Hey guys,
For other baseball fans out there, I have an outside-the-box idea for the Jays pitching rotation that I wanted to run by you.
It's no secret that the Jays are a mediocre team in a good division, and have been for a long time. My thought process on this idea is, why not? We've got a playoff run to gain, and not a whole lot to lose.
They showed a stat the other day that the Batting Average of opposing hitters against Dickey is .161 the first time through the order, .241 the second time and then a whopping .440 the third time. My idea is to utilize the knuckleballer throwing off the timing of hitters to the fullest extent. Never allowing the opposition to become comfortable at the plate in any given game. Here is how it would look...
Let's use the following pitching rotation as an example:
Dickey
Hutchison
Buehrle
Morrow
Stroman
Hutchison, Buehrle, Morrow and Stroman become the Jays Starting Pitchers (This 4-man rotation takes turns starting games). The starters go out and face the opposing hitters for the first 3 innings. They will see every hitter once (and most likely the top part of the order a second time, depending how many reach base). The opposition settles in to facing a regular pitcher before Dickey enters the game in the 4th inning. Dickey throws his once through the rotation to the tune of the .161 batting average (hopefully lower, considering the opposition is now accustomed to facing a regular pitcher this game) and then hands the ball over to the bullpen in the 7th or 8th inning before rolling into his .241 second time through the order. In a prototypical game using this dynamic system, opposing hitters will face a hard thrower, the knuckleball, and then back to a hard thrower throughout the course of the game.
I know using Dickey every day is a stretch, but the fact that he is throwing low-stress pitches doesn't make it impossible, and he has shown the ability to throw a lot of pitches without problem. This concept would also allow for some flexibility: If the starter has clearly brought his A-game to the ballpark on any given day and is mowing down batters, allow him to pitch his 6-8 innings instead of 3. Bring a reliever in to mop up at the end if need be. This helps give Dickey a day off every now and then.
Now obviously this concept would be most effective if the non-Dickey starters were all hard throwers, so it'd probably be best to replace Buerhle with someone who hits low to mid 90s on his fastball.
The biggest hurdle here is definitely having the Starters buy-in and having to adjust their training regimens. It would be a huge change in how they prepare their arms and adjusting the amount of pitches they are throwing and how often. Not to mention the fact that the 4-starters would need to selflessly accept that their stats are going to be haywire (they would never even qualify for a win, except for those occasions when they pitch into the 6-8th inning). Traditional baseball minds (or all baseball minds) will hate the fact that this makes an absolute mess of pitching statistics. If you could get the pitching staff on board though, I think it would be really interesting to see how this would play out. And why not?
Thoughts? Feelings? Concerns?