Jim Tracy announced that the Rockies would be going with a four man rotation. The logic behind this is that their bullpen has been worked too hard, so instead of sacrificing a position player to add another reliever they are moving Guthrie from the starting rotation to the bullpen and limiting starters to 75 pitches. I’m not a baseball expert but this sounds like it’s going to backfire. Badly. However, I like that the Rockies are willing to try something off-the-wall because that rarely happens in baseball… unless its a 15 inning game and then things just get weird.
It also reminds me of an idea that Scott Adams (yes, the Dilbert Scott Adams) came up with that I read years ago and have always wanted to see attempted. I couldn’t find the article (he has a terribly designed blog and Google didn’t help). Basically he posited that the standard starter-setup-closer pitcher roles are inefficient and proposed switching the setup man and starter; the logic being that batters start figuring out the pitcher after the first time through the rotation. His idea would make it so the batter didn’t see the starter (now long inning relief) again until later in the game when they start getting tired. It would also theoretically be easier for the starter to finish the game, or a closer could be brought in normally.
Although it definitely makes sense, I’m not saying it will work. I just want to see someone attempt it. And I don’t think it would work right away anyways since pitching roles are so firmly ingrained in player consciousness. But yeah, yay for weird baseball. Someone who has a better understanding of pitching should tell me why Adams is wrong.
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Sometimes I write more than 140 characters; those things go here, along with anything else I find interesting/amusing.
