Proposed Rule Change: Starting Pitchers Must Go 6 Innings

If pitchers had to throw with less velocity and pitch to contact I think you'd see many of them get to 4 earned runs pretty quickly.  Modern hitters are pretty damned good.

This is all stupid and unnecessary in my opinion, I really don't like Manfred at all.

This would need to be accompanied by some kind of limit to offense. The only two things that really come to mind for me are limiting bat weight/size and deadening the baseball. I don't think baseball has the guts to limit homeruns, so I don't really see how the pitching rule will be possible.

That said, for everyone that says this is unnecessary, then there has to be some kind of accountability/responsibility taken for all the pitching injuries. It has massively degraded professional baseball and will ultimately ruin the game if it isn't addressed. Beyond almost eliminating some teams potential playoff hopes before the season even begins, I would bet that it is having a huge impact on overall pitching development of minor league systems. I'm looking at someone like Perales - this guy could potentially be a stud and before the flower has even bloomed, it's potentially dead. That's not healthy. 20-25 year old pitchers should not be having TJ type surgeries on a regular basis.

Perhaps I am mis-reading this but are you suggesting that requiring pitchers to pitch 6-innings would reduce injuries?

I'm suggesting there is an epidemic of arm injuries that has nothing to do with whether you throw 4 innings or 6 innings or 9 innings. Through the years we've just sort of guessed at what causes arm injuries (pitch counts, mechanics, velocity, etc etc etc). I look at the pitch clock as a similar issue. Why are games faster with a pitch clock than without? The players will not proactively make any changes to what they do, no matter how bad things get. They'll sit there and scapegoat random rule changes before they make any kind of meaningful changes themselves. (I'm not absolving owners of anything here, I'm just stating a fact). So the reality is that nothing happens without them being forced or coerced into doing it. I don't think MLB is proposing the rule change with the idea that they want there to be more injuries for pitchers; so I choose to believe it is a beginning effort to force players into doing something different. It may be misguided, it may not work and it might even be really stupid. But doing nothing is allowing the problem to get worse. 

So to answer your question, yeah if the players continue to do everything exactly the same and do it more, there probably would be more injuries. If it causes them to stop for half a second and say, we can't keep throwing the same way, then maybe it will result in fewer injuries. I'd say that anyone that doesn't want the MLB to come up with 'stupid' rules should really be focusing their anger on the fact that the teams and players have taken ZERO responsibility for the injury issue.

Yes this. There have been far longer stretches in MLB history where pitchers threw more pitches over more innings with shorter time thrown between each pitch than over the last 20-30 years AND with way fewer arm injuries. I have no evidence to back this up, but arm injuries most certainly a combination of max velocity all the time and all the modern day mechanics affecting elbows and shoulders.

I certainly love going back to real starts as a norm, but I don’t know that you can or should mandate it.

I mean, you might just say a starter has to go 3 innings. Once you are beyond 3, you are more than an “opener,” and I think most managers would ride you for 5 (unless you hit 100 pitches or give up 4+ runs). So that is less draconian but likely has mostly the same results.

But as much as I hate openers… why ban it? It is not that *regular* a practice. Most teams seem to do it as an emergency spot start. Won’t this make those emergency games less competitive by forcing a team to extend a guy who can’t/shouldn’t go 6?

How about raising the mound, and or allowing the use of sticky stuff/rosin . Pivetta was talking about the fact that sticky stuff greatly increased both control and the ability to spin the ball without as much torque. Could help avoid arm injuries a bit.

I can’t imagine that this gets through. Hitters are ahead of the pitchers in this day and age. If you mandate that starting pitchers need to throw 6 innings you are going to get a ton of pitch counts at 125, 130, 140. Literally the pitchers and their agents will file a class action lawsuit.

Is it better to put in play something like starting pitchers have to throw a minimum of 90, maybe 95 pitches?

MLBPA would only go along with something like this if the whole early career compensation structure was reworked. Otherwise, teams are incentivized, even compelled, to burn through starting pitchers before they reach their prime earning years. I could see something like Manfred (the forum member, not the commish) suggested, requiring starters to go 3 innings to eliminate openers, but that seems like a solution in search of a problem.

They could keep the same calendar but reduce the number of games so that starts can more regularly get 5+ days of rest, but that will never happen. I'd like to see something like an expansion of the roster to 27 and have 6 guys who are only allowed to start (maybe some exceptions allowed, like blowouts or extra innings). Maybe enabling teams to go to a 6-man rotation during busy parts of the schedule will help keep guys healthy and also make teams feel more comfortable leaving a starter in for longer.

maybe a corresponding rule that teams can not bat around the order. When the first batter is set to return to the batters box the inning is completed regardless of how many outs there are. This will help take some of the load off of the pitcher that can't be removed despite getting his doors blown in.....

I've got it. New rule: any fair ball that leaves the playing area is considered a ground-rule double. The three true outcomes are now K, BB, and 2B. Incentive to swing for the fences is reduced and pitchers don't have to fear the long ball.