Quote:
Originally Posted by eauhomme
They need to do stamina the same way they now do positional ratings, the current and potential rating (maybe hidden, though, so it's not obviious).
This would allow a stamina 3 reliever (on a 20-point scale) to stretch into a starter with longer outings, maybe maxing as an 8 for some, but 16 for others. But maybe another reliever is not capable of stretching at all. And a starter who goes to the bullpen maybe slowly loses stamina, and has to gradually get it back through short starts or long relief.
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That's the thing, though. They can all already start. They don't need to be stretched. The only issue is how much effectiveness should they lose when they are pacing themselves for 7-9 innings instead of trying to blow past every hitter in their one inning of relief.
In the majors, Billy Wagner made zero starts in 853 appearances. He is the typical one-inning closer. But before he was called up from the minors, he had made 73 starts in his 83 appearances.
Billy Wagner could have been a major-league starter, but the Astros didn't have a spot for him in the rotation in 1996 when they already had guys like Doug Drabek, Greg Swindell, Darryl Kile, Shane Reynolds and Mike Hampton already solidly established.
As a result, they put him at closer and he excelled, and they never had a need to take him out. Billy Wagner was a closer because of the team's needs, not because he couldn't start.
So now everyone thinks of Billy Wagner (and career closers like him) as guys whose arms would fall off if they threw more than 3 innings. Which is completely untrue.
A manager should be able to throw Billy Wagner in the rotation at any time and he should have the stamina for it. However, his effectiveness should drop accordingly so that managers are encouraged to keep him in the bullpen for better historical realism. But if they really needed him to start? He should be able to.