"Some concepts are hits. Some are flops. The experiment to watch this year is almost spiritual in nature: Can professional baseball make starting pitching great again? Baseball's obsession with velocity has dampened the soul of the sport. The marquee pitching matchup is an endangered species. The oohs and aahs over a 100-mph pitch have been replaced by yawns. The potential solution, or at least a piece of one, is evident in this job description:"
"The United Shore Professional Baseball League (USPBL), an independent league based in Michigan, is recruiting for the position of "primary starting pitcher." The language is intentional. In today's major leagues, a starting pitcher generally is selected, trained and deployed to throw as hard as he can for as long as he can. Five innings is perfectly acceptable, with a parade of harder-throwing reinforcements in the bullpen. What the USPBL plans for a primary starting pitcher: "Build the ability to pitch deep into games.""
Independent minor leagues function as laboratories for baseball innovations such as pitch clocks, robot umpires, and home-run-derby tiebreakers. Some experiments succeed and others fail. The United Shore Professional Baseball League is recruiting specifically for a "primary starting pitcher" role to develop pitchers who can take the ball every week and pitch deep into games. Modern major-league practice emphasizes maximum velocity, short outings for starters, and heavy bullpen reliance. No team averaged six innings per start; Dodgers' regular-season starters averaged 4.85 innings despite postseason complete games from Yoshinobu Yamamoto during the championship run.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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