When everyone is super no one will be. Baseball’s descent into boredom and arm injuries.
And when everyone is Super, no one will be.” This quote is from the evil villain Syndrome in the animated movie, The Incredibles. His evil plan in the movie is to invent tools and machines that can make ordinary people Super and then sell those tools and machines to everyone so that everyone will become Super. Which then leads to the iconic quote–complete with a diabolical laugh–, “And when Everyone is Super, no one will be.”
I am reminded of that quote every time I see yet another MLB pitcher who can touch 100 mph on the radar gun. Ten years ago, Aroldis Chapman was the only pitcher that could touch triple digits with regularity. Growing up, it was Nolan Ryan who held the mantle of throwing the fastest pitches. There were no radar guns then, so how fast Ryan threw in his prime can only be estimated. Ryan and Chapman were singularly unique for their time and their greatness commanded our attention.
But nowadays, it seems like every team has a pitcher that can throw 100 miles per hour. Some teams have multiple such pitchers. When Paul Skenes gets called to the majors, the Pirates will have three pitchers—Jones, Skenes, and Chapman—who touch 100 mph.
The race seems to be on to develop these pitchers–arm injuries be damned. The teams that can get the most flamethrowers on the roster at once seemingly have a competitive advantage. And pitchers are more than willing to participate in this race for velocity knowing that the harder they throw the more money they will potentially earn. What is seemingly not said is that the harder a pitcher throws, the more likely he is to be injured.
And this race for velocity is creating two big problems for Major League Baseball. First, it is resulting in an epidemic of arm injuries to pitchers who can throw gas. And secondly, it results in more strikeouts per game, which leads to fewer balls put in play, which leads to fewer runs scored.
