Sergio Romo’s first career start just happened - McCovey Chronicles

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This will be the Rays next contribution to the so-called "Sabermetric Revolution" (after shifts). It is what David has to do to defeat Goliath. If the Rays had the resources to pack the starting rotation with four Max Scherzers, would they be doing this? Probably not. So maybe it's more of the "Competitive Balance Disparity Problem" rearing its ugly head again. Like the allegedly dead and buried PED issue.


from McCovey Chronicles:
Sergio Romo’s first career start just happened - McCovey Chronicles:

A long time ago, Sergio Romo used to be an ace reliever with the Giants. A long, long time ago, Sergio Romo used to start games from time to time. 

Now that he’s made his way to the forward-thinking, penny-pinching Tampa Bay Rays, they’ve turned him into some slider-throwing hybrid of the two by declaring him their “opener” in their series with the Angels.

Baseball Prospectus’ Bryan Grosnick coined the term “opener” as a bookend to the end-of-the-game “closer” and it’s basically a riff on the Bullpen Game approach we’ve seen employed by these very Rays and some other teams from time to time. The opener idea is a bit more direct — one inning from a quality reliever to basically help the team “settle in” and have a chance to get through a first inning without much damage."

'via Blog this'

This won't spread too far or too wide. I don't know that I would trust the gas-can carriers in the Giants bullpen to be "openers" for the starters. But I would like to see a sub 30-pitch, 3 runs allowed first inning every now and again. Although you could make the argument that the Giants starters have been "openers" for the last two years. Because they open the can of "Whup Ass" that the opposition uses to beat us by giving up large, early inning deficits.

I can't wait to hear the purists cry, "Oh Lord, we're skewing the GS stat". Wait, what? Who cares? The Rays are trying to win ball games and this is one way to do it. If a team, like the Rockies versus the Giants for instance, consistently jumps out to a lead against your starting staff, maybe one way to stop the bleeding is to throw an "opener" out their instead of an ineffective "starter". These guys are more accustomed to being ready to go on first pitch whereas starters sometimes suffer from "first inning-worst inning syndrome". This takes care of that. Wait a minute! Maybe this will spread. Maybe we need a "FIWI" stat to identify starters who can't warm-up and answer the opening bell efficiently and allocate pitching resources more appropriately if somewhat unconventionally.  Isn't that what shifting was all about? Not being a prisoner to convention? 

Viva Le Rays!! Viva Senor Romo!!

BTW: Sergio Romo is still a freaking warrior and the perfect choice for this type of experiment. Pound for pound, the best reliever of all time.

P.S. - I'm trademarking the "FIWI" stat name.