I have an idea.
As we all know, your ace is the first man in your team's rotation. The second man should be the second best pitcher you have in your rotation. The third is, of course, a middle of the road SP, and so on.
But I've been thinking... about an experiment with a different combination of numbers. Think about this...
ACE-4-2-3-5
This is a rotation experiment. Your best pitcher could win the first game of your series (i.e. a 3 game series.) That is a near-guaranteed game 1 win, if your ace is as good as he should be. He is followed by a 4 guy. The 4 guy, of course, is not that good. Chances are he loses, and the series is tied. If he wins, you win the series, good for you. Anyway, so the series is tied. Next up, your 2 guy. He's probably just a peg under your best pitcher, if your 2 guy is how he should be. Chances are, your 2 guy beats their 3 guy.
You win the series, if not sweep (which shouldn't happen with your 4 guy, but miracles do happen.)
Next series, it's your 3 guy, your 5 guy, then your ACE. That's a series that could go one way or another, but may I remind you, it's your 3 guy versus their 4 guy this time around, then your 5 v. their 5 (big offense game), and your ACE v. their ACE.
Of course, these matchups would change from series to series, but you would still have this different type of pattern over and over again, which could be an advantage. The most important aspect is that it would prevent losing streaks, and, while it limits winning streaks, you could still win many series, which is the big thing in a 162 game season. winning 2/3 of these games makes it worthwhile.
12/16/07
The Rotation: How it could be used Different.
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3 comments:
the whole point of having the rotation is to get your best pitchers into more games. Your ace and two starter can get into as many as 35 games, while your back end will appear in 30-32. The matchups don't matter after the first series of the year, so it doesn't really matter.
The real question for us next year is will there be that much difference between our 2, 3, 4 and 5 guy???...Besides Felix it's very possible that our other 4 guys aren't gonna do very good (Batista and Washburn are both getting old) so it really doesn't matter what order we pitch them in...Obviously I hope Batista and Washburn have good years but it's very possible that we have 4 guys who all look like 4/5 guys next year...
Good points Jon. I didn't think about that, but still, it could be a prevention of losing streaks. That seems like the most important thing to me. The reason we have pitchers is so that we can win as many games as possible, right? Unless we wanna get into the debate of what's more important, the team, or exhibition of skillage :/
And your point of the matchups, that's not what I was focusing on. You could say the same thing about the regular 1-2-3-4-5 rotation, what do the matchups mean anyway? Your point on the number of starts is great though. Thank you for that!
Brian - I wasn't exactly using us, just a team. A new concept.
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