Texas Rangers pitcher Max Scherzer is throwing out some ideas, instead of balls and strikes. The hurler is giving his input on how to reform starting pitching in Major League Baseball. Scherzer is advocating a range of ideas that would allow pitchers to start throwing more innings, which he says isn’t happening now.
“I want to be careful before I start bashing the next generation,” Scherzer said, per The Athletic. “I bet the generation before me looked at me and said, ‘You’re only throwing 100 to 120 pitches. We threw 150. Why aren’t you guys throwing 150 pitches?’”
Scherzer says he has talked to MLB officials about something he calls the “double hook.” It would force a team to pull their designated hitter, when that team pulls their starting pitcher from the mound. This idea was given pushback, the Rangers pitcher says, because players could lose their market value in the DH spot.
The Rangers hurler says his ultimate goal is to allow pitchers more time on the mound when things are going well. He argues that disastrous starts for pitchers wouldn’t be affected by new rule changes.
“That’s not the start we’re trying to curtail,” Scherzer added. “The starts that make everybody pull their hair out is when you go five innings on 70 pitches, you’ve only given up one run and you just get pulled. That’s the start that is agitating everybody, that you can be dealing and someone can say because of the probability theory that you’re going to give up more runs the third time through, you’ve got to come out.”
