L’histoire de sa vie

A continuation from yesterday’s post about crazy baseball ideas the Astros should try because they have nothing to lose.

Starting Relief – I got this idea while watching Brett Myers pitch. Myers has a lot of trouble with the first inning. He usually gives up a couple runs then settles down until around the fifth or sixth, when he again gets shaky. Check out his six starts for the month of June:

Remarkable. In June, Myers began each of his starts by giving up runs, yet had a clean second inning every time. In those starts that the Astros lost (Jun 7, 12, 29), they never had the lead after his two first-inning runs. So why let Myers pitch the first inning?

And that’s where my crazy idea comes in. The first inning sets the tone for the whole game. In many ways it’s as important as the ninth. So my proposal is to have a “starting reliever” who comes in for the purpose of handling only the first inning. Think of this “opener” as a reverse closer. Rather than hold the lead, he is simply holding the first inning. When the second frame opens, the starter will come in, pitching his customary outing.

In Myers case, that means a pitcher in the first, one in the second through seventh, a setup man, and a closer.

The best part of this is that if the starting reliever does a good job, the starting pitcher starts his game in the middle of the opposing lineup, avoiding the dangerous one-two-three hitters until later in the game.

This is also great for starting pitcher stats: the starting pitcher is as likely to earn a W, but slightly less likely to take the L – if the starting reliever screws up big, the starting pitcher is insulated from this tarnish to his record.

Again, this is a crazy idea, but it’s worth a try, and Brett Myers for one could really benefit from it. What do we have to lose?

It’s no secret that the Astros are in terrible shape. They’re in dead last, with little hope of not earning 100 losses for the first time in franchise history, and they can afford to make drastic changes.

Some might suggest that these drastic changes would come in the form of trades, or giving the “youth movement” a serious chance and benching fatty Carlos Lee. However, I have a few other (somewhat crazy) ideas that I think should be given a fair chance, especially because Brad Mills would never let those more-rational ideas fly. This is basically the optimal time to try ridiculous ideas because there’s nothing to lose. Part one is my first crazy idea:

Five-Man Rotation – Every team now has a five-man rotation, it’s been standard for quite some time. Each day, the next pitcher in the rotation starts the game, lasts five to seven innings on average, and then the bullpen takes over. But what if this rotation pitched every day, for one inning? Consider the Astros starting pitching:

The obvious immediate con is that pitchers might tire from pitching every day, but the average innings pitched over five games would actually lessen per starting pitcher. The other major con would be that this forces four innings of bullpen work, something not really realistic for teams like the Astros. To fix this, one pitcher should pitch a second consecutive inning. If a great outing has not occurred before the fifth inning, the fifth inning pitcher will pitch in the sixth.

The pros are manifold: pitch counts won’t skyrocket (who cares if a pitcher pitches thirty plus pitches in an inning if that’s their only inning?), pitcher stats (W/L) will still be affected, on average, in the same manner: whoever gives up the Loss gets the L, and if they can hold a W, whoever pitches in the 5th is likely to earn it.

Basically you no longer have to worry about the times when you get less than five innings (or less than six in the case of my first fix proposal) from your starting pitcher. You’re guaranteed six solid outings of starting pitching every game. When a starter falters a bit, no worries: they’ll be out at the end of the inning. Opposing teams won’t get into a rhythm with the pitchers because they’ll face so many different pitchers.

It might be crazy, but it’s worth a try. Tomorrow I’ll detail my next crazy idea. Stay tuned.