Life has gotten in the way of my writing lately. I will be leaving the company I have worked for since 2002 early next month and begin a new job with a new company shortly thereafter. This has led to lots of time spent away from the computer and enjoying the outdoors before I start my new job as I am sure I will be buried for a decent period of time.
There has been a lot of news lately involving the Rockies and I have some thoughts.
Four man rotations
I am all for four man rotations. I am all for starters getting their work in between starts as a reliever in game action. If Jim Tracy wants to go to a four man rotation because he feels one of the starters (Jeremy Guthrie) isn’t good enough to pitch every fifth day, I am OK with that. I actually agree with Tracy. I can’t figure out how come it took him this long to figure it out, but the finally did: Guthrie stinks.
The problem the Rockies have is that if Guthrie isn’t good enough to pitch in the rotation then most of the guys they have starting for them right now are not (yet Drew Pomeranz continues to dazzle in AAA…).
The biggest problem with Tracy’s four man rotation comes in the form of the…
75 pitch count limit for the starters
Nolan Ryan is rolling. When Ryan took over the Rangers he mandated that their starters throw more between games and get in shape physically so they can throw more during games. All that has done is take a rag rotation and turned it into one of the better rotations in baseball. Some of the guys the Rangers have are top pedigree guys, but many of them were no-names that have become solid pitchers because they are asked to throw more, not less.
Babying the starters by limiting their pitch count is flat our demeaning, demoralizing and shameful. Just watch the pitcher’s reaction when they are removed in the fourth inning because they have thrown 72 pitches.
If Gibson's manager tried to pull him after 75 pitches he better bring a weapon because Gibson wasn't giving up the baseball
Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver and even more recently C.C. Sabathia must be laughing and crying at the same time. Starters used to refuse to give the ball up and now Tracy is asking the starters to come out of the game before the end of the fourth inning. If you worked in a profession where everyone else was able to complete their job but your boss pulled you out every time when you were only about 75% complete, wouldn’t that bother you? If you were never allowed to get any recognition for your work (a “W” for a starting pitcher) wouldn’t that bother you?
And this doesn’t even factor in the statistics, this is just emotional talk. If a starting pitcher is still judged on his win/loss record (however wrong that may be, but let’s face it, many still judge based on that) then the Rockies starters will rarely qualify for a win (you need to pitch five full innings to qualify). And often a pitcher must go deeper into a game to give his offense a chance to score the runs required for him to get the win.
Quality starts are completely out of the question now. A pitcher must throw at least six innings to get a quality start and even after Jeff Francis was pitching pretty darned well last night he was yanked after five innings of work because he threw 76 pitches.
Tracy is trying a new angle to get his pitchers to be more “efficient” or throw more strikes. How about they just teach the pitchers to throw strikes? Does he think the guys don’t want to throw strikes? I find it hard to believe Alex White is trying to not strike batters out when he is on the mound. I doubt Guthrie was trying to walk the bases loaded. How about Bob Apodaca and team help the guys throw more strikes. How about they do their freaking job?
Tracy thinks his bullpen should take or more responsibility because they have been so good, and they have, but they are relievers for a reason: they aren’t that good. As their workload increases their performance will surely drop. If they were good enough to pitch 100 innings or more a year they would be starting pitchers, not relievers.
Finally, if the other team knows the starter is on a strict pitch count they sure as hell better be looking dead red all night. If this idea works as designed then the Rockies starters will be in the zone all night in the hopes that they last five or six innings before getting the hook – walking batters is a great way to drive up your pitch count and in turn get you pulled earlier in the night. Opposing batters should be looking for pitches on the plate all night and they should be able to tee off.
Cuddy on the bench, sounds good
I feel sorry for the Rockies staff this weekend as guys like Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Michael Young and Mike Napoli will know that the opposing starting pitcher must throw them strikes, because if he does not he might not see the end of the fourth inning. No one wants that pie in the face – being yanked before the fourth inning is complete because Tracy says you can’t handle it. The big boys can throw the ball 100+ times, but you little leaguers can only throw it 75 times.
It is sickening, but not as maddening as…
Dexter Fowler being benched
I wrote about it the other day and it continues to agitate more and more: how can Dexter Fowler ride pine when Michael Cuddyer continues to play? Sit Cuddyer, sit Todd Helton, but Dexter must play. If Tracy wants to get Tyler Colvin more at-bats then he needs to replace Cuddy or Helton. This shouldn’t even be a question the answer is so simple. Here are a series of tweets from me the other night (follow me @TravisLay_BSB).
