01-25-2019, 06:21 PM
(01-25-2019, 10:02 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: Well, that's the interesting part. Relievers aren't always the 8th or 9th best pitchers on the team. Look no further than 2018, when, arguably, 4 of our 5 best pitchers were all relief pitchers (Raisel Iglesias, Michael Lorenzen, Jared Hughes, David Hernandez and then the 1 starter Luis Castillo).Wasn’t Hughes and Hernandez the setup guys, with Iglesias being the main closer? I included them as the top guys. They can’t be used as opener, setup and closer at the same time.
Now, we did improve our starting rotation with Roark, Wood and Gray, but it's hard to argue that Hernandez, Iglesias, Lorenzen and Hughes won't likely stay in the top 7 pitchers on the team, assuming Wood and potentiallly either Gray or Roark jump into the top 5.
I understand your point about the starters not knowing when they are coming in. But if your goal with the opener is just a single inning, you can have the starter simply warm up with the intention of entering in the 2nd inning. It shouldn't be too large of an inconvenience for them.
I have not seen this strategy in action and I don't know that we will use it. But the statistics are there to support the value of it, even if it is a little difficult to navigate. I look forward to seeing what our coaches decide to do. I'm sure whichever direction they choose to go with will be considered heavily and optimized per this team's strengths and weaknesses.
