Jeff Passan pondered an interesting question on how the state of the “traditional” baseball rotation may be changing and the starting pitchers that defy that evolution. One GM he spoke to thought the “traditional” rotation will potentially be a thing of the past a few years from now for some teams.
This is in its infancy already, as the Tampa Bay Rays fiddle with a four-man rotation and a cadre of long relievers to varying degrees of efficacy. And the eventuality of its evolution by some team into a starting pitcher being simply that – a guy who starts a game and not some standard bearer of manliness whose favorite two letters in the alphabet are CG – saddened the GM.
Of course, this experiment and change should come as no surprise to longtime readers of DRaysBay. Not only have we written many articles from every angle throughout this offseason on what new “weird” stuff the Rays are trying this time, but two years ago the beginnings of this theory were already being experimented with.
Adam Sanford, Mister Lizzie, and Danny Russell all co authored a piece 2 years ago on how the Rays were experimenting with “killing” the start and how it could work. It is a great read, and well worth a revisit.
Another throwback article worth a read is from another DRaysBay masthead member, editor Ashley MacLennan (who we share with the Tigers SBN site Bless You Boys). Ashley took a look at how a version of the postseason bullpen and rotation usage in the regular season could be utilized to change the game going forward.
The demise of the bulldog, 8+ inning starting pitcher is something that many traditional sports writers have pondered, and spilled many a gallon of digital ink on. I think the idea that the game will change drastically over the next few years seems hyperbolic. But the idea that what we consider traditional now will (or should) remain unchanged also seems just a ridiculous.
The resistance from some to never look for ways to improve and evolve the game makes me think of a quote from Thomas Jefferson which adorns one of the walls of the Jefferson memorial in D.C.
We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.
Rays News & Links:
- Rays are set to take on the incredibly fun (and good) Atlanta Braves, so it makes sense to profile a former Braves great in Johnny Venters. However, I gotta say the headline for this Marc Topkin piece could use some work:
Jonny Venters’ return with Rays is a good story because of how good he was with Braves
- Check out Neil Solondz with Daniel Robertson, Johnny Venters, Jessica Soto and others in the most recent This Week in Rays Baseball:
- Christian Arroyo hit his first HR with the Bulls, and he did it big with a Grand Slam (and a subtle bat flip):
Through 4 in Durham, it’s still 4-0 Bulls over the Tides thanks to Christian Arroyo’s first inning grand slam. #BULLieve pic.twitter.com/s9lBQuB7dS
— Durham Bulls (@DurhamBulls) May 8, 2018
Around the League:
- Absolutely tremendous news for former Rays RP Danny Farquhar, who was discharged from the hospital and told that he should be able to play again in the future.
- The Giants continue to hit the injury bug hard: Johnny Cueto out 6 weeks with a sprained elbow, Mac Williamson went to visit with a concussion specialist, Hunter Pence had his rehab paused due to continued soreness in his injured thumb.
- In some deeply sad news, Gretchen Piscotty, mother of Oakland A’s OF Stephen Piscotty, passed away after a year long battle with ALS. Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish, hours after word came out of Gretchen’s passing, donated $10,000 dollars to Piscotty’s charity.
- Cool infographic/gif of every hit in Ichiro’s career.
- Maybe if Tony the Barber had called his device something catchier than the “Spaghettigraph”, we would have robot umps by now!
A device called a "spaghettigraph" was introduced more than 100 years ago. It could have saved us the agony of watching CB Bucknor and Angel Hernandez call balls & strikes. @KeithOlbermann #umpshow
— Alex Cheremeteff (@AlexCheremeteff) May 7, 2018
[The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) May 7, 1915] pic.twitter.com/ZdN2tW1xQ3