baseball talk

[Boris]

OK - Saw an article on ESPN today that the Rockies are going to move Shaun Chacon to the closer role. For those of you who don't him, Chacon is an outstanding starting pitcher. He has great stuff, even in that pitchers' hell known as Coors Field.

This move by the Rockies makes no sense to me. Why would you take by far your best pitcher and drastically reduce the number of innings he pitches? It doesn't really matter if the pitching staff gets rocked in the first inning or the ninth, it just seems to hurt more in the ninth. But in my opinion you should get your stud pitchers as many innings as possible without jeopardizing their health. Anyone else have a good reason to move a very strong starting pitcher to the bullpen?

[ThaSaltCracka]

MAYBE they figure that if the put their strongest pitcher in for the last inning they have a better chance of winning/saving the game. Think about suppose, chacon pitches a great game, leaves with the score 8-3(very possible coors score), then some bum comes in the ninth and out of now where, gets lit upfor 5-6 runs(very possible), maybe the Rockies don't want something like that to happen.
or maybe the Rockies front office is just dumb.

[sam h]

Just another example of baseball people being stupid. It's amazing the amount of resistance in baseball to "new" ideas that are very strongly statistically supported. That relief pitchers, especially if forced into the traditional closer role, have very little effect on team performance compared to starters is a perfect example.

[andyfox]

Baseball people are generally stupid. I remember the Yankees doing this with Dave Righetti when they lost Goose Gossage to free agency. Righetti was a terrific starting pitcher, had pithced a no-hitter the year before. But to the bullpen he went. They decided on Righetti only because they thought he'd be a better reliever than Ron Guidry; otherwise, they would have sent Guidry to the pen. Guidry, of course, won 170 games as a starter, was 3 times a 20 game winner, and only went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA in 1978.

Stupid.