04/26/24
June 03, 2003
Blue Jays going with a 4-man rotation for the month of June;: then again, maybe they're not. There's been a fair amount of discussion on the subject, but the last team to experiment was the 1995 KC Royals. It seems that every year more and more emphasis is placed on the scientific approach to baseball, and the SABR nerds seem to favor the 4-man rotation. Will a team really give it a try? If so, will it go over better than the closer by committee?
Here in Minnesota, everyone talks about how much better Brad Radke would be on a 4-man rotation. I've been hearing that for years, but the Twins still have went with 5 pitchers. Heck, usually our pitchers only pitch 5-6 innings anyway, I hardly think he would suffer from fatigue.
posted by emoeby at 02:44 PM on June 03, 2003
The only reason they don't do 4 man everywhere is that they're used to a 5 man. Back in the old days, it used to be a 4 man rotation, 75% of games were complete games, and they sure didn't have the supplements, technology, baths, trainers, etc that they have now. Schilling has shown repeatedly that he can pitch just fine on 3 days rest, and so could everyone else if they were forced to and didn't whine about it. I say good for the Jays, and good for the pitchers for going along with it. I can see them all piping up and demanding 20% raises though... It'd be better for baseball too... fewer non deserving idiots with 8.95 ERAs...
posted by Bernreuther at 05:09 PM on June 03, 2003
I wonder why it was that old time starters could pitch on a couple of days rest when these starters cannot. It's not even that I question the effectiveness of the starter, it just seems that any starter getting 34-36 starts in a year develops arm trouble after a couple of years, whereas Cy Young would pitch a ginormous number of games in a year and have no problem doing it. It's a big risk in this time in baseball. Losing a top starter to fatigue/injury can kill a good team like the Blue Jays, whose pitching is suspect to say the least with 5 starters. Take Halliday or Lidle out of the picture and there are serious troubles in Toronto. It'll be neat to watch though.