Baseball analytics have gone too far

Call me old fashioned, I don’t care. I’m tired of analytics ruining baseball.
On Monday, April 1, the Baltimore Orioles won a game and improved to a very unexpected 3-1 record, and I’m still upset.
Orioles pitcher David Hess was pulled during a no-hitter through 6.1 innings. Terrible.
Forget that the team won, even forget that they almost lost because the bullpen gave up five runs in three innings, I lost an opportunity to see an Orioles pitcher throw a no-hitter.
I’m upset for Hess as well, a pitcher who was having the best outing of his career and may never have the opportunity to achieve the accomplishment of pitching a no-hitter ever again either. But I’m angry that a computer is what tells the manager that Hess threw too many pitches and he had to come out of the game.
And before you say that as a fan of my local team I should just blindly and unconditionally support every decision they make and should be thrilled with the team getting a win, I also want to be entertained. After all, sports at its core is a form of entertainment. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be treated that way anymore.
Maybe Hess, who in his career has seen his ERA skyrocket to 9.30 when facing batters a third time, would have gotten battered if he stayed in any longer, but why not give him a chance and fans a chance at the no-hitter? The Orioles had a 6-0 lead and no one was on base. If he gave up a home run on his next pitch, they still would have had a 6-1 lead and time to rally to secure the win.
But analytics said Hess had to come out, which does not make sense when he was put in to start the inning anyway.
If a manager is going to just listen to a computer and pull a pitcher when he throws a certain number of pitches, forget ever attracting a top quality pitcher to Baltimore as a free agent. I can’t imagine many Aces want to be told they have to leave during a no-hitter because the numbers say he has to.
I get that the Orioles were stuck so far behind the times that they went through a miserable 47-win season last year and now after modernizing they are already having more success than ever imagined. But come on, this was just a step too far and ruined the enjoyment of that game that day.
No, I was not entertained.
Corey Johns
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