Huson said Fowler hasnt been good in June. And that is true. In June Dex is hitting .200/.305/.300… BUT…(cont)
Prior to Tracy’s inexplicable benching of Fowler during A’s series Fowler was batting .286/.382/.414. After the benching: .095/.200/.143
It might be a conicidence, but why Tracy benched Fowler for what was effectively 3 full days during A’s series appears to have cooled Dex
All previous numbers were June only. Prior to that benching dating back to May 27th Fowler was hitting .404/.491/.745 in 13 games (57 PA)
Another thanks to Jim Tracy! Thanks for taking a smoking hot Dexter and cooling him off.
And if things weren’t bad enough for the Rockies the team and its fans received the news that…
Tulo is going under the knife and will miss 6-8 weeks
What can be said about this? It is just more bad news. There are two guys on this team who are untouchable; Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki. Trading them is ludicrous, wanting them on the bench is moronic, and having Tulo out until probably the end of August just drives the nail into the coffin. So what if the coffin was already shut? This just ensures it cannot be opened.
Tulo will have surgery on his left groin and the groans from Rox fans become louder.
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8 comments
Dennis
June 22, 2012 at 11:11 AM (UTC -6)
Travis,
Good luck on your new job. I love the way Tracy sends Dexter to the corner when performance is down, making it more difficult to get out of any slumps. On another note, I’m starting to like seeing Nelson at 2nd base, and wouldn’t mind seeing him as the every day guy there.
Dan
June 22, 2012 at 1:20 PM (UTC -6)
Agreed, I would like to see Nelson at 2B the rest of the year. If he can hit .270 with 12-15 HRs the job should be his until Rutledge or Story make it up in a few years. I’ve been impressed with his defense the last few weeks.
Travis Lay
June 22, 2012 at 7:11 PM (UTC -6)
Thanks for the well wishes!
Mike
June 22, 2012 at 11:40 AM (UTC -6)
I was befuddled by this announcement. How is it possible that limiting 4 starting pitchers to 75 pitches apiece per night will limit exposure of the bullpen? It will INCREASE the innings pitched by the bullpen until Belisle, Roenicke, et al. blow out their arms…because the rockies have pitchers in the pen who can only be used for one or two batters (regardless of effectiveness or # of pitches needed to deal with those two batters). And getting Guthrie and Moscoso (the apparent nightly mop-up men) into games more often will not likely lead to more wins. After all, we need more >1 run per inning pitched innings out of those stiffs…
As for Fowler, I look forward to him having a stellar career elsewhere after some GM offers a #7 starter and a non-descript bullpen arm for him sometime this month or next month….how can DOD refuse to pull the trigger on such a good offer????
Brendan Giles
June 22, 2012 at 1:23 PM (UTC -6)
The pitch limit is the nature of the beast. Knowing that you have to run them out there on three days rest everytime demands strict adherence to low work loads. A possible solution is to flip guys into and out of the long relief role. Essentially a starter could go more than 75 pitches if he is then used on short rest as the “reliever” and only expected to throw 40 pitches in his next appearance. Flipping guys also allows for them to earn W’s as the long reliever, who will have the best shot at the win, in an ultimate example of team-first pitching. There is no precedent for this and it will take some adjustments to optimize. One problem that has already surfaced is what to do with mid-inning changes. The Rockies have used a short reliever to “bridge” the two long guys, but that is not going to work long term due to overuse of the guys like reynolds and otavino… Regardless of whether this is good or bad for the staff, as Francis said yesterday, if the pitchers don’t like it then it is their job to pitch better. SImple as that.
Travis Lay
June 22, 2012 at 7:13 PM (UTC -6)
I agree about pitching better, but Francis was pitching pretty well last night and was yanked after 5 innings of work. I think he could have/would have lasted a good 7 innings with the way he was throwing the ball.
Anonymous
June 22, 2012 at 1:27 PM (UTC -6)
Last year the Detroit tigers had a young center fielder in his second year with similar skills to fowler. He struggled with a low batting average, lots of strike outs and virtually no power. He played everyday with good defense at a fairly important position. This year he is looking like a very good contributor to the team not only with his glove but also with his bat. I wonder why the rockies never took this approach with fowler
JD
June 22, 2012 at 2:20 PM (UTC -6)
The four-man is retarded because we essentially need a long man every day, and right now we have two long men, which means they go every other day, which means they log more innings than the starters. Hopefully soon we’ll get someone off the DL or up from AAA to be the fifth starter and this madness will end.
Dexter’s treatment is insanity. Cuddyer and Helton should platoon at 1B until we get rid of one (Helton will retire at the end of the year, if nothing else). Nelson should stick at 2B, and Pacheco at 3B. Scutaro goes to the bench when Tulo returns, and I wouldn’t mind ditching Cuddyer for Pacheco at 1B once Arenado arrives.
This team shouldn’t start anyone over 30 when we’re rebuilding like this.