[usconservative]

I used to agree with you about pitch counts, but now I’m not so sure. Look at how many pitchers these days have fastballs in the high 90s.

A point I'd not considered. Still, if a pitcher is going into the sixth or seventh inning, still pitching strong and getting batters out, why change? I'm far from a baseball "expert" it just seems to me if a pitcher is still going strong why not leave him in? A good coach knows when a pitcher is getting tired and will replace them when needed.

Watching the last World Series for example was like watching one big pitching rotation in a single game. Dugouts got used up, pitchers were tired, etc.. How about some strategy instead of straight pitch-count?

[Alberta's Child]

It's not just the pitch count that drives those managing decisions about replacing the starting pitcher. One of the biggest factors is the steep increase in an opposing team's offensive numbers when they face a pitcher for the third or fourth time in a game. ESPN did a study a few years ago and figured that against the same starting pitcher, the average MLB team hit almost 25 points higher the third time through the lineup than the first time -- and their slugging pct. was 50 points higher.

This is most likely a combination of pitchers getting fatigued and batters getting more comfortable at the plate with more at-bats against the same pitcher.