Before starting to argue for a six man rotation, please state the case for why any of our three CYA contenders, that should give us 200-220 IPs each, should make less starts?
And any talk of a 'modified' six man is just stupid. If you want to root for a manager doing shit to look smart, go root for the Cubs. Trying to juggle the 4 and 5 spots to keep everyone would do nothing but further eff up the pen, which should be just fine with the innings load the 1-3 slots should be reasonably expected to carry. I'm far from a Farrell apologist, but expecting him to reinvent the wheel for sake of not being conventional is asinine.
I'm not 100% convinced of the merits - mostly because such a decision would involve the coaches, trainers and relevant players working out a plan and everyone getting on board for which I would have no insight - but a modified 6-man could certainly be feasible.
Say Pomeranz and Buchholz were asked to share a start every turn in the rotation. The Pomerholz hybrid would take the 4th spot in the rotation so they'd be less affected by missed starts due to scheduling quirks and rainouts early in the season - the 5th spot goes to ERod. When their turn comes up, the Pomerholzes go in with the expectation that they will throw approximately 60 pitches or about 4 innings. This would be somewhat flexible so if the starter is doing particularly well / is pitching efficiently he could start the 5th, but in general he should expect to face no more than 18 batters on the night. If Pom is starting and the opponent stacks the lineup with lefties, Buch might come in earlier for matchup optimisation and vice versa - whoever goes 2nd should benefit more than would in a traditional start unless the opponent doesn't play the platoon in which case the starter benefits.
Benefits:
- No one runs the gauntlet 3 times so batters miss out on that advantage
- Pomerholz knows he's not pitching more than 60 pitches so nothing needs to be conserved
- Opponents can't optimise lineups or must pinch hit early on and so burn bench options
- For this turn in the lineup it's reasonable to expect that Pomerholz goes 8IP regularly so the bullpen gets a day of rest quite frequently (in addition to having 3 studs 1-3 in the rotation - i.e. we're talking about a year of low bullpen usage and thus every chance of a lights-out bullpen)
- Pomerholz would be available mid-week for bullpen work to keep them stretched out and further reduce the load on the others.
- Should one of the others go down it wouldn't take long to ramp these guys up from 4IP per start to 6IP to start as they revert to a standard 5-man.
- All this assumes Wright becomes the long man.
So our studly 1-3 get all their starts, Pomerholz have every chance to morph into a 4th stud and if ERod fulfils his potential we could finally break through that magic 100 win barrier.
Ok, so maybe I'm getting carried away here but I do think it's worth exploring.