Posted May 16, 200520 yr Complete comeback Pitchers are finishing what they start at a higher rate, reducing relief work and reintroducing baseball to the complete game By Mike Klis Denver Post Staff Writer Back in grandpa's day, pitchers used to throw gas for nine innings, drink a beer or two and come back a couple of hours later to throw nine innings more. Something like that. Most baseball fans have sat on grandpa's lap and heard the stories. Dontrelle Willis heard his from grandpa Jack McKeon. "Me and him, we talk a lot about back in the day," Willis said. McKeon isn't really Willis' grandpa, per say. But as the 74-year-old manager of the Florida Marlins, McKeon has a grandfatherly relationship with almost all his players, particularly with his precocious, left-handed pitching phenom who leads the National League with a 7-0 record, 1.08 ERA and two complete games. "Jack's been around for a while. He tells me stories how if a guy didn't throw 200 innings back in his day, something's wrong," Willis said. "He takes a lot of pride in me, has a lot of belief in me. And when someone believes in you, sometimes you have no choice but to go out there and try to throw nine." It took an old codger to bring baseball back to an old trend. With McKeon's Marlins in the lead, starting pitchers are completing games at a rate not seen since the 2000 season. Managers are realizing they can get through a game without bringing in three middle relievers, a setup man and a closer. The 51 complete games recorded through Sunday were up 75.9 percent from last year. "I didn't start any trend. I'm just doing what comes naturally," said McKeon, baseball's oldest active manager. "I tell a story about Nolan Ryan. In '73, he had 26 complete games and this is him saying it, he said he averaged 167 pitches a game and one game threw 190 pitches. But I guess we wore him out. He got to 46 and had nothing left." In 2001, Curt Schilling led the NL with six complete games. This year, in the American League, Toronto's Roy Halladay had three by the season's fifth week, including a 97-pitch gem Tuesday against Kansas City. "If you're trying to throw 140 pitches for a complete game, that's a different story," said Halladay, a former Arvada West High School star. "I had a couple teams that were aggressive-swinging teams, and against them you can have a few more baserunners and still have a low pitch count." To help explain why the complete game has returned, it helps to recall a time when they were commonplace and why they disappeared. One of McKeon's favorite stories goes back to 1958, when he was managing the low-level Missoula minor-league team. He let a prospect named Jim Kaat pitch 251 innings. Kaat reached the big leagues the next season to begin a 25-year career. "Can you imagine a $10 million bonus baby pitching 251 innings in the minors today?" McKeon said. "You'd never get the chance because you'd be fired halfway through. Today in the minor leagues they don't let a guy pitch out of a jam. Even though it might cost you a ballgame, that's how you develop pitchers. 'How do I get out of this when I'm feeling a little fatigued?' You make guys tougher mentally that way. "The way it's set up in the minor leagues, you have guys programmed to go five innings, six innings. So how do you expect them to come to the big leagues and go nine?" Pitch counts began to control the big-league game in the strike season of 1994. Before that there were 347 complete games in 1992 and 371 in 1993, which was the Rockies' first season. In the next three seasons, complete games fell to 255, 275 and 290, respectively. "Pitch counts have gotten so ridiculous that you can talk somebody into getting tired," Atlanta pitching coach Leo Mazzone said. "I can't even cheat anymore on my clicker. They put them up on the scoreboards now. I used to cheat so that if somebody's going good I used to say, 'I'm not counting that one."' More and more, any time a starting pitcher had two runners on base in the sixth or seventh innings, managers all but automatically chose to bring in a fresh arm. The New York Yankees picked up 101 wins last year despite having just one complete game. "There just didn't seem to be enough good starting pitchers to go around," Marlins reliever Todd Jones said. "It seemed like it was easier to find guys who could pitch one good inning of relief, three to four days a week, than it was to find five starters who could go seven innings." The reverse is true with Florida this year. Starting pitchers Willis, Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett are the reason a second World Series appearance in three years is possible. The Marlins' bullpen, however, is shaky after losing closer Armando Benitez to free agency and his replacement, Guillermo Mota, to injury. McKeon played to his strength by having Willis, Beckett and Burnett combine for six complete games, five in April. Other managers noticed, and a new trend became an old trend. "I don't know why we're seeing more complete games but I'm sure glad to see it," Mazzone said. "I thought it was going to be a thing of the past."
May 17, 200520 yr I hate that first line. My grandfather told me that his grandfather told him the game was better back at the turn of the century.
May 17, 200520 yr Great article. I'm loving it how our starting pitchers are keeping their pitch count down and going deeper into games.
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