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Pitchers were supposedly tougher but they also tended to burn out a lot earlier than they do now. To go to one extreme, a big part of why Cy Young is the lifetime victory leader is that he was the *only* pitcher from the 19th century who didn't burn out by the time he was 30. Most guys were done after a season or two in the box. Since then, pitchers have been throwing fewer innings per game but... well, let me put this in statistical form. Here are the career records of the top 3 guys in the NL in wins in the year listed
1930
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Ray Kremer 143-85
Pat Malone 130-92
Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons 217-146
1940
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Bucky Walters 198-160
Paul Derringer 223-212
Claude Passeau 162-150
1950
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Warren Spahn 363-245
Robin Roberts 286-245
Johnny Sain 139-116
1960
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Ernie Broglio 77-74
Spahn
Vern Law 162-147
1970
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Bob Gibson 251-174
Gaylord Perry 314-265
Fergie Jenkins 284-226
1980
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Steve Carlton 329-244
Joe Niekro 221-204
Jim Bibby 111-101
1990
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Doug Drabek 155-134
Ramon Martinez 135-88
Frank Viola 176-150
2000
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Tom Glavine 303-200
Daryl Kile 133-119
Randy Johnson 284-150
Greg Maddux 349-215
While I see fewer wins and losses per season, I'm not really seeing a dividing line where players start to have fewer wins and losses over the course of their career. If anything, the "worst" season for pitcher longevity was 1930, the first year of the study (fwiw, the 1920 leaders include Pete Alexander but also 270-win Burleigh Grimes and 216-victory Walker Cooper - I didn't include them because the pitching side of things changed incredibly between 1918 or so and the mid to late 20s). Simply put, pitchers are playing less but lasting longer so it evens out.
Now, what would be a good way to model this in OOTP? I think the game's already halfway there with the proneness ratings. If you made day-to-day injuries so common as to be something that *every* pitcher in the league had to experience, say, 3 or 4 times a season, you would create situations in which borderline as well as particularly brittle pitchers would get pulled out of starts early and/or miss starts entirely in order to save them. As you go back into earlier seasons, there would be fewer guys getting the hook, which is going to cause them to post bigger numbers initially but will ramp their proneness way up to the point that after a few years it would become virtually impossible for all but the hardiest of souls to go an entire year without suffering a serious injury (and the talent hits that accompany it).
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