. I hope he has found a new passion and is doing well for himself. Thanks for sharing.
Kids used to just pitch during baseball season, and would play other sports or not do any serious competition during the offseason. Now, they're throwing all year round. That's a problem.
Love Trevor's take. All of it! Pitching your guts out w/every heave of the ball & doing so at such a younger age is probably the main culprit here. Only so many bullets in that arm so save some. Betting the previous generation pitchers didn't arrive at spring training basically game ready as they do now. Maybe w/today's standards the pitch clock don't help either. The human body has it's limits & not everyone is built the same.
Velocity is definitely a pretty big factor, but I also think another factor is the overpitching of kids in travel ball. I was never really a pitcher, but as the catcher of the team, I would always be catching the same guys sometimes even on back to back days of 7 inning ball. Yes, they only went 3 innings, but their arms were less developed than Major League pitchers and they were pitching with less rest. That kinda mileage leads to younger and younger players getting Tommy John OR increases the likelihood they get Tommy John when they make it to Minor League Baseball and beyond. What's even more worrying is the coaches and parents of these kids don't understand the toll they are putting on young pitchers. I'm sure this is even worse in other countries where young kids are committing to focus only on baseball. If command is incentived, arm injuries will likely be mitigated in the pros, but I'm not positive that it will trickle down to the younger leagues.
I saw a video a year or so back comparing the surgery rates in the major leagues vs japan. The video i saw, i cant find it now, attributed the lesser number of tommy john surgeries to the 6 man rotation used in japan. They also spoke a bit about pitch selection with more splitter and changes thrown in the japanese leagues vs the predominant mix of fastball slider in mlb.
I know it's weird to say this now considering he just got injured, but my understanding is that's what helped Gerrit Cole stay so healthy throughout most of his career. Is parents were freakish about making sure he never threw too much growing up. If he passed his pitch limit on the day his parents would make the coach pull him if he hadn't already.
@@mrbreck1 I agree that The 6 man rotation definitely helps (I didn't know they did that in Japan), but a few things. 1) Young Japanese players at the high school equivalent practice a lot (like multiple times in one day), so I can only imagine how often those guys are throwing bullpens, which is concerning. 2) I honestly think splitters are actually one of the worst pitches to develop when you are younger because splitting your fingers puts a lot of strain on your UCL (considering the ligament splits when it gets to your fingers). When I was younger, I was really stupid and threw a a split-change when I was playing catch (even though like I said, I wasn't a pitcher). A few months in, I landed on my elbow and got a UCL strain that still bothers me today. I'm pretty sure my usage of that split-change had a pretty negative effect on my UCL. So, I do think splitters are a very concerning pitch for players with smaller hands because spreading your fingers like that to go around a baseball makes your ligament into essential string cheese.
My nephew just entered high school, but a couple of years ago in travel ball, my sister in law had a real issue with them pitching him back to back days and throwing 70+ pitches. She pulled him off the team if I remember correctly because he injured his arm. It's a REAL problem. If you want to be on the best team, and get into the best schools later on, the politics are killing real talent. It's really sad, and for a game I've loved for a long time to be basically inaccessible for my kids is difficult to understand. It's supposed to be the "simple game".
Here’s a fun one. When I was in high school (western PA), the coaches, that all got fired about 2 years after I left, going through conditioning in the winter, you’d get kicked out of a bullpen in December if you tried throwing over 50%…. In PA, is that gonna help a single person? No. Not one. My high school coaches RUINED the possible college careers of so many pitchers because they didn’t know one single thing they talked about. When I worked my release point different on a 2-seam, “hitters will pick that up”… I doubt it. Youth coaches ruin pitchers, I’ll stand by that one. There’s not 1 pitcher who needs/wants to be taught a system. Let us develop differently
I actually see this as a decent compromise. But I think many of the players would shoot back that it isn't nearly as much of an issue about not getting enough rest between starts as it is an issue of not getting enough rest between pitches.
This is really smart imo. Pitchers don't sacrifice their performance by just throwing slower, and mlb doesn't sacrifice pace of play, which lets be honest, I think from a fan perspective is objectively much better. The only hard part is I don't know if every team is going to want to invest in a 6th starter who's actually good enough. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it, but it seems like it would just widen the gap between rich and poor teams even further
Sourdough bread feels like a quarantine callback. The reality is that pitcher injuries at this scale indicate pitchers are being seriously overworked. We aren't going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle with stuff because stuff gets results. We need to immediately stop overworking pitchers. We do this in 2 parts: 1) Increase the number of pitchers allowed on the roster, expand the active roster if necessary, and 2) Mandate pitch counts and games off for recovery corresponding to effort and load, making an exception to the 3 batter minimum if necessary.
Saw a really interesting quote and may be a trickle down effect. Starting with the “juiced balls” it forced pitchers to become more creative to maintain success which led to velo and spin chasing, more use of sticky substances and taking more time between pitches to recover to give it everything that next pitch. It’s pitchers adapting to the new advantages of hitting and we are the downstream effects now. Any thoughts on this?
The pitch-clock and the pitch-count should be inversely proportional to one another. A pitcher should be incrementally allowed much more time to recover as his pitch-count progresses. Also, since a ton of pitchers get called up every week anyway, why don't they allow a team to have 20 pitchers on the roster?
It’s a combination of all. Pro sports especially MLB pays a crap load of money to their athletes especially kids who can throw 100 mph. They push strain on their arms, get the surgeries so they can play a little longer to get that huge life changing paycheck. MLB reduces the rest time between pitches and here is where we are at. Kids playing sports see money. Having elbow surgery is worth the cost.
Isn’t ironic that the Commissioner’s Office / Owners are blaming pitchers for throwing hard when they are the ones that reward pitchers for…*checks notes*…throwing hard.
I’ve been saying since the beginning of this season when the injuries started getting noticeable that the lack of sticky stuff was causing injuries, because of what Tyler Glasnow said last year
Sourdough's fantastic. I like to form it into bread bowls for soup. It's alarming; we're seeing someone going on the IL every day, if not more than one. TJ surgery, other problems. I've been watching baseball for a looooong time, and I don't remember it happening as frequently as it is today. It's scary. Also - I love your channel so much. Fun & informative. Tell Hugh I said 'hi'.
Hey Trevor, I’m not a big fan of sourdough bread, but I am a big fan of you becoming commissioner of baseball. Then we would have someone in there who wants to pitch the game the right way
Would love to see your take on the whole Bauer situation ik it's controversial to talk about but would love to here someone from inside the games perspective.
The problem with dialing down velocity is that batters would generally be so ahead as to have a huge advantage, sure there would be outlier pitchers like Maddux or Kyle Hendricks for 6 years of his career, but generally guys would be salivating to get to the batters box if they had to face 92 instead of 97.
Yes, but just like Greg Maddux, if you focus more on command rather than velocity and can put the ball wherever you want it, they can get the batters to roll over on it or pop it up. It's not guaranteed, but there's other components to pitching than just velo.
The pitch clock is good for the game overall. Youth coaches and intense specialization is one problem. We've seen repetitive use injuries rise in all sports. I suspect this compounds for MLB players - at some point that check needs cashed. There should definitely be more pitchers. I want pitchers to rest off the field but not have dead time in the game.
Use to do the same thing in college, after every pitch I was looking at the talent meter, what’s funny was with off speed it was completely different. It was like wonder if I can throw that curve slower.
I can’t stand the pitch clock. It took a lot of theater out of the game. It also made it so you can’t spend a day at the park or get up for anytime to eat and drink or tour the park. It costs $200 to take my family to the park now and we’re out of there in under 3 hours.
