Baseball: Gord's unique approach successfully spreads the pitching burden

When Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson led the legendary Cincinnati "Big Red Machine" four decades ago, he got the nickname "Captain Hook" for his unconventional and frequent use of relief pitchers.

In that era, big-league pitchers still finished what they started about 25 percent of the time. But there has been a dramatic change since then, as major-league starters have typically given way to a succession of relievers by the end of a game, and pitch counts above 120 raise a lot of eyebrows and questions.

Nelson Gord is taking pitching changes to an entirely different level. The fifth-year head coach at Notre Dame in Niles and former three-sport standout at Buffalo Grove has developed a system where everyone is all in for pitching in every game.

There are some games where no one pitches more than one inning. The most anyone has pitched in a game for the Dons the last two seasons is 4 innings.

"Ten to 20 years ago there weren't as many 'pitchers only' on high school teams as there are today," said Gord, a 1999 BG grad who played at UIC and spent four years with the Schaumburg Flyers. "It's a hard thing to keep kids engaged throughout the season but now they're on the mound two to three times a week. Half of our pitching staff pitched in at least half of our games last year."

It worked out pretty well as the Dons finished 24-13 overall while playing in the rugged East Suburban Catholic Conference. Gord said the staff leader in innings had 44 with five other pitchers between 29 and 35.

Gord said the genesis for the idea came from the Illinois Indians travel program he runs. He would start a four- or five-day tournament by using a pitcher an inning for the opening game instead of having one guy pitch 5 to 7 innings.

"We would be stacked up for the rest of the tournament," Gord said.

In his first year at Notre Dame, Gord said he had a young team with position players who could throw hard but weren't really pitchers. He wanted to find a way to use them on the mound, so late in that season he changed pitchers after every inning in games.

"I thought there was something to this and I continued to evolve with it and do some research on it," Gord said. "When you see all of the Fangraphs about (pitchers) times through the (batting) order, it made sense."

Gord tried to mix in the idea in 2013 and 2014 and then fully committed to it last year. He explained the plan to his pitching staff, showed them supporting data and got them to understand how it would benefit them and the team.

The data from last year showed that Dons' pitchers were throwing fewer pitches each outing and allowing fewer runs and baserunners. The team's victory totals have increased (14, 16, 20, 24).

And because pitchers are used on a frequent basis, they don't need to throw "bullpens" on the side between outings, which in Gord's opinion cause more injuries than pitching in games.

There is also a method to the madness based on the strength of the opponent and what part of the lineup is coming up.

Last year, Notre Dame's top pitcher faced the opponent's first four hitters in the lineup 57 percent of the time and the No. 8 pitcher faced them 32 percent of the time. Playing to each pitcher's strengths gave those two pitchers similar numbers in ERA (earned run average) and WHIP (walks and hits to innings pitched).

"We're riding our best guys against their best guys, which gives us the best chance to win," Gord said. "You do have to be strategic about it. Not every formula is going to be the same."

Doing something radically different has its challenges when it comes to getting everyone on board.

"The big hurdle is, you aren't dealing with (professional) money, but you are dealing with being recruited and schools coming out to look at them," Gord said. "But if you throw 1 or 2 innings instead of 5 or 6, you'll throw harder and your stuff will be sharper.

"We want to put them in a position to succeed. We show them the data and how they are going to perform optimally."

Gord said other high school coaches have asked him about his pitching system but he hasn't come across anyone else using it. But Colorado and Alabama high schools are going to pitch-count limit structures, and it may not be long before Illinois and other states have similar standards that would require more pitching depth.

Gord believes this is a win-win situation for his pitchers and team.

"It's a cool thing to see guys on our staff and roster pulling for each other," Gord said. "That's when you know you have buy-in. When you take the ball and give it to the next guy and he really isn't upset about it."

Because they know they won't have to wait long for their next chance to pitch.

marty.maciaszek@gmail.com