The Resurgence of Pitching

It’s quite evident that Major League Baseball has restored order in attempts to move on from the steroid era. What’s done is done and there is nothing Major League Baseball or Bud Selig can do about steroids in the game of baseball. The past generation of baseball players that have been linked to using performance enhancing drugs put a dark cloud over the game from the late 80’s to early 2000. Players like Barry Bonds who broke Hank Aaron’s home run record of 755 will forever be questioned about taking PED’s. The steroid era was dominated by long home runs and power hitting, batting records that were shattered by modern day supplementation. Although the season is still young, we are witnessing the resurgence of pitching in MLB.

With Dallas Braden and Roy Halladay throwing perfect games just 20 days apart, marks the first time in history that 3 perfect games were thrown in one year span including Mark Buehrle’s in 2009. Ubaldo Jimenez threw a no hitter in April 2010 and Armando Galarraga should have had a perfect game if wasn’t for a blown call. Pitchers have made this feat look easy as of late and it makes you wonder if there will be another no hitter or perfect game this year? Are the tables turned and will we now see pitching dominate? I think what we are seeing is remarkable and with only 266 no hitters recorded in history, it could be some time before we see another. Only 20(21) perfect games are in the record books and with 3 in the past year we have been blessed to witness such greatness. Only 8 perfect games have been thrown since 1990 so the chances of seeing another one in the next couple years are slim but don’t rule out the thought of another occurring soon.

Teams have stocked up on pitching in recent years due to the power hitting displayed from 1998 on. While it wasn’t only hitters looking to get an edge with steroids, pitchers were certainly not clean. It may be safe to say that there were more position players and hitters taking steroids than there were pitchers but it was more evident with the surge in power hitting numbers than pitchers with amped up fast balls. Performance enhancing drugs may have helped pitchers heal quicker, it allowed for batters to bulk up and bash clearly giving batters the advantage.

Steven Strasburg is plowing down hitters in the minor leagues and will make his major league debut tomorrow night. His electric stuff has yet to be tested in the big leagues but he has all the makings of a power pitcher. We’ve seen in recent years how pitching can make or break a team and it appears that we are in an era that will be soon be dominated by pitching.

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Tags: MLB, no-hitters, perfect game, pitching, steroid era

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 1:12 pm and is filed under MLB Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The Resurgence of Pitching

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