The theory, as James puts it, is that starting pitchers are the ones with "personality" - the ones people recognize. And that having the starters go more innings means the match-up that's on the letterhead at the start of the game is featured for longer. I can see why an old-school baseball fan would think this was better, but, to me...I don't really care who is pitching, I care how good they are. And I think a bullpen can have a personality too (the Mariners' pen sure as heck did in 2014 and 2001).
I also think the cure to our obsession with "closers" is more bullpen usage. The more a team relies on relievers, the more they should, theoretically, become interchangeable in usage. In James' world of 13 relievers and 0 starters, each guy will be throwing about 110-115 innings...the guy doing the "closing" will, by necessity change from night to night because each guy will have to be used 2 innings or more at a time. 1460 innings in a season, roughly...no way around that issue.
And frankly...the starting pitchers who will lose out in this scenario are the mediocre ones. They'll all become relievers. It's not like this trend toward more bullpen switches has impacted the innings taken by King Felix or Clayton Kershaw. The teams lucky enough to get one of those SP aircraft carriers - they'll always be used for 250 innings or so...and they'll always be the marquee match-ups that James wants to see. Who gives a rip if Jeff Suppan and Jarrod Washburn don't get to go 8 innings much anymore. As long as the star SP still get to go 8 innings, the game is better off.
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BJOL is still a piddling $3 per month. If we cite him, we link his site and his paywall offer, since that's fair and since if you're gonna spend $3 on anything baseball, there y'go amigo.
The last couple of months, they've been discussing the ideas that:
- More bullpen usage is objectively better in principle, an actual evolution in quality of play, but
- It's lousy to watch, in the same sense that it would be lousy to watch 4 actors swap out a lead role, so
- Rules should be passed against so many switches
I find this line of thinking to be pretty legit. (Note that the Royals and Mariners were shocking teams in the AL.) Today at BJOL there was a typical exchange:
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Bat571 has a nice summary/oped on the bullpen, two cubicles to your right.
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Point A: Lloyd McClendon is out in front on this curve, absolutely #1 in baseball on it. Give it up for 'im. (That's kinda how you earn a Ph.D., to make a contribution to your field, to advance knowledge in it. Just musing.) Lloyd McClendon didn't check with anybody as to whether 3 benchies might work. Here's the thing: it was new*, and Lloyd's judgment turned out to be right. It did work.
Point B: Tom Wilhelmsen could be the key to the bullpen in a way, if you think about it. I've always admired the Scot Shields, Steve Karsay type reliever, the guy who could theoretically close but who is even more valuable going 1-3 IP as you need him. And when you pull a guy like that out of the Jenga tower, it has a way of "surprisingly" coming unraveled on you.
... one year, Billy Swift was going nuts for the M's, their best pitcher, and was doing "utility" role in the pen. Jim Lefebvre waved his hand about all suggestions of Swift's moving to SP ... "He's just so valuable to us in the bullpen."
Dr. D has argued Wilhelmsen for #5/6 SP and swing man. At the moment, he's wondering whether the unpossible might have occurred and he might have made an error. :: taps chin :: You think that Wilhelmsen could be a lower Jenga brick?
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By the numbers Dept:
| Stat category | Result | Rank in AL |
| IP | 79.1 | #6 |
| BABIP | .200 | #1 (few good swings) |
| Left on base (LOB) % | 86% | #6 |
| Fastball velo | 95.3 | #9 |
| Curveball sick-age | Very high | Way up there |
| Swinging Strike % | 12.4% | #19 |
| Miscellaneous | Starts the "Johnny Bullpen" games | #1 |
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For sure, the key to the 2014 ballclub was the pitching. In a way, the key to the pitching was the bullpen. You could say, the key to the bullpen was Wilhelmsen. Ergo, the key to the Mariners was...
Then again, maybe Maurer and Smith and Leone render the entire article even more pointless than usual. Leone was the only Mariner with a higher whiff rate than the bartender.
Just dump Yoervis and I'm cool,
Jeff
Comments
It's the way Lloyd used the bullpen that makes me think just maybe Andrew Miller is a possibility for the Ms. Using him as a LH equivalent to Wilhelmsen (when you really need a clean inning) and with Beimel, CSmith, Leone, Farquhar, and Maurer to come in and squelch rallies, the game really is winnable even when the starters can only give you five. And when they give you seven, it's lockdown city - one of the righties or Miller and then the FRE.
I get the complaint. The last three innings of a baseball game now resemble the last three minutes of an NBA game. Watching on TV, the commercial:baseball ratio is out of balance and trending the wrong way. People don't want to watch 4+ hour baseball games and the bullpen usage is a healthy part of that. I'm not sure what they can do about it but I get the complaint.
The fact that we go to commercial for almost every bullpen switch is the problem...not the switches. Don't go to commercial. Give the new reliever 4 warm-up pitches and a 45 second clock once he gets to the mound before he must throw the next pitch, and don't go to commercial.
No TV timeouts. In any sport. They have ruined basketball. Will baseball be next?
Well, it won't. But I would follow Matt's proposal anyway.
I'm also not letting batters step out of the box unless they get knocked down or foul a pitch off of themselves.