If you look at the chart above, you’ll notice something a little unusual. There’s eighteen bullpen outings in total above, and in none of them has a D-backs reliever thrown as many as twenty pitches. This appears to be something of a trend. Indeed, excluding Brandon Pfaadt for obvious reasons, no Arizona reliever has gone past 20 pitches in a game this month. The last to do so were Philip Abner and James McCann on April 30th, who threw 34 and 24 pitches respectively. Taylor Clarke’s last five appearances
have averaged just 8.8 pitches, and Juan Morillo is lower still, at just eight pitches per outing over his previous five outings.
All told, the D-backs bullpen has thrown 681 pitches this month. That’s the lowest in the majors, and it’s not close. It’s 245 pitches fewer than the 29th-ranked Braves: they’re nearer the 12th ranked Cubs, than to the 30th place D-backs. The average Arizona relief appearance in May has lasted just 13.35 pitches. That figure is down by over twenty percent from 16.89 pitches per GR over the first month of the season. The number was even higher last year, at 18.94 pitches. This is not a major league-wide trend. Indeed, compared to last season, the average number of pitches has actually increased, going up from 18.55 to 19.50 P/GR.
I wonder if this is something the D-backs are consciously doing. It could partly be a result of the rotation going deeper into games. The starters have thrown 112 innings this month – most in the majors, despite playing a game less than the other leaders. When there’s only an average of eight outs per game to get, you can be more aggressive about changing relievers. Getting all of your bullpen into games might require shorter outings. But I wonder if it may also be an attempt to protect arms? Has the team found that longer outings lead to excessive strain on relief arms as well as starters? No idea. But something to keep an eye on.
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