What's baffling to me about pitching is the goat of pitching is Greg Maddox which his thing was just pitching to weak contact never power and it was by far the most efficient and effective way of getting outs and he was rarely injured. Yet you rarely see that style of pitching these days in the majors and being taught in general.
Theres a couple big reasons. One, Umpires don't give 8 inches of the plate because they get graded publicly now. Two, because you simply wont get the opportunity to get there throwing 88. And third, the ability to get a strike out is the only outcome that almost guarantees no run will score. That is extremely valuable, but this applies mostly to relievers these days. There are plenty of starters that don't go for strikeouts every time. Lastly, there's very likely some rose colored glasses involved with this feeling.
@TrevorMayBaseball That's a very good point. I just always thought that especially in today's day and age where everybody seems to be going for the long ball that on paper pitching to weak contact would be ultra ultra effective. But from what you're saying it sounds more high risk High reward and pitchers and coaching these days want the least amount of risk. I also never watched Maddox in his prime. I grew up in Orange County during the 2000s and so the guys that I watched as a kid were K-Rod, Troy Percival, Lackey, Weaver, Ervin Santana etc.
Just curious. If pitchers decided to boycott the pitch clock, say refusing to pitch, or pitch underhanded whatever. Would the mlbpa and the other players back them? And how has Aroldis Chapman never had an arm injury?
It’s pretty clear that increases in velocity are causing significantly more injuries, both have been growing exponentially the last 10+ years. Pitch clock and others, are adding more variables for the chance to get hurt as well. Most people are chasing velocity and creating it “artificially”. Starting when they’re 10-13 years old pushing themselves and risking more injuries. Guys like Verlander, Clemens, Johnson, Ryan, plenty of outliers who had natural velocity or grew into it as they grew older. There’s a good interview a week or 2 ago out there with Verlander talking about his changes as he’s grown up and then been in the big leagues for years on how he’s had to change his style of pitching to accommodate for the league. Hitters are hitting the ball out of the ballpark so much easier than ever before that there’s barely anyone focused on hitting for contact. And therefore a focus on strikeout stuff, not contact pitching. How do you get strikeouts? Increase spin rate and velocity. Increased injuries. Reward the slap hitters who hit .300 along with the guys who pitch lots of innings.
How would you go about rewarding them though? The players don't care about accolades nearly as much as they care about money. Teams listen to modern analytics, and they would rather take the guy with a .230 avg that hits 35 homers and walks at a 14% clip than the guy who hits .300 with little pop and not many walks. Also, no pitcher is going to sign a contract that has innings pitched clauses in it, unless its purely bonus incentives.
@@nickmanville900 that’s the million dollar question. Trevor proposed rewarding the pitchers. There’s just soooo much gray area. The only “solutions” come with “yeah that’s not gonna happen”. I’m super curious to see what happens and what someone smarter than me, comes up with.
This was great. Simple as that. Loved your takes on it. What if the MLB were to say you can only throw 20 pitches a game over 95 MPH or some stupid or likely random number that Rob and the Boys came up with in a vaccum. Guessing this could still create arm issues with guys trying hard to spin differently?
The biggest thing is location isn't rewarded because umps each have different strike zones and are inconsistent. So all pitchers can concistently rely on is spin and velo. Robo Umps would incentivize command again. Bookmark this. This will improve drastically with robo umps.
The pitch clock isn't new because the pace of play and time between pitches used to be more in line with the current pitch clock back when pitchers got hurt less frequently. We forget that the pitch clock is a fix to a problem that the players created in the 1st place. So, why did Bob Welch pitch at his pace and get hurt less frequently? Jorge De La Rosa is the reason there is a pitch clock at all. If everyone moved the game along like Jack Morris did, then there would be no pitch clock and injury issues would return to previous levels.
You have to have nastier stuff to consistently compete than you did back then. "Saving energy" was something they did back then, because they barely even used relievers. You cannot do that anymore if you want to keep a job. The game is INCENTIVIZED differently than it was, so you cant just "do what they did." Thats an oversimplification.
@@TrevorMayBaseball i agree, but i was specifically adressing the sketchy correlation between the pitch clock and injuries. I do understand your point about incentivising velocity and what have you.
I love sourdough bread. It is clearly the league and clubs incentivising velocity and spin rate, not pitchers. I suspect this problem will not get fixed until so many star pitchers get hurt that it starts to hit the bottom line of MLB and owners, and only then will they do anything, because MLB and owners have proven time and again that they see players as their enemy and only care about their well being, so long as it keeps raking in the dough
Most lawyer friendly solution set a precedent that pitchers need a command evaluation rating so they can only play when they are certified with four pitches and not just gas.
I love sourdough bread! Goes really good with high quality peanut butter. Here's my take from someone who only plays amateur ball for old guys. 1) Fix the ball. Make it stickier like in Japan and not quite as juiced. (Just a little change in the winding, not much). Also, put somewhat more pronounced seams on the ball. 2) A stickier ball and higher seams will make creating movement easier. 3) Go back to the old pitch clock. 4) Tax velocity. An old axiom in economics is that you get less of what you tax. Tax teams based on the average fastball velocity of their staff over the season. The more your staff is above 90 mph average fastball velo, the more your team pays. 5) Expand the strike zone a couple inches vertically. A larger strike zone combined with a ball that is a little easier to make move should lead to more getting outs with lower velocity pitches. Also, the split fingered fastball may be part of the problem. Some more research into that would be useful. Also, I think these changes may put a dent in three true outcomes batting styles and may induce batters to take swings that put more balls in play.
An extra 10 seconds between pitches will do nothing for injuries. Therefore the pitch clock is not the problem. Velocity equals success like you said. And I know people that would risk that injury to sniff even minor league baseball. So let’s not act like it’s the commissioner’s fault. Is it his responsibility? Yes. But the players know what they are doing.
I like the pitch clock, especially in the postseason. Tweak it if needed, but keep it. Expand rosters to allow for more pitchers or have a separate roster just for the pitching staff. I would love for velo to come down so more balls would be put into play. Strikeouts are boring.
They need to increase the size of the ball slightly/add a couple tenths of an ounce and make the seams higher again. Create more drag on the ball that will slow it down a bit and pitchers will get back to moving side to side with cutters and two seamers along with sinker ballers. Might also help with the grip issues and lessen the need for sticky shit.
That’s actually really interesting. Unfortunately, those same changes will affect it when it’s hit as well. Remember, those changes were made in 2018 and gave us… the juiced balls. They would rather chance pitcher injuries than kill offense.
@@TrevorMayBaseball What they did though was the opposite, wound it tighter, made the ball smaller and tightened the laces no? The changes I propose are basically to "unjuice" the ball
I’m sorry, but it absolutely IS NOT the pitch clock causing these injuries. If you’re out there throwing as hard as you possibly can, you’re going to get hurt either way and it makes zero difference if you take 30 seconds or over a minute between pitches. Pitchers are just looking for any excuse to get rid of the clock because they don’t like it.
Every young kid starts playing full time baseball instead of multiple sports, spin rate and velocity are pushed ahead at the expense of everything else, the average fast ball has gained 5 mph in just 20 years, pitchers throw way less fast balls than they used to, instead throwing tons of pitches that put more strain on their arm...and we are talking pace of play. Pitchers have no chance at staying healthy unless those other things change. Some ways to change it - make the ball heavier = less velocity and less movement. 3 balls and the batter walks - incentivizes control over speed. 6 innings for starting pitchers or the team loses the DH the rest of the game - incentivizes endurance.
