New way to set up pitching staffs

[Audiodrama]

One of my favorite ideas is the "pitching in tandem" concept they use in the Minor Leagues. 8 "starters" are put into four tandems, and the team carries four or five additional relievers. Essentially, the first pitcher in the tandem starts the game, goes about four innings, and hands the ball to the second guy for the next four innings. One of the relievers pitches the final frame. If a guy is hot or pitching well, he can simply go longer, while the second guy rests. The second guy can simply open the tandem's next turn in the roation. Since the guys are only pitching four frames a pop, they can start on three days' rest when neccessary(the system has REALLY cut down on pitching injuries in the minors).

The difficulty in the Majors would be getting people wins. Remember that tandems have more starts than a normal pitcher in a 162 game schedule. The four tandems get 40 or 41 starts as opposed to 32 or 33 that each member of the five man rotation gets. So, there are more opportunities for a win. You'd have to pitch the better/hotter pitcher in each tandem first and for longer innings, say 5-3, 6-2 or 6-3. Once in a while, you'd rest the guy by letting his tandem partner go.

Here's an example, using the Mets' full starting staff:

Tandem 1: Pedro Martinez and Kaz Ishii.

Tandem 2: Tom Glavine and Victor Zambrano.

Tandem 3: Kris Benson and Aaron Heilman.

Tandem 4: Steve Trachsel and Jae Seo.

So, in a given six-game week, Martinez, Glavine, Benson and Trachsel start the first four games. Their tandem partners take over if they started to struggle or if they've reached their limit. Should any of those four go over 6 or 7 innings or get injured, the tandem partner will start the next game. So, say Tom Glavine goes seven innings in the second game of this week. Zambrano would start the sixth game, and go five innings before handing the ball to Glavine for three(just an example). It's not incredibly realistic in the Majors, but it'd prolly spare pitching staffs some injuries.

Very interesting idea...I wasn't aware they did this in the minors. I'd actually like to see an MLB team try to implement this in the near future; I'm excited to think of how well that could work.

[HedleyLamarr]

One of my favorite ideas is the "pitching in tandem" concept they use in the Minor Leagues. 8 "starters" are put into four tandems, and the team carries four or five additional relievers. Essentially, the first pitcher in the tandem starts the game, goes about four innings, and hands the ball to the second guy for the next four innings. One of the relievers pitches the final frame. If a guy is hot or pitching well, he can simply go longer, while the second guy rests. The second guy can simply open the tandem's next turn in the roation. Since the guys are only pitching four frames a pop, they can start on three days' rest when neccessary(the system has REALLY cut down on pitching injuries in the minors).

The difficulty in the Majors would be getting people wins. Remember that tandems have more starts than a normal pitcher in a 162 game schedule. The four tandems get 40 or 41 starts as opposed to 32 or 33 that each member of the five man rotation gets. So, there are more opportunities for a win. You'd have to pitch the better/hotter pitcher in each tandem first and for longer innings, say 5-3, 6-2 or 6-3. Once in a while, you'd rest the guy by letting his tandem partner go.

The only downside to this would be, as you said, getting pitchers the wins. Major leaguers take great pride in wins more than any other stat. In the minors, you are more concerned about grooming the talent and teaching them the ropes, and helping them avoid injuries by throwing too much. Unless a player's stats are insanely differing from others, minor league stats don't mean all that much.

But what happens when pitchers who have traditionally slow starts? Do you risk putting in Glavine in the 5th or 6th with a 1-run lead? When Pedro's retired the last 13 batters in easy fashion, do you take him out?

Wouldn't the reason minor leaguers throw just 4 innings be because that they're control isn't that great, and they're throwing more pitches per inning than a major leaguer would?

[KennyRock]

I agree. If Pedro's going nuts, I'd leave him where he is. Ishii could pitch the final frames or last few outs depending on the score, and could start next game to essentially give Pedro a 7 day break after throwing upwards of 120 pitches and 8 innings. As for the innings issue - keep in mind that some tandems will be so unbalanced(as in good pitcher versus bad pitcher) that it will be neccessary for some guys to go 7 most of the time and some guys to go 2. Major Leaguers have more control, but it's rare for any one guy to be a lock for six innings or more EVERY single time he goes out. You could also have two or three starters and two tandems filling up the other spot. Just like the MLB is now, nothing is set in stone.