Pitch counts weren’t an issue until everybody started babying pitchers. If you throw out his first and last season, Walter Johnson averaged 300 IP a year for 19 years. Before that, he was working in oil fields. And somehow, a century later, we can’t expect healthy young kids (or grumpy old veterans) to toss 6 innings every 5 days. And, in the process, we’ve necessitated a whole platoon of mediocre relievers to cover half the game.

Good post. It’s human nature in high stress situations to try to do *a little more*, and it’s when pitchers try to do *more* that they change their delivery and, potentially, put additional stress on their arms, whether or not they are actually throwing the ball harder.