I think you should have voted for Joey Votto!
In that case, how about steroid withdrawal? Guys who go all out for every batter in just one inning need recovery time now; they can’t do it for five days straight like they used to. If they pace themselves, they get hit. Starters may be less affected, especially if they get a break on the DL in midseason.
Now you are just making things up. There isn’t any evidence that relievers have gotten worse in recent years as compared to starters.
I’d be more inclined to guess that it’s the way pitchers are being used, not steroids and certainly not a lack of pitchers due to expansion. It’s been long enough since the last expansion.
Of course, this is even assuming relief pitching’s all that bad. Anyone know whether relief pitchers have a higher ERA than starters?
But getting back to why relief pitching might suck worse than it should:
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“Closers.” The existence of the “closer” role doesn’t help teams, it hurts them. It means you’re putting your (presumably) best reliever into situations that aren’t really all that important, while using inferior relievers in situations that are enormously important. It doesn’t make any sense at all to use your fourth-best reliever in the 7th inning with a 1-run lead and the bases loaded, while saving your ace to come in the next day with nobody on in the ninth and a 3-run lead. And yet that’s now what almost all teams do.
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Too many relievers. Teams are now carrying 12 pitchers, and at time a team has actually carried 13, and so they give innings to the 12th-best pitcher on the staff instead of spreading those innings among the other relievers. What do you expect would happen?
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Starters not going as far. Starters pitch fewer innings than ever so it’s just to be expected that your relievers will be exposed more.
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Overuse of pitching changes. I can’t point to any data on this but I have a feeling that the ridiculous overuse of pitching changes has been causing more runs to score. I like having the platoon advantage too but bringing in five guys to pitch a game just to get righty-righty is stupid, as opposed to relieving a guy because he actually needs replacing. You’re just increasing the chance you’ll find the guy who doesn’t have his stuff today.
Just for fun I compared the 2010 Blue Jays, who are about as dead average a team and pitching staff as the AL has, with the 1982 Blue Jays, who were about as good a team (78-84). The 1982 Jays used only 13 pitchers all year; the 2010 Jays have already used 17. The 1982 Jays didn’t actually have a very good bullpen but they simply didn’t use them very much. The team used a 4-man rotation for the most part, and they pitchers finished games; they had 41 complete games, 19 of them by Dave Stieb (who would pitch well for years more, so I’m not convinced you can’t have guys pitch more than they do today.)
So it’s not so much that relief pitchers are any worse than they used to be, it’s that they’re being used far more, and the back end of the bullpen is being used even more than that. Major league teams have taken innings away from the Dave Stiebs and Steve Carltons and given them to the ass end of the bullpen. It’s like taking at bats away from Kevin Youkilis and giving them to John Van Every. Don’t be surprised that the scrubs aren’t as good.
From Baseball Reference Major league starters have an ERA of 4.20; Relief pitchers have an ERA of 4.07. Bullpens have allowed approximately 32% of inherited runners to score, as they did in '08 and '09.
For comparison, bullpens had a lower ERA in '09 (4.08 vs the starters 4.45) and '08 (4.10 vs 4.44)
Great post RickJay.
They do have a very good one. The ERAs are good to great. Wagner is a top tier closer. The innings are balanced so showing no signs of a Joe Torre/Lou Pinella type overuse. Even your spot starter has solid numbers. I can’t think of a better one currently but there could be one.
San Diego’s has been fantastic.
Good point, it looks better than the Braves.
Aaaaand…they do it again. Never count the Rockies out if they’re playing at home. Never.
Thank you Colorado, and GOOOOOOO REDS!!!
The Rangers eeked out their second win against the Indians. And since the Angels lost again last night, that gives them a 5 1/2 game lead in first. Woohoo!!
We should have never let Josh Hamilton get away…
:mad:
Quite a game between the White Sox and the Angels today. Both starting pitchers went the distance, giving up a total of 5 hits between them.
John Danks and the White Sox beat Ervin Santana and the Angels 1-0, with the only run of the game scoring on a sac fly.
Game time: 1 hour 50 minutes.
The Rockies just swept the Cardinals and Ubaldo Jimenez gets his 15th win. The all-time record for wins by a Rockie is 17. Eight innings, three hits, one run. The Rocks are now nine games over .500 and have won 11 of their last 16. Considering the 16 games were against Boston, at the Angels, at San Diego, vs. San Francisco and St. Louis, all teams above .500, that’s pretty good. With Troy Tulowitski and Todd Helton on the DL.
Now they are 2.5 games behind San Diego, who come in to Coors Field for three games to get to the All-Star break. The Rockies could be in first place at mid-season, and their best starting pitcher from last year, Jorge De La Rosa, comes back tomorrow after being out since April.
Joey Votto is the final NL All Star, and deservedly so. And a tip of the cap to the Rockies for helping bolster the Reds lead.
Swisher took the AL spot and from what I hear it was more of an anti-Youk vote than Swisher’s over-the-top campaign.
When did Youk piss off all the non-Yankee fans?
From what you hear? From who?
Is this the sort of thing Yankee fans tell themselves in order to pretend that having the country’s largest market and fanbase isn’t such a big deal?
Gimme a break.
Look, fan voting for the All Star team is a popularity contest. That’s just how it is, and Yankee players, as a result, are always going to be represented above and beyond what their performance might merit. I may not like it too much, but i accept that’s just how it is. If you think that Swisher got in based on votes from a whole lot of non-Yankee fans who just wanted to stick it to Kevin Youkilis, i submit you’re dreaming.
No kidding. When was there ever an anti-Kevin-Youkilis movement? What has he ever done?
Nick Swisher is a fine ballplayer but he’s not as good as Youkilis this year, wasn’t as good last year, and wasn’t as good the year before that. I am very confident in stating my belief that Kevin Youkilis is a better ballplayer than Nick Swisher. Swisher won for one reason, and one reason only; he leads Youkilis in pinstripes.
Well more fuel for the fire, Yanks are reported to be in talks for Lee. Willing to include Montero in the trade.
It sounds like all but a done deal, and it sucks for baseball, especially since he isn’t coming to Cincinnati!
What the hell kind of superman rotation is that going to be in New York? JESUS! NO FAIR!
