fair enough.ParrotRob wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 3:12 pmWow, you really HAVE been away from baseball for a while! In today's game of statistics and hyper-analysis thereof, it's not uncommon at all for managers to change pitchers to gain even the smallest (perceived) advantage - regardless of how the current pitcher is doing. Especially very late in the game and protecting a very fragile lead (e.g. one run lead, tying run in scoring position, etc).triviawayne wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2020 1:53 pm
I haven't watched since the 1994 strike, but the game has changed so much, so I need to ask: why would a team pull a pitcher if that pitcher hasn't given up a baserunner?
Hmmm... Johnson is up next. He's 5 for 14 lifetime against the guy pitching now, and only 1 for 9 against the guy in the bullpen, time for a change!
This is complicated by managers deliberately staggering lefty and righty hitters in the batting order to try to force the other manager's hand.
Add this all up and a single half-inning can take 20-30 minutes with three pitching changes, pinch hitters, pinch runners, warmups, the commercial breaks that accompany pitching changes, etc. Hello four hour playoff game.
personally i have to wonder how well all that nonsense really works. having pitched in little league, I can say if I was having a hot day, I was having a hot day and that was that; but if I wasn't doing so hot, yeah, pull me off the mound.
Kind of like trying to ice the kicker in football...does it really work, probably not.
full disclosure: this is just personal opinion (as if you couldn't already tell)