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While I had the spreadsheet open, I thought I'd check Jays starts on short rest. This data goes all the way back to the beginning.

No Blue Jay has ever started a game with 0 days rest, but 9 times a Toronto pitcher has started with just 1 Day of Rest. Which sounds a little alarming, but in each case what had happened is the pitcher made a relief appearance, didn't pitch the next day, and started the next day. For example, David Wells threw 5 pitches out of the bullpen on May 27 1990. He then started (and won) the game on May 29. Other pitchers who did the same thing in Toronto were Dennis Lamp (twice, in 1984 and 1986), Jeff Musselman (1987), Jack Kucek (1980), Jason Kershner (2004), Jerry Garvin (1981) and John Cerutti (1986).

The same story applies, for the most part, on the 62 occasions a Toronto pitcher started a game with just 2 days rest - in almost every occasion it was two days rest after a relief appearance. But there are a few exceptions. Luis  Leal, for example, was the starter on Saturday July 24 1983 (he went 3.1); Bobby Cox sent Leal back out to start Tuesday July 27. John Gibbons brought Josh Towers back on 2 Days Rest at the end of the 2004 season. Jim Clancy actually started 4 games on just 2 Days Rest after his previous start (twice for Cox, once each for Mattick and Williams.)

But I was particularly interested in who made the most starts on 3 Days Rest. The Blue Jays were one of the last teams to use a four man rotation - Bobby Cox only started to transition to a five man rotation in 1983. By my count, it's been done 325 times by a Toronto pitcher, and almost a quarter of those starts came in one season, Bobby Cox's first year in Toronto. Jays pitchers made 79 starts on 3 Days Rest in 1982, far and away the most in team history. The next highest figure comes from the year preceding, when Bobby Mattick used starters on short rest 22 times ( in a strike-shortened season.)

Here are the year-by-year totals:

1977 - 21
1978 - 21
1979 - 7
1980 - 19
1981 - 22
1982 - 79
1983 - 21
1984 - 20
1985 - 15
1986 - 14
1987 - 21
1988 - 5
1989 - 6
1990 - 0
1991 - 11
1992 - 4
1993 - 1
1994 - 2
1995 - 2
1996 - 3
1997 - 1
1998 - 1
1999 - 4
2000 - 1
2001 - 3
2002 - 2
2003 - 7
2004 - 1
2005 - 3
2006 - 2
2007 - 1
2008 - 5

As you can see, the start on short rest has become very rare indeed around these parts since 1987. Cito Gaston was the last man to crack double digits, in 1991 - and even that includes four fill-in starts by relievers (Acker twice, Fraser, and Timlin), two Candiotti starts, and a brief Guzman tune-up on the final day of the year. The year before, Gaston didn't use anyone on short rest - that was 1990, when Gaston's starters also set a new major league record for fewest complete games in a season (it's been broken since then, by practically everybody. Cito was ahead of his time!)

Here are the guys who did it at least five times and the managers they were working for at the time (and it's certain that a few of these appearances did come after a relief outing, especially in the case of John Cerutti.) It should come as no surprise to anyone that the four men at the top of the list were the four members of Bobby Cox's 1982 rotation.

Jim Clancy       58 (Hartsfield-5, Mattick-12, Cox-34, Williams-7)
Dave Stieb       41 (Mattick-8, Cox-26, Williams-3, Gaston-3, Johnson-1)
Luis Leal 35 (Mattick-4, Cox-31)
Jim Gott 17 (Cox)
John Cerutti 16 (Williams-14, Gaston-2)
Jesse Jefferson 14 (Hartsfield-11, Mattick-3)
Doyle Alexander 14 (Cox 13, Williams-1)
Dave Lemanczyk 12 (Hartsfield 11, Mattick-1)
Jerry Garvin 10 (Hartsfield-8, Cox-2)
Jimmy Key 9 (Cox-2, Williams-6, Tenace-1)
Roy Halladay 6 (Tosca-1, Gibbons-4, Gaston-1)
Juan Berenguer 5 (Mattick)
Mark Bomback 5 (Mattick-1, Cox-4)
Juan Guzman 5 (Gaston-4, Tenace-1)
Todd Stottlemyre 5 (Williams-2, Gaston-2, Tenace-1)

Here's a look at the various managerial patterns over the years:

MGR               1 day   2 days  3 days  4 days  5 days  Long Rest   TOTAL
Roy Hartsfield    0    8     49     212    104    111        484
Bobby Mattick    2    12     41    132    42     39        268
Bobby Cox    2    15     135    359    64    73        648
Jimy Williams    3    12    40     319     89    60        523
Cito Gaston    1    6     30     797     364    211       1409
Gene Tenace    0    0     4     24    2    3         33
Mel Queen    0    0     0    5    0    0         5
Tim Johnson    0    0    1    88     49    24        162
Jim Fregosi    0    1     5    185     91     42        324
Buck Martinez    0    3     3    103    72    31        212
Cookie Rojas    0    0    0    0    3    0         3
Carlos Tosca    1     1    10    231    79     57        379
John Gibbons    0    4    7    328    177     96        612

