September 04, 2007
Just Say No
It starts innocently enough. I'll just use that extra pitcher when we don't have a day off for a couple of weeks. Before you know it, pitchers are complaining if they're made to pitch out of turn. And then, everyone has six-man rotations. Just say no to more starters.
I've never quite understood why, when pitching is bad, teams add more bad pitchers. Maybe they believe that the more they put on the roster, the more chance they have of getting lucky with one. To me, the opposite should be true. The fewer pitchers on the roster, the less chance you have of getting unlucky with a bad one.
Are there other things in life like this? I know people and businesses often try to fix problems by throwing more money at them, but eventually those don't work and you give up. Teams just keep moving down the path to more and more pitchers working less and less.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:20 AM
|
Strategy
|
TrackBack (0)
We live in an age of "stupid" specialization. You have teams that have a 6th inning guy, a 7th inning guy, a set-up man and a closer. And it's just getting worse. More pitchers, it seems now can't pitch their way out of trouble and seem to be more fragile. And don't get me started on other sports like football, with 3rd down lineman, pass rush specialists, 3rd down backs who catch the ball out of the backfield, short yard specialists...anyway, I agree, more is not better. Acquire or grow in your system the pitchers who can play the game and use them correctly.
Think of it as a corollary to Gresham's Law (bad money drives out good).