Talking Sports: Major League rotations need to expand to six to cut down on injuries

More and more in today’s Major League Baseball, starting pitchers are suffering the consequences of overuse and extended periods of fatigue.

The game has evolved so much from the early 20th century days of the two- or three-man rotations. One probably would have seen a complete game from the legendary Cy Young listed in every other day’s box score.

A fan reading the July 3, 1962, edition of just about any paper in Milwaukee and San Francisco – heck, probably all over the nation – might remember seeing a “16” under the Giants’ Juan Marichal’s innings pitched column and a “15.1” under that of the Braves’ Warren Spahn. That game between the Braves and the Giants might have seemed like nothing more than a mid-summer matchup of aces.

Instead it turned out to be unquestionably the greatest game that has ever and will ever be pitched. The 31.1 innings yielded exactly one run, a walkoff homer by Willie Mays with one out in the bottom of the 16th.

If you’re old enough to have seen or remembered that night, I can guarantee you’ll never see that again. The specialization of the modern day bullpen has all but rendered those historic outings extinct.

In today’s game, it’s incredible when a pitcher throws eight innings or a complete game. But 16 innings? By league average today, that’s just about three starts for a solid pitcher. When they’re at the top of their game, that’s maybe two starts for Clayton Kershaw or Felix Hernandez.

But what is truly mind boggling are the number and magnitude of injuries that modern pitchers sustain today – even with bullpens that horde matchup specialists and managers who brandish the quick hook, paranoid of the number 100 when it comes to pitch counts. Tommy John surgery, among countless other shoulder, elbow, back and knee ailments, has seemingly become an epidemic in this game and now represents what I believe to be one of baseball’s foremost issues right now.

What can be done about it? After all, the best pitchers make $150 million or more over a half-decade or longer contracts for a reason, right?

If anything, that’s all the more reason for Major League Baseball to lend its ears to one of its very own elites, Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers. Last week, ESPNDallas.com reported that Darvish had approached Rangers general manager Jon Daniels suggesting that the Texas starting rotation expand to six pitchers from five.

There’s been no word of what the Rangers brass thought of Darvish’ suggestion, but it’s one they and every front office should seriously consider. When Darvish came out of Japan to the majors in 2012, he had been accustomed to six days rest and had to adjust to a more demanding life in the MLB. He was able to navigate his way through two seasons, missing only a handful of starts.

But signs of wear and tear are starting to show more noticeably this season as he is on the DL with elbow inflammation. It’s the third time this season he’s dealt with this problem and now the right thing for the 49-77 Rangers to do is to shut him down for the year. No need to waste his arm in a disastrous season that was really gone in mid-May.

A few weeks back, Darvish’ fellow Japanese compatriot Masahiro Tanaka narrowly avoided surgery himself. His arm has undergone career stress levels just from transitioning to Major League hitters, let alone a sky-high inning count and being asked to step into the wild New York market as the Yankees’ new ace.

Last offseason, the Seattle Mariners shelled out a seven-year, $175 million contract to Hernandez, who is probably the second-best pitcher in the world. When he signed that deal, Hernandez was just 26 and had already collected exactly 1,622.2 innings on that arm. That’s an average of more than 202 per season.

Between 2006 and 2010 – while Hernandez’ age was 20-24 – he threw 1,070.1 innings. That is simply unreal. In his entire career, he’s only had one stint on the disabled list.

King Felix is a rare breed – a special pitcher with a superhuman arm. But the rest of his body is human and something has to eventually give. Ten years with a season average of 232 innings and a near-impeccable injury history? C’mon now. With that kind of money on the table, the Mariners should really be thinking about giving him an extra day of rest in between each start.

The same goes for a laundry list of other A-list pitchers across the league. We’ve already seen a significant decline from guys such as Tim Lincecum, C.C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander. These pitchers were simply overused in their prime as their team’s ace season after season.

If you ever happen to catch a Giants’ game when Lincecum starts, be sure to tell me all about your memories of the 2010 National League’s Cy Young winner’s 98 mph fastball that once spun a hitter sideways, but now barely touches 91 with maximum effort. Can you explain why Verlander is exactly .500 – 23-23 – in his last 59 starts over the past two years? Same reason.

And it won’t be long before a similar thing could happen to the White Sox’ Chris Sale or Kershaw, just to name a couple. This offseason, Kershaw became the highest-paid pitcher ever, signing a seven-year, $225 million deal. ESPN’s Buster Olney broke that down to Kershaw earning roughly 75 cents for every single heartbeat over the life of that contract.

Why wouldn’t the Dodgers be doing everything humanly possible to protect an asset of that cost? It doesn’t require any groundbreaking tactics. Just pull the guy from the game when he’s thrown 115 pitches in 7.1 innings. Is seeing him pitch another complete game in a blowout really worth the risk?

The best thing for Major League clubs to do is to add another pitcher to their rotations, giving their aces an extra day of rest. It cuts down innings and while it may not maximize the money paid to an elite starter in terms of per-start earnings, it saves arms in the long run and makes the yearly salary more cost-effective because the pitcher misses less time. This is a change that can be phased in quickly – as soon as next season.

Of course, a six-man rotation wouldn’t guarantee a reduction in injuries. But it’s an excellent start on the road to that goal. The human arm simply was not designed to throw a five and a quarter ounce hard ball for 100 or more times in excess of 90 mph. It just isn’t a natural thing to do and front offices need to start to recognize this.

Teams need to get their priorities straight these days. There’s just too much money being thrown at these guys to abuse their arms.

When the game’s best players go down, it isn’t good for the players. It isn’t good for the fans. It isn’t good for baseball.