The NFL had a problem with players getting alzheimer like symptoms that had been in the league for a few years. What did they do? Oh, we'll put a little extra padding on the helmet. Not going to fix anything but any drastic measures would take away from the game. What no hitting? That's crazy talk.
The problem is Velocity plain and simple. Pushing the arm to the limit. Pitch clock has basically nothing to do with it. Year round throwing since you are 12 years old is the issue. And on top of that, throwing as hard as you possibly can. Anything you need 5 days rest to recover from you probably shouldn’t do.
If I were the MLB, I want pitchers healthy and throwing slower with less spin. Why? HRs are exciting and quadrupling the balls put in play grows the fan base. People want action on the bags. Only old guys appreciate a great pitchers duel. Today people would pick attending a 13 to 15 game over a perfect game. People have a short attention span and they are looking to adapt the game to … oh shiny
The good, both sides answer is evolve a stronger ligament group in the elbow. But that'll take a couple hundred thousand years. nbd. Also, sourdough bread is better than english muffin for benedicts. I will fight on this hill.
The fact that the clock grants a pitcher the same time to recover between pitches regardless of the pitch-count is asinine. Recovering at 80 pitches takes - and, frankly, should take - much longer than at 12 or 30 or 45.
Alternatively, adding a set amount of time to the clock for each inning pitched. And then presumably resetting that to the base clock time for any relievers who come into the game, would be a confusing mess and also prevent anyone from establishing any real consistent routine.
I would like to see the pitch clock eliminated, and a return to better conditioning/coaching. Leo Mazzone had an excellent program in Atlanta, during those 14 straight division titles. ...Also, I love the squeaky wheel on the dry erase board. ...Double also, a turkey melt on sourdough = delicious.
I don't think there's anything you can do about the velocity issue. The truth is, velocity is effective. So you can tell pitchers not to throw as hard, but as soon as one of them decides not to listen, he's going to become wildly more successful than everyone else. Then everyone will start doing it. It becomes an arms race (pun not intended). You can also draft guys that don't throw as hard, but then you'll be drafting inferior players and intentionally shooting your team in the foot. One thing I haven't seen many people talking about, though, is rest days. I really think that what pitchers do on their days off has a bigger impact than anything else. Hopefully they're eating their sourdough because we know that reduces the risk of injury.
Sourdough bread makes great grilled cheese sandwiches. Now, on to the question... The beauty about baseball is there's no clock. Games take as long as they take. It seems like all this pitch clock stuff is an attempt to impose a clock on the game, so let's do this: cut all games off at 2 hours and 30 minutes. The clock starts when the umpire says "play ball" and stops 2.5 hours later. If it's the middle of an inning, too bad. If it happens in the middle of a rally, too bad. If the ball's flying over the fence when the gun goes off, dead ball, game over. Yes, I'm being facetious.
Sourdough bread is amazing, perfect for a grilled cheese or a sandwich and some tomato soup. Also, depending on whether the players are allergic to/like cats teams could have a program with local shelters to foster cats to the players while they are in their hotel rooms. Besides all the silly videos and pictures that could be created, it can help reduce blood pressure and increase bone density for the players while the cats get a more comfortable environment than a shelter.
Sourdough bread is incredible... But on the topic of pitcher injuries, the easiest thing and quickest thing they could do if they aren't going to give more time between pitches with the pitch clock is introducing an MLB sanctioned sticky stuff available to everyone. Helps with spin and movement without throwing as hard. Who cares as long as everyone has the same help.
Trevor, guys like John Smoltz and Steve Stone think it is the spin rate. Guys like Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson threw at the pitch clock rate with no oroblem.
Sourdough bread is great! MLBPA shouldn't do any favors until MLB looks at this. As a fan I love the shorter games but I also remember how important it is to pace yourself when throwing. It's a violent motion and the more tired you are the harder it is to repeat the motion that's kept you healthy all these years. I wouldn't be surprised if psychologically just by feeling you are being rushed that pitchers are ever so slightly rushing their deliveries as well; enough to put stress on the elbow that previously wasn't there before. I know I'm guilty of tying everything back to Oakland somehow, but in light of these playing conditions, how much would getting your routine thrown off by playing in makeshift minor league facilities "help" pitcher and player health? Playing in Sacramento and expecting it to be major league ready in less than a year is a friggin joke. Why should MLBPA support that?
I like your analysis of events, as well as the way you present it (with a bit of humor). You may be edging ahead of Chris Rose in my hierarchy of guys who talk about baseball. On top of that, I just finished the last of my wife's choclate chip oatmeal cookies. Yum! Oh, yeah, sourdoughbread.
I have the solution. I pitched in the 1990 Little League World Series for Germany and a couple years ago at the age of 45 I had a tryout with the Colorado Rockies' Rookie League team, the Grand Junction Rockies. In 35 years, I've never had arm surgery (ignore the 25 year layoff since the time I last pitched in high school). What's my secret? Knuckleballs. Knuckleballs all the time.
So, the league are gaslighting pitchers? I like the pitch clock, but I had no idea they further shortened it. I think logically there is a threshold to a pitch clock where more pitching injuries would occur the shorter it gets, and if they crossed it, then absolutely it needs to be adjusted. Using the pitch clock as originally set would need a couple seasons to see the effects. So, for the clubs the motivation for higher velocity with good spin and control, leads to better pitching. Motivation for the pitcher is the same, but with the added pressure to make the MLB and stay there. What would stop that trend that is very likely adding to serious injury? The argument that the pitch clock could actually be good to curb this is in my mind. What else would have curbed it if you're strategically trying to do so? I think there could be motivation from the league to increase offense or create better balance, with a byproduct of possibly lowering injury rates long term. I think the clock has a benefit, but the time given is probably shorter than it should be.
Clearly the problem is stadium DJs not playing enough Hoobastank pregame and not carb loading on sourdough bread. Epidemic levels of Hoobstank disrespect out there.
Also, out of all the league mouthpieces aka Commissioners, if someone told me that Rob Manfred had never watched an entire game of MLB, I'd believe it.
It’s like these people never played the game. If your back is a bit tight your mechanics will shift possibly causing arm injuries due to not having a freaking breather.
i love sourdough bread, but it will injure me, much like the pitch click is helping to increase pitchers injuries, gluten was my mystery illness for years. But i have a history of loving things that contribute to my downfall - like being married (3) times. Eventually i worked these things out of my “diet”, but still live with the effects.
Trevor, appreciate the way you produced this. Not a fan of the bread, tastes like I’m eating something that’s gone bad 😂. What would the MLBPA’s stance be in regards to the rule change in bad faith enforced by The Commish’s Office? It seems to be a breach of contract as well as any Health and Safety procedures. I feel that players will have to sue MLB personally and well if you do that, you may as well sign your retirement papers.
Its been understood for about as long as baseball has been played that velo = outs. Before stadiums had radar guns, scouts were taking radar guns to every big HS prospect start in America, and they still do. It runs much much deeper then just they have radar at the stadiums.
what up Trevor, sourdough bread is tight. it's also tight seeing you quit your job to go after it and be a content creator, big ups bro oh exploding arms aren't tight tyvm
These pitchers need to take some focus fuel, but seriously though the injuries are a big problem, biebs was insane in his 2 games this year it sucks he went down.
If the league allowed players to use sourdough bread as the new spider tack the injuries would plummet. It’s unfortunate that the league doesn’t seem to be taking the injury epidemic seriously, what will be the breaking point?
