Dead or Mostly Dead? a super reliever experiment

Bum from the 1800s who hit .440: "I'd like to see you hit an underhand slo-pitch baseball with a cricket bat..."

After 18 games Schupp had 6 appearances and 29.1 innings.

At that point I removed all roles, per a few managers suggestions. He didn't pitch at all in games 19-21.

I'm pretty soured on my experiment, and may bring Schupp into my starting rotation.

I'm pretty soured on my experiment, and may bring Schupp into my starting rotation.

Well, if you start Schupp, you know he'll get innings. And, given his current 2.15 ERA, that's a good thing. It's not that he isn't pitching well. As an SP, he would have had 5 starts so far—and likely 40 to 45 IP. And as starter, 250 to 260 IP for the season would be almost guaranteed.

Also your bullpen still has 2 R5 inning-eaters--so the bullpen is covered. Actually, those two R5s may be part of the problem for Schupp getting innings as an RP.

Plus, your team is 13-8, so not too much overall harm has been so far--we could chalk this up as worthy experiment that has led to an interesting conclusion.

My own view, as a bit of a resister to the whole super-reliever phenomenon, is that if an SP8/RP can get more innings as a starter than as reliever, that's a good thing overall for the game.

Bum from the 1800s who hit .440: "I'd like to see you hit an underhand slo-pitch baseball with a cricket bat..."

Ha.

Not to mention the chorus from the 260 pound DHs who swing a bat four times a night, either strikeout, hit a homer to a 300 ft fence after 7 batter box timeouts to adjust his crotch, or gets a walk and pinch-run for so he doesn't have a heart attack, right before ducking out for a shot of hormones.

The whole argument is silly and doesn't even matter--creating a league excluding those "bums" is a capability. Folks can go ahead and fill it.

Just a thought I have had regarding maximizing reliever innings now; if HAL is going to make a reliever rest 2 or 2+ days after throwing 3 or more innings in a given appearance, it might be better to limit your best reliever with the 2-3 innings setting. In this manner, we might be able to get a reliever to pitch 2-3 innings on back to back days (with middle man and set up roles and perhaps even more so for relievers with R3, R4 or R5 ratings). At least to me, I would rather have Schupp pitch 2-3 important innings on back to back days than 4+ innings in one possibly meaningless appearance.

I'm pretty soured on my experiment, and may bring Schupp into my starting rotation.

Since entering Chompsky's starting rotation at game 22, Schupp has started in 8 games, throwing 71 innings--almost 9 innings per outing-- and posting a 6-1 W/L record.

I think Chompsky's experiment suggests that under ATG9, Schupp is more valuable as an SP than as RP. I personally think that's as it should be.

Wow that is pretty convincing and I would tend to agree. Good managers adjust, and looks like Chompsky had the discipline to do so midstream.

Discipline? Hardly, but thank you for saying so, FrankieT!!

Impatience, yes. Frustration, sure. Discipline, not so much.

The Super-Reliever is dead, Long live the Super-Reliever!

All kidding aside, I was 100% unable to use Schupp in a super-reliever fashion. I couldn't even get him to pitch in 33% of the games--which is the low end of what I expected out of the experiment. Once he pitched 3 or more innings he needed AT LEAST two games off, and on two occasions he needed THREE games off.

Caveat: Because of my impatience, my team produced a paltry amount of data. Those with some actual discipline and patience can run the experiment for a longer period and can stand more confidently behind their conclusions than I can.

While I applaud the experiment , I think Schupp is just too expensive to use as a reliever. I would think an experiment using Dale Murray would provide more interesting data.

Yeah Steve...I always find myself having trouble plunking down salary for a S/R when I only need a reliever. Not as much of a pricing value hit when you pay for a starter who is an S/R, and of course there are exceptions.