So far this October, there has been no more remarkable trend than the dramatic shift in pitcher usage.
Across all four Division Series, the quick hook was readily used on starting pitchers, closers were used for multiple innings, and ace starters were brought in as relievers in important early spots in games.
But did this make for better baseball? And is this an anomaly, or maybe the bleeding edge of a forthcoming trend?
Seeing Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander enter a game as a reliever grabs the attention, and ratchets up the drama. It underscores the importance of the moment, and is certainly preferable to seeing the sixth-best relief arm enter the game to hold the line until tradition dictates the late-inning relievers’ time has come.
Moreover, seeing teams prevent their starters from facing the lineup for the third time demonstrates a more aggressive approach to managing the game and the roster, but one that is based on evidence rather than gut feeling.
It’s not as though these are completely new phenomena, as Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, David Price and Madison Bumgarner have all taken the ball in vital relief spots.
But what is remarkable is just how common and widespread the practice has become throughout this year’s playoffs. When an old-school manager like Dusty Baker undercuts the traditional roles of his players for a strategic advantage, you know that all managers must feel liberated from baseball’s orthodoxy.
This isn’t to say that the trend has been entirely aesthetically pleasing. The performance of the front-end starters in relief roles has been far from exemplary. After a great regular season, the Diamondbacks’ Robbie Ray looked solid in a relief role in the wild-card game, but then like a far lesser version of himself in a start against the Dodgers three days later.
Besides, the early and constant pitching changes have slowed games to such a crawl in the middle innings, the nerves of even the most patient fans can be stretched to their limits.
A true baseball fan understands the strategic benefit of a manager slowing down the game. Mound visits ahead of series-changing at bats can heighten the tension. But the mound conferences or delay tactics employed to give a reliever some extra preparation time in the bullpen eventually drain the excitement out of some games.
Playing games with the heightened suspense of the ninth inning of a deciding game sounds great, but there is a moment where one recognizes that it is the fifth inning of Game 2, and wonders whether if there are enough hours left in life to watch this brand of baseball.
Which raises the question: will this style of game management begin to infiltrate the regular season as well? There have been recent usage evolutions, such as the non-closer bullpen ace who pitches multiple innings mid-game, though this is highly dependent on what kind of talent your roster offers.
But wouldn’t we want to see Marcus Stroman enter a game between starts to get the heart of an order out in a close game? Pitchers already have “throw days” where they expend energy and their arm’s precious tissues throwing pitches past no one, where nobody sees them. Couldn’t you save those pitches for game action, and maximize productivity? Wouldn’t it be exciting?
It’s highly unlikely that teams would move aggressively in this direction, and to be fair, it’s with good reason. Where the playoffs are a sprint with little room for error, the 162-game marathon of the season requires a healthy element of preservation and rationing of resources.
There’s added value to having a starter get through an extra inning or two in May, if only to keep the entirety of the pitching staff from being overworked and collapsing by June.
It’s not out of the question that some of these more aggressive quirks might marginally creep into the regular season. Depending on roster construction, some teams may opt to limit starters’ exposure, or could be more radical in their pitcher usage in September. But it seems unlikely that changes would amount to more than the odd occurrence.
One indicator of how this might play out could be the next round, where a seven-game series provides slightly less call for chaotic management than a best-of-five.
These changes might not be the signs of a new way of playing the game, and maybe that’s for the best. But at bare minimum, they add to the October drama.
[relatedlinks]