The Return of the Complete Game

There is so much to love about complete games and so many people love them. Managers love when their pitchers can go the distance, pitchers love to pitch the whole game and fans appreciate the skill it takes to last nine innings. 2009 has been the year of the complete game so far and baseball fans have seen an increased number recently. Just Friday night 4 pitchers were able to put together complete games including Tim Lincecum, Luke Hochevar, Ubaldo Jimenez and Dan Haren. For a few years it looked like the complete game was a thing of the past with set up men and relief pitchers dominating the late innings. Such is not the case this year and the best starters in the league are making the most out of their starts.

In 2007, the league only saw 114 complete games, but this year pitchers are on pace to exceed 170. There have already been 62 complete games so the league could see the 170 mark for the first time in a number of years. While this is a good start there is still a lot of work for the pitchers to do. It always seems that pitchers come out strong in the early part of the season but the hitters tend to catch up come the summer.

Players like Zack Greinke and Roy Halladay seem to have all the tools to put together a complete game every time they take the mound. Every five days when these guys play there seems to be hope that it is a capability and their teams can rely on them. Currently Randy Johnson leads all active players with 100 complete games himself, but Halladay could be the first to challenge that mark. At just 32 years of age Halladay already has 43 complete games and looks to get better with each year that he pitches. In order to be a complete game type of pitcher there is a certain skill set that a player needs. Halladay is known for his ability to keep up his velocity and keep the movement on his pitches even as it gets late into the game. There are many pitchers that have excellent stuff but simply cannot keep it up late into games. Guys like Halladay are special and everyone in the league takes notice.

Grienke on the other hand is a little too inexperienced to be compared with some of the other complete game artists in baseball history. However he has five complete games on this season already and could be around for at least a decade if he can keep his stuff moving and dipping the way it does this year.

Aside from the players that are already putting together big complete game numbers, there are a few pitchers that should be able to help add to the number as the season progresses. If a few more players can start contributing, the complete game could be making a formidable comeback and more bullpens will get the rest they are looking for later into the season.