View Single Post
Old 07-09-2013, 06:46 PM   #19
Charlie Hough
Hall Of Famer
 
Charlie Hough's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 3,644
Most teams try to use 5 starters in a fairly consistent rotation, and they would get around 30+ starts each if not for injuries, demotions/call-ups, or moving pitchers between the bullpen and rotation.

This is what the 2003 Yankees did and most teams have tried to do for the past 30+ years of baseball. 5-man rotations have been the norm since the deadball era, but for a few decades in between then and now, starts were regularly skipped for the 4th or especially the 5th starter to use the top two on short rest and particularly against the best teams in the league. Game logs prove this again and again.

Before the advent of the League Championship Series, winning games against the other contenders in your league was absolutely critical, so the top pitchers got more starts on short rest.

Over the past 30+ years, the rule has been to use a 5-man rotation and stick to it with relatively rare exceptions. You don't see the top starters used on short rest much anymore, and I've already covered the reasons why you don't consistently see rotations with 30+ starts across the board.

If you took injuries alone out of the equation, you would see it a lot in recent history. But even if pitchers are healthy, some guys have a poor run of performance, and then GM's and managers get inpatient and start experimenting by changing the mix. But they're merely putting different guys in the same slots and not deviating from the 5-man rotation.

You can easily look at game logs to see this play out.
Charlie Hough is offline   Reply With Quote