In most cases, no matter how good your bullpen, in a single game you can't expect to cover more than 5 innings with top quality relievers. That's the basic problem this idea runs into.
It's pretty silly to be complaining about a weak middle of the lineup when the team is second in the majors in runs scored, and very close to first.
Sure things could be better. Things could always be better.
But it is kind of important to note that all the other teams besides Detroit have bigger problems scoring runs than we do.
As far as I know Bard is the first case of a pitcher losing the ability to throw strikes in a career-ending way after being moved from reliever to starter.
It's tunnel vision, which you get from watching all your team's games and focussing on them. Every other team has weaknesses too, or at least games when they get shut down. The Tigers got shut out yesterday and that was the 9th time for them.
Well, I've never seen a relief pitcher parade like the 2011 World Series. I just looked it up and the 2 times combined had 58 pitcher changes in 7 games. So each team was averaging 5 pitchers a game. That was modern baseball at its best/worst.
Right. The tasks required to play major league baseball are specialized and demanding. If Bard really wanted to throw a lot more strikes he probably could, but only by throwing the ball 88 MPH with no movement and down the middle. No point in doing that because every pitch would get hammered.
That's the way I see it too. Being a wild card team is obviously very dicey because there's a 50/50 chance you're going to be done right away. But the winner of that game has just as good a chance as a wild card team under the old format did.
You're still going to see their ace on regular rest even if it's not in Game One though. There's an off day before the wild card game, one before the LDS and one during the series.