Trevor... lol, the only reason why people think it's the pitch clock is because the people getting hurt early this season are superstars. Arm injuries have been going up at a steady incline since 2000. The emphasis on velocity and spin rate and less on actual pitching is the reason why guys are getting hurt more often. Because of this emphasis, kids, high school and collegiate athletes are risking hurting their arms in order to get to the show. You're seeing more and more players coming into the league who have already had Tommy John before becoming a professional. There aren't pitch clocks at lower levels of baseball. Still increasing arm injuries though. The players aren't doctors. They don't know shit about the human body. There's a reason why we go to doctors and aren't allowed to get treatment based on self-diagnosis. Even doctors go to other doctors for medical care because people are biased about their own health. James Andrews, the most respected surgeon in the athletic community, stated that velocity and spin rate are the reason for the injuries. It's ridiculous to think that a few seconds in between pitches is going to make or break a pitcher's health. People aren't getting hurt throwing in the bullpen, they're not getting hurt playing catch, they weren't getting hurt in previous eras when they worked a lot faster. They're getting hurt using maximum effort every pitch. You do realize that the players on the field are the product for the MLB and the owners... right? They're not going to intentionally do something that's going to take those players off the field. Baseball, like all sports, is better when the stars are on the field. I was going to post this comment after 4 minutes of video, but I decided to keep going, maybe you were going to stop the nonsense. Nope, you handled it like a former player and just dismissed the real reason. However, it's not the player's fault. The dangling carrot is too tempting. It's organizations rewarding players with endless opportunities because they have great stuff, despite not being able to hit the broad side of a barn. The MLB front offices are to blame, just not for the silliness that you're talking about talking about in this video.
Sourdough bread is gas. And my 2 cents is that they can make the balls easier to grip or allow a blanket sticky substance and expand rosters. No reason they can’t make it a 45 man roster and have 28-30 active
Man, I want to get a sourdough starter, but then I feel like that would take over my whole personality, and I just don’t want to be the “you guys want to try my bread?” guy
I am not a huge fan of the quicker games. I really didn't mind those extra 10 minutes per game. I would much rather the game be 20 minutes LONGER if it kept some of our favorite pitchers on the mound and off the IL. Just because Babyfred has the attention span of an infant doesn't mean that we all do. I wish that we could impeach that idiot!
Sourdough bread never misses an outing... but in all honesty I think the pitch clock is stupid... do I think it adds injury problems? -- ehh, maybe? Too short a timeline to know 110%. I think what it does do is make me want to not bother with a game as a fan. This may seem (and sound) stupid, but it's like me going to Mickey D's. I know what I'm getting there and fully expect clogged arteries, I'm not there for a salad. I want to know that my 3 hour travel to a game (shore of CT here to say a NYM game) is worth at least 3 hours of my time. Back in 2017-2018 I bought some 3rd base dugout, pair of tickets - aisle included, at Citi for, 2 rows up, $76 each... now we're talking over $250, and less of a game. For one, give me a real game worth my money, and two kick it down a notch on velo. I was a pitcher friggin' half my life ago. A bit 3/4 or sidearm... when my coach recommended how to add velo, I quit after that year. I agree with learning placement... actually I think you'd take Ron Darling's assessment of it (from the Mets booth), he had a decent opinion on it, and I'm not just saying that as a Mets fan. It's hard, it's a really rough place where to start your LEGOs.
It's hard to incentivize results when it's all FIP xFIp, expected stats in general. Nerds will look at a hall of famer and look at his fip nowadays and it's nerds in front offices insentivizing that. Pitchers used to purposefully throw tons of fastballs and not walk anybody with a big lead but nowadays you wouldn't see that because it would hurt your peripherals so guys go all out throwing 3-1 curveballs in a 8-1 game. I don't like FIP anyway. Every hit is luck but not every call or homer? If a pitcher gives up 4 straight hits FIP says that's luck but if a pitcher gives up back to back jacks it's him sucking? There are bad calls, cheap homeruns, balls that should've left the yard. To assume every strike is a strike and every ball is a ball is so stupid. FIP has a ton of luck elements and yet it's somehow better than ERA? Bullshit. I remember Brent Suter getting non tendered for having his worst year yet as a reliever (which was still very good) because his peripherals were down...IT WAS ONE FUCKING SEASON. Then he went to Colorado and was awesome and didn't get traded cause the Rockies are dumb.
How many regularly go 9 innings these days? So many more arms are being cycled between leagues than before. Maybe the need a MPH cap like the goofball softball leagues. Something dumb like 100 MPH tops or it's an automatic ball.
Kind of sucks to be MLB here. It's honestly not their problem. It's cultural and anything they do to remedy it would likely mean limiting innings and that's hurting SP salaries because now they're not as "valuable" since control has to be relinquished to the bullpen sooner. I feel like if I'm a pitcher, I'd trade a potential TJS if it "saved" me millions of dollars during my free agency contract.
I have a novel solution: pitchers are only allowed to throw knuckleballs. Everyone wins here. Pitchers don't get hurt. Fans get to watch knuckleballs. Hitters get to alternately look silly and hit BP homers. Fans get to watch homers.
I like this idea, but you just invented the CFL for the MLB.
From a fan perspective, i may be alone in this. But after having the pitch clock and knowing that 2:30 games exist, i would rather jam a hot poker in my eye then go back to having to sit through 4 hour games daily. Hopefully theres a solution that can keep stars healthy and keep games shorter.
I know Trevor is a former pitcher and has his inherent bias, but you have to look at the push for max velo as a MAJOR contributor. Prior to about the 90's, starters pitched every 4th day instead of 5, pitched quicker for more innings (ex, look at the number of complete games), relievers often pitched multiple innings.
The reason so many pitchers are getting hurt is because they are not eating enough sourdough bread. There is a study being done (its in the early phases) that shows that pitchers who eat sourdough bread get hurt less than those who just eat normal bread. Instead of trying to patch the problem by slowing the pitch clock just mandate that each pitcher needs to eat sourdough bread every day.
This is the kind of tin foil conspiracy that is clearly not based on any scientific evidence I can get behind.
And this is how misinformation gets spread on the internet. 😂 I heard it was Wheaties. Tommy John himself wrote the paper ya know, The guy who invented the surgery.
@@ritchie909 /s TJ did not take into account the modern MLB players diet.
Don't fall for this Big Sourdough propaganda!
dont forget the butter milk. studies show that increased butter milk intake has shown to turn ligiments into something that resembles iron rod mixed with bungie cord. that kid from the movie that pitched for the major league drank butter milk
The human elbow can only endure so much torque
Probably has a lot to do with that any MLB pitcher probably has 50,000 throws on their arm by the time they're drafted. My cousin who was drafted in a super late round the second time, college, already had a dead arm. My uncle had him playing/pitching year round from 5-22.
Sorry to hear about your cousin's sustained injury after many years of training to be an mlb pitcher. I hope he has found a new passion and is doing well for himself. Thanks for sharing.
Yep. They over protected pitchers when I was growing up. Has to be something to it
Kids used to just pitch during baseball season, and would play other sports or not do any serious competition during the offseason. Now, they're throwing all year round. That's a problem.
Love Trevor's take. All of it! Pitching your guts out w/every heave of the ball & doing so at such a younger age is probably the main culprit here. Only so many bullets in that arm so save some. Betting the previous generation pitchers didn't arrive at spring training basically game ready as they do now. Maybe w/today's standards the pitch clock don't help either. The human body has it's limits & not everyone is built the same.
