There are some other variables such the size of the ball park, indoors versus outdoor, the lighting of the park, prevailing winds, humidity, temperature, plus other variables. Thank you for bringing up Warren Spahn because he is the greatest and only 5’8” and his desire to succeed. 

I think you have to also take into consideration the balls that are used. Todays baseballs are much different and changed out every time they hit the dirt. 

19 minutes ago, Karbo said:

I think you have to also take into consideration the balls that are used. Todays baseballs are much different and changed out every time they hit the dirt. 

I think that changing balls so often is ridiculous - but the eras of Spahn and Radtke were not like the old Cy Young and Hoss Radburne days where a ball was used all nine innings. I do know there were rabbit ball years during Spahn's 21 years of pitching as well, but the Bomba year demonstrated how the ball can change the game.

21 minutes ago, Karbo said:

I think you have to also take into consideration the balls that are used. Todays baseballs are much different and changed out every time they hit the dirt. 

15 hours ago, Old fox said:

There are some other variables such the size of the ball park, indoors versus outdoor, the lighting of the park, prevailing winds, humidity, temperature, plus other variables. Thank you for bringing up Warren Spahn because he is the greatest and only 5’8” and his desire to succeed. 

Ball parks in the 'old days" were also filled with quirks.  Mel Ott got his 511 HRs using a ridiculous short porch, but give him credit he made his swing do what he wanted it to (unlike our shift stifled lefthanders today).  There was the green monster in Boston,  Here is great look at ballpark history.  The fact that there is no standard stadium has always meant that teams had to orient their lineup to meet the stadium opportunities and yet the pitchers maneuvered through all the venues. 

Max effort pitching probably has the biggest impact on innings pitched, to be honest. There's also perception that pitchers become less effective as batters have the opportunity to see the pitcher's offerings multiple times through the order, though there are plenty of pitchers out there who have results which contradict that line of thinking.

Based on personal experience, putting maximum effort into anything, from lifting weights to sprinting to chopping wood results in a massive drop off in stamina.

Fatigued pitchers become injured pitchers.

18 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Based on personal experience, putting maximum effort into anything, from lifting weights to sprinting to chopping wood results in a massive drop off in stamina.

Fatigued pitchers become injured pitchers.

This is correct. The fatigue does increase the chance of injury often due to a slight variance in form. The max effort also leads to more mistakes the modern pitcher or stubborn pitcher will invariably attempt to power through. At times, I was guilty of this and it never was effective for more than a pitch or two and caused issues.

Thank you for bringing the greatest leftie of all time into this conversation.  Remember a banquet maybe 20 years ago when a kid asked him how hard he threw.  His somewhat cranky response was that how hard you throw makes zero difference if you can put all of your pitches where you want, when you want.  Loved that rotation of Spahn, Burdette, Buhl and Conley.