Before pitch counts became prominent in the 1980s, a pitcher primarily "pitched until he could no longer get anyone out or the game was over." As pitch counts have become more prominent, pitchers are often removed from games independent of whether or not they are tired or still pitching effectively. The use of pitch counts has been influenced by agents wanting to protect their clients, and organizations wanting to protect investments in their pitchers. This change has shifted the expectations of starting pitchers from pitching complete games to quality starts of six innings instead.