On July 23rd the "Big Lefty" Anthony Rizzo made his pitching debut, and threw a perfect .1 of an inning leaving with a 0.00 ERA. The remainder of the Cubs faithful at Wrigley that night rose to their feet in a laughing approval. Most people around the league got a pretty good laugh at that, which most people do when they see a position player take the mound. It's unique, funny, and the game is always out of reach at that point so why waste more quality arms.
The issue is that it's becoming less unique, there have already been a record 46 non-pitchers that have taken the mound this year. The Arizona diamondbacks threw positions guys for 4 2/3 innings while getting routed by the Rockies. In the game where Rizzo appeared he followed fellow position player Victor Caratini who came in in the 8th with the Cubs down just 6 runs. Now who's to say what the exact number is as far as how many runs down and in what inning does it become "acceptable" to throw a position player on the mound. Down 6 in the 8th, or down 16 in the 4th, it's all relative.
The questions is what do you do and is it necessary to do something. I think there are a few things that can be done.
#1. Manage the bullpen better. Now nobody is saying it's easy to manage a bullpen, I mean it's basically the primary job of the manager. For most teams the line-up writes itself or close to it, the rotation is also a relatively easy thing to set on most teams. The bullpen is the tough part, how often do you use guys, which situation do you bring them in, how much rest does this guy need if he threw 30 pitches, 35 pitches? The other thing on the manager's mind is that the GM acquired the lefty in the pen to get out lefties, you've got a big spot and a lefty coming up, you will get second guessed by everyone if you don't bring in your guy.
All of the matchups that teams do these days makes their 10-11 man bullpen seem small. If teams would manage their bullpens more conservatively I think it would not only avoid having too many position players on the mound, but will keep them fresher longer for both October and to extend their careers. It is not likely that these adjustments will be made anytime soon because teams are following numbers and match-ups more and more.
#2. Something that I believe many general managers and organizations in general make a big mistake on is to eliminate the possibility of having a two way guy. Now of course I know about Shohei Ohtani, and I also know about his injury. What I am referring to are the 5 guys on the bench who are position players, who most likely had some experience on the mound at some point in their baseball career. Typically your middle infielders especially pitched in high school or sometimes college, and are athletic so they won't look like fools on the mound. Have 1 or 2 of them throw pens maybe once a week throughout the season so they can throw strikes maybe even have a change-up. These can be your true mop-up guys. You're not worried about them being in terrible shape the next day because they throw once a week, and they are not typically in your starting line-up anyway.
Why not give them some practice so you don't have position guys coming in throwing 50 mph or throwing hard and hurting them selves. This super utility guy will probably be able to throw 80-85 and change some speed, but most importantly throw strikes and eat up innings. That's what a mop up guys is there for. I think this is probably the most reasonable thing for teams to implement, it save the pen and keeps the laugher of a game moving along.
#3. The last fix would come from the commissioner's office with approval from the Player's Union, a Mercy Rule. A Mercy rule is something that most levels of baseball already have including some college conferences. I believe the number and inning are worth debating, but I would start the conversation at 12 run lead after 6 innings. I believe that this rule should not be implemented in postseason play. If you make the postseason and get blown out, you deserve to wear it.
There are of course several counter arguments to the implementation of a mercy rule, the big ones being; the fan has paid for 9 innings and baseball is special because you can't run out the clock, you get 27 outs. I completely understand these points, but here is my response to them.
The fan is paying for entertainment of watching baseball, they don't get a refund on a rain shortened game that goes 5 innings do they? They don't have to pay extra to watch extra innings do they? As far as time goes, I've never seen a 20 run game that lasted less than two and half hours, so they are definitely going to be there long enough to enjoy the game. They are going to see so much action in a game where there are enough runs for a mercy rule. Are they getting their money's worth by watching the back-up right fielder come in to throw 55mph in a 25-3 game? I think fans of both sides in a blow out would be happy for those types of games to end earlier. Watching those games on TV you see very few people left in the stands in those late innings.
The 2nd argument of anything can happen in baseball and they need all 27 of their outs. I understand, and I'm sure you go back in to the dusty archives of the 150 years of professional baseball that you can fine multiple occasions of teams making great comebacks. The questions how many have happened in the live ball era, and what is the likelihood of it happening often in the current era with the bullpens these teams have. The number of games effected by this rule would probably be less than 30 of the 1890 games played each year in the majors. For example on August 2nd there were two games that would have been effected by the rule. The 17-8 game between the Rangers and the Orioles would have ended after the 8th with the Rangers winning 17-5. The Dodgers beat the Brewers 21-5 that same night, this game would have ended in the middle of the Dodger's 9 run 7th inning at 17-5. The impact on the league would be very minimal, and would save these arms that so many GM care so much about.
It's worth discussion and I believe worth bringing to the forefront ahead of something like eliminating shifts, but that's a whole different conversation
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