The Rays Played a Pitcher at First Base
It’s been a strange few months for the Tampa Bay Rays. The front office spent the spring denying accusations they were trying to tank, and even at a half-decent 39-40, the club is nowhere particularly close to the playoff hunt. And yet, if you prefer the BaseRuns standings to the actual ones, the Rays have been a top-ten baseball team, even while playing a difficult schedule. And while injuries and being shorthanded led the Rays toward their “opener” experiment in the middle of May, as a team they’ve allowed the lowest ERA in baseball ever since. They’ve also allowed the lowest wOBA. This is where the Rays have gotten without Brent Honeywell. This is where they’ve gotten without Jose De Leon. Injuries have sidelined Nathan Eovaldi, Chris Archer, Anthony Banda, Jake Faria, and Kevin Kiermaier, among others. A month ago, Denard Span and Alex Colome were traded.
Through one lens, the Rays have been mediocre. They are how they were designed. Through another lens, the Rays have been an inspiring success. One could argue only luck separates them from a wild-card spot. No matter the lens, though, the Rays haven’t been boring. It’s a young club, stocked with talent. The strategy around the starting rotation and the subsequent relievers has been inventive. And on Tuesday, in the ninth inning of a one-run game, manager Kevin Cash played a pitcher at first base. The circumstances weren’t extraordinary. It was done very much on purpose.
Going into the top of the ninth, this was the scene:
Jose Alvarado was out there, trying to protect a 1-0 lead against the Nationals. Nothing about that was weird, and it wasn’t weird when Alvarado issued a leadoff walk to Bryce Harper. Alvarado throws balls, and Harper frequently takes them. That’s when Cash called upon the right-handed Chaz Roe to deal with the right-handed Anthony Rendon. But Roe didn’t knock Alvarado out of the game. Rather, he effectively knocked out Johnny Field. Mallex Smith moved from left to right, where Field had been. Jake Bauers moved from first to left. And Alvarado moved from pitcher to first. Cash didn’t want to lose the lefty Alvarado, with the left-handed Juan Soto and Daniel Murphy coming up after Rendon. And so the southpaw went to hide in a corner.
Everybody seemed amused by the situation.
It’s rare for a pitcher to swap to another position, only to return to the mound when the right matchup is there. It’s rare, but not unheard of. Only two weeks ago, Joe Maddon played both Steve Cishek and Brian Duensing in the outfield, so as to make use of their platoon splits. Alvarado didn’t go to the outfield. He trotted over to first base, which is a more uncommon technique. In an extra-inning game two Aprils ago, Bryan Mitchell spent an inning at first base for the Yankees, because they were short on available relievers. Before Mitchell, a pitcher hadn’t also played first since Chuck Crim in 1989. That situation was more like Alvarado’s:
“I was just trying to get the matchups at the right time,” [Tom] Trebelhorn said. “If it hadn’t worked, there would be a big mob in the Southside of Milwaukee saying what a jerk I am.”
Cash and Trebelhorn had the same idea. With Mitchell, it was a little more of an emergency scenario, although his appearance at first also illustrated the risk:
It feels bold to put a pitcher at first. Alvarado, of course, came in with zero professional experience at the position. It seems like it would be easier to hide a pitcher in the corner outfield, because a first baseman could end up in the middle of everything in the infield. First basemen have different plays. They have a great number of responsibilities. When you’re in the outfield, you just run and you throw. Cash was rolling the dice, but then, Rendon is a fly-ball hitter. More than that: He’s a fly-ball hitter who just about never hits the ball in the direction of first.
The way Cash presumably figured, Alvarado could turn into a real liability in an outfield corner. The margin was only one run, after all. At first, Alvarado probably wouldn’t see a batted ball. Rendon was unlikely to put down a bunt in his direction. If Rendon were to hit a grounder, Alvarado would mostly just have to wait for a throw. Nothing he wouldn’t be able to do. Moving Alvarado over kept him close to the batter, but further from the action. In theory. These moves are always made based on theory. Reality can have a funny way of messing with even the most brilliant of plans.
Kevin Cash gambled that Jose Alvarado could survive one plate appearance. He gambled that Alvarado wouldn’t end up in position to make a mistake. In the end, this is the closest the ball ever came:
Alvarado tracked it. If you didn’t know better, you’d think that was just an entirely unremarkable video clip. Alvarado, at least, looked the part, as the ball drifted back by several rows. But even though no batted ball ended up in Alvarado’s vicinity, the Nationals did think they could take advantage of the experiment. They just — well, in theory, there was an opening, but in reality, there was nothing to do.
Martinez said the Nats wanted Harper to try to steal second when pitcher Alvarado was at first base (he probably would have scored on those hits), but he couldn’t time the pitcher.
— Chelsea Janes (@chelsea_janes) June 26, 2018
Bryce Harper couldn’t get a proper jump. He couldn’t get himself into scoring position. Part of the reason was because Alvarado was almost obsessively holding him on:
But also, to Roe’s credit, he helped protect Alvarado by mixing up his timing and looks. For example, here’s Roe before one delivery:
Roe holds the ball for a while after coming set, and you can see him nod his head. Here he is before the next delivery:
No head nod. He doesn’t hold the ball as long. And look at Roe’s left leg — it scoots along the rubber a couple times as Roe is coming set, which is something a few pitchers do, like Chris Tillman. For a would-be runner at first, that makes it hard to go on first move, because you don’t know when the first move will be.