Or, in percentage terms:

MGR               1 day   2 days  3 days    4 days    5 days   Long Rest   
Hartsfield    0.0%    1.7%    10.1%     43.8%     21.5%    22.9%
Mattick    0.7%    4.5%    15.3%     49.3%     15.7%    14.6%
Cox    0.3%    2.3%    20.8%     55.4%      9.9%    11.3%
Williams    0.6%    2.3%    7.6%     61.0%     17.0%    11.5%
Gaston    0.1%    0.4%    2.1%     56.6%     25.8%    15.0%
Tenace    0.0%    0.0%    12.1%    72.7%     6.1%     9.1%
Queen    0.0%    0.0%    0.0%    100.0%     0.0%    0.0%
Johnson    0.0%    0.0%    0.6%    54.3%    30.2%    14.8%
Fregosi    0.0%    0.3%    1.5%    57.1%    28.1%    13.0%
Martinez    0.0%    1.4%    1.4%    48.6%    34.0%    14.6%
Rojas    0.0%    0.0%    0.0%    0.0%    100.0%    0.0%
Tosca    0.3%    0.3%    2.6%    60.9%    20.8%    15.0%
Gibbons    0.0%    0.7%    1.1%    53.6%    28.9%    15.7%
                       

I should note that these totals may not exactly match some of the totals given in various official sources. There are two likely reasons - me making very small minor addition errors, and an attempt on my part to credit the game to the guy who was actually in the dugout that day. I tried to do likewise when I was looking at Pitch Counts Through The Years.

And Bauxite vw_fan17 was wondering if there were any surprising win-loss records to go with this, which caused me to wonder why I never did that ion the first place. Here's how everyone who started on 3 days rest at least twice performed:

                                                                                      Avg
Pitcher    ST    W    L    IP       H    R     ER   BB     SO   HR    ERA     BF    GmSc
                                                           
Clancy    58   21   21  358     374   177   164   133   192   38    4.12    1577    49.6
Stieb    41   11   17  284     271   135   122    89   132   26    3.87    1186    51.9
Leal    35   14   12  234     230   103    95    80   100   21    3.65    988    51.4
Gott    17    6    8    98.2    89    54    47    42    51   11    4.29    422    49.2
Cerutti    14    8    2    85.1    93    49    37    31    38   18    3.90    376    54.8
Jefferson   14    6    5  105     107    55    47    47    52   12    4.03    458    49.4
Alexander   14    5    5    97.2    95    50    48    28    45    8    4.42    405    50.6
Lemanczyk   12    7    4    91.1    90    42    40    31    31   11    3.94    386    51.1
Garvin    10    2    5    55.1    67    39    35    19    33    9    5.69    251    43.0
Key    9    4    2    56     62    26    24    16    23    3    3.86    237    48.6
Halladay    6    4    2    42     38    16    13     1    27    5    2.79    167    59.0
Guzman    5    2    2    31      32    14    13     9    13    0    3.77    128    50.6
Bomback    5    1    3    30.1    41    19    18    16    13    3    5.34     145    40.4
Berenguer    5    1    3    27.1    25    20    17    17    10    5    5.60    126    44.2
Stottlemyre  5    0    2    29.1    28    14    14    12    17    4    4.30    126    49.4
Walker    4    1    0    20.2    23    11    11     4    11    6    4.79     85    46.8
Escobar    4    1    3    17      22    11    11     5     7    1    5.82    77    42.8
Underwood    4    0    3    26.1    33    22    19    13    26    8    6.49    121    41.0
Burnett    3    3    0    19.1    13    5    4    10    18    1    1.85    84    62.0
Acker    3    2    0    16      18    14    12     9     7    4    6.75    72    38.0
Flanagan    3    1    2    18.2    17    8    8    8    15    3    3.86     79    53.0
Kucek    3    0    2     9      17    15    13     5     2    1   13.00     49    28.7
Hentgen    2    2    0    15.1    12    3     2     2    14    1    1.17    60    69.0
Mirabella    2    1    0    15.2    16    4    3     3     4    1    1.72    63    58.0
Vuckovich    2    1    1    15      19    6    6     3    17    0    3.60    68    55.5
Loaiza    2    1    0    10      13    5     5     1     6    1    4.50    43    46.5
Candiotti    2    0    0    14      12    4    4     5     6    0    2.57     57    56.5
Leiter    2    0    1    11      9    7    7    8    11    1    5.73    50    47.0
Bush    2    0    1     9.2    11    7     5     1     2    3    4.66    42    43.0
Eichhorn    2    0    1    9      12    8    6     6     2    1    6.00    47    38.5
Lemongello   2    0    2     9.1    14    14    11     3     8    4   10.61    46    28.5
Moore    2    0    2     8.1     7    9    8     4     7    2    8.64    39    41.0
Lamp    2    0    1     7.1     7    7    5     1     4    1    6.14     31    44.5

As you can see, one or two pitchers have responded quite positively to working on short rest - Roy Halladay, obviously. Luis Leal and John Cerutti all pitched notably better on short rest as well (again, in Cerutti's case, this was generally coming after a relief appearance.) And it would have been interesting to see Pat Hentgen get a few more chances - he surely did well when asked.

