When Barry Bonds made his return to the diamond last week, it jogged memories of another time, when 30 home run seasons were common-place and sub-4.00 ERAs were fairly rare. For the better part of the last decade, the art of pitching has undergone a complete renaissance: reliable starting pitchers are far and away the foundation of most successful teams while the task of bullpen management has rendered the one-dimensional bench player mostly obsolete. Since 2000, the average runs scored per game is down almost an entire run. The most desirable asset on today’s player market? Talented, young arms that are cost-controlled.
Despite teams’ best efforts to protect these commodities, year after year, pitchers break down, stalling promising careers ...
