Let’s face it, today’s game of baseball is not your father’s game. In fact, if anyone had even suggested to your father (or grandfather) that the game of baseball in the second decade of the second millennium would be based more on analytics than on the eyes, ears and instincts of coaches, managers, general managers, presidents of baseball operations (which didn’t even exist in your father’s game), and owners, they would have looked at you as if you were nuts.

Well here we are. In fact, we’ve actually been here for quite some time … around the turn of the century, if you choose to give former Oakland A’s general manager and now executive vice president of baseball operations (boom) Billy Beane – of Moneyball fame – credit (if you choose to call it that) for introducing analytics to the baseball world.

In case you might be unaware (or didn’t read the 2003 book or see the 2011 movie of the same name), Beane was once a major league outfielder (1984-1989) with the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics. He joined the Athletics front office as a scout in 1990 and was named general manager after the 1997 season, and promoted to executive vice president of baseball operations following the 2015 season.

Simply put, analytics are here to say which, of course, has fathers, grandfathers and in some cases even a few great grandfathers shaking their collective heads.

Love him or hate him, Oakland’s Billy Beane is the undisputed father of baseball analytics. (Photo credit – Kyle Terada)

With Dodgers pitchers and catchers set to report for spring training next week, there are seven known Dodger starters vying for five spots: left-handers Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Alex Wood and right-handers Kenta Maeda, Ross Stripling and Brock Stewart – and this doesn’t even include Dodgers top right-handed pitching prospect Walker Buehler (who is very much in the mix), fellow right-handed prospect Dennis Santana and left-handed prospect Henry Owens. That’s 10 guys battling for five spots.

…or is it?

During last month’s FanFest event, Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi was asked specifically what his starting rotation might be on Opening Day 2018.

“Right now we have five starters from last year and I think the guys that everybody sees as our five starters unless there’s an injury or something like that,” Zaidi said. “I think that’s what we’ll go into the season with.”

Even though Zaidi’s answer indicates his intention to stick with a five-man rotation, it was his answer to a follow-up question about Walker Buehler, who is working his way back from Tommy John surgery on August 5, 2015, that was the first hint that things could change, perhaps as early as Opening Day.

“Knowing how excited people get watching Walker pitch, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of talk about having him on the team one way or another, but you’ve got to think about how to maximize his impact on the team over the whole season,” said Zaidi. “You guys will have plenty of time to write this story.”

Hmmm…

Obviously, utilizing a six-man rotation would play well for the 23-year-old Lexington, Kentucky native and Dodgers first-round selection in the 2015 MLB First Year Player Draft. In fact, it would play well for the entire Dodgers starting rotation under what appears to be yet another analytical trend happening in the game today – starters going only five or six innings before handing the game over to their respective bullpens, this in spite of the score at the time. In other words and unlike your father’s game, a complete nine-inning game today is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

Is this a good thing? Perhaps. But you will have a very difficult time convincing a fierce competitor like Clayton Kershaw that this is the way to go.

Anyone who as spent any time watching the soon-to-be (on March 29) 30-year-old Dallas, Texas native and Dodgers 2006 first round draft pick – and let’s be honest here, who hasn’t? –  knows full well that he is a perfectionist who relies heavily on a very regimented workout and pitching schedule. As such, changing from pitching every five days to pitching every six days might not go over too well with the seven-time All-Star, three-time National Cy Young award winner, 2014 NL MVP, Gold Glove winner and MLB Player of the Year.

Chances are exceptionally good that these two guys are your father’s favorite Dodger left-hander and yours.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

That being said, and coupled with that trendy five or six innings per start analytical thing, going to a six man rotation could very well add years to Kershaw’s, Hill’s, Ryu’s, Wood’s, Maeda’s, Stripling’s, Stewart’s, and of course Buehler’s respective careers. It would also mean that Dodger starters wound max out at 27 starts per season instead of 32. But let’s be real here, the most starts made by a Dodger pitcher in 2017 were the 27 made by Kershaw, followed by the 25 made by Hill, Maeda and Wood.

Needless to say, this is a far cry from the 42 starts that Dodgers Hall of Famer Don Drysdale made in 1963 and 1965, or the 41 starts that Dodgers Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax made in 1965 and 1966, when starting pitchers were on a four-man rotation.

You know… your father’s Dodgers.