Pitchers clutter rosters.

I have advocated that team rosters be increased from 25 to 30 but that teams be allowed to dress only 25 players each game.  That would let teams free up several roster spots that are currently used for player whom their manager does not intend to use:
- starting pitchers other than the one for that game
- relief pitchers who need rest
- injured players.

I was discussing this with some friends yesterday and they pointed out that maybe as recently as 30 years ago teams carried fewer pitchers.  I had noted here that when Yankee fans were calling on manager Joe Girardi to "do something" to increase the team run production in the tournament that the Yankees, excluding the one backup catcher, there were only three non-pitchers on the bench.

It's difficult to determine how many pitchers are on a roster by looking at the team stats because the roster changes during the season.  So I decided to look at players used in the World Series.  Since the Giants just won so I started with the 1962 WS, which the Giants lost to the Yankees in seven games.  The Giants used seven pitchers, the Yankees six.  Ralph Terry pitched a complete game 1-0 shutout in game seven.  In the four game 2012 WS the winning Giants used ten pitchers and the Tigers used eleven.  Before 2012 the most recent WS sweep was in 2007.  The winning Red Sox used ten pitchers, the losing Rockies eleven.

Let's try the 1963 WS, which was a four game sweep like 2012.  The winning Dodgers used four pitchers; relief pitcher Ron Perranoski retired two batters in game two; the other three games were completed by the starters: Sandy Koufax, two, and Don Drysdale.  The losing Yankees used seven pitchers and had no complete games.

You say Koufax and Drysdale are not typical pitchers even in a WS.  OK, let's look at the next four game sweep, 1966.  In 1966 the Dodgers were swept and used eight pitchers, including two starts by Drysdale and one by Koufax.  The winning Orioles used four pitchers, including only one relief pitcher.

Click this link to see data and graphs for WS 1903-2012.  Below are the number of pitchers both teams combined for WS of games 4,5,6,7,8: : minimum, maximum, average, year.

Four games (21):
Min 8 1907
Max 22 2005
Ave 14.19

5 games (24):
Min 6 1905
Max 22 2010
Ave 13.67

6 games (23):
Min 8 1906, 1911, 1918
Max 22 2009
Ave 15.30

7 games (37):
Min 10 1912
Max 23 2011
Ave 16.68

8 games (3):
Min 8 1903
Max 13 1919
Ave 11.00