The Dodgers and Astros are having success despite their starters not facing many batters. The short story is at BBTF, with an excellent graph, while the longer story is on MLB.com. Note that graph shows the Nationals being more traditional in allowing their starters to go deep, to great success as well. By filling their teams with great relievers and producing lots of runs on offense, the Dodgers and Astros have been able to thrive through injuries to their top pitchers. If someone can pitch decently to the first 18 batters, the those two teams have a good chance of winning.
The longer view:
It’s not a one-to-one relationship, of course. The Nationals have their starters going through the order a third time more than anyone, simply because they’ve not been able to trust their bullpen, and Washington is cruising to a division title. The Reds have baseball’s highest ERA, and they’re going to the bullpen early simply because they’ve been forced to. In order for this to work, you’ve got to have the depth, as Houston and Los Angeles do, and the new 10-day disabled list has made it far easier to cycle through arms.
That flexibility is important, as are multi-inning arms. For example, the Astros have Chris Devenski and Brad Peacock, each above-average pitchers who can either start or go multiple innings in relief, a role the Dodgers seem to be grooming Ross Stripling and potentially Brock Stewart for. And each team, even before the season began, was lauded for their enviable depth. This only works if you have 15 or more pitchers you feel comfortable cycling through. Each team does, though the cracks are starting to show in Houston’s bullpen, even if Liriano should help.
What we don’t know yet is how well these pens will hold up through a full season. The Nationals, for example, have two more months to figure out their pen, and then go to a relief strategy int he post season with rested relievers. This strategy is still evolving.
Fascinating.
Reminds me of a thing I heard about a few years back that I think you posted about. The idea was that starters should go 1 inning or no longer than 3 innings. I think it was from some SABR conference or something that you went to. Can’t remember the details on it. Trying to find it via Google led me to another article I forgot about though, “Replacing setup men with “openers”“.
The past few years I’ve been wanting to see a team try the idea. Hopefully baseball’s moving in that direction.
Once in a while I also think about the idea of the All-Star game rule, where pitchers can’t pitch more than 3 innings. I wonder how that would work out in the regular season.