A couple of days ago, I was just reading some tweets on X and a tweet mentioned a team’s usage of starting pitchers. In particular, that team already used 10+ pitchers to start a game this season.
After reading the tweet, I just thought about each team’s pitcher usage. And I would like to see which teams used more pitchers to start a game last season. To understand a little bit more, I decided to check on the MLB website.
Looking back at the 2023 season, the A’s and the Royals each used more than 20 different pitchers to start a game. In the Oakland A’s, there were 6 pitchers who made more than 10 starts in 2023. And among the Royals pitching staff, 4 players made more than 10 starts last season. One of those 4 pitchers is Zack Greinke. He made 27 starts for the Royals in 2023. Well, none of those teams clinched a postseason berth last year.
In addition, there were 8 teams that used between 15 and 19 pitchers to start a game in 2023. The Braves won 104 games in 2023 and they used 16 pitchers to start a game. Meanwhile, the Dodgers got 100 wins last year and they used 17 pitchers to start a game. At the same time, the Rays won 99 games last season and there were 17 pitchers to start a game for the Rays. Other 5 teams didn’t play October baseball in 2023.
Most of the MLB teams used between 10 and 14 pitchers last season. The Rangers won the 2023 World Series Champions and there were 10 pitchers who used to make at least a start for the team. And 5 Rangers pitchers each made at least 20 starts last season. It’s also notable to mention that the Astros, the Twins and the Brewers each used 10 different pitchers to start a game in 2023. In the meantime, the NL pennant winner Diamondbacks used 14 pitchers to start a game last season. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly each made 30+ starts for the D-backs in 2023. And the Phillies used 11 different pitchers to start a game last season and the Marlins had 14 pitchers who made at least 1 starts for the team.
Finally, 3 teams each used fewer than 10 pitchers to start a game last year. The Orioles, which won 101 games in 2023, had 9 pitchers who made at least 1 start. There were 3 pitchers who made at least 30 starts for the Orioles last season. Also in the AL East, the Blue Jays used only 8 different pitchers to start a game last season. 4 starters made 30+ starts for the Blue Jays in 2023. Furthermore, 8 different pitchers made at least 1 start for the Nationals in 2023.
So, looking back, if a team uses more than 20 different pitchers to start a game, that probably doesn’t look like a good thing. And most of the time, a team might use 10+ pitchers to start a game during the regular season. Sometimes, a team might use an opener to start a game. Sometimes, injuries might happen and a team’s front office has to decide to find a way to identify which pitcher to start a game. There are several ways to use pitching staff and we can see each team has different methods to use pitchers. The 2024 regular season will come to an end in one and half months. At the end of the 2024 season, we can check if there’s a team that uses more than 20 pitchers to start a game.
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