re: Why wouldn't a pitching staff of 9 closers not work?

quote:

---

Are you kidding me? Are you really suggesting that a pitcher should pitch one inning for 162 straight games? Their arms would be shredded by the second week of the season.

---

quote:

---

[Mike]Marshall, who relied primarily on an elusive screwball, led his league in games pitched four times, saves three times, and games finished five times. He is the holder of two major league records, both of which he set in the 1974 season: most appearances (games pitched) in a season (106), and most consecutive team games with a relief appearance (13). In his record-setting 1974 season, he pitched 208.3 innings, all of which came in relief appearances.

Marshall attended Michigan State University, earning three degrees, including a Ph.D. in kinesiology. In the months preceding his 1974 Cy Young season, Marshall considered retiring in order to work on his Ph.D.[2]

Marshall teaches and advocates a pitching method he developed that he "believes could completely eradicate pitching-arm injuries."[3]

Marshall wants pitchers to have a smooth transition. To pitch the arm has to externally rotate (hand lays back) before the ball accelerates. With traditional pitchers the thrower often lifts his elbow before his hand (also called scapula loading); this leads to the ball coming up late and the arm to externally rotate late. The elbow will be accelerated forward while the hand still goes backward, which creates enormous stress on the arm.

Marshall instead wants pitchers to externally rotate early as they swing their arm up. That means the will lift the hand before the elbow, so that the wrist faces away from the body and up, the hand is above the elbow when the front foot touches the ground, which leads to a smooth transition without a "forearm bounce," as Marshall calls it (Marshall believes this causes UCL injuries, which require Tommy John surgery). He wants to first lay back the forearm and then accelerate by using the body, instead of accelerating before the hand is laid back.

Marshall also believes in using the rotation of the trunk instead of bending over at the waist and in pronation of the arm, which, according to him, protects the elbow.

---

quote:

---

To ask a starting pitcher to pitch in more than one game over a period of five days on a regular basis would be playing with fire.

---

quote:

---

You would need to have a 13 man pitching staff with eight full-time relievers.

---