Next, the public service announcement (from a guy teaching physics to game programmers): in Newtonian physics, the amount of energy a moving object has is equal to the mass of the object multiplied times the square of the velocity. Or e=m*v^2. The example I use is that even though a sword might weigh 100 times as much as a bullet, the speed of the sword squared is much less than 1% of the speed of a bullet squared. So the energy of a swung sword might bounce off a suit of armor, but the bullet will have much more energy and go right through it. Or in baseball terms, it is easier to homer off a fastball than a slower pitch because the fastball brings more energy to the collision between ball and bat. Seems a little counterintuitive? I mean, the ball is going faster AWAY from the fences, so why does it leave the bat faster towards the fences? All I can say is go to a pool table. Hit the cue gently towards the far cushion (a changeup pitch) and see how far the ball rebounds. Now hit it smartly; it goes much farther. There is physics about collisions that governs why, but that’s my easy example that should persuade you that a fastball is likely to go farther (if hit squarely) than a changeup. Of course, it’s probably harder to hit a fastball squarely because the batter has less time to react. But I digress.

In the equation e=m*c^2, Einstein postulated that the energy released from nuclear fission would be the mass of the material being destroyed times the speed of light squared. His genius in this equation was in concluding that the speed of light, being a universal limit (except in very strong gravity fields) could be substituted into Newton’s e=m*v^2. And IIRC, he was pretty close to correct. We should be grateful; some scientists thought the first nuclear bomb would have so much energy that it might destroy the whole planet. History shows that Einstein was right enough for jazz.

As for four man rotations, I think enough high level studies have been done that indicate that depending on the arm pitching and the mechanics of the pitch, pitchers have only so many pitches in them before parts of their arm start to wear out. Pitchers with great mechanics (e.g. Greg Maddux) generate little wear on their arm, and given the winter off that wear heals. Pitchers with lousy mechanics (e..g. Mark “The Bird” Fidrych) are going to generate a lot of damage, only so much of which can heal in the off season. I am sure that there are a number, possibly a large number, of pitchers who could handle a four many rotation. But I bet that the total number of pitches thrown over a career will be higher with the five man rotation for most pitchers even though they don’t have as many starts.

As for scouting nothing but slow pitchers, building a pitching staff involves creating contrasts. If a bullpen has nothing but lively arms all throwing around 92-96 mph, then the batters will get zoned into those kinds of pitches and start hitting them, unless they have very different kinds of movement on their pitches. A more effective bullpen has a mixture of hard and soft throwers, and maybe even some “novelty” throwers (side arms, knuckle balls, strange rhythms). The batters have to adjust more, and many batters cannot adjust that well.

What I *could* see is a team like the Pirates or Royals deciding that they need an edge (like the Red Sox hiring Bill James) and bring in Mike Marshall as the pitching coach. The guy has a PhD in kinesiology (how bodies work), he lasted 14 years in the majors with a hard on the arm novelty pitch (the screwball), and he won a Cy Young. He has some outlandish theories nobody is willing to trust. Well, I say trust him with many (most? all?) of your second tier pitchers, the guys who can’t beat 90 mph, the pitchers who will be willing to take a chance knowing that without something really good happening they probably won’t make it to the majors. Give Marshall a shot. Worst case, a bunch of non-prospects won’t make the majors. Best case, you develop a lot of pitchers.

For example, the 12 year old girls’ opponents could press back or Goliath could deny insurgents the ability to decide where battles take place by sitting in a few places and leaving the rest of the area uncontested.

Of course that rarely happens because Goliath also sets the rules for Goliath as well as for Goliath’s opponents Which is precisely why anyone in baseball not going with the book is viewed as a moron. Which in turn means he will need immediate success and sustainable success (because one year won’t get past the laughter or the disdain) and that doesn’t happen often.

Of course it doesn’t happen at all if people are too afraid to try.

Wish I could do italics for this one but the argument about dejesus not being a GG players is both correct and flawed. He isn’t the best LF in the AL (not close really) but the best LF should be the GG award winner, because it just seems right that each position get a winner and that there is no need to award 3 CF the GG just because they are better defenders. That would be true but moot because it should be one for one position for award.

Which I suppose is why I despise the DH so much as well.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=9493

Here’s a relevant excerpt:

“…but all the flash obscured the point: all three Cardinals pennant-winners led the league in on-base percentage. Even with their general lack of power, the Cards would have scored a reasonable number of runs without the frenetic basestealing, and to some degree achieved what they did in spite of it.”