Velocity is definitely a pretty big factor, but I also think another factor is the overpitching of kids in travel ball. I was never really a pitcher, but as the catcher of the team, I would always be catching the same guys sometimes even on back to back days of 7 inning ball. Yes, they only went 3 innings, but their arms were less developed than Major League pitchers and they were pitching with less rest. That kinda mileage leads to younger and younger players getting Tommy John OR increases the likelihood they get Tommy John when they make it to Minor League Baseball and beyond. What's even more worrying is the coaches and parents of these kids don't understand the toll they are putting on young pitchers. I'm sure this is even worse in other countries where young kids are committing to focus only on baseball. If command is incentived, arm injuries will likely be mitigated in the pros, but I'm not positive that it will trickle down to the younger leagues.
I saw a video a year or so back comparing the surgery rates in the major leagues vs japan. The video i saw, i cant find it now, attributed the lesser number of tommy john surgeries to the 6 man rotation used in japan. They also spoke a bit about pitch selection with more splitter and changes thrown in the japanese leagues vs the predominant mix of fastball slider in mlb.
I know it's weird to say this now considering he just got injured, but my understanding is that's what helped Gerrit Cole stay so healthy throughout most of his career. Is parents were freakish about making sure he never threw too much growing up. If he passed his pitch limit on the day his parents would make the coach pull him if he hadn't already.
@@mrbreck1 I agree that The 6 man rotation definitely helps (I didn't know they did that in Japan), but a few things. 1) Young Japanese players at the high school equivalent practice a lot (like multiple times in one day), so I can only imagine how often those guys are throwing bullpens, which is concerning. 2) I honestly think splitters are actually one of the worst pitches to develop when you are younger because splitting your fingers puts a lot of strain on your UCL (considering the ligament splits when it gets to your fingers). When I was younger, I was really stupid and threw a a split-change when I was playing catch (even though like I said, I wasn't a pitcher). A few months in, I landed on my elbow and got a UCL strain that still bothers me today. I'm pretty sure my usage of that split-change had a pretty negative effect on my UCL. So, I do think splitters are a very concerning pitch for players with smaller hands because spreading your fingers like that to go around a baseball makes your ligament into essential string cheese.
My nephew just entered high school, but a couple of years ago in travel ball, my sister in law had a real issue with them pitching him back to back days and throwing 70+ pitches. She pulled him off the team if I remember correctly because he injured his arm. It's a REAL problem. If you want to be on the best team, and get into the best schools later on, the politics are killing real talent. It's really sad, and for a game I've loved for a long time to be basically inaccessible for my kids is difficult to understand. It's supposed to be the "simple game".
Haven’t pitchers always tried to reach peak velocity though? So just because the average velo is up, the same intensity has always been present right?
Here’s a fun one. When I was in high school (western PA), the coaches, that all got fired about 2 years after I left, going through conditioning in the winter, you’d get kicked out of a bullpen in December if you tried throwing over 50%…. In PA, is that gonna help a single person? No. Not one. My high school coaches RUINED the possible college careers of so many pitchers because they didn’t know one single thing they talked about. When I worked my release point different on a 2-seam, “hitters will pick that up”… I doubt it. Youth coaches ruin pitchers, I’ll stand by that one. There’s not 1 pitcher who needs/wants to be taught a system. Let us develop differently
What if we see 6 man rotations and allow teams to carry an extra pitcher?
Thats would be huge.
I actually see this as a decent compromise. But I think many of the players would shoot back that it isn't nearly as much of an issue about not getting enough rest between starts as it is an issue of not getting enough rest between pitches.
This is really smart imo. Pitchers don't sacrifice their performance by just throwing slower, and mlb doesn't sacrifice pace of play, which lets be honest, I think from a fan perspective is objectively much better.
The only hard part is I don't know if every team is going to want to invest in a 6th starter who's actually good enough. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it, but it seems like it would just widen the gap between rich and poor teams even further
Adding more pitchers to roster, that might be a good, at least, short term solution
Sourdough bread feels like a quarantine callback.
The reality is that pitcher injuries at this scale indicate pitchers are being seriously overworked. We aren't going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle with stuff because stuff gets results. We need to immediately stop overworking pitchers.
We do this in 2 parts: 1) Increase the number of pitchers allowed on the roster, expand the active roster if necessary, and 2) Mandate pitch counts and games off for recovery corresponding to effort and load, making an exception to the 3 batter minimum if necessary.
MLB Commissioner's office try not to make terrible decisions challenge - difficulty level: Impossible.
Saw a really interesting quote and may be a trickle down effect. Starting with the “juiced balls” it forced pitchers to become more creative to maintain success which led to velo and spin chasing, more use of sticky substances and taking more time between pitches to recover to give it everything that next pitch. It’s pitchers adapting to the new advantages of hitting and we are the downstream effects now. Any thoughts on this?
The pitch-clock and the pitch-count should be inversely proportional to one another. A pitcher should be incrementally allowed much more time to recover as his pitch-count progresses. Also, since a ton of pitchers get called up every week anyway, why don't they allow a team to have 20 pitchers on the roster?
It’s a combination of all. Pro sports especially MLB pays a crap load of money to their athletes especially kids who can throw 100 mph. They push strain on their arms, get the surgeries so they can play a little longer to get that huge life changing paycheck. MLB reduces the rest time between pitches and here is where we are at. Kids playing sports see money. Having elbow surgery is worth the cost.
Isn’t ironic that the Commissioner’s Office / Owners are blaming pitchers for throwing hard when they are the ones that reward pitchers for…*checks notes*…throwing hard.
I’ve been saying since the beginning of this season when the injuries started getting noticeable that the lack of sticky stuff was causing injuries, because of what Tyler Glasnow said last year
Yeah that and the ball is just crappy compared to before
Sourdough's fantastic. I like to form it into bread bowls for soup.
It's alarming; we're seeing someone going on the IL every day, if not more than one. TJ surgery, other problems.
I've been watching baseball for a looooong time, and I don't remember it happening as frequently as it is today. It's scary.
Also - I love your channel so much. Fun & informative. Tell Hugh I said 'hi'.
Hey Trevor, I’m not a big fan of sourdough bread, but I am a big fan of you becoming commissioner of baseball. Then we would have someone in there who wants to pitch the game the right way
Would love to see your take on the whole Bauer situation ik it's controversial to talk about but would love to here someone from inside the games perspective.
The problem with dialing down velocity is that batters would generally be so ahead as to have a huge advantage, sure there would be outlier pitchers like Maddux or Kyle Hendricks for 6 years of his career, but generally guys would be salivating to get to the batters box if they had to face 92 instead of 97.
Yes, but just like Greg Maddux, if you focus more on command rather than velocity and can put the ball wherever you want it, they can get the batters to roll over on it or pop it up. It's not guaranteed, but there's other components to pitching than just velo.
@@Trey50Daniel I agree. Location, movement and then velocity.
For sure. The video game MLB is like that too. Pitchers that throw 94 don't miss any bats once you're used to 100
The pitch clock is good for the game overall.
Youth coaches and intense specialization is one problem. We've seen repetitive use injuries rise in all sports. I suspect this compounds for MLB players - at some point that check needs cashed.
There should definitely be more pitchers. I want pitchers to rest off the field but not have dead time in the game.
Use to do the same thing in college, after every pitch I was looking at the talent meter, what’s funny was with off speed it was completely different. It was like wonder if I can throw that curve slower.
I can’t stand the pitch clock. It took a lot of theater out of the game. It also made it so you can’t spend a day at the park or get up for anytime to eat and drink or tour the park. It costs $200 to take my family to the park now and we’re out of there in under 3 hours.
