BASEBALL JABBER

I am no baseball expert, I'm not even a collector of statistics as some super fans are. What I am is a fan of very long standing of the Cleveland Indians, a charter member of the American League. Now being a fan of the Indians for as many years as I have earns me nothing. Maybe an award for, an honorable mention in the 'wait till next year' category.

But now for my serious baseball jabber. This years problem with the Indians is that they have hardly any member of their bullpen that can come in and stop the other team from scoring more runs. Now here is my particular rant on this subject: it is standard operating procedure to excuse the starting pitcher after 100 pitches and replace him with a bullpen member, and then that particular member with what they call the closer in the ninth inning.

That is the way it is done today. In the past, starting pitchers pitched complete games and only were removed for a relief pitcher when things got really bad or the starter was suffering from exhaustion.
The pitcher with the most complete games was Cy Young with 749. Now to be a little bit fair, baseball managers believe that their pitchers arm will last longer and not fall off prematurely if they only pitch a maximum of 100 pitches per game.

But when a teams total bullpen suffers from some kind of failure pox what can you do? Perhaps ignore their presence and let the starters go as far as they can, and never take them out if they still hold their lead. Perhaps over a season if this would prove successful, less could be spent on bullpens, or not.

When you're a fan of the Indians you start to think strangely, because the Indians play that way.