ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The art of pitching has changed quite a bit in eyes of one former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher.
Seth Maness pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2013 to 2016 and during his time with the club, he helped the club appear in the 2013 and 2014 NLCS and also helped the Cardinals appear in the 2013 World Series.
During his tenure, Maness wasn't known as a relief pitcher who struck out batters, but rather a relief pitcher who could generate groundballs, with Maness's 59.4% groundball rate among the Top-10 of relief pitchers in the National League from 2013-16.
"I grew up watching the Atlanta Braves in the late 1990s. (Greg) Maddux and (Tom) Glavine, those were my guys," said Maness on Sports On A Sunday Morning . "I tried to immolate my game after Maddux, who was working quick, pounding the zone, making something happen and defense love to play behind guys like that. Whether it was good or bad, it was going to happen quick and that was what I was doing, going to attack the zone and we had a hell of a defense when I was here and they made a lot of plays behind me because I didn't strike out a ton of guys."
The game has changed dramatically since Maness departed the Cardinals, with groundball rates having dropped and strikeouts becoming more prevalent. From 2013-16, overall groundball rates were consistently among the 44%-45% range and overall strikeout rates within the 20% range. However groundball rates have dropped that no season has had a groundball rate over 45% since 2017, while strikeouts have unsurprisingly have risen to where each season since 2017 has had an overall strikeout rate of at least 23% .
Maness, who is now a pitching coach at UNC Greensboro, says from his perspective the game has changed since he was in the major leagues, with stuff being a bigger emphasis to pitchers.
"My value was I was pretty consistent, you know what you are going to get, I'm going to throw it over the plate, make something happen and we're going to have a chance," said Maness. "That's the fine line I see between the direction of where the game is going where I see a lot of guys with super stuff, but the consistency I thinks faults a little bit now."
But Maness believes groundball pitchers still have a place in baseball.
"I'm coaching the college level right now and those guys with 88-90 mph can still have a lot of success, said Maness. "Yeah the separator comes through the minor league system, but at the level of college, you can get away with 88-90. Big league level right now, I don't know, but we saw (Chicago Cubs starter) Kyle Hendricks (Friday night) dominate with 87-89 mph. It's like real estate: location, location, location."
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