What's baffling to me about pitching is the goat of pitching is Greg Maddox which his thing was just pitching to weak contact never power and it was by far the most efficient and effective way of getting outs and he was rarely injured. Yet you rarely see that style of pitching these days in the majors and being taught in general.
Theres a couple big reasons. One, Umpires don't give 8 inches of the plate because they get graded publicly now. Two, because you simply wont get the opportunity to get there throwing 88. And third, the ability to get a strike out is the only outcome that almost guarantees no run will score. That is extremely valuable, but this applies mostly to relievers these days. There are plenty of starters that don't go for strikeouts every time. Lastly, there's very likely some rose colored glasses involved with this feeling.
@TrevorMayBaseball That's a very good point. I just always thought that especially in today's day and age where everybody seems to be going for the long ball that on paper pitching to weak contact would be ultra ultra effective. But from what you're saying it sounds more high risk High reward and pitchers and coaching these days want the least amount of risk.
I also never watched Maddox in his prime. I grew up in Orange County during the 2000s and so the guys that I watched as a kid were K-Rod, Troy Percival, Lackey, Weaver, Ervin Santana etc.
Just curious. If pitchers decided to boycott the pitch clock, say refusing to pitch, or pitch underhanded whatever. Would the mlbpa and the other players back them? And how has Aroldis Chapman never had an arm injury?
when will you update your channel name to Trevor No Longer Baseballs?
(i think this is a bad joke but sometimes you gotta give bad jokes a shot to make it)
It’s pretty clear that increases in velocity are causing significantly more injuries, both have been growing exponentially the last 10+ years. Pitch clock and others, are adding more variables for the chance to get hurt as well.
Most people are chasing velocity and creating it “artificially”. Starting when they’re 10-13 years old pushing themselves and risking more injuries.
Guys like Verlander, Clemens, Johnson, Ryan, plenty of outliers who had natural velocity or grew into it as they grew older.
There’s a good interview a week or 2 ago out there with Verlander talking about his changes as he’s grown up and then been in the big leagues for years on how he’s had to change his style of pitching to accommodate for the league.
Hitters are hitting the ball out of the ballpark so much easier than ever before that there’s barely anyone focused on hitting for contact. And therefore a focus on strikeout stuff, not contact pitching. How do you get strikeouts? Increase spin rate and velocity. Increased injuries.
Reward the slap hitters who hit .300 along with the guys who pitch lots of innings.
How would you go about rewarding them though? The players don't care about accolades nearly as much as they care about money. Teams listen to modern analytics, and they would rather take the guy with a .230 avg that hits 35 homers and walks at a 14% clip than the guy who hits .300 with little pop and not many walks.
Also, no pitcher is going to sign a contract that has innings pitched clauses in it, unless its purely bonus incentives.
@@nickmanville900 that’s the million dollar question. Trevor proposed rewarding the pitchers. There’s just soooo much gray area. The only “solutions” come with “yeah that’s not gonna happen”. I’m super curious to see what happens and what someone smarter than me, comes up with.
Great content, TM. Appreciate the nuance in your analysis almost as much as I appreciate sourdough bread.
This was great. Simple as that. Loved your takes on it.
What if the MLB were to say you can only throw 20 pitches a game over 95 MPH or some stupid or likely random number that Rob and the Boys came up with in a vaccum. Guessing this could still create arm issues with guys trying hard to spin differently?
The biggest thing is location isn't rewarded because umps each have different strike zones and are inconsistent. So all pitchers can concistently rely on is spin and velo. Robo Umps would incentivize command again. Bookmark this. This will improve drastically with robo umps.
There probably wont be robo umps fully, but there will be challenges.
Back when locating was more incentivized, the umpires were even less consistent.
The pitch clock isn't new because the pace of play and time between pitches used to be more in line with the current pitch clock back when pitchers got hurt less frequently.
We forget that the pitch clock is a fix to a problem that the players created in the 1st place. So, why did Bob Welch pitch at his pace and get hurt less frequently?
Jorge De La Rosa is the reason there is a pitch clock at all. If everyone moved the game along like Jack Morris did, then there would be no pitch clock and injury issues would return to previous levels.
You have to have nastier stuff to consistently compete than you did back then. "Saving energy" was something they did back then, because they barely even used relievers. You cannot do that anymore if you want to keep a job. The game is INCENTIVIZED differently than it was, so you cant just "do what they did." Thats an oversimplification.
@@TrevorMayBaseball i agree, but i was specifically adressing the sketchy correlation between the pitch clock and injuries. I do understand your point about incentivising velocity and what have you.
I love sourdough bread. It is clearly the league and clubs incentivising velocity and spin rate, not pitchers. I suspect this problem will not get fixed until so many star pitchers get hurt that it starts to hit the bottom line of MLB and owners, and only then will they do anything, because MLB and owners have proven time and again that they see players as their enemy and only care about their well being, so long as it keeps raking in the dough
Most lawyer friendly solution set a precedent that pitchers need a command evaluation rating so they can only play when they are certified with four pitches and not just gas.
I love sourdough bread! Goes really good with high quality peanut butter.
Here's my take from someone who only plays amateur ball for old guys.
1) Fix the ball. Make it stickier like in Japan and not quite as juiced. (Just a little change in the winding, not much). Also, put somewhat more pronounced seams on the ball.
2) A stickier ball and higher seams will make creating movement easier.
3) Go back to the old pitch clock.
4) Tax velocity. An old axiom in economics is that you get less of what you tax. Tax teams based on the average fastball velocity of their staff over the season. The more your staff is above 90 mph average fastball velo, the more your team pays.
5) Expand the strike zone a couple inches vertically.
A larger strike zone combined with a ball that is a little easier to make move should lead to more getting outs with lower velocity pitches. Also, the split fingered fastball may be part of the problem. Some more research into that would be useful.
Also, I think these changes may put a dent in three true outcomes batting styles and may induce batters to take swings that put more balls in play.
An extra 10 seconds between pitches will do nothing for injuries. Therefore the pitch clock is not the problem. Velocity equals success like you said. And I know people that would risk that injury to sniff even minor league baseball. So let’s not act like it’s the commissioner’s fault. Is it his responsibility? Yes. But the players know what they are doing.
I like the pitch clock, especially in the postseason. Tweak it if needed, but keep it. Expand rosters to allow for more pitchers or have a separate roster just for the pitching staff. I would love for velo to come down so more balls would be put into play. Strikeouts are boring.
They need to increase the size of the ball slightly/add a couple tenths of an ounce and make the seams higher again. Create more drag on the ball that will slow it down a bit and pitchers will get back to moving side to side with cutters and two seamers along with sinker ballers. Might also help with the grip issues and lessen the need for sticky shit.
That’s actually really interesting. Unfortunately, those same changes will affect it when it’s hit as well. Remember, those changes were made in 2018 and gave us… the juiced balls. They would rather chance pitcher injuries than kill offense.
@@TrevorMayBaseball What they did though was the opposite, wound it tighter, made the ball smaller and tightened the laces no? The changes I propose are basically to "unjuice" the ball
The intro is great lmao I think the number 1 issue is increased velocity across the league.
I’m sorry, but it absolutely IS NOT the pitch clock causing these injuries. If you’re out there throwing as hard as you possibly can, you’re going to get hurt either way and it makes zero difference if you take 30 seconds or over a minute between pitches.
Pitchers are just looking for any excuse to get rid of the clock because they don’t like it.
