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Garrett Richards is the New Ed Walsh, dept.
Right on cue, Bill gives us a long, thoughtful article about "swing men." The subtitle there is as the section header above.
If it was a little before your time ... Mo' Dawg and I enjoyed watching Big Ed's finest season in 1908. He started 49 games, relieved in another 17 games, and won 40 games with a 1+ ERA. He also led the league in cellar dungeons.
You might have noticed that, nowadays, it's a little more rare to see an excellent starting pitcher serve a "dual use" role as a swingman starter/reliever. How rare, exactly? James developed a simple system for measuring it. He wanted to know, "To what extent have big league managers moved away from the dual use pitcher?"
The answer is, "They have almost completely abandoned the practice." That's because if a pitcher is good at starting, industry dogma tells you to pitch him every five days and leave him the deuce alone.
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Albert Einstein "Never Stopped Asking the Questions of a Child," dept.
But let's suppose you did have a really good relief pitcher who, when he was called on for 6-10 starts, did a nice job of that too? How valuable would it be?
It's tough to tell. It hardly ever happens any more. Applying his "Combined Use Scores" to teams and leagues, BJOL found that around 1960 the practice of using "swing men" started dropping fast (partly in response to Whitey Ford's demand to be used on a regular schedule, rather than having to square off against everybody's ace).
By 1970, swing men were used less than half as much as they were in 1960. By 1985 it was down to a fraction of its 1970 levels, and by 2004 the "CUS" scores were very low.
But here's the thing there, too ... since 1990 when you find interesting "swing men" like:
- 1992 Curt Schilling, 26 starts, 16 reliefs ... 14-11 with a 2.35 ERA
- 2003 Johan Santana, 18 starts, 27 reliefs, 12-3 with a 3.07 ERA and 9+ strikeouts/game
- 2004 Rodrigo Lopez, 23 starts, 14 reliefs, 14-9 with a 3.59 ERA
... then you find, what really happened was that a guy was a reliever for half the year, and a starter for the other half. Legit swing men? VERY tough to find.
Remember our old pal Jorge Campillo? :- ) In 2008 he got BJOL's "Ed Walsh" award -- he went 8-7 with a 3.91 ERA, serving as a true Dual Use starter all year. (I think; check me on his usage pattern.)
In 2012, Kris Medlen made 12 starts, 38 relief appearances, went 10-1 with a 1.57 ERA. Whew. But he was a young Earl Weaver-type reliever through July, and then ripped off 12 fabulous starts once they gave him the ball in the rotation.
A recent example of a true Dual Use starter: Ramiro Mendoza. Check this dude out:
| Season |
Starts |
Relief App's |
ERA+ |
Yankee Wins |
| 1997 |
15 |
24 |
106 |
96 |
| 1998 |
14 |
27 |
137 |
114 (!), World Series 4-0 |
| 1999 |
6 |
47 |
109 |
98, World Series 4-0 |
| 2000 |
9 |
5 |
114 |
87, World Series 4-1 |
| 2001 |
2 |
54 |
120 |
95, World Series 3-4 |
| 2002 |
0 |
62 |
129 |
103 |
We count 2002 as a Dual Use season because that team had Mike Mussina, David Wells, Roger Clemens, El Duque and Andy Pettitte in the rotation all year. Ramiro was available to start, but simply not needed. His appropriate usage was to Lurk.
I know, I know. Strickly coincidence, that the best Ed Walsh of the last 20 years matches up with one of history's five greatest dynasties.
Garrett Richards, named by BJOL as the most notable "swing man," throws a 95 MPH fastball most the time and a cut fastball the rest of the time. Must be nice to have a Taijuan Walker in that role, neh? Richards has mixed starts and bullpen time freely, although all of his stints in the rotation came in three bursts over two years. He's not a "spot starter;" maybe you guys can suggest a few names here?
.........
Take this with you: every now and then, in the playoffs only, you'll see Lou Piniella roll a Randy Johnson out of the rotation, to be Used Dually. That gives us a bit of a hint as to the lethality of this overlooked stratagem.
Or not :- )
.........
The only REAL reasons that nobody uses good pitchers as Dual Use types:
- They don't have a good #5 starter to push him into the bullpen
- A guy as good as that, he demands starter $$$ dinero
Chris Capuano, however, and the Mariners could transcend those two reasons. Capuano needs to baby his arm these days, and the Ramiro Mendoza role for him .... :: slobber ::
The Mariners are reading this ;- ) and going, "Yeah, Jeff, yeah. We know. We wouldn't exactly mind having him do that for us. Good luck to you, talking him into it."
Well, you give him extra money to do so. Mark McLemore was the real MVP of the 116-win Mariners; this could be the mound version.
BABVA,
Dr D