The complete game is a true art form lost
Posted: Friday, May 23, 2008 7:25 PM
It hasn’t been easy for the baseball fan in San Francisco this year. The Giants are a bad team, their farm system is barren at the high levels, their ballpark is for the first time featuring swaths of empty seats and their “new” face is a non-contributor.
But the point here is that living in the Bay Area has meant listening to a segment of fans who apologize for Barry Zito. And it fuels my inner fire raging over what has happened to starting pitching.
There was a time when starters tried to finish what they began. I’m not talking about ancient times when complete games were expected but just two decades ago when top-flight pitchers valued the complete game.
As recently as 1991 Jack Morris won a World Series by refusing to leave a game when his manager tried to lift him. Morris pitched 10 innings and not a soul in the ballpark watching that game knew a whit about his pitch count.
Now I hear that Zito has often pitched “well enough to keep his team in the game” or that his team “doesn’t score runs for him” or that Zito has “often been matched against the other team’s best pitcher.”
Ignore if possible the fact that Zito is earning $128 million over his eight-year deal and that a contract of that stature would only be given to a pitcher capable of beating other top pitchers and not needing 12 runs per game to ensure a win.
What creates a pain equivalent to sharp needles driving into my eyes is the first standard nowadays for starting pitchers to strive for -- pitching well enough to “give your team a chance to win.” Shouldn’t $128 million give the team writing those checks a chance to win every time said-very-well-paid-(overpaid?)-pitcher takes the mound?
Sorry for the foolish thought. We now return to the previous rant…John Lowe is a good man and a terrific baseball writer. But he has inadvertently played a role in the destruction of starting pitching. For it was Mr. Lowe who developed the “quality start” statistic, the single act most responsible for lowering the common denominator in a true art form.
Suddenly three runs allowed in six innings has become grounds for a medal. Baseball people thought to be wise -- including a former pitcher sporting Hall-of-Fame credentials with whom I worked -- embraced this watered-down definition of solid starting pitching. And before long staffs were being judged from the closer backwards.
In today’s game little is expected from starting pitchers. Yet the price (read the salaries they command) goes through the roof for the few that are regarded as prime pitchers. Why? When Kevin Millwood gives Texas a 28-29 performance in Year 3 of a five-year, $60 million deal, when Bronson Arroyo implodes on the verge of earning $12 million in 2009, or when Chris Carpenter blows out his elbow at the start of a four-year, $55 million deal (he’ll be 34 next April trying to return from Tommy John surgery), why does a team give Zito such an absurd contract?
Will the value placed on starters (almost always a horrid long-term contract investment, something even Giants owner Peter Magowan admitted in San Francisco this week) ever change? I doubt that day is near.
SIX MORE SWINGS:
1. MAYBE THIS IS THE WEEK…that we believe in Florida. The Fish just swept Arizona and in doing so posted a win over the unbeatable Brandon Webb. That can inject serious belief into the young Marlins.
2. WHICH IS WHAT THE METS LACK…Swept in four by Atlanta, the Mets are floundering. They are 2-7 against the Braves, a team that despite a horrid start by its bullpen is in the mix with Florida and Philadelphia in the NL East. When judging Mets manager Willie Randolph take into account that his starting corner outfielders Thursday night were Marlon Anderson and Endy Chavez. That’s planning at fault, not managing.
3. THE GRUMBLING IS LOUD…in Milwaukee where the Brewers can’t get any traction unless Ben Sheets (5-1, 2.92 ERA) is on the mound. Manager Ned Yost might be right alongside Randolph when it comes to being on a short leash. General manager Doug Melvin lived through talented Texas teams that couldn’t win in October so although he is known to dislike changing managers, he may be tempted to try something to ignite a Milwaukee team of which much is expected.
4. IS ADRIAN GONZALEZ THE BEST…left-handed batter in the NL? He has 13 of the team’s 38 homers and is the rock of a lineup that offers him no protection.
5. A FLASHBACK…as Josh Hamilton of the Rangers, the planet’s hottest hitter, smacked an opposite-field homer in the 10th inning of Thursday’s win in Minnesota. Those became routine in the BALCO era and while this blog is not naïve, I do believe we are closer to normalcy in the game. So Hamilton’s blast -- like much of his season to date -- caught my attention.
6. IT SHOULD HAPPEN IN MIAMI…Sunday as Omar Vizquel breaks Luis Aparicio's record of 2,583 games played at shortstop. The Giants should ensure this record happens in South Florida before gathering swarms of media from Latin America and South America.
In Venezuela, where shortstops are king, the passing of the torch will be significant. Although Davey Concepcion is often credited as being the "Godfather" of Venezuelan shortstops, it was Aparicio who opened the door through a strong career featuring 13 All-Star appearances and nine Gold Gloves.
Vizquel has been an equal, with numbers that match both Aparicio and the American standard-bearer for "traditional" shortstops, Ozzie Smith. Media in San Francisco obsess over whether Vizquel will be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. The question is thoroughly irrelevant. He will get there in time, just like Smith and Aparicio.
