[CardSharpCook]

Vyse, you are correct that it is harder to get today's atheletes out than 1960 atheltes. However the difference is nowhere near as great as you seem to think. It is still a wood bat and a round ball. If you wanted to make a comparison btwn 2007 and 1892, I'd allow you to call it WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY harder today. In 1892, you threw strikes until the other team has 2 guys on, and then you actually try to get the guy out. In 1960, as in 2007, you try to strikeout the batter everytime. Increased bat speed will make it slightly harder, as will the increase in the genetic talent pool. However, that doesn't change pitcher fatigue. If you're throwing your hardest on every pitch, it doesn't matter if you get the guy out or not.

Mo, 100 pitches happens to be a pretty good estimate of when to start worrying about pitch count. The variance on this number is not that great. Some pitchers don't throw high stress pitches, and can go longer because of it (I think Levan Hernandez would be a good example of this). Sure, there will be variance in when pitches start to become damaging to a player. Hell, even for the same pitcher, one set of 100 pitches isn't the same as the next. If every pitch is thrown with no one on, it will be less stressful than 100 pitches with a guy on second every time. You're right, it is silly to fixate on the number 100. However, it happens to be a rather useful benchmark.