Wyers: Does the Rockies’ four-man rotation make sense?
From SABR member Colin Wyers at Baseball Prospectus on June 19, 2012:
Well here’s something you don’t see every day—the Rockies are going to a four-man rotation. And what’s more, they’re going to put their four starters on a 75-pitch limit. Jim Tracy explained his decision like so:
“I felt we had to do something non-conventional,” said Tracy of his beleaguered pitching staff that includes a reliever Josh Roenicke who has thrown more innings than one of the team’s starters. “I was given the opportunity to tweak this. We are going to see what transpires as we move forward.”
A four-man rotation was last regularly used in the major-leagues in the 1960s and early ’70s. Asked if a starter would be pulled at 75 pitches with no runs allowed, Tracy insisted he was committed to this experiment.
“He has got to come out because he has to pitch four days later,” Tracy said. “But if he goes five innings, he has pitched you to the point where you can go to a bullpen with some very significant people.”
Jeremy Guthrie moves to the bullpen as part of this “non-conventional” move. On one hand, it’s easy to see why a manager might be tired of rolling Guthrie out every day, given his sparkling 7.02 ERA, 6.79 FIP, and 6.43 Fair RA—he’s been bad pretty much any way you want to slice it. But one wonders if the cure isn’t worse than the disease …
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=17420
Originally published: June 20, 2012. Last Updated: June 20, 2012.