Astros’ Justin Verlander calls out analytics for starting pitcher ‘epidemic’

With teams now using several different pitchers per game rather than trying to get the most innings possible out of their starters, Verlander claims that they value power and velocity over control. “When I came up, you had to hone your craft in the minor leagues,” the Astros hurler said. “You had to show you could control multiple pitches in the zone before you were ever able to come up. That’s kind of fallen by the wayside. Verlander pointed out that young pitchers are essentially at the mercy of team analysts that mold them according to what their idea of what a good pitcher is. “The problem is, even if MLB says, ‘We want to bring back the starting pitcher,’ the analysts that are now running these teams are going to say, ‘We’re not going to be better for that. We’re going to be better off having a kid who throws 100 with a nasty slider do it for three innings,’” he said. “If he goes five, great That kid is going to do better than if I told him, ‘Don’t throw 100. Throw 95. Hit the corners and try to get eight innings out of this.’ That’s what the numbers say. I don’t agree with those numbers. But in an analyst’s world, everything is black and white. They don’t know how to value those extra innings, so they ignore it.” Verlander and former New York Mets teammate Max Scherzer have discussed ways to help restore the purity of their position. Scherzer even brought up ideas to the MLBPA subcommittee, such as teams losing their DH after pulling their starting pitchers. However, none of the proposals have gained any traction. While baseball’s analytics boom may be hard to contain going forward, the old values of starting pitching can still be preserved if more influential voices speak out.