The most significant failure here is Dave Stieb. Forget the W-L record (11-17) - that's yet another instance of Stieb's notorious Tough Luck rising up to bite him yet again. He posted a decent enough ERA (3.87) and actually pitched better than Clancy or Leal on short rest. It's simply that most of this came during that five year period when Stieb was clearly the very best pitcher in the AL. He was normally far, far better than this. Stieb was a very fine athlete, but by no means was he as big and strong as Jim Clancy or Roy Halladay. Pitching on short rest didn't really agree with him.

Those of you with living memories of how the 1985 ALCS unfolded would probably agree.
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vw_fan17 - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 02:58 PM EDT (#201147) #
Since you "have the spreadsheet open"..  Any surprising win-loss numbers to go with the starting records?
Magpie - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 04:55 PM EDT (#201157) #
Any surprising win-loss numbers to go with the starting records?

Your wish is... not my command!

But it is granted! Updated accordingly!
snider - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 04:58 PM EDT (#201158) #

Was there any big revelation that lead to the five man rotation replacing the four?  I guess it's would be frowned upon if someone went back to a four man rotation but imagine getting Doc 7-8 more starts a year.

Magpie - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 05:10 PM EDT (#201160) #
The Dodgers were the first team to embrace the five man rotation, after Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale both had their careers ended by injury in their early 30s.

It used to be generally true that when the Dodgers sneezed, everyone else caught a cold. They were successful using five starters, and within 15 years it had been universally adopted.

The Jays, in fact, went back to using a strict four man rotation when Cox arrived. They, like a lot of teams were using 4.5 to 5 starters - baseball still had swing men in those days! Cox took over a team that had some talent, but not a lot. But they did have three very good young starters, so he leaned on them as much as he could. It was really the arrival of Doyle Alexander in mid-1983 that allowed to switch to using five starters.
PeteMoss - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 05:22 PM EDT (#201163) #

Jays have signed David Delucci.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4249309

 

vw_fan17 - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 08:36 PM EDT (#201174) #
Thanks!

Yeah, I can see how Stieb generally didn't do that well.. I'm guessing that the other pitchers who have more than 2 or 3 such starts are generally within their norms (Clancy, etc)? As in - usually only the better pitchers were asked to go on short rest, and so they usually posted a pretty decent game score (50 being decent, IIRC), and most of those up there are high 40s, low 50s..

Jeremy - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 08:41 PM EDT (#201175) #
Flanagan, Key, and Stieb all went on 3 days rest in the penultimate series in '87 against the Brewers.  None of them pitched particularly well (Game Scores of 37, 26 and 40, respectively)
snider - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 08:57 PM EDT (#201176) #
Looks like it might be time to go to a six man rotation judging by the health of the Jays arms.  Who says 5 is the right number? 

I guess with free agency you don't really care about the long term health of your pitchers anyway.
Magpie - Wednesday, June 10 2009 @ 09:20 PM EDT (#201178) #
1982 is the crucial year to look at - it's the only time in team history that the four starters (in this case) all made more starts on 3 Days Rest than any other. The results were mixed, indeed.

Dave Stieb went 6-7, 3.99 in 17 starts on 3 Days Rest; he went 9-4, 2.45  in 15 starts on 4 Days Rest. He went 2-4, 3.35 in 6 other starts (5,  6 or more Days Rest.).

Jim Clancy went 7-8, 4.11 in 17 starts on 3 Days Rest; he went 7-4, 3.64  in 14 starts on 4 Days Rest. He went 2-2, 3.34 in 5 other starts (2, 5, 6 or more Days Rest..

Jim Gott went 3-7, 5.05 in 13 starts on 3 Days Rest; he went 2-1, 2.00  in 4 starts on 4 Days Rest. He went 0-2, 6.65 in 6 other starts (2, 5, 6 or more Days Rest.

But on the other hand, there was Luis Leal, who went 6-7, 3.37 in 18 starts on 3 Days Rest; he went 4-6, 4.72  in 13 starts on 4 Days Rest. He went 2-2, 4.03 in 6 other starts (1, 5, 6 or more Days Rest..

But it doesn't make a lot of sense to set up the rotation to suit Luis. That team needed a fifth starter.

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