The Merits of a 6-Man Rotation?

by Andersklasen on Jul 23, 2008 2:16 AM EDT

I am naturally curious as to why it is common for fans to brush off the idea of a six-man rotation. I don't see any reason to. Keep in mind that I'm not throwing my support out there one way or another, but I think a six-man rotation would solve many problems. Pros -Relieve innings pitched on our young rotation. -Relieve stress on weak bullpen. -Would be able to keep rotation in tack. -Would be able to send Bass down. The Twins would have to find another arm in the bullpen to hopefully replace Bass. Four of the starting rotation are fairly even, and it is hard to decide which one to send down were Liriano to come up (it would be Slowey at the moment). In a six-man rotation, everyone stays. And everyone has been solid. What are your thoughts on a six-man rotation?

Tweet Comment 6 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

okay

So if you want to send Bass down and find another arm in the bullpen to replace Bass then you still need to send another player down to make room for the sixth man in the rotation. Who is that? Are you going to go short a position player or short in the bullpen one arm? I don’t see it happening.

richman

by anderson800 on Jul 23, 2008 8:18 AM EDT reply actions

Bullpen

Like anderson800 said, it’s all about the bullpen. While you have more starters, it’s not likely that you will be pushing them deeper into games (I believe the research suggests that pitch counts are more important than days of rest between starts in preventing injuries), so the end result is the same number of bullpen innings for one less pitcher. If you run into a game like the other night when Blackburn didn’t make it through two innings, suddenly your bullpen is in a world of hurt unless you sacrifice one of your starters to serve as a long mop-up man for a game. Even worse, that starter would have to be determined by the rotation, rather than just picking the least-talented guy to do mop-up work, so you could end up with Scott Baker, the ace of the staff, pitching five innings in a 10-1 loss.

The alternative is to increase the size of the bullpen, of course, but a 13-man pitching staff seems ridiculous – the Twins almost ran out of position players in some games the last time they did that.

"There are only two things that are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein

by BeefMaster on Jul 23, 2008 9:55 AM EDT reply actions

Six-man rotation

I’m not a fan. The only value would be fewer innings for these starters. But none of the starters is in danger of overwork. Blackburn is on pace to pitch about 25% more innings this year than last, counting his innings in the AFL. That’s not much cause for concern. Livan is on pace to pitch his usual complement of innings. The others are on pace for 150 or so.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Jul 23, 2008 11:26 AM EDT reply actions

the only one to worry about

is the guy who’s not here. Franchise. I want him to start but I just wonder how many starts the Twins will give him before they shut him down.

Peyton's good but have you ever heard of Jeff George?

by halfchest on Jul 23, 2008 12:07 PM EDT up reply actions

The rotation would crumble

The 2008 Twins are a team of number 3 starting pitchers in the best light.

That does make it less likely that a six-man rotation will rob top-notch one and two starters of innings, which is the point of four-man rotations. That approach gets your four top pitchers the most innings.

So let us move to not a five-man rotation but a six-man, and the following occurs:

Starter 1 pitches 5 innings and the manager has to use three relief pitchers to get the win.

Starter 2 gets bombed and doesn’t make it through 4 innings and the manager needs three more relievers to get through the game.

Starter 3 goes six, and again its three relief pitchers to get through the game.

You can see that a problem is developing because you are using your bullpen the same as always, yet by adding a member of the pitching staff to the starting group you have created the situation in which 5 of your pitchers are not available for an entire week. You took a roster spot from the bullpen and added it to the starting rotation.

And if you have a day off, that means a starter could have six days between starts, creating the highly probably scenario of that some of your starters will throw fewer innings than some of your relief pitchers.

If you have some members of your bullpen pitching 1 to 3 innings three or four times a week, they are pitching more than the starters,who might pitch 7 innings in their one outing a week, but probably will pitch fewer. Effectively, you are allowing pitchers who are not good enough to start to pitch a larger percentage of innings.

Why would you do that?

by Sev on Jul 24, 2008 12:22 AM EDT reply actions

Right

A six-man rotation actually puts more pressure on the bullpen as the five-man rotation did.

The only way to make a six-man rotation work is to carry 13 pitchers. That leaves 12 position players, nine starters (counting the DH) and three reserves. If the reserves are Harris, Redmond, and Monroe, you have a major league player without a slot. Not that I’m arguing that Mike Lamb is indispensable or anything. But it makes it really tough to make any moves.

One other thing about 12 position players: I think the modern game is more taxing on players (especially younger players) than it used to be. Every pitch is scrutinized, Every out or hit or walk is scrutinized. The pressure to perform can throw guys into slumps that have no end in sight.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Jul 24, 2008 12:35 AM EDT reply actions