I've seen a lot of talk about this lately, especially with Cole Hamels coming out against it last week. What are everyone's thoughts about it? Personally, I think it would be a mistake. I understand there are stats showing pitchers being better with the extra rest, but the trade off is you have to find a sixth starter. Most teams now days struggle to find a fourth and fifth starter. The sixth starter is going to be a garbage guy. I think it'll end up putting extra stress on a bullpen, too, because they usually get a break when the #1 and #2 guys go. With a six man rotation its going to be more days the bullpen has to work before they get around to the #1 guy again.

Different teams may have different plans for the 6 man rotation concept, but I'd think that they would skip the 6th man when there was an off day. So that 6th man may not get that many starts.

But veterans like Hamels often have incentives for pitching xx number of innings, so that is one of the reasons he isn't thrilled with the idea. In Hamels case, I believe if he pitches 200 innings in 2018 that the option on his 2019 contract becomes guaranteed (at a higher rate than he could currently get on the open market).

We will see how this goes. This is new age analytics coming up against traditional values and contract structures.

I've always thought pitchers were creatures of habit and it was best to not mess with that. These guys have pretty strict routines they've perfected and kept up since coming up through the minors and I can't imagine it's very easy to adjust for an entire season.

Kinda like how some starters don't adjust to pitching out of the pen. Just doesn't seem like a good idea. If it was such a good idea why don't teams do it?

I'm sure same thing was said when there was a 4 man rotation and moving to 5.

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If it was such a good idea why don't teams do it?

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That just it. I think the analytics guys are saying that starters pitch more effectively with more rest. So now it's whether the old school managers stick with their ways or trust the analytics guys and give it a shot.

I wouldn't call days off and rest much of an "analytic" discovery.

I think a big problem watering down a rotation isn't attractive, and something that doesn't get enough talk: losing a roster spot to a 6th starter also isn't attractive.

Anylitics dont say more rest is better. They do say very clearly that more times through a rotation is bad. Hence the thought of pulling most guys before they get through a lineup a third time.

I'm more of a proponent of a 6 man than most. My thinking is basically reducing innings so pitchers are ready for the playoffs. I don't have any data to back that assertion up.

Angels apparently going to 6-man rotation, too:

https://www.purplerow.com/2018/3/6/17083178/colorado-rockies-pitching-rotation-jon-gray-starting-shoehei-ohtani

Pitching less and less over the last 30 years has made pitchers more injury prone not less. And I'm think ERAs have mostly gone north as pitchers pitch less. It's counterintuitive that you can do less and be better and more durable.

I would just ignore anything Hamels says

Are the Rangers really doing a 6-man rotation?

And it looks like the Rays are going to a 4-man

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The Rays are committed to a four-man rotation this season, although it's more of a hybrid plan. While it will include only four traditional starting pitchers, the Rays will use bullpen games and a high volume of off-days early in the season to keep their four starters on regular intervals of rest.

"We're going to try to stay at four," [Rays manager Kevin] Cash said. "We're going to have some bullpen days in there. We're going to try and do that for a long period of time. We're going to learn a lot in the first six weeks.

"We're going to schedule in a bullpen day as our fifth starter. That's kind of our hope going past six weeks."

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Depending on how they do it, in a 6 man rotation the 6th guy will get skipped a lot and the 5th guy could get skipped occasionally so they would be available out of the bullpen some also.

I think it all comes down to personnel, if you have the staff to do it, it could happen. That being said starters will become less valuable and ownership would probably prefer to spread that money around a bit more. On a 5 man rotation, if everyone stays healthy each guy is looking at 32.4 starts/regular season. Change that to 6 and each starter gets 27 starts. That might not sound like a huge drop but these pitchers also have to worry about legacy. Makes getting 20 wins in a season significantly more difficult, less W's, less K's. Getting into the baseball HOF is the most difficult one of all the leagues in my opinion, dropping starts reduces those stats.