[Caulfield]

Quote: Originally Posted by Smallville

This is good to know because i am a casual baseball fan so i didn't know that starters where not lasting 6 innings any more on average. That just sounds low. In the past and i dont mean like that long ago i think most pitches where averaging like 6.3 innings per start or something. The reason i say that is that if a starter is able to start 33 games in a season at 6 innings per start that would get you to 198 innings meaning you would only need to average just a little over 6 to get to 200 innings in a year. Yes i know that 200 is not easy but i think a big reason for guys not getting 200 innings was more injures then having to average just over 6 innings has it is not easy to go a seasons with out missing at least a few starts but i guess that has changed some more the last few years ago. So the average per start is 5.7 when i thought it was more like 6.3 or about a extra 2 less outs recorded per start then i would have thought.

Quote: Originally Posted by KBLover

I think it's because bullpens are no longer the domain of just "failed starters" but there's actually more nasty guys being developed/becoming strong relievers. So the idea seems to be take the starters out before they get in trouble because they are throwing on fumes and bring in a parade of fireballers and other nasty guys to shut the door. Used to be the Setup man and Closer were the only good relievers. So, starters went longer to try to avoid MR. Now those guys are getting decent in their own right...perhaps as a result of the "hard cap" 100 pitch counts these days, somehow has to pitch those innings, might as well get good arms and not just pitchers too bad to be starters.

This is the legacy of the LaRussa-Eckersley Effect. With pitching staffs going from 10 to 12-13, the average starter just doesn't need the risk of going through the lineup 1 more time.
But there will still be elite guys like Kershaw who has averaged 6.7 innings in 11 years.
And if you look just at his peak years 2010-2016, he averaged 7 innings even.