Blue Jays’ starters are proving to be deep thinkers
DUNEDIN, FLA.— There seem to be more major-league teams than ever coming to the same conclusion, that less is more when it comes to starting pitchers. Alarming stats tell them that the third time through any batting order is when things begin to come apart for many hurlers, but Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker remains old-school in his thinking. He is looking for more out of starters, not less.
In 2016, Walker’s fourth season in charge of the Jays’ staff led the AL in total innings with 9951⁄ 3, well ahead of the second place White Sox. And that was with an amazingly low total of just seven starters.
In this era of seven- and eight-man bullpens, many starters seem to be looking over their shoulders for help once they reach 100 pitches, or once they have worked their way through six innings with the lead.
“I think the mentality that we’re developing here with our starters is to get as deep as they can into a ball game, and their objective is to go nine innings and complete a game,” Walker said.
“Sometimes it’s not realistic, but I think that should be their mentality. If we have starters who are consistently getting six innings and pitching into the seventh, it certainly puts you in great position. It protects your bullpen and obviously it means, if they’re pitching that late into a game, they’re throwing the ball very well and they’re effective. So that’s our goal.”
It should be noted that the Jays did not have a complete game last season, although they were second in the American League with 95 quality starts, which is defined as six or more innings, with three or fewer earned runs.
“I can tell a lot about a pitcher in how they respond to those situations and when they’re in the 90- to 95-pitch range or close to 100 and they’re in the sixth or seventh inning,” Walker said. “The guys on this squad look at me as if to say, ‘Don’t come and get me. I’m good.’
“It’s refreshing because, I know, in the past there have certainly been guys, they get through five, six innings and they’re close to that pitch count and they’ve pitched a decent game, and they’re ready to get out.”
Because the season is 162 games and because spring training is arguably too long, Walker is taking imaginative steps to conserve some innings that count for his starting pitchers, especially Marco Estrada and Aaron Sanchez. The key is a later start to their spring. They will have no game appearances the first two weeks of exhibitions.
“We plan on 200 innings from these guys,” Walker said. “So if there’s an opportunity for us . . . obviously they have to be ready to go at the start of the season, but there is a way that you can kind of ease them into spring training and still get the workload that you need to be ready for the start of the season.”
One area where Walker is ready to utilize geek charts and computer readouts of past performances is with his bullpen. The Jays have filled in ahead of young Roberto Osuna with some veteran arms — right-hander Joe Smith and lefty J.P. Howell are joining 40-year-old Jason Grilli, the incumbent eighthinning man.
The history allows a prepared coaching staff, via pitcher-batter matchups and other readily available stats, to put their pitchers in the best position to succeed. Walker is confident in this bullpen.
“Every night you go into a game, you have a game plan for certain situations that arise in the seventh, eighth, ninth innings,” Walker said. “You want to put those guys in a position to succeed and to give us the best chance to win a ball game.
“There’s a lot of thought that goes into that and, certainly over the course of a season, there’s some situations and some games that come up where you wish you did things differently. But the key with us is the communication with the bullpen, talking to them daily to see how they feel and to make sure we’re putting them in the best position possible to have success.”
Walker loves the makeup of the current rotation. Whereas most people would list lefty Francisco Liriano as the fifth starter, Walker is not ready to place that label on him.
Liriano was acquired at the 2016 trade deadline from the Pirates, after struggling in Pittsburgh. Reunited with catcher Russell Martin for the final three months, he thrived and was ready to contribute in the playoffs when felled by a line drive. Liriano is healthy once again and, with the departure of R.A. Dickey, will be counted on.
“He’s probably a little bit more ahead of anybody right now going into the spring,” Walker said. “His stuff looks incredible. His delivery looks sound. He seems extremely focused . . . He might be at the back end of the rotation, but he’s certainly not a back-end-of-the-rotation starter. When he’s on, he’s as good as anybody. We have five legitimate top-end-of-the-rotation starters right now.”
This has now become a pitching-first team, which makes Walker and the work he does with his students that much more important toward the hopes of a third consecutive playoff appearance in October.