is a six-man rotation out of the question?

[djoctagone]

it's being repeated over and over: the brewers have six candidates for a five-man rotation.

 

why does it have to be a five-man rotation? i realize that it's typical in the first few weeks (because of off-days) to rely on a four-man rotation and putting the fifth guy in the bullpen.

 

i realize that a six-man rotation would mean fewer starts for the likes of gallardo . . . but that would also keep his innings pitched in check over the long haul.

 

do i expect the brewers to emerge with a six-man rotation? extremely doubtful. but when three of your six are coming off of injuries the previous year, doesn't it make more sense to lighten their workload a little bit?

 

and if any starting pitcher is stinking it up on five days' rest instead of four, it's a sign to cut him loose and revert back to a five-man rotation.

[Tbadder]

Tradition has its reasons and must be obeyed. So no. No chance of a six man rotation.

[patrickgpe]

the problem with a 6 man rotation is that you are taking 5-6 starts away from Wolf and Yo for the likes of Suppan and Parra. I like the depth, since we learned last year that you can't have enough starters. I rather have one in the pen in long relief and ready to start than go 6 men.

[JohnBriggs12]

Just because they have 6 candidates (really 7 if you count Narveson and I wish they would), doesn't mean you have 6 quality candidates. I just hope they hit on the best 5.

 

A better solution than a 6 man rotation, is just to rotate which guys you use in the 5th or in the 4th and 5th and keep the top 3 on a regular rotation.

 

Warning, I'm going to go real old school here, but back in Milwaukee Braves heyday, it was Spahn, Burdette, Buhl and then any of Jay, Pizarro, Conley, or Willey. I frankly wouldn't trust Arizona spring training results, so I'd consider going with Gallardo, Wolf, Davis, Bush, Parra the first time through then Gallardo, Wolf, Davis, Suppan, and Narveson the second time through until 2 of the 4 clearly outdo the other two.

[RobDeer 45]

Ya don't like it because of Yo and Wolf getting starts taken away from them. Now if you came up with a system where they were on every 5 days and the others had some rotations going on I'd be ok.

[Funketown]

Reiterating what others have said, having a 6-man rotation would leave each pitcher (assuming no starts are missed) starting 27 games, rather than 32.

 

However, I could see doing something like this:

 

Gallardo: 32

Wolf: 32

Davis: 32

Parra: 26

Bush: 24

Suppan: 14

 

This could be done by simply skipping Parra or Bush every few starts. They could skip Parra more often if he struggled, or less often if he threw the ball well.

[Flood Pants]

In a starting rotation, there's two important things to accomplish:

 

1. get your best starters as many starts as you can

2. get everyone enough rest to keep them effective

 

the five man rotation seems to do this job well. add in another starter, and you're reducing the innings from your best pitchers. even if you still have six viable candidates, you're still get the most quality innings if you pick the best five.

[patrickgpe]

if you remember last year when there was the insane idea of rotating starters based on whether the brewers were home or on the road, keeping starters off of their normal routine doesn't go well. It ruined bush and mcclung. You could devise a system where yo and wolf starts every 5 days and 4 other starters rotate the other 3 spots but i think it would cause all 4 starters to have declining numbers.

[thebruce44]

if you remember last year when there was the insane idea of rotating starters based on whether the brewers were home or on the road, keeping starters off of their normal routine doesn't go well. It ruined bush and mcclung. You could devise a system where yo and wolf starts every 5 days and 4 other starters rotate the other 3 spots but i think it would cause all 4 starters to have declining numbers.

Just to be clear, that wasn't last year. That was Yosts terrible idea to misunderstand Bush's stats and come up with that joke of a pitching platoon.

 

The other negative aspect of having a 6 man rotation is that you are basically taking away a long man from the pen. Think of it like this, a five man rotation really is no different than a 6 man rotation, except that you have the 6th best starter ready to come in when someone is ineffective or gets hurt. I will take that flexibility any day over an actual 6 man rotation.

[SoCalBrewfan]

Knock on wood, but depth, particularly pitching depth, has a way of evaporating quickly. I'll be delighted if we use no more than six starters over the coming season, but it rarely seems to go that way. The sixth and seventh starter, whoever they are, will be called upon, because of injury or ineffectiveness. They won't start in the rotation but they might end the season there.

[Mr Southpaw]

What if they piggybacked the 5th and 6th starters (Suppan and Parra)? It might help keep the bullpen fresher and give both some work.

[thebruce44]

What if they piggybacked the 5th and 6th starters (Suppan and Parra)? It might help keep the bullpen fresher and give both some work.

Again, you are giving up a bullpen spot. That would never fly.

[kilgore37]

If anything the should go to a 4 man rotation and just spot start parra/soup.

[Flood Pants]

If anything the should go to a 4 man rotation and just spot start parra/soup.

I think if the majority of starting pitchers could handle starting on three days rest regularly, every team would do this. When it comes to rotation spots, more is not merrier. You want to keep their arms from falling off, but other than that, the more your best pitchers can handle pitching, the better.

[nate82]

Wouldn't a six-man rotation be perfect for a very young pitching staff that you would be looking to keep down their innings on.

[Ennder]

Batters go too deep into counts and get on base too much to make a 4 man rotation viable. You also can't get by on 2/3rds effort fastballs for half the game like you could in the good old days. The 4 man rotation just isn't plausible these days.

[Mays Hayes]

I don't like the idea of a 6 man rotation, and taking away starts from Gallardo, Wolf, and Davis. But I wouldn't hate seeing something like this... where Bush, Parra, and Suppan's starts are distributed evenly by rotating them through the 2nd and 4th spots in the rotation. So Gallardo, Wolf, and Davis still pitch every 5th game... but Bush, Parra, and Suppan throw every 8th game until performance dictates who should get the starts.

 

Kind of like JohnBriggs12's idea except by rotating them in the 2nd and 4th spots they all pitch regularly.

 

So it would look like this.

 

Gallardo

(Bush)

Wolf

(Parra)

Davis

 

Gallardo

(Suppan)

Wolf

(Bush)

Davis

 

Gallardo

(Parra)

Wolf

(Suppan)

Davis

 

*repeat*

 

Personally, I'd prefer just going with Gallardo, Wolf, Davis, Bush, Parra and put Suppan in the bullpen until he's needed in the rotation because of injury or poor performance. But if we used a 6 man rotation... I'd rather see this than a straight rotation.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yovani Gallardo, Dave Bush and Doug Davis were among the pitchers stripped to their skivvies and strapped with sensors for a 10-pitch throwing session.

...

It's part of a program that new pitching coach Rick Peterson calls his "life's work," but the Brewers have been interested in biomechanics for at least the past five years. The team's head physician, Dr. William Raasch, established a portable lab in Milwaukee -- the only such in-house setup in baseball, the Brewers believe -- and has used it to analyze pitchers in Milwaukee's Minor League system. Friday marked the first time that the team began running all of their Major League pitchers through the process.

 

"Probably my fifth time doing it," said Yovani Gallardo, who came up through the Brewers' system. "It's nice to know the certain points you may be putting more stress, like your shoulder or your elbow or whatever it is."

 

The program likes Gallardo. He went through a test last year in Milwaukee and found that of all the pitchers tested, he put the least stress both on his shoulder and his elbow.

 

"It's good to hear that," he said. "It makes you want to work even more on keeping your mechanics."

From McCalvy's blog. Really reassuring to hear that Gallardo appears to be the smallest injury risk of the starters.