With just a few days left before opening day of the regular season Jeff Bannister the Rangers skipper is toying with the idea of beginning the year with 13 pitchers. That would mean 5 starters and 8 in the bullpen. It also means that there are only 12 spots for position players, leaving only 4 on the bench for depth and situational hitting or defense. Conventional wisdom says that starting pitchers are supposed to pitch at least 6 innings, which leaves 3 for the pen. Bannister is thinking that maybe over using arms early could hurt down the stretch. He certainly saw that last year as the season developed and he got to add Martin Perez, and Derek Holland plus Cole Hamels. The bull pen was terrible for the first two months of last season, but this season is different in that the team has a ton of depth and all quality arms. Another factor is that while Shawn Tolleson is the closer, we saw last year that he cannot pitch too many days in a row or he loses his edge.
A manager is never completely done tinkering with the lineup and things happen. One thing that Nolan Ryan preached was that starters need to take ownership of the game and need to press to go deeper into games. Throughout baseball that thinking seems to be changing as so many Tommy John injuries have happened recently. What is the balance? Having only 4 bench players, and having all them for multiple positions is a nice quality to have, but harder to do than you think.
Players today are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before. They have more training and more science behind their game. That enhanced training in some ways may lead to more injuries that can mount up quickly at every level including every day players. Having depth to a team is paramount to success as long as there are 162 game seasons.
Which begs the question, is it time for MLB to make another radical change? As long as I can remember teams have used the 40 man roster to protect players and the 25 man roster for the season. They do allow teams to expand their rosters in September to include anyone on the 40 man roster. It seems to me that the numbers and injuries are indicating that a change is needed.
If you assume that all games are only 9 innings that means there are 1,458 in a 162 game season. If starters average 6-innings per game, that equals 972 innings, which leaves 486 innings. If relief pitchers are held to one inning per outing and if 7-pitchers are used all season that equals 69.4 innings per relief pitcher. Keep in mind that a solid closer who saves 40 games a year is consider elite. The same would be true for the setup guys. If those guys are limited to 40-45 innings a year, that would not be enough to carry the team to the end of the season without overworking somebody. That means either starters have to go deeper into games more often, or relievers have to be stretched out to 2-3 inning stints at times. Starters could still go deeper into games, but what about the games where that starter stinks it up in the first inning and gives up 7-runs? Why should that mean it is time to throw in the towel on that game? Having depth of pitching can help with that, but the old argument of “that’s the way baseball go”, is just a fact of life in the regular season, but that does not mean that thinking is right.
Houston tried a strict rotation a couple of years ago and that was a disaster, so there is a better way to do it.
The solution would be for teams to carry 10-11 relievers and allow for a couple of more position players. Expanding the roster by at least three, but five would be better. If there were eleven pitchers to fill up those 486 innings, that works out to 44 innings each. Of course this doesn’t consider extra-inning games, but a team would now have the depth to handle that. If MLB is going to add the DH to the National League next year as is being discussed, then why not expand the rosters? Let the teams protect 45 players and bring 30 up to show.
If it reduces injuries, gives teams more options, and creates a better product for the public, then why not?
Sure the baseball purist will answer that is crazy talk. Others will say that more pitchers means less run production, so lower scoring games, which could make the game less interesting. That might be a point, but in the interest of saving and prolonging careers, it is worth considering. After all isn’t it terrible if a team loses two starting pitchers early in the season, then their whole season is down the drain. Wouldn’t it make more teams competitive and able to stay in the race longer? My team may have the best 9-guys any day of the week, but over 162 games even tough guys get sprains, and muscle pulls. It might just make the league as a whole better, more competitive even, and to me attendance will go up if your team is in the hunt for a playoff spot right up until the very end of the season. When MLB expanded the playoffs attendance went up, if twice as many teams were still in the hunt on September 1, attendance would go up more. I would nearly guarantee it would cover the cost of additional roster spots. What if just 6 teams brought in an additional 500k fans each? That is 3 million more bodies buying shirts and caps, beer and hot dogs, and buying tickets to games. That is a lot of revenue so the money would be there, the excitement would be there, this makes too much sense not to consider it.
Ok, now that I have stepped on the sacred cow of actually proposing a change to baseball, let the haters hate. It is a good idea, and the players union should be for it, after all more guys would make more money. Isn’t that the American way?
The reality is that the Rangers have to pick the best 25 guys to start the season. That selection in nearly done, hard decisions are being made, some careers are over, some are getting a chance, and some just have to wait a little longer. Whatever the case in just a few days, your Texas Rangers start another magical season. It is time to play ball!
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