Some of these players seem like they have been in the system a long time. It's surprising that they are still young for their league. Joe Perez and Luis Santana really stand out.
I'm kind of surprised at the reports of Clifford being only a decent athlete given he ran a 6.71 60yd the year before he was drafted and threw 94mph from the outfield. Maybe he slows a tick as gets older but a 6.5 is elite and closer to 7.00 is average so he's not as "bad" of an athlete as I think the reports are
The 2022 draft pitching class has had a solid debut. 9th rounder Brett Gillis is injured. The rest of the group has allowed 9 runs over 28.2 (2.82 ERA) innings striking out 48 (41%) and walking 14 (12%).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Andrew Taylor allowed 1 over 4.1 innings with 4 strikeouts in his pro debut. He was charged with 2 runs, one scoring after he left the game. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc^tfw">#Astros</a> <a href="https://t.co/huCr7aSQtE">pic.twitter.com/huCr7aSQtE</a></p>— Astros Future (@AstrosFuture) <a href="">April 14, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Pretty wicked change up from Andrew Taylor, Hoping he makes it just so I can see it in the bigs, feels like a lost art these days.
Looks like all 4 affiliates intended to open the season with 5 sets of tandem SP. Asheville has only played 4 games but have Peyton Plumlee starting tonight, and I assume Valente Bellozo will tandem with him. Corpus got thrown off by Adrian Chaidez’s injury, so they only have 4 sets for now, although Franny Cobos may be the 9th guy since he’s thrown multiple innings for them in his last outing. So each staff has 10 starters and 5-7 RP.
Thanks for sharing the clip. Taylor threw his fastball 80% of the time in college, so it's nice to see him effectively using his secondary pitches.
I really think that a tandem system makes sense in the bigs. Lets say Javier and Framber are aces and can throw 180 innings- you have those 2, then you tandem 6 guys behind them (LMJ, Garcia, Urquidy, Brown, Whitley, Blanco) with a 5 man bullpen of Presley, Neris, Abreu, Montero and Stanek. You should need 6 innings out of the bullpen from the first 2 guys and then 3-5 innings (total) out of the bullpen from the last set of 6 guys over 3 days. Keeps innings off all the arms of LMJ and your kids to keep them fresh. Would definitely make the bullpen better. Those guys should be pitching 3 innings a week, tops, with that set up when Framber and Javier go 6 each and tandems all throw 80 pitches each tandem is throwing 160 pitches and going 7, 8 or 9 innings. I don't understand why some team doesn't do that at the major league level.
The biggest issue with doing it at the big leagues is that the main goal is to win. in the minors you can stick to the schedule and the plan regardless of outcome. In the majors, you would need more MLB ready and quality arms for this system, as any poor performance would necessitate a pitching change so 6-8 true bullpen pitchers will still be required on the roster. I could see it work for a team like the Astros that truly are 13+ deep in MLB arms but it would not be possible for most teams. That is, unless the tandem pitchers start pitching on 2-3 days rest like the 1960s.
Nah, I don't think so man. LaRussa was right when he said you are going to win 1/3 of the games regardless and lose 1/3 regardless and it's what you do with the rest that matters. You just have to be disciplined enough to let a guy wear it when he doesn't have it and keep going. I bet your 3 tandem starts would go something like- Both guys excellent- 9 innings, Both guys passable to good 7 or 8 innings, 1 guy ***** the bed badly- 6 innings. So- Essentially you are likely to be averaging over 7 innings per start as with no 3 time through the lineup tax and only expecting to throw 4 or 5 innings you should see better outings. Just don't panic when a guy gets shelled. He wears it for 80 pitches- the other guy comes in and thows his 80 pitches and you salvage 6 innings out of it, shrug your shoulders and say- that sucked- lets get them tomorrow- wasn't our day.
I think a tandem system would work in the majors in certain conditions. First, there would have to be more than 5 MLB caliber SP who are of roughly equal talent level. Then, there would have to be at least a couple of pitchers (either in the rotation or in the bullpen) with options remaining combined with a deep AAA staff, because with only 5 RP you will inevitably run into periods when the tandems don’t go 7+ innings which would destroy the 5 bullpen guys. I also think it would need to be set up in accordance with a traditional 5 man rotation, in order to keep the best starters (who wouldn’t need to be tandemed) on regular rotation. But generally I still think it makes the most sense for teams to pick the 5-6 best healthy guys and stick to it and force the remaining viable SP to the minors or bullpen. Once McCullers comes back, if everyone is healthy, I wouldn’t mind having the 6th SP (either Garcia, Urquidy, or Brown) and Blanco paired up with guys in the rotation as a potential 3+ inning weapon. So Urquidy could be designated to only pitch if/when one of Garcia/Brown/McCullers cant make it thru 5 innings, while Blanco would be matched up with Javier/Framber. But more likely there will be an injury to render that idea moot, and even if there isn’t then they will probably just go with 6 SP to manage rest and innings limits.
The old adage of "if you got 6 guys for 3 spots you really got 0 guys" holds true. I think the upside of a ML tandem system (2 guys get to throw 4-5 max effort innings) are pretty outweighed by the downsides and exceptions. 1) starters have routines and like to know when they're going to start pitching (and to come into a clean inning). The second guy's appearance being at the mercy of the game action probably sucks. 2) It doesn't prioritize efficiency. if you know you got 5 IP and no more, you may as well attempt to strike people out instead of get cheap grounders/fly-outs. if you let that starter ride an efficient start into 7IP then you've screwed the 2nd guy's appearance. 3) It doesn't prioritize being able to work out of a jam. Related to point 2 but IMHO pitchers need the rope to pitch out of tough spots and continue in the game. The other week Framber had a 5 walk outing but still gutted out a 7IP, 100+ pitch start. JV was also big on gutting through tough starts to get his 6-7IP/100pitch outing. The purpose of the regular season rotation is to generate that playoff rotation of 3-4 guys who you hope can give you 7+ innings by pitching efficiently and working through jams. A tandem system doesn't do that.
Agree. Periods of having 6 starters with 2 swing men makes sense, but i agree injuries will probably limit the implementation of a rigid tandem system.
