New rules, new bullpen

The biggest complaint I had about Paul Molitor as a manager, and this is a common refrain for many managers (looking at you, Robin Ventura) was that they overmanaged the bullpen, especially early in the season. Managers would try to game good pitching to batting matchups, and were known to change pitchers multiple times in the same inning. This caused the game to drag on with the pauses in action, and put an undue burden on all these pitchers. They might only get 8 pitches in an outing, but they would have to throw in the bullpen to get warmed up with much more frequency. 

Rules have changed to required pitchers to pitch to at least three batters an appearance, barring injury. As a result the LOOGY (Lefty One Out GuY) is going extinct, while managers are leaning on relievers a bit more, and front offices are adapting to the changes. Note the emergence of Griffin Jax, a former starter, as a solid bullpen piece. Jhoan Duran was viewed as a starting prospect as well, and the front office added pieces like Chris Archer, undoubtedly for depth, but also with an eye towards work out of the pen as players got healthy, or jumped to the majors. 

And thus, the managerial criticisms have changed too. I used to not appreciate Molitor getting away with his overwhelming number of pitching changes, but now, Rocco Baldelli gets roasted by fans for leaving pitchers in too long. The calculus has changed, and rather abruptly for teams and managers. Guys who were used to facing only one or two batters at a time in some appearances, must now work entire innings or more. 

Especially with early season outings, it is important to acclimate pitchers to their conditions. I don't think any manager wants a pitcher to throw until they have nothing left in the tank every time on the mound, and for relievers, that means stretching them out a little in early season games. While we may not want Baldelli to leave a pitcher in for an entire inning, it might be part of a conditioning process for next time, so the Cody Stashak (or whoever) can pitch comfortably to three batters, because he knows he could pitch to 5 if he needed to. 

Creating this rule has been one of the smarter things that baseball has done. Mid-inning pitching changes were the biggest delays in a regular game, and they are significantly fewer of them now. Theoretically, it will also encourage more offense because it will be tougher to match pitchers to hitters, and will save arms in the long run. It is just taking a little time for teams, managers and fans to adapt to the new world.