Pitchers’ workloads are certainly a topic we’re used to hearing about as baseball fans. We live in the pitch count era after all, and every game has a pitch count indicator on the screen showing how many the starter has thrown. We’ve gotten used to starters getting the hook right around 100, even if they’re pitching well. We also know that it is to avoid injury to this most injury-prone of positions. It’s never been shown very clearly that higher pitch counts lead to injury, but there’s enough worry that teams want to play it safe with these prized assets. This is even more true with young pitchers: they often aren’t allowed past 85 or 90 pitches if the team is especially worried about their arm.

We also know the other reason why: pitchers just aren’t going to keep doing as well if you leave them in for that long. Past 100 pitches, pitchers are usually well into their third time through the opposing team’s batting order, if not their fourth. We know that each additional time hitters get to see the same pitcher in the same game, the better the hitters do against him. And we know that, of course, pitchers get tired as they throw more pitches, and their velocity drops, and with it, their effectiveness.

But should there be another consideration here? We know the long-term reasons for limiting pitch counts, as well as the short-term ones. But what about the medium term: how does a starter’s pitch count affect how he’ll do his next time out on the mound?

Over at Baseball Prospectus, Russell Carleton (a.k.a. @pizzacutter4) looked at this question back in 2013. He found that past 100 pitches, every further pitch thrown leads to more home runs and more singles being given up next time out, as well as fewer balls in play meekly falling for outs. But his study was only focused on the extreme upper end of pitch counts, inspired as it was by Tim Lincecum’s brilliant 148-pitch no-hitter. That matters, but I also want to know what happens before a starter gets to 100 pitches. There’s no reason to think the effect of workload only kicks in after 100 pitches have been thrown. Will a pitcher do better next time out if his pitch count is kept significantly below 100? I decided to find out. Read the rest of this entry »