The Outman Odyssey

I have to take issue with Jim Tracy leaving Josh Outman in for so long to try to pick up a win.   In order to buy in to the 4 man rotation, you more or less need to be pretty rigid on the pitch count for it to work long term.  In three of his first four innings, Outman made 18 pitches each inning and got out of a couple jams.  In his only 1-2-3 inning Outman required 15 pitches.

So going into the 5th, he was getting ready to throw his 70th pitch, and Tracy knew he would need to go at least 85-90 pitches to get through the inning.   And he had a 10 run lead.

Perfect situation to get a win, but at what cost.  2 of the first 3 runners got on base and the count was already at 85.  Probably the point that he should have come out at that point with only 1 out.  He did strike out Josh Hamilton (but who can't this weekend) on 3 pitches and he was now at 88 and one out away.


The end result was 92 pitches, no win, and ultimately a potential easy win turned into a relatively close one, before the rest of the bullpen shut them down.   


So will Outman be ready by Wednesday?  We will see if this cost them long term and I suppose it's part of the experiment.  There are options however.  Depending on how the next 3 games go, the Rockies could put Outman in the long-relief role for a turn, and put Guthrie or Moscosco in a start on Wednesday.  They could also bring up someone from Colo Springs for Wednesday as well, or they could let Outman pitch, but hold him just under 75.  


By the way, in the first 5 games of the experiment, nobody has given up more than 5 runs in a start and everyone has made it to the limit (70-75) before being taken out.