“You can never have too much pitching” (baseball adage)

“You can never have too much pitching” is an old baseball adage of unknown authorship. “You never have enough pitching” was cited in print in 1940; “You can’t have enough pitching” was cited in 1951. The expression became frequently used in the 1950s.
 
 
31 January 1940, Lima (OH) News, “Snypp’s Sports Snacks” by Bill Snypp, pg. 10, col. 1:
“No sir, you never have enough pitching. Just when you think you have it, it is usually the time when you suddenly find yourself with pitchers who can never start a game.”
(Will McKechnie.—ed.)
 
7 February 1951, Austin (MN) Daily Herald, “White Sox Need Speed in Outfield” by Paul Richards (AP), pg. 10, col. 2:
You can’t have enough pitching, you know.
 
1 April 1952, Lubbock (TX) Morning Avalanche, “Brooklyn Still Wants Blackwell Trade” (AP), sec. 1, pg. 9, col. 1:
“You can never have enough pitching,” said (Brooklyn Dodgers Manager Charlie—ed.) Dressen who expressed slight concern over a lump on the right forearm of Clem Labine while extolling John Rutherford, Joe Black, Chris Van Cuyx, John Podres, Ben Wade, Mal Malette and Johnny Schmidtz for their surprising form.
 
4 December 1958, Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, “Tribe’s Lane Will Use Held as Bait in Bid for Ramos” by Harry Jones, pg. 29, col. 3:
“You can never have too much pitching.”
(Frank Lane, general manager of the Cleveland Indians.—ed.)
 
16 March 1965, Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, “Sportview” by Chauncey Durden, pg. 20, col. 1:
“In this game,” the Dodger manager (Walter Alston—ed.) answered, “you can’t have too much pitching.”
 
6 June 1976, Boston (MA) Sunday Herald Advertiser, “Sox pitching still shaky” by Larry Claflin, sec. 3, pg. 40, col. 7:
Pitching is 75 percent of the game. You can never have too much pitching. You can’t win a pennant without a good bullpen.
 
Google Books
Bill James Presents the Great American Baseball Stat Book
By Bill Jamesn Don Zminda, et al.
New York, NY: Villard Books
1988
Pg. 501:
In the end the old adage “You can never have too much pitching” was shown to be true again.
 
Google Books
The Year I Owned the Yankees:
A Baseball Fantasy
By Sparky Lyle and David Fisher
New York, NY: Bantam Books
1991, ©1990
Pg. 29:
I firmly believe in the old saying: You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much pitching
 
The Telegraph (Macon, GA)
Teams can never have too much pitching
BY BILL SHANKS
March 11, 2014
The phrase “You can never have too much pitching” is unfortunately used when a team realizes that no matter how much depth it has in a rotation or a bullpen, it’s usually still not enough.