Paul Articulates – A different approach to arm management

Does anyone remember Kodai Senga?  Since his pre-season departure to the injured list on what was then a minor shoulder issue, there has been very little said about Senga except for a brief time when he tried to start throwing again.  He was moved to the 60-day IL on April 10th, which puts him out in late May for a return in the best scenario.

Until Senga returns, the Mets continue to struggle through a starting rotation that has great difficulty pitching more than five innings.  The dearth of quality starts is alarming.  As many of us have stated, this puts enormous stress on the bullpen, and when the pen gets fatigued, the team’s ability to close out ballgames is compromised.  It doesn’t matter that you have Edwin Diaz for the ninth inning if you can’t carry a lead into the ninth.

We have already seen the roster fluctuations as the team tries to keep fresh arms in the pen.  Michael Tonkin was signed twice and DFA’ed twice.  Poor Grant Hartwig has flown back and forth from Syracuse to the west coast more often than a United Airlines pilot.  There are others that also have yo-yo strings attached.  This is not a healthy routine.

A few things can be done to help this situation.  

First, the Mets are going to have to encourage their pitchers to start pitching to contact.  That may hurt their wonderful ERA a bit, but there have been way too many walks.  As of Tuesday night, Mets pitchers have walked 101 batters in 205 innings, which equates to almost four and a half walks per game.  This implies too much emphasis on attempting to get strikeouts, and less on just getting outs.  

Theoretically, the pitching lab data in spring training should have improved characteristics like RPM and pitch movement, so take advantage of throwing in the strike zone to induce light contact instead of pitching to the black and letting disciplined hitters walk.

Second, the analytics guys are going to have to accept the notion of pitchers facing a lineup for the third time.  To save the bullpen and maybe the season, we need to get length out of the starters.  If they take suggestion number one, then they are throwing less pitches and they have some gas left for the sixth (and maybe seventh) inning.  

Logan Webb did that against us Tuesday, pitching eight.  Mets hitters did not fare better on their third trip to the plate.  What ever happened to encouraging pitchers to “trust their stuff”?  Do we not trust it once batters have seen it twice?  Even if they start swinging at the first pitch because more strikes are coming?

Third, the Mets have to consider going to a six man rotation.  Don’t wait for Kodai Senga to come back before implementing a practice that will allow more rest/recovery for all the starters.  There are two guys, Christian Scott and Joey Lucchesi that are pitching very well at the AAA level.  I don’t see much difference between that and what we are getting out of Adrian Houser, so it is worth a shot.

This will take some adjustment on the part of the pitchers.  There is no better time to do that than now.  Once the adjustment is made to routines and pitch locations, guys can throw 110 pitches over 7 innings, rest for five days, and come back stronger.  With the number of pitching prospects coming up through the minors, you could even consider using the same practice at AAA which would establish the right habits before they get called up.