As this team seemed to fade down the stretch, Ranger Nation as a whole seemed to lose confidence in the team’s chances to represent the American League in the World Series for a third consecutive year. There are members of this team, particularly a few pitchers, who seemed to fade in the final few weeks of the regular season, but several of the teams arms still seemed like some of the toughest pitchers in baseball. Could there be a way for this Rangers team to stack the deck and go all in? Let’s go back a few months and look at the 2012 Colorado Rockies. The Rockies were one of the worst teams in baseball and figured they would do something drastic, maybe to win more games, maybe to test to see if it was something they could establish to enhance their chances to win more games for 2012 and beyond. I’m not suggesting that the Rangers go to a four man rotation with a 75 pitch limit for their starters, then go to the bullpen so opposing hitters have to get a feel for a new pitcher as opposed to one they have seen at least twice already that game. I am however, suggesting, that this team does something radical that has never been done before to attempt to maximize the possibility to win each game from here until the first week of November: go to a one man rotation. Ryan Dempster has struggled against the better teams in the American League, Derek Holland started September very well, but has been somewhat shaky his last few outings, Matt Harrison has looked a little mortal the last month of the season, and Yu Darvish has been the best pitcher in the American League. I suggest that the Ranger start Yu Darvish for every game of the playoffs.
Disclaimer: I’m not a pitcher, especially not a major league pitcher, so I can’t say from experience how the arm could handle going from throwing 110+ pitches every fifth day to a completely different routine, but here’s my suggestion.
Yu Darvish starts every playoff game. He goes two to three innings. Two innings for sure, then let him go out for a third and remove him once a batter reaches base. From there you go to Harrison/Holland/Dempster to get you through the sixth inning inning, maybe the seventh if things are going well. From there you go to the Ogando/Koji/Nathan trio to close out the game. In the middle innings you can mix and match Robbie Ross, Michael Kirkman, Tanner Scheppers, and Scott Feldman for a batter or so as you see fit for the individual matchups.
Instead of throwing 110+ pitches for Darvish or any other starter their workload is dropped down to around 30-45 each day, and it could be managed with the combination of other starters. Pitchers typically fare better only one trip through the lineup so that would better suit the non Darvish “starters”. We saw in Game 7 of last year’s World Series (and to a lessor extinct Game 6) how Wash managed a “bullpen game” to maximize the chances of victory. Stathead websites have suggested the “bullpen game” for teams in the Wild Card game, and you can certainly expect that from the Orioles tonight. This type of scenario will never happen, I’m fairly confident of that, but who says it couldn’t work? It just might give this bunch the best chance to exorcise the demons of their last 164 games played.