Every young kid starts playing full time baseball instead of multiple sports, spin rate and velocity are pushed ahead at the expense of everything else, the average fast ball has gained 5 mph in just 20 years, pitchers throw way less fast balls than they used to, instead throwing tons of pitches that put more strain on their arm...and we are talking pace of play. Pitchers have no chance at staying healthy unless those other things change. Some ways to change it - make the ball heavier = less velocity and less movement. 3 balls and the batter walks - incentivizes control over speed. 6 innings for starting pitchers or the team loses the DH the rest of the game - incentivizes endurance.
The NFL had a problem with players getting alzheimer like symptoms that had been in the league for a few years. What did they do? Oh, we'll put a little extra padding on the helmet. Not going to fix anything but any drastic measures would take away from the game. What no hitting? That's crazy talk.
The problem is Velocity plain and simple. Pushing the arm to the limit. Pitch clock has basically nothing to do with it. Year round throwing since you are 12 years old is the issue. And on top of that, throwing as hard as you possibly can. Anything you need 5 days rest to recover from you probably shouldn’t do.
I was talking to my sourdough bread starter and he said you’re one of the few folks who seem to have a holistic view of the pitcher injuries increase.
If I were the MLB, I want pitchers healthy and throwing slower with less spin. Why? HRs are exciting and quadrupling the balls put in play grows the fan base. People want action on the bags. Only old guys appreciate a great pitchers duel. Today people would pick attending a 13 to 15 game over a perfect game.
People have a short attention span and they are looking to adapt the game to … oh shiny
The good, both sides answer is evolve a stronger ligament group in the elbow. But that'll take a couple hundred thousand years. nbd.
Also, sourdough bread is better than english muffin for benedicts. I will fight on this hill.
Great video!!! I also love your edits, they made me laugh!
The fact that the clock grants a pitcher the same time to recover between pitches regardless of the pitch-count is asinine. Recovering at 80 pitches takes - and, frankly, should take - much longer than at 12 or 30 or 45.
Alternatively, adding a set amount of time to the clock for each inning pitched. And then presumably resetting that to the base clock time for any relievers who come into the game, would be a confusing mess and also prevent anyone from establishing any real consistent routine.
Thumbs up all around May!! Love the content!! And sourdough bread is delightful sometimes and sometimes not for me.
I would like to see the pitch clock eliminated, and a return to better conditioning/coaching. Leo Mazzone had an excellent program in Atlanta, during those 14 straight division titles. ...Also, I love the squeaky wheel on the dry erase board. ...Double also, a turkey melt on sourdough = delicious.
I wonder if submarine style pitchers have similar injury risks. Probably worth a search to see if any information is out there.
There definitely isn't nearly a large enough sample size to get any conclusive results. They do tend to throw with significantly less velocity though.
Sourdough bread and fluffy pillows!! You’re my new favorite Trevor baseball guy!!
I don't think there's anything you can do about the velocity issue. The truth is, velocity is effective. So you can tell pitchers not to throw as hard, but as soon as one of them decides not to listen, he's going to become wildly more successful than everyone else. Then everyone will start doing it. It becomes an arms race (pun not intended). You can also draft guys that don't throw as hard, but then you'll be drafting inferior players and intentionally shooting your team in the foot.
One thing I haven't seen many people talking about, though, is rest days. I really think that what pitchers do on their days off has a bigger impact than anything else. Hopefully they're eating their sourdough because we know that reduces the risk of injury.
Increase the strike zone! Bottom of knee to armpit. That would speed the game up and not focus on velocity.
Sourdough bread should be outlawed. Hate it, dont eat it, never will. Great video.
Sourdough bread makes great grilled cheese sandwiches. Now, on to the question... The beauty about baseball is there's no clock. Games take as long as they take. It seems like all this pitch clock stuff is an attempt to impose a clock on the game, so let's do this: cut all games off at 2 hours and 30 minutes. The clock starts when the umpire says "play ball" and stops 2.5 hours later. If it's the middle of an inning, too bad. If it happens in the middle of a rally, too bad. If the ball's flying over the fence when the gun goes off, dead ball, game over.
Yes, I'm being facetious.
Sourdough bread is amazing, perfect for a grilled cheese or a sandwich and some tomato soup. Also, depending on whether the players are allergic to/like cats teams could have a program with local shelters to foster cats to the players while they are in their hotel rooms. Besides all the silly videos and pictures that could be created, it can help reduce blood pressure and increase bone density for the players while the cats get a more comfortable environment than a shelter.
Sourdough bread is incredible...
But on the topic of pitcher injuries, the easiest thing and quickest thing they could do if they aren't going to give more time between pitches with the pitch clock is introducing an MLB sanctioned sticky stuff available to everyone. Helps with spin and movement without throwing as hard. Who cares as long as everyone has the same help.
Love me a fresh loaf sourdough bread!
Trevor, guys like John Smoltz and Steve Stone think it is the spin rate. Guys like Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson threw at the pitch clock rate with no oroblem.
I would like to see a mashup of sourdough and Greg in the next video.
Very cool. And love your Oaklandish hat.
Great content Trevor. Thanks for sharing the true inside baseball stuff💪
Hey that's me 1:40 ❤
Sourdough bread is great! MLBPA shouldn't do any favors until MLB looks at this. As a fan I love the shorter games but I also remember how important it is to pace yourself when throwing. It's a violent motion and the more tired you are the harder it is to repeat the motion that's kept you healthy all these years. I wouldn't be surprised if psychologically just by feeling you are being rushed that pitchers are ever so slightly rushing their deliveries as well; enough to put stress on the elbow that previously wasn't there before. I know I'm guilty of tying everything back to Oakland somehow, but in light of these playing conditions, how much would getting your routine thrown off by playing in makeshift minor league facilities "help" pitcher and player health? Playing in Sacramento and expecting it to be major league ready in less than a year is a friggin joke. Why should MLBPA support that?
I like your analysis of events, as well as the way you present it (with a bit of humor). You may be edging ahead of Chris Rose in my hierarchy of guys who talk about baseball. On top of that, I just finished the last of my wife's choclate chip oatmeal cookies. Yum! Oh, yeah, sourdoughbread.
I have the solution.
I pitched in the 1990 Little League World Series for Germany and a couple years ago at the age of 45 I had a tryout with the Colorado Rockies' Rookie League team, the Grand Junction Rockies. In 35 years, I've never had arm surgery (ignore the 25 year layoff since the time I last pitched in high school). What's my secret? Knuckleballs. Knuckleballs all the time.
My wife makes a solid sour dough. It’s crazy that it always makes itself. You buy a starter then you ferment it and you have it for years
So, the league are gaslighting pitchers? I like the pitch clock, but I had no idea they further shortened it. I think logically there is a threshold to a pitch clock where more pitching injuries would occur the shorter it gets, and if they crossed it, then absolutely it needs to be adjusted. Using the pitch clock as originally set would need a couple seasons to see the effects.
So, for the clubs the motivation for higher velocity with good spin and control, leads to better pitching. Motivation for the pitcher is the same, but with the added pressure to make the MLB and stay there. What would stop that trend that is very likely adding to serious injury? The argument that the pitch clock could actually be good to curb this is in my mind. What else would have curbed it if you're strategically trying to do so? I think there could be motivation from the league to increase offense or create better balance, with a byproduct of possibly lowering injury rates long term. I think the clock has a benefit, but the time given is probably shorter than it should be.
Sourdough is the best.
I have a card I would like to send for an autograph...is the Seattle address from the older TH-cam video still correct?
the problem is...throwing harder IS INDEED more effective. That system is incentivized because...IT WORKS.
My god Trevor, I'm loving every single thing about your videos. You're killing it man! Keep em up!
Thank you!
Clearly the problem is stadium DJs not playing enough Hoobastank pregame and not carb loading on sourdough bread. Epidemic levels of Hoobstank disrespect out there.
