SEA et DET se battent pour la même place de Wild Card de manières totalement opposées

3 Comments

1. bradleywoodrum 2 jours ago

   The Seattle Mariners have led MLB starting pitchers with 875.2 IP, which has covered a full 2/3rds of the innings they have played. That’s nuts! Especially when you consider they are a half game behind the Detroit Tigers, who are also fighting for the final Wild Card spot in the AL. The Tigers are at the bottom of the league, having only 53% of their innings covered by SPs.

   That’s an especially risky proposition, given how volatile bullpens can be, but it has worked just fine for Detroit! Well, at least so far…

   I think it’s important to know *why* the Detroit SPs have covered so few innings. It typically is a result of poor performance – the Marlins, whom I worked for this season, presently have 7 SPs on the IL. The guys we had to trot out to the mound this season were barely good enough to make it 2 times through the order, forget a 3^(rd)! And since our bullpen wasn’t terrible, it really didn’t make sense to keep SPs in past 5 IP. That’s a more common factor in SP/RP inning disparities.

   But the Tigers – who have not disproportionately deployed openers from what I’m seeing – have a younger pitching staff (7^(th) youngest by weighted average) with the 5^(th) fewest BF a 3^(rd) time through the order (587 BF) – whereas the Mariners pitchers have the 3^(rd) most BF a 3^(rd) time (802 BF).

   Is there a strategy at play here? Eh, maybe, maybe not. I think all teams are pretty sensitive to the TTO penalty, but your exact personnel dictates how quick you are to move. The Tigers have had 11 RPs at or better than a 100 xFIP- this season (min. 30 IP). But Seattle has 8, with 2 studs (Bazardo and Munoz) at the top. A top-heavy bullpen like that certainly encourages you to ride the SPs longer.

   Anyway, I thought this was interesting, so I wanted to share it.

2. TheRKC 2 jours ago

   Olson, Mize, and Manning all got hurt within a couple weeks of Flaherty getting traded and Maeda getting moved to the bullpen. Since then, Detroit has used 2 SP (Skubal and Montero), and 3 bullpen/opener days to fill out the rotation. Madden got called-up and Mize returned last week, and Olson returned yesterday. So it’s been a combination of things. Since the start of July (when these changes happened), Detroit has had the best team ERA in the league.

   Hurter, Hanifee, and Guenther have been excellent in their bullpen roles since being called-up, while Vest, Holton and Foley have continued their solid seasons at the back end

3. calculating_hello 1 jour ago

   There is no way we make the playoffs that is over.