The Slow Death of the Starting Pitcher

Also: A tennis controversy, behind-the-back passes and more Bobby Witt Jr.

So you’ve probably heard a bit about the proposed rule that MLB is floating, which would legislate that starting pitchers go a minimum of six innings. I have some views on the rule itself, which has various caveats (you can pull a pitcher before six innings if he has thrown 100 pitches, given up four earned runs, or is hurt), but today, I want to talk about the evolution of starting pitching… and the evolution of sports.

Let’s start with a basketball example: I’m in St. Louis now with Daryl Morey, the GM of the 76ers, for reasons I will share in due time. He was telling me last night that the two greatest shooters—by a metric that measures not only shooting percentage but difficulty of the shots—are Steph Curry (duh) and