I love outside-the-box unorthodox strategizing. In every form of competition. I love wildcats and flea flickers in football, I love the point forward in basketball. I enjoy running tank Lulu, tank Karma and other weird builds in League of Legends. And no other form of competition is open to the notion of unorthodox strategizing than baseball, where the pace of the game and the individual events of every single pitcher versus batter matchup completely creates the perfect environment for some unique strategies to be born. The DeVanzo Shift, four-man outfields. Moneyball, moneyball, moneyball.
The Tampa Bay Rays did something that I’ve always talked about would be an interesting concept to try, but nobody in baseball ever did; until now. I’ve bounced the idea around before, suggesting teams should start a relief pitcher occasionally; primarily on the notion that there are a number of pitchers who for reasons completely unknown, have rough first innings, or there are some matchups that they should avoid for a first time through an order. Once, I thought the New York Yankees should have employed this, when Mariano Rivera was on his farewell tour, and there would be no more appropriate way for him to go out than to start a game at Yankee Stadium, cutter the top of the first inning to death, and then get removed from the game to the bonkers raucous crowd reaction he rightfully deserved.
But nah, the notion of starting a guy with the intention of going one inning never seemed like it was going to happen until now. The Rays, facing the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Orange County off of Interstate 5 South, started not just a game, but two straight games, with relief pitcher Sergio Romo. In those two games, he pitched 2.1 innings, faced nine batters, walked two but struck out six. In one game, he was lifted for an actual starting pitcher, Ryan Yarbrough, who proceeded to pitch the next 6.1 innings and get the win for the Rays, and in the other, he was relieved by a series of other relief pitchers who lost the game.
Regardless, Sergio Romo did his job and pitched efficiently in two straight starts. And because it worked once, it definitely has opened some eyes as a viable strategy; except that the Angels, namely infielder Zack Cozart has been immediately vocal about how it’s not a good thing for the entire sport, and then he’s basically backed by the MLB Players Association, stating that such a strategy is going to be financially detrimental to players who are designated starting pitchers.
Continue reading “Baseball players can be such greedy bitches sometimes”