The Return of the Five-Man Rotation

Remember this post from early in the season?

This is the key part:
If there is one Midwest League beat writer who knows about the piggyback pitching system, that beat writer would be Marc Katz of the Dayton Daily News. So, he was ready when Fort Wayne brought that system to town this week.

At least for now, Fort Wayne manager Doug Dascenzo is all for the piggyback pitching system parent San Diego has installed for his team.

He gave all the same reasons the Reds used when they forced their lower minor league teams into harsh pitch counts while alternating starters with relievers.

The system requires eight pitchers who can start games. At Fort Wayne, pitchers are allowed only 60 pitches before being replaced.

When it was pointed out not every team has eight pitchers good enough to make the system work, Dascenzo said, "We have eight pitchers."

How's it working so far? Entering Wednesday night's (April 9) game, the Wizards were 1-5 with a team ERA of 5.40, 12th in the 14-team Class A Midwest League.

Well, the Wizards have scrapped the tandem.

Thirty-eight games into the season, Fort Wayne abandoned its handcuffed eight-man starting pitching rotation in favor of the standard five-man rotation featured at the major league level.

“We've been kind of kicking it around a little bit and felt like a good time to start was (Thursday),” Wizards manager Doug Dascenzo said. “We're excited about doing that.”

The official decision came from the front office of Fort Wayne's Major League affiliate San Diego Padres. Vice President of Scouting and Player Development Grady Fuson and minor league pitching coordinator Mike Couchee coincided with Dascenzo to make the choice.

“They felt it was time to go the five-man,” Wizards pitching coordinator Tom Bradley said. “The guys did a real good job with the eight-man, so they just decided to make the switch. We weren't going to do the eight-man the entire year.”

How did that whole piggyback thing work out for the Wizards?

Fort Wayne ranks last in earned run average (4.41), hits (354), runs and earned runs (185-160) and second in home runs allowed (29). But the strategy behind the eight-man rotation was to keep pitch counts low, meaning pitchers focused on pitching for contact (i.e., more hits against) rather than trying to make batters chase pitches out of the strike zone, as evidenced by the Wizards' league-low 91 walks.