The Decline of The Complete Game

Excerpts;

Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear when men were men and baseball pitchers finished what they started. If you remember those days, you also remember flappers, dance marathons, silent movies and six-day bicycle races.

What we have now are iPods, cell phones, rap music and “quality” pitching performances in which the starter courageously huffs and puffs through six innings.

In the first two weeks of this baseball season, through Sunday, pitchers have managed to finish what they started four times in 349 starts, or one percent of their starts.

This trend that has seen pitchers get paid more for working less — the four-man rotation has morphed into a five-man rotation and the 300-inning pitcher now is considered a work horse if he logs 200 innings — is easily the biggest on-field change in baseball over the past half century. The pitcher that makes 40 starts in a season and completes half of them has gone the way of the dodo bird.

The explanation for this drastic change is that the closer has emerged as the most important pitcher on a staff. If you’re paying a guy $13 million to finish games, you had better use him or face the wrath of the media, the fans and, most important, the guy who pays the closer’s — and the manager’s — salary. That explanation, however, is too simplistic. The real culprits are the infernal pitch count and the actuaries’ account that high salaried pitchers must be safeguarded from injury. Therefore they are not to be overextended.

Ergo, the more you pay a pitcher, the less you ask him to work, even if it flies in the face of history. Ask Jim Kaat, Tommy John and Nolan Ryan, who stayed around longer than any pitchers in history, and they will attest that their arms were strengthened and their careers extended by throwing more, not less.

Let me throw in some stats of my own;

Name                        Year       GS     CG   W       L          Inn.
Warren Spahn       1947    40    22    21  10     289.2
                           1953    32    24    23    7     265.2
                           1958    38    23    22  11     290
                           1963    33    22    23    7     258.2

                 

Saves Leader;  (NL)

1947 Hugh Casey      18
1953 Al Brazle           18
1958 Elroy Face         20
1963 Lindy McDaniel  22

********************
Robin Roberts       1950    39    21    20  11     304.1
                           1952    37    30    28    7     330
                           1958    34    21    17  14     269.2

                 

Saves Leader;   (NL)
1950 Jim Kostanty  22
1952 Al Brazle        16
1958 Elroy Face      20

*********************
Don Newcombe       1949    31    19    17   8     244
                             1951    36    18    20   9     272
                             1956    36    18    27   7     268

                 

Saves Leader;  (NL)
1949 Ted Wilks        9
1951 Ted Wilks      13
1956 Clem Labine  19

*********************

Sandy Koufax    1961    35    15    18  13     255.2
                        1963    40    20    25   5     311
                        1966    41    27    27   9     323

 

                         

 

Saves Leader;  (NL)
1961 Roy Face/
           Stu Miller       17
1963 Lindy McDaniel  22
1966 Phil Regan        21

*************************

Bob Gibson      1965    38    20    20  12      299
                      1970    34    23    23   7      294
                      1972    34    23    19  11     278

 

                        

 

Saves Leader;  (NL)

1965 Ted Abernathy    31
1970 Wayne Granger   35
1972 Clay Carroll         37

************************

Steve Carlton   1971    36    18    20   9     273
                      1972    41    30    27  10     346
                      1977    36    17    23  10     283
                      1980    38    13    24   9      304
                      1982    38    19    23  11     295.2
 

                       

 

Saves Leader;   (NL)
1971 Dave Giusti    30
1972 Clay Carroll    37
1977 Rollie Fingers 35
1980 Bruce Sutter  28
1982 Bruce Sutter  36

**********************

Shane Rawley    1987    36     4    17  11     229.2
Charlie Hough    1987    40    13   18  13     285.1
Dave Stewart    1988    37    14   21  12     275.2

 

Saves Leader;
1987 Steve Bedrosian  40 (NL)
1987 Tom Henke          34 (AL)
1988 Dennis Eckersley 45 (AL)

*****************************

Curt Schilling  1992   42     10   14   11    226.1
                    1993   34       7   16    7     235.1
                    1998   35     15   15   14    268.2
                    2002   36       5   23    7    259.1
                    2004   32       3   21    5    226.2

 

                    
 

Saves Leader; 
1992 Lee Smith         43 (NL)
1993 Randy Myers     53 (NL)
1998 Trevor Hoffman 53 (NL)
2002 John Smoltz      55 (NL)
2004 Mariano Rivera  53 (AL)

***************************

Andy Pettitte   1996   34     2     21   8    221
                      2000   32      3    19   9    204.2
                      2003   33      1    21   8    208.1

 

                          

 

Saves Leader; (AL)
1996 John Wetteland 43
2000 Todd Jones/
         Derek Lowe      42
2003 Keith Foulke      43

**************************

It seems that the position of closer was evolving throughout the decades, but the complete game virtually disappeared starting in the late 1980s to where we see most 20 game winners now with 1 or 2 complete games and, with the exception of workhorses link Schilling or Randy “Big Unit” Johnson, scarcely over 200 innings pitched in a season. 

As for saves, this sampling shows that the save leaders in both leagues started racking up saves at a 45 - 55 clip from the mid-1980s with the mid-rung of closers in the 25 - 30 plus range.
Cap Tip to Baseball Primer Newsblog

This entry was posted on Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 8:29 pm and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights, All Time Pitching Highlights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.