Quote:
Originally Posted by dsvitak
Cubs Manager wants a sixth starter...
https://www.si.com/mlb/cubs/news/chi...-pitcher-matt9
Sure. All six starters get 27 starts.
Instead of taking advantage of days off, with five starters, you will dilute the hell out of your rotation.
I would go with four starters, now that they're only pitching five innings a start, and spot start a fifth guy when you have a stretch with no days off. No reason, AT ALL, that an MLB starter can't throw 200 innings a year.
36 starts times six innings per is 196 innings. Have two other pitchers than can spot start, or if the starters are in good shape, go long relief. That's the way baseball was played for decades. 4-5 starters, 1-3 long relievers, the rest true relievers, with one set up man, and one closer. |
This is all well and good but even if you don't want to run with a 6 man rotation you need more than 5 starters. Nobody is lucky enough to have 5 and only 5 guys start for them all year. More often than that, even in a 5 man rotation the last 2 guys on Opening Day are very often not the last 2 guys at the end of the season. Even the 104 win Braves last year had 3 guys start 30, 2 guys start more than 10 (14 and 11 apiece) and a whole bunch of guys coming in and out during the season thanks to injury, trying out new blood, or just plain effectiveness.
I'm not a maaaassive fan of the 6 man rotation - I think managers do a lot of things to try and keep pitcher injuries low and I don't think a lot of them work all that well - but even if you run a 5 man or even a 4 man (which, that ship has sailed but OK), you're going to need a good 8 or 9 starters for depth at the very least.