The teams left standing in Major League Baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays, aren’t there because they spend big on salaries (more on that later.) They’re there because they can pitch really well.
The Colorado Rockies have taken notice, it seems. We aren’t fully settled into the offseason yet, and the Rockies front office has already mercifully ended a one-year, ill-fated pitching coaching experiment. Gone is the totally unqualified analytics guy, Alon Leichman, who spent one lousy season serving as the team’s big-league pitching coach…even though he had zero experience as a professional pitcher. When news of Leichman’s firing was made public, you can bet that every member of the Rockies’ pitching staff let out a little cheer. A big-league pitching coach needs more than analytics knowledge. He also needs the wisdom gained from experience.
Hopefully, Paul DePodesta and company find someone with elements of both (again, Jason Hirsh, hint, hint) to fill that very important role.
Meanwhile, DePodesta has all but come out and said that Colorado will return to a “piggybacking” pitching system next season, at least at the outset. While the idea didn’t succeed when the Rockies tried it back in 2013 – in fact, they were ridiculed for even trying it – the time has now come to revisit that once-radical idea. The Seattle Mariners tinkered with the plan some this past season. If you’re paying close attention, you’ll notice that most of the teams in this season’s playoff field have used a similar concept in the postseason. Starters aren’t going deep into games, and while you’d hesitate to call them “bullpen” games, it is the relievers pitching the majority of the innings in the games that matter the most.
Piggybacking is different from the concept of an “opener” or an all-bullpen game, in that everything that happens for the first six or seven innings is scripted out ahead of time. The way it worked in 2013 was this: The Rockies had a four-man rather than a five-man starting rotation. Those starters were limited to 75 pitches each. That would typically work out to four innings, or twice through the batting order. Analytics tell us that hitters gain the edge on most pitchers when they see the same guy a third time through the order. Piggybacking eliminates that.
The starters throw fewer pitches, but pitch more often. That should actually speed up their long-term development.
The second man up in a piggybacking system is also limited to 75 pitches or twice through the order. He comes in on a predetermined schedule (and if things are going well, has a great chance to pick up numerous pitching wins as the season rolls along), and then turns things over to the late-inning guys.
That’s eight of your 13 pitchers with more or less pre-set roles going into a series. The other five will still fill the same roles they’ve (hopefully) gotten used to already (long man, set-up man, lefty specialist, closer, etc.) and can flourish in those roles, too.
This would be the ideal way to enter next season – especially if spring training is shortened by the impending owners’ lockout. How many times did young Rockies starters like Gabriel Hughes, Mason Adams and others go only four-plus innings this past season? If Hughes, Adams – and Chase Dollander, when he’s ready to come back from his surgery – are set to go just four innings per start and also pitch more often, they should eventually learn the finer details of the assignment and be ready to assume a longer role. “Aces” these days are giving their teams six or seven innings pretty much every time out. That could come later if they perform their piggybacking job well first.
Guys like Tanner Gordon and Ryan Feltner are tailor-made to be the second man up in this scenario. Perhaps Zach Agnos and Sean Sullivan, too. There will undoubtedly be several new arms brought in to fill out those roles, too.
Rockies pitching development has been horrid over the years, and it’s going to take some time to reverse that course. In the meantime, hiring a veteran pitching and analytics guy (once again, Jason Hirsh, hint, hint) and turning back the clock to 2013 with the piggybacking system would be solid first steps for 2027.
Strike 3: Will there be positive changes to the way the Rockies handle pitching? Mile High Sports.
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