01-25-2019, 02:27 AM
(01-23-2019, 12:20 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: The root concept, in my understanding, is preventing the hitters from gaining a familiarity with the starting pitcher.
If you look at starters' paths through the opposing line up, across the board, their 3rd time through the lineup is when they start ceding hits and runs.
If you have a pitcher open the game, typically a person who is favorably matched with the opposing team's top 3 to 5 hitters, you can get that first go through out of the way, ideally in the first 2 innings, and then your starter can reach the 8th inning without seeing a 3rd run through of the line up. Then you can hand the ball to the closer and never hit, or risk hitting, the fated 3rd time through the lineup for a single pitcher.
I don't know if it has a significant impact compared to, say, having your starter go through the line up twice and handing the reigns to a reliever then a closer (rather than this order of reliever, starter, closer) but it certainly helped Derek Johnson distinguish himself and I don't see why he'd stop now.
You’re still probably gonna start out in the hole by pitching the teams 8th and 9th best pitchers on the team to start every game. I just don’t like the idea and it takes away the starter knowing when he comes into a game, basically it’s making 5 starters middle relievers. I don’t like the idea. I doubt that any starter would. They’re whole warm up routine would change and be more like a reliever.
