[DanT]

Originally Posted by tk13

Also, pay attention to what the Rays are doing. They started Sergio Romo today, the relief pitcher. He pitched the 1st inning against the top of the Angels lineup, struck them all out, then turned the game over to the "starter" for the 2nd inning. It worked so well they're going to do it again today, so Romo will start two days in a row. It guarantees one of your best relievers faces the big bats on top of the order.

The idea of starting the game with a short-innings pitcher who would go until he was due up to bat was something that was described in a 1972 Sports Illustrated article about an innovative analyst, someone who had gotten the attention of Ewing Kauffman. Recall that the DH rule was not adopted by the AL until the next year. Here's an excerpt from that article.

https://www.si.com/vault/1972/03/06/...-and-never-was

Originally Posted by March 6, 1972 SI article, "It ain't necessarily so, and never was"

•In each game, a reliever should start, go two or three innings and come out for a pinch hitter his first time up. He would be followed by a starter type, who would go about five innings, batting the first time he came up, but going out for a pinch hitter his second time up. Another short man would finish the game. This sounds revolutionary, but essentially the only difference is that the "starter" appears in the middle of the game instead of at the beginning.

The normal odds are 3 to 1 against a pitcher throwing a complete game. "So why try?" Cook asks. "To have a shot at a no-hitter? The percentage system—two innings, then five innings, then two innings—not only puts better hitters into the lineup more often, it removes a pitcher before he is likely to get into trouble, not afterward." Two years ago Cook produced figures showing that the Kansas City Royals would have picked up 54 additional runs over the season by employing pinch hitters regularly for pitchers and could have reduced their opponents' scoring against them by 35 runs by working the best relievers more often. That is a net gain of 89 runs—at no expense, with no upheaval. Cook has even worked up a chart showing the optimum staff rotation in this system. "All that is necessary is to convince one manager and four starting pitchers," he says wistfully. He really wants to help. Any .500 team that adopted real percentage baseball would, he claims, automatically become an even-money bet to make the World Series.

At least one baseball man is finally paying Cook some heed. Ewing Kauffman, the progressive owner of the Royals, keeps a copy of Percentage Baseball on his desk. He flew Cook to Kansas City for a day of talks last year. Shortly after Kauffman met with Cook, a banker named Bill Welsh approached the owner with the idea of feeding Royals data into a computer. "My conversation with Cook had made me far more receptive to such a notion than I otherwise would have been," Kauffman says. "Baseball is full of traditions and myths that won't stand up to analysis. Cook challenges them."