Too many pitchers?

Some of my friends and I went to the White Sox game last night, which the Sox won 11-7:

Both teams came out swinging tonight, combining for 25 hits and 18 runs, but the White Sox (69-63) beat up on Jacob deGrom and outlasted the Rangers (66-67), 11-7. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous getting through this one, but this was a huge win for the South Siders coming off a blowout loss, and at the very least they will still hold a 2 1/2-game lead over the Cleveland Guardians.

As of publication, both the Twins and Guardians are losing, so it would be lovely for the White Sox to gain a full game on both teams. The Sox need to keep their heads down, take it one at-bat at a time and play their game. When they play loose like they did tonight, they can do plenty of damage at the plate. It’s time to take care of business, focus on what they can control and show up tomorrow ready to close out the series with a win.

No joke: of the 15 teams in the American League, only five are above .500 and one is at .500—and that team, the Astros, are in first place. The first-place White Sox are only 69-63 (.523) and 2½ games ahead. If this continues, a losing team could win the pennant. (In the National Leauge, 8 of 15 teams are above .500, which is what one would expect in any given season. The second-place Cubs are 76-57 (.571), which the astute statistician will note is a better record than the White Sox.

Why is this happening? One of my friends hypothesized that playing 2,430 games (30 teams each playing 162 games a year) just wears all the pitchers out, and the talent pool isn't that big anyway. He wants to return to the 2-league, 2-division, 26-team roster that he remembers decades before he became an old fart. No Wild Card, no team getting into the playoffs (of which there was only one round) with a losing record, pitchers who stayed in for eight innings, walking to the game barefoot in the snow—when it was America, by gum!

I don't go quite that far. After visiting 32 parks, however, I do agree with him that Major League Baseball cares more about money than good baseball, but that has always been the case. The question is, where's the balance?