Also, out of all the league mouthpieces aka Commissioners, if someone told me that Rob Manfred had never watched an entire game of MLB, I'd believe it.
It’s like these people never played the game. If your back is a bit tight your mechanics will shift possibly causing arm injuries due to not having a freaking breather.
i love sourdough bread, but it will injure me, much like the pitch click is helping to increase pitchers injuries, gluten was my mystery illness for years. But i have a history of loving things that contribute to my downfall - like being married (3) times. Eventually i worked these things out of my “diet”, but still live with the effects.
Trevor, appreciate the way you produced this. Not a fan of the bread, tastes like I’m eating something that’s gone bad 😂. What would the MLBPA’s stance be in regards to the rule change in bad faith enforced by The Commish’s Office? It seems to be a breach of contract as well as any Health and Safety procedures. I feel that players will have to sue MLB personally and well if you do that, you may as well sign your retirement papers.
Maybe if they remove the radars at all stadiums pitchers won’t be incentivized to throw as hard and they’ll be less injuries
Its been understood for about as long as baseball has been played that velo = outs. Before stadiums had radar guns, scouts were taking radar guns to every big HS prospect start in America, and they still do. It runs much much deeper then just they have radar at the stadiums.
what up Trevor, sourdough bread is tight. it's also tight seeing you quit your job to go after it and be a content creator, big ups bro
oh exploding arms aren't tight tyvm
These pitchers need to take some focus fuel, but seriously though the injuries are a big problem, biebs was insane in his 2 games this year it sucks he went down.
If the league allowed players to use sourdough bread as the new spider tack the injuries would plummet. It’s unfortunate that the league doesn’t seem to be taking the injury epidemic seriously, what will be the breaking point?
Trevor... lol, the only reason why people think it's the pitch clock is because the people getting hurt early this season are superstars. Arm injuries have been going up at a steady incline since 2000. The emphasis on velocity and spin rate and less on actual pitching is the reason why guys are getting hurt more often. Because of this emphasis, kids, high school and collegiate athletes are risking hurting their arms in order to get to the show. You're seeing more and more players coming into the league who have already had Tommy John before becoming a professional. There aren't pitch clocks at lower levels of baseball. Still increasing arm injuries though. The players aren't doctors. They don't know shit about the human body. There's a reason why we go to doctors and aren't allowed to get treatment based on self-diagnosis. Even doctors go to other doctors for medical care because people are biased about their own health. James Andrews, the most respected surgeon in the athletic community, stated that velocity and spin rate are the reason for the injuries. It's ridiculous to think that a few seconds in between pitches is going to make or break a pitcher's health. People aren't getting hurt throwing in the bullpen, they're not getting hurt playing catch, they weren't getting hurt in previous eras when they worked a lot faster. They're getting hurt using maximum effort every pitch.
You do realize that the players on the field are the product for the MLB and the owners... right? They're not going to intentionally do something that's going to take those players off the field. Baseball, like all sports, is better when the stars are on the field.
I was going to post this comment after 4 minutes of video, but I decided to keep going, maybe you were going to stop the nonsense. Nope, you handled it like a former player and just dismissed the real reason. However, it's not the player's fault. The dangling carrot is too tempting. It's organizations rewarding players with endless opportunities because they have great stuff, despite not being able to hit the broad side of a barn. The MLB front offices are to blame, just not for the silliness that you're talking about talking about in this video.
I’m glad you have done well enough with this channel to hire Hugh Jackman to help out. Keep up the great work.
Sourdough bread is gas. And my 2 cents is that they can make the balls easier to grip or allow a blanket sticky substance and expand rosters. No reason they can’t make it a 45 man roster and have 28-30 active
Sourdough is cool. Good with everything. Plain but reliable. The kind of bread that would help you move for a 1 topping pizza.
Man, I want to get a sourdough starter, but then I feel like that would take over my whole personality, and I just don’t want to be the “you guys want to try my bread?” guy
I'm from the SF bay area so I'm all about sourdough bread
Sourdough is badass in certain applications but for any ol sammich I prefer white bread.
I am not a huge fan of the quicker games. I really didn't mind those extra 10 minutes per game. I would much rather the game be 20 minutes LONGER if it kept some of our favorite pitchers on the mound and off the IL. Just because Babyfred has the attention span of an infant doesn't mean that we all do. I wish that we could impeach that idiot!
Sourdough bread is absolutely delicious.
Keep up the great content!
Pitch clock makes the game more watchable so figure it out. Seems pretty obvious it's the spin and velocity. The clock would be very minor.
Need more Greg Maddux types.
Add a roster spot and move to a 6 man rotation?
Wouldn't explain why it is happening with HS/college kids
Has nothing to do with the pitch clock. That theory doesn’t even make sense
Sourdough bread never misses an outing... but in all honesty I think the pitch clock is stupid... do I think it adds injury problems? -- ehh, maybe? Too short a timeline to know 110%. I think what it does do is make me want to not bother with a game as a fan. This may seem (and sound) stupid, but it's like me going to Mickey D's. I know what I'm getting there and fully expect clogged arteries, I'm not there for a salad. I want to know that my 3 hour travel to a game (shore of CT here to say a NYM game) is worth at least 3 hours of my time. Back in 2017-2018 I bought some 3rd base dugout, pair of tickets - aisle included, at Citi for, 2 rows up, $76 each... now we're talking over $250, and less of a game. For one, give me a real game worth my money, and two kick it down a notch on velo. I was a pitcher friggin' half my life ago. A bit 3/4 or sidearm... when my coach recommended how to add velo, I quit after that year. I agree with learning placement... actually I think you'd take Ron Darling's assessment of it (from the Mets booth), he had a decent opinion on it, and I'm not just saying that as a Mets fan. It's hard, it's a really rough place where to start your LEGOs.
It's hard to incentivize results when it's all FIP xFIp, expected stats in general. Nerds will look at a hall of famer and look at his fip nowadays and it's nerds in front offices insentivizing that. Pitchers used to purposefully throw tons of fastballs and not walk anybody with a big lead but nowadays you wouldn't see that because it would hurt your peripherals so guys go all out throwing 3-1 curveballs in a 8-1 game. I don't like FIP anyway. Every hit is luck but not every call or homer? If a pitcher gives up 4 straight hits FIP says that's luck but if a pitcher gives up back to back jacks it's him sucking? There are bad calls, cheap homeruns, balls that should've left the yard. To assume every strike is a strike and every ball is a ball is so stupid. FIP has a ton of luck elements and yet it's somehow better than ERA? Bullshit. I remember Brent Suter getting non tendered for having his worst year yet as a reliever (which was still very good) because his peripherals were down...IT WAS ONE FUCKING SEASON. Then he went to Colorado and was awesome and didn't get traded cause the Rockies are dumb.
How many regularly go 9 innings these days? So many more arms are being cycled between leagues than before. Maybe the need a MPH cap like the goofball softball leagues. Something dumb like 100 MPH tops or it's an automatic ball.
Kind of sucks to be MLB here. It's honestly not their problem. It's cultural and anything they do to remedy it would likely mean limiting innings and that's hurting SP salaries because now they're not as "valuable" since control has to be relinquished to the bullpen sooner. I feel like if I'm a pitcher, I'd trade a potential TJS if it "saved" me millions of dollars during my free agency contract.
Was that a 2016 pewdiepie intro👀😂
Love sourdough, with just a little crisp on one side. really good for like a garlic toast and pasta.
Sourdough bread is best in San Francisco. Full stop.
Love your content man