Reds (Abbott) vs Cubs (Horton): 8/6/25, 1:20pm

[mul21]

15 hours ago, chibears55 said:

My opinion, biggest difference between the pitchers of today compared to 30 plus years ago is a couple things.

one is that these kids are growing up throwing majority breaking balls from little league on up and it eventually catches up to them. I remember back in the days curveballs were limited in little league and  in high school coaches emphasized more on fastball location and change ups, with curves being the 3rd pitch.

That why guys like Ryan, Carlton, etc had longevity.

The other reason is all the weight lifting they do now is a major cause of injuries, especially with hamstrings and abdominal strains, back then it was more about stretching and running, just keeping the arms loose and legs strong.

 

We can also kinda blame that these kids aren't stretched out enough early on in minors to throw 100 plus pitches a game like before, now i think they mostly max out around 60 or so in minors  before being pulled and I'd bet the majority of their pitches are breaking balls for most of these starters. Why we see these kids coming up and majority struggle to go 5 innings and can pitch a full season.

The throwing curves part I'll agree with,  Any breaking pitch is going to stress an arm that's not fully developed more than it should be stressed.

However, this weight lifting is bad and guys aren't stretched out line of thinking is absolute nonsense.  Do you not see Keith Law bitching every single college baseball season about how guys get stressed when it comes to the College World Series?  College pitchers throw plenty.  The training regimens followed by pitchers are so well designed and catered to each individual that they're light years better than anything guys were doing 30-40-50 years ago. 

[Longhorn20]

11 hours ago, cubfansince77 said:

That would be....sublime. I watched a couple innings of him tonight. He's just about unhittable. 

Unhittable? he's 7-8.

[Derwood]

14 minutes ago, mul21 said:

You realize how different those motions are biomechanically right?  And how you almost never hear about a softball pitcher with an arm injury?

It's not apples to apples (of course), and they even do this in NCAA softball, but the conditioning of a 9 year old girl is not the same as the 22 year old at an SEC school.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

9 hours ago, Stratos said:

Depends if you're throwing the curve correctly or not.

Well no horsefeathers. You can horsefeathers up anything if you do it wrong.

[Brian707]

2 hours ago, Longhorn20 said:

Unhittable? he's 7-8.

SP won loss record is mostly meaningless 

 

 

[javy knows my name]

2 hours ago, Longhorn20 said:

Unhittable? he's 7-8.

Hahahaha

[Derwood]

3 hours ago, Longhorn20 said:

Unhittable? he's 7-8.

Okay, I'll play along.

Scores in his 8 losses:

5-3
3-0
8-3
2-1
1-0
3-0
4-2
2-1

That's 10 runs scored by the Pirates in his 8 losses.
 

[mul21]

4 minutes ago, Derwood said:

Okay, I'll play along.

Scores in his 8 losses:

5-3
3-0
8-3
2-1
1-0
3-0
4-2
2-1

That's 10 runs scored by the Pirates in his 8 losses.
 

To further make your point, he's given up a total of 20 runs in those losses and 9 of them were in 2 starts.

[TarzanJoeWallis]

3 hours ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

That is pretty standard now.  Everything is tracked pitch by pitch in the Game changer app and there are strict rules by age on the number of pitches allowed, combined with required rest based on how many pitches were thrown.

Yeah, that was happening when my kids played and they are now in their mid and late 20s. 

[chibears55]

3 hours ago, Derwood said:

It's not apples to apples (of course), and they even do this in NCAA softball, but the conditioning of a 9 year old girl is not the same as the 22 year old at an SEC school.

Their arms and selves are obviously going to get tired, i was assistant coach for a few years that started with 12U up to 18U girls softball/travel ball basically same group of girls (with daughters), had a team in 2009 that won State and went to South Bend for regional.  We had 2 pitchers the main one and one that would pitch 2 innings in each game to give her a rest.  

They would play 3-5 games a day Thursday or Fridays to Sunday😅

[Derwood]

18 minutes ago, chibears55 said:

Their arms and selves are obviously going to get tired, i was assistant coach for a few years that started with 12U up to 18U girls softball/travel ball basically same group of girls (with daughters), had a team in 2009 that won State and went to South Bend for regional.  We had 2 pitchers the main one and one that would pitch 2 innings in each game to give her a rest.  

They would play 3-5 games a day Thursday or Fridays to Sunday😅

My kid played travel for a few years. Pitching the same girl 3 games in a row in 95 degree heat

[Longhorn20]

On 8/8/2025 at 12:29 PM, Derwood said:

Okay, I'll play along.

Scores in his 8 losses:

5-3
3-0
8-3
2-1
1-0
3-0
4-2
2-1

That's 10 runs scored by the Pirates in his 8 losses.
 

what? and that's 28 runs scored by the opponents. and yet, he's still 7-8