Say your team can have a player who will never get a hit, but is guaranteed to work out a 13 pitch at bat every time (unless he gets walked first). He plays replacement level defense. Does he make the team?

The average starting pitcher threw 86 pitches and 5.2 innings last year, or roughly 5 pitches an out. So an 8 pitch increase will take 1.6 outs off of what a starting pitcher would’ve gone. He’ll get up probably twice against a starting pitcher, so 3.2 outs or roughly 1.1 innings. That’ll bring an average pitcher down from 5.2 to 4.1 innings. A bullpen will have to throw 4.2 innings and 1.1 extra innings. A reliever averages 19 pitches and 1 inning, or 6.3 pitches per out, he’ll basically be worth an extra out on a reliever, and he’ll get up twice at least, so an extra 0.2 innings worth of pitches added at the very least. So combine the starter and reliever totals, by my extremely rough and tons of rounding calculations, he’ll make a team throw 11 innings worth of pitches in a normal 9 inning game, and basically burn 2 relievers more than they normally would have.

/r/baseball Thread