I complain about this all the time. As a visiting team, I’d leave the starter in the bullpen the first inning and have him stay loose if the inning goes long.
I miss the old JV ! He was unhittable and I always felt the stros would win with him on the mound. Father Time?
No....he pitches the bottom of the first, but he’s not sitting in the dugout for 20 minutes while the team is batting.
Look at Straw! We should have opened it up in the first but let them off the hook, oh well we have a game now.
There should be some data out there about how road pitchers do in 1st innings vs home pitchers or vs their other innings, no?
Would have to start implementing that when a player is first called up.... Verlander is a creature of habit and he's not going to go back out to the bullpen (or just stay there) in case its a long inning. I just think a lot of pitchers (even the great ones) can be prone to early inning trouble while they're getting a feel of their stuff, regardless of the time sitting. Hence why "openers" seem to be a good idea, even though newer data is saying its just prolonging their "feeling out" inning by one.
That could be an issue but he’s not been very good his last few starts. Hopefully he will come around
I have no data other than watching, but it seems that pitchers tend to have trouble when sitting a long time in the first inning.