[Stardust]

Besides the first baseman, who is involved in no more than 27 plays defensively, the rest of 7 fielding positions are involved in no more than 10 plays per game each. The starting pitcher conversely is involved in an average 80+ defensive plays per game (yes, throwing the baseball is a defensive play). Thus, in the 30 games that pitcher starts, is he not more involved than all of his fielders? Most of the game the fielders have no involvment in the game at all. So who is working harder? The only other person that works as hard as the pitcher, who has the ball in his hands on every single play, is the catcher. But the catcher still does not touch the ball on every play!

Let's take the other side that a non-pitcher will have as many as 600 at bats. So does that give him the advantage? I think not - the Pitcher will face an average of 900 batters, a 1/3 more batting situations than a fielder.