Two seasons ago, Wichita’s Gonzalo Fajardo (now in the UMEBA) threw 142 innings in 59 games out if the bullpen, marking the only reliever with 140+ innings. His numbers were a pretty fair 10-6 with 5 saves and a 4.75 ERA. In 2037 Jacksonville’s Peter Grady went Fajardo one better, throwing 151.2 innings in 96 games, saving 32 games in 40 opportunities, and registering a 3.92 ERA. He was, again, the only relief pitcher to throw more than 140 innings.
Along comes 2038, though, and it’s like something new’s been put into the water supply. Assuming Steven Bobovnik sees an inning and a third this last week, a total of seven relief pitchers will tally 140 or more innings—and al of them, have thrown those innings to some reasonable effect.
Looking at these cases becomes even more interesting when we see exactly how they arrived at these innings—of which they all come in different situations and were the results of different strategies employed by their ball clubs. “Teams are trying new things,” said Baseball Source reporter Lenny Calloway. “Your firs thought is to say it’s all about the cyclone, but that’s not it because only Brooklyn’s Bobovnick is in that kind of camp. The other six are coming from really different kinds of usage patterns.”
CAN OLD-SCHOOL STOPPER WIN THE NEBRASKA?
Regardless, the stopper role has been a controversial one in OOTP circles, but Jacksonville has been employing it with no little effect. Grady, at 27 years old, seems to have borne the physical aspect of the role well enough.
SURFERS SPECIALIZATION DOUBLES THEIR RELIEF
In Long Beach, the situation is even more intriguing, as both Diogo Lindt (162 innings to date) and Manny Gabriel (143) have crossed the 140 barrier without seeing a start. The Surfers employ a strategy geared toward extracting maximum value from the platoon advantage, in which most of their bullpen—with the exception of Lindt and Gabriel—fulfill specialist’s role. As such, both tend to pitch in lower leverage periods (Gabriel’s pLi is 1.01, Lindt’s is 1.02, where higher than 1.0 is above average), but both have been highly effective in leverage situation greater than most starters. Lindt is 6-2, with 11 saves and a 2.99 ERA, Gabriel is 5-7, with 9 saves and a 2.70 ERA.
The strategy and role itself is interesting to think about. Lindt and Gabriel became the “glue” of the pen, providing solid innings in between sandwiches of the team’s starters and its squadron of specialists.
ALFAMA BENEFITS AS FOLLOWER
The Yellow Spring Nine, however, have seen Tristan Alfama come to full fruition in a multi-varied role that included acting as a “follower” after a relief pitcher threw a single inning to open. He also benefitted from periods where the team went to 4-man rotations and short pitch counts. It all adds up to 154 innings at the time of this writing. He’s responded with a 14-3 record and a 3.90 ERA (3.85 FIP, 83 FIP-).
The role of opener is a difficult one in this pre-v20 stage. Employing a reliever early carries no benefit beyond handedness (meaning the opener throws as a starter rather than as a hard-throwing reliver). But it also gives guys like Alfama a chance to throw more innings. One notes that Alfama’s average leverage situation was .82, suggesting he was throwing in more innings as if he were a starter than a reliever, despite his 76 games coming all in relief.
SOSA GOES STANDARD?
Charm City’s Alfredo Sosa appears to have been used mostly in a more standard middle/long relief role, and has had several three and for inning stints thus season. He had a few early entries that look like opener strategies may have been employed, but most likely they were cases of injury or ineptitude. He’s 7-3 with a 4.32 ERA for the Jimmies with six games to go. At 22 years old, the future looks bright.
Sosa’s usage says he was viewed as s solid guy who could and did pitch anywhere. I’m guessing he was shuffled between roles much of the year, but wasn’t watching him that closely to see.
TWO MORE WITH TWO STARTS
In addition to the five above, there’s Bobovnik (139 IP, 91 games) and Hawaii’s Niels Steincke (149 IP, 61 games), both of whom “padded” their innings totals with two starts. They would obviously have been high-usage relievers, regardless. Steincke gathered his innings the true old-school fashion, throwing long relief for a Tropic team that needed a lot of long relief. Bobovnik threw in the vaunted Brooklyn Cyclone, whatever that is.
IS 2038 a TREND?
All total it adds up to a season in which several GMs appear to have been experimenting with multiple usage patterns. It doesn’t stop there. 13 pitchers saw more than 100 innings in 2038. This compares to 6 in 2037 and 10 in 2036.
With the v20 opener/follower feature being released soon, it’s enough to make even casual observers wonder if we’re seeing a renaissance in game theories applied across the league.
In the meantime, however, the question more fun to contemplate is whether Peter Grady can win the 2038 JL Nebraska award away from Carpenter, Rocha, and the plethora of Rockville starters.
It’ll be a tough race.
But a fun one to watch.
