One of the reports out of the GM meeting was that support was growing for a rule change that would require a reliever to face at least two batters. There was little or no detail about how the rule would be implemented. For example, does the reliever have to start the next inning if he has only one PA, but he gets the third out?
There was some discussion about this in the comments for the previous article. As I result I decided to look at the game day data for 2015 to see how often the LOOGY/ROOGY substitutions are made.
Bottom line is that they don’t happen a lot (roughly 1,400 times in all of 2015). And quite often it is due to the pitcher getting the third out. Check out the charts below.
Number of LOOGY/ROOGY appearances in 2015 by number of outs after the PA.
And here it is broken down by team.
Number of LOOGY/ROOGY appearances in 2015 by team and number of outs.
Seems pretty clear that the Cardinals and the Giants have lots more such appearances than any other team. (apologies of the resolution once compressed – click on the image to see a full size version).
LOOGY/ROOGY pitching substitutions don’t seem to happen a lot. But when they do (especially if you are at the game) they are incredibly frustrating to sit though.
What say you about such a rule change?
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