FanPost

Limit pitching staff to ten roster spots

As a fan of test cricket I don't really have a leg to stand on as far as pace of play. I don't get a chance to watch much baseball as due to time difference the games I watch are either East Coast or day games. But pace of play is in the news again and in light of Nate Silver's new article I thought it would be fun to hear some more informed commentary on his idea.

"Each team should be limited to carrying 10 pitchers on its 25-man active roster, plus an Emergency Pitcher."

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/relievers-have-broken-baseball-we-have-a-plan-to-fix-it/

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He gets around some of the earlier objections I have heard with some clear solutions.

"Position players could still pitch, but they wouldn’t be allowed to pitch to a greater number of batters than the number of plate appearances they’d recorded so far on the season as hitters.

Having an extra emergency pitcher who can only play If the starting pitcher left the game because of injury, If one team led by at least 10 runs, If it were the 11th inning or later, or If it were the second game of a doubleheader.

After the roster expanded to 40 players in September, minor league call-ups who were not on the 10-pitcher list could start games, subject to a requirement that they threw at least 60 pitches or five innings or — a mercy rule — gave up at least five runs. They could not appear in relief."

This is his suggested pitching staff with innings played.

ROLE GAMES PITCHED GAMES STARTED INNINGS PITCHED
Ace starter 34 34 230
No. 2 starter 33 33 210
No. 3 starter 33 33 195
No. 4 starter 32 32 180
No. 5 starter 30 22 150
Long reliever/spot starter 40 3 100
Durable middle reliever 55 0 90
RH set-up 60 0 85
LH set-up 70 0 75
Closer 60 0 80
ROLE GAMES PITCHED GAMES STARTED INNINGS PITCHED
Emergency Pitchers 10 0 20
September call-up starters 5 5 25
Position players 5 0 10
GAMES PITCHED GAMES STARTED INNINGS PITCHED
Total 467 162 1,450

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Some other possible benefits include having more pinch runners and defensive specialists. And there was a suggestion to police the disabled list with a little more rigour.

I have not read any convincing arguments against this idea in the fivethirtyeight comments section. And the arguments against in the comment section of Bryan's article on a similar idea seem unconvincing.

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2019/2/6/18214686/how-bonkers-are-each-of-the-proposed-mlb-rule-changes

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