Rockies to attempt 4-man rotation

[Honus Wagner Rules]

So Rockies manager Jim Tracy has stated he will attempt a 4-man rotation but with one difference. He will limit his starters to a 75-pitch count. This should be interesting.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/25851/rockies-rotation-going-to-four-man

Fangraphs comments on this idea.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/the-rockies-interesting-rotation-experiment/

[GiambiJuice]

The team can't possibly do any worse than they are doing now, and Tracy will probably get fired if it continues, so I guess he has nothing to lose...

[milladrive]

Heh, fascinating. I mean, I like the "old school" four-man rotation, but this pitch-count thing has gotten completely out of control. I wish nothing but success for Tracy and this perceived (at least by me) paradox.

[UnderPressure]

It's really hard to build a perennial winner in Colorado. Their last two playoff runs were products of hot second halves.

[Cap78]

It seems to me the bullpen will be put in a bad situation here

[Rich the Giants fan]

Is he gonna carry a 10-man bullpen, cuz he's gonna need it.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Is he gonna carry a 10-man bullpen, cuz he's gonna need it.

Well the Royals now have a 14-man pitching staff.

http://mlb.sbnation.com/2012/6/20/3101087/kansas-city-royals-14-man-pitching-staff

[Rich the Giants fan]

Well Yost only had a nine-man bullpen then, since he was using five starters. And Colorado's gonna need more than 10 relief arms on a consistent basis, but they'll just have to keep rotating a couple arms from the minors. This insane idea is gonna wrack that bullpen to pieces, especially with how bad the Rox starters have been this year. 75 pitches with these starters means it's gonna be a bullpen game from 4th or 5th inning every single night.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

This story reminded of what Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan did back in 1993. The decided to get rid of "starters" and "relievers" and set up groups of three pitchers each pitching 2-3 innings per game. This is from The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers from 1870 to Today, page 315.

Athletics-platoon-1.JPG

Here's an article about the experiment.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930720&slug=1711920

[dominik]

Well Yost only had a nine-man bullpen then, since he was using five starters. And Colorado's gonna need more than 10 relief arms on a consistent basis, but they'll just have to keep rotating a couple arms from the minors. This insane idea is gonna wrack that bullpen to pieces, especially with how bad the Rox starters have been this year. 75 pitches with these starters means it's gonna be a bullpen game from 4th or 5th inning every single night.

you would also need a 4 man rotation of reliable long relievers who can go 40+ pitches each. with the normal every day bullpen it obviously won't work.

[Iso7x]

The Rockies are in love with "the pitch count." Their color commentators can't get through an inning without babbling on about how many pitches have been thrown. (Jeff Huson and George Frazier...) With the new 75 limit this will get them more excited about pitch count.

You could give a Rockies' pitcher a pitch count of three and he'd figure out how to walk someone.

[brett]

What quality major league starter is going to come to Colorado knowing that he is probably working for a no-decision. One thing I thought about was to have a group of "first inning" short starters who are really relievers. They throw as hard as they can for 1 or maybe 2 innings, then you go to a long man, a usual starter for 4-5 innings. He would get all the wins because the short starter would never qualify.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

Can't they somehow increase the gravitational constant inside Coors Fields from 9.81 m/s^2 to like 11.30 m/s^2?

[Rich the Giants fan]

Jeff Francis gives up 1 run on 6 hits in five innings and gets pulled after 76 pitches. Think what it's gonna be like when, night after night, the Rox pitchers fail pitch that well and last only 3 or 4 innings. That pen's gonna be running on fumes by late July.

[ol' aches and pains]

Can't they somehow increase the gravitational constant inside Coors Fields from 9.81 m/s^2 to like 11.30 m/s^2?

Sure, just apply the same humidor concept they use on the baseballs to the whole stadium, put it under a bubble or something. Makes about as much sense as a four-man rotation in this day and age.