Rockies To Keep 4-Man Rotation in 2013

[Giantmetfan07]

Colorado’s switch to a four-man rotation with starters on 75-pitch limits hasn’t exactly worked wonders, but the Rockies are sticking with that setup for the remainder of this season and plan to continue using it next year as well.
Troy Renck of the Denver Post reports that they’ll make a slight change, essentially pairing each starter with a “piggyback” reliever who’ll be expected to throw around 50 pitches. And in theory 75 pitches from the starter and 50 pitches from the reliever would get the Rockies deep enough into games to then rely on more traditional bullpen usage.
Coors Field and pitching at altitude has made it extremely tough for the Rockies to get consistently good or even decent starting pitching for basically their entire existence, so experimenting makes some sense and pairing pitchers is an interesting concept. Of course, it’s worth noting that the switch to a four-man rotation hasn’t really done much good so far.
Before the switch Rockies starters had a 6.28 ERA and since the switch Rockies starters have a 5.61 ERA. So they’ve been better but still really, really bad and the extra stress placed on relievers has caused the bullpen ERA to rise from 4.00 before the switch to 4.52 since. Basically all the improvement with the rotation has been canceled out by the bullpen getting worse (and throwing more innings).
Overall their team ERA was 5.38 before the switch and is 5.04 after the switch.
NBC Sports

 

[elcheato]

This is still the worst idea, ever. Jim Tracy's level of incompetence is too much to measure.

 

[Mexi]

I used to think it was stupid too cheato, but seeing them a lot lately, for a staff like their's i actually like this idea

their guys usually see the order just twice, then they get a fresh middle guy who is pretty decent when facing a lineup once at a time
then their late inning guys like Rex Brothers for lefties, Belisle and Betancourt. not as bad as you think

 

[Lake Louise]

I actually have no problem with the 4-man rotation concept. The part that I'm not to big on is the 75 pitch limit for starters. I think they would be better making it 100 pitches. Most starters should be able to reach 100 without much of a problem. With the 50 pitch limit for relievers, looks that they will be expecting more of their relievers to be long relief type guys.