May I suggest Christy Mathewson's Pitching In A Pinch for your reading list?
Well given that the pitchers of old could get batters out on fewer pitches, had better control, better ball movement, and could perform more pitches, if they did all that so much better than today’s pitchers without being “max effort” and today’s are “max effort” then today’s pitcher just plain suck and should find honest work. Because with all the “benefits” they get now they are markedly and obviously worse at the job.