'Reverse-split" relievers intrigue Cubs' Maddon
When it comes to managing his bullpen, Joe Maddon will be both traditional and nontraditional with the Cubs.
For the traditional, Maddon seems to favor one closer, as most bullpens are built from the back end.
"It's always nice to have one guy, but you have to have the one guy who's able to do it," Maddon said recently at Cubs spring-training camp in Mesa, Arizona. "When you have one guy, that really permits you to think differently during the course of the game. You've to got just manage eight innings worth of pitching because you know the ninth inning is taken care of.
"When you don't have that one specialist, specific person in the ninth inning, you're always trying to (say), 'Who's going to get the last three outs and how are we going to work this whole thing out?'
"I think you can't be afraid to make adjustments if it's necessary."
The "one guy" Maddon referred to is right-hander Hector Rondon, a former Rule 5 draft pick who won the closer's job last year and saved 29 games in 33 chances, including 15 in a row to end the season.
Rondon enters the Cactus League season as the closer, and unless something untoward happens in spring training, the job will be his on Opening Day.
Where things get interesting - and by now you'd expect nothing less from Maddon - is in the middle and setup situations.
The Cubs ended last season with a pretty solid bullpen after a rough beginning. But they enter this season without a true veteran left-handed reliever following last July's trade of James Russell and the off-season decision not to bring back Wesley Wright.
Lefty Zac Rosscup is in camp. He finished the 2014 season with the Cubs, giving him a total of 28 major-league appearances.
Rosscup could be the lone lefty in the pen on Opening Day, or he could be joined by Felix Doubront, who is more of a starter/long reliever.
But have no fear, says Maddon.
As someone who is into the analytics of the game, Maddon has been talking of "reverse-split" pitchers. In other words, right-handers who get left-handed hitters out and vice versa.
"They're also very interesting, the guy who gets out the opposite side better," he said. "The specialist is becoming more difficult. You only bring in specialists against the guys you know they're not going to pinch hit for. If the guy is going to get pinch hit for, then why bring in a specialist?
"It's nice to have a real legitimate lefty who gets out lefties. However, I'm really into the reverse-split guys. Those guys can be really dangerous. The righty who gets out lefties has become pretty prominent.
"Their fastball splits, change-ups have really permitted right-side pitchers to get left-side hitters out pretty consistently, and vice versa. But primarily it's been righties against lefties.
"Moving forward, you look at your guys, and what is their skill set? And you just try to put them in the best possible spot to be successful. I've had righties I didn't want to see on a righty, absolutely did not. You get left-right-left and you sweat out while he's pitching against the righty. People don't quite get that."
With Rondon the closer, the Cubs have three key setup righties in the pen, and their left-right splits are pretty much even, making them viable options to face that one left-handed batter who is sandwiched between two righties.
A look:
• Justin Grimm has allowed career numbers of .281/.338/.429 against right-handers with 9 homers and 89 strikeouts while going .280/.345/.443 with 11 homers and 70 strikeouts against lefties.
• Pedro Strop is .203/.308/.296 with 7 homers and 139 strikeouts against right-handed batters and .229/.336/.324 with 4 homers and 97 strikeouts vs. lefties.
• Hard-throwing youngster Neil Ramirez was a rookie last year. He went .173/.236/.286 against right-handers with 2 homers and 30 strikeouts and .200/.324/.267 with 0 homers and 23 strikeouts against lefties.
Throw in veteran Jason Motte (signed in the off-season) and returning man Brian Schlitter, and the Cubs figure to have a plethora of right-handed options at various points of any game.
"From my perspective, it's about leverage situations," Maddon said. "I like to be able to match up. Matchups aren't always necessarily left-on-left, right-on-right. Today's game presents a lot of reverse-split pitchers or neutral guys. Neutral guys are the best, the guys that are able to get out both righties and lefties consistently. Those are really interesting relief pitchers."