Nolan Ryan has no use for pitch counts

SI Vault presents a 2010 story by Albert Chen on Nolan Ryan’s attempt to mold the Texas Rangers’ pitching staff in his own image.

“Under the Ryan regime the Rangers are pushing their pitchers to throw deeper into games, to extend their arms further, to rethink the physical limits that they’ve been told over and over they have.”

“In 2000 a manager allowed a pitcher to throw 120 pitches or more in a regular-season game 466 times. In 2004 that number was 186. Last season it was 92. Sometime in the last decade managers became programmed to pull their pitchers after they reached the 100-pitch limit. But why?”