To boil down the solution to the bullpen issues of the current game, the term "Less is More" comes to mind.
The days of using five or more relievers in a two run game need to end. The goal should be three pitchers a day max. Now that cannot be a hard and fast rule, but it could be done more often than not.
Two major things need to happen.
First, the starting pitchers should be pushed to throw seven innings per start.
Over 30 starts, that is still only 210 innings for the year. With the assumed full year coming up following the very short year where many pitchers didn't throw many innings (if any), they may need to work up to seven innings more gradually, but by June, they should be pretty well stretched out.
This may require them to work through a little trouble instead of pulling them in a tough fourth or fifth inning, but that is actually a good thing. There will be days when that is not possible. They may not 'be feeling it' or have their A-game on a particular start and just get clobbered in the first couple innings, but those starts are rare. Minor injuries will occur and injury prevention must also be considered.
Second, turning now to the relief staff, they too should be stretched out to be able to throw more innings. The talk of a seventh inning guy, an eighth inning guy, and a closer should become a seventh thru ninth inning guy, or an eighth and ninth inning guy.
With eight pitchers in the bullpen, perhaps one of them is dubbed the 'closer' to pitch the ninth inning only, but even that guy should be ramped up to be able to get a 6-out save once in a while.
A couple should be able to throw 2 innings every time out. While I don't profess to understand the pitching routines of major leaguers and how much rest each needs, it seems to me that these guys should be able to toss a couple innings at a time three times a week.
The rest of them (five?) should be stretched out to be able to throw at least 3 innings a couple times a week. If a couple of them could go 5 innings, that is added value. They would be the guys for when the starter is pulled early or even for spot starts.
There have been other strategies to manage the bullpen - the LOOGY, the opener, etc., but it seems that just having guys available to get 9 outs or so makes more sense.
The strategy of a 'paired' staff with the starter throwing 5 innings followed by his complementary reliever going the other four seems to be a better idea than the 'opener' strategy. If it is six innings, followed by three, even better; four followed by five is fine as well.
Obviously this is all cooked up in a box with no game situations built in, but over the course of a season, it seems like it could be worked effectively.
On a related note, to offer a few additional words relating to Dave Rubin's Saturday piece about roster sizes, there are a couple points that come to mind.
First, what is the optimal size of the staff to be able to utilize all pitchers effectively without having anyone go too long without pitching? Hard to tell, but it seems as if a staff of 10 or more relievers might get too big. Increasing the size of the roster to protect against injuries or tiredness to starters doesn't seem to be the answer either.
This leads to questions about a couple other things: Use of the Injury List and how and when players can be optioned or transferred up and down between MLB and AAA for workload management.
Perhaps there should be a ten day 'skip a start' list where a pitcher could be placed on it without considering it an injury (the healthy scratch list). Another guy could be brought up for those 10 days for coverage. And rather than expanding the rosters where guys are sitting around not throwing for few days, perhaps they need to more effectively use the minor league transfers to help with workload. This leads to management issues of the minor league rosters as well, but there are smart minds that can make this happen. It might also require changes to the contractual rules of how and when transfers can be done.
Addendum:
After I wrote this piece, commenter Shawn B. wrote up a great idea in response to Dave's article about expanded roster sizes. If you missed Shawn's comment, I'll repost in full here:
I don't know if this would work, but what if you have 30 players but for a game only make 24 allowed for a game. So your starting pitcher the day before is not on the game roster the next day. You can fill it with a reliever or a bat. So your make up for your 30 could be 14 bats and 16 pitchers. On a game day, you aren't going to use 4 of your 5 starting pitchers so that creates 4 spots. If you have a reliever that has thrown 3 days in a row, he isn't on your roster and you save him. The way it goes now, there are some games where you have 5 spots not being used because pitchers need rest. I don't know if the owners would like it cause it would cost money but other sports do it.
This just seems like an outstanding thought. There should definitely be some consideration for a concept such as this.
Remember 1969 remembering how they pitched back around 1969. It worked then, but if guys are throwing 5 MPH faster now, more injuries can ensue. Letting tired pitchers continue to pitch could lead to lots of homersoff flat fastballs and hanging curves.
ReplyDeleteI do like the concept of guys trying to fan fewer hitters and save pitches to extend another inning, due to lower pitch counts. We may see that from Walker this year, as he said he is not afraid of pitching to contact to keep his pitch counts down.
I like the 10 day IL idea for rest breaks for a pitcher during a season, but I'd limit it to 1 time per pitcher. I don't know how many teams who are contending would want to do that, though.
They could have used that in 1969, though, when the Cubs starters faded down the stretch, likely from pitching all day games in Chicago and getting worn out from heat. Maybe if the Cubs did that, they might have prevailed. Glad they didn't.
Good piece, as always. I'm more skeptical than you are of starters being able to stretch out to average 7 per start. The pitch counts they would run in today's game seems prohibitive to me. IMO, more likely to use less pitchers if more relievers are trained to go more than 1
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