After six pitches, Roe had Rendon struck out. And that was all for the alignment — Carlos Gomez entered, and Smith moved back from right to left, and Bauers moved back from left to first, and Alvarado moved back from first to the mound. As designed, he was given the chance to face another two lefties.
Soto singled on the second pitch. Murphy singled on the third. For all of that trouble, Jose Alvarado faced three left-handed batters, and he didn’t retire a single one of them. Sergio Romo inherited a jam, and, this time, Alvarado watched from the dugout. A pop and a strikeout later, the game was complete. The benches cleared, for good measure, but the game had already been strange.
In the ninth inning of a one-run game on Tuesday, the Rays played a pitcher at first base. I’m not convinced it was a stroke of genius, and I’m also not convinced it worked. In the end, Romo had to come and slam the door. But, this wasn’t just the regular old pitcher swap to the outfield corner. This was something that had seldom ever been tried. You might say the 2018 Rays have a theme. Given how rare it still is for a baseball team to do anything out of the ordinary, I appreciate that the Rays are testing things out. What are you doing, if you’re not learning?
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
From another perspective, 1B is the position most similar to pitcher in terms of fielding responsibility. Moves like this make a lot more sense in amateur baseball, where the talent gap between players on the same team is massive, but professional baseball rosters are so deep that a team good enough to care about winning games usually don’t gain anything from making it.
I know they say first base is hard in Moneyball but standing there and catching chest high throws certainly is easy for any baseball player. 1B is one of those positions where a plus defender can make a difference, but even the worst fielder is going to have minimal impact on the game. Every bad throw will get charged to the fielder and bad throws don’t happen very often. I don’t think 1B and SP have much in common defensively, other than their responsibilities are minimal – catch whats is hit at you or stand on 1B. Anyone who isn’t scared of the ball can play 1B if they have to. You could put a backup catcher or anyone else over there if you wanted to without repercussion.
Pitchers are involved in more plays at 1B than at any other base.
Clearly, they should put the pitcher at a position that is more similar to their natural one than 1B. Like shortstop. Lots of similarities between fielding shortstop and pitching. After all, pitchers are used to turning double plays, and it would be a good idea to put them at a position where they can use those skills.
Or is that not what you were arguing?
Well, they certainly have the arm for SS. Mychal Givens would be an ideal candidate for that kind of move.
Someone missed the whole Pedro Alvarez experience in Pittsburgh.
Someone hasn’t watched Gold-Glove Franchise Cornerstone Eric “Good Face” Hosmer play 1B.
Interesting article. Agree that 1B is the one position that every pitcher has at least a tiny bit of familiarity with.
On another note, why isn’t there a link at the top of every page back to fangraphs main page? On rotographs and instagraphs articles there is not a clickable link to the home page – you can only go to the roto/insta pages or the membership page. Seems like a fundamental web design mistake.
Umm… there is a link to the homepage at the top.
Alternate hed/dek:
“The Rays Played a Pitcher at Pitcher
It did not work”
Yeah, I don’t see how keeping a reliever in the game, and he gives up hits to the two batters you wanted him to face, is anything other than a failure.
you’re missing the point. If it HAD worked, would you call it a success? Ultimately, the goal would be to compare this move (done a gazillion times) against the non-move (done a gazillion times) and compare those numbers. Or at least some form ot that. Only then could you judge either to be a “failure.” A sample size of one claimed as proof by you is just classic hindsight.
I’m not saying the strategy is generally a failure. I’m saying this application of it clearly failed.
You don’t need that much to conclude it didn’t work this time. The goal is to get outs. He didn’t get outs. In fact, he failed to get outs at a rate much worse than the averaged 1-OBP rate for each player. Much worse.
To conclude whether the move doesn’t work in general you would need a much larger sample. But snapper is correct. It did not work in this case.
This is speculation, but I imagine it’s hard for a pitcher to warm up, face a batter, take a fielding break, and then go back to pitching. If we had a gazillion samples, one think we’d look for is pitchers being worse in their second turn on the mound, and that may be what happened here.
Did anyone see the hits he gave up? They weren’t barrels.
They’re getting ready for Brendan McKay.
Yes, they need to find way to get that below average A-ball bat in the lineup!
I like this move in theory, but I wonder how much the shift to playing 1st and obsessing over holding Bryce Harper at 1st messed him up. I would think if you’re going to do this regularly, you might want to give your relievers some reps at 1st.
That’s probably not a terrible idea anyway.
It would be interesting to see a team use this strategy as bait. For example, having a pitcher play third in order to have the opposing team attempt to bunt. Obviously the game context would have to work in order for a team to try this.
I suppose what surprises me the most is that this is not done regularly
possibilities and more possibilities
evolution happens every day
Given the Bryan Mitchell situation, I’m inclined to hide a reliever at 3B, not 1B. Because 1B is involved on just about every play where the ball hits the ground, while the 3B is usually not involved. Of course that’s just my random thought, and who knows if it is right.
It would be interesting to see objective data on what position would be the best place for a hypothetical player who could not field or catch throws or do anything at all at a MLB level, ie: a generic reliever who sucks at all fielding positions. It’s not the same as positional value, because we’re talking about someone who has no fielding acumen at all.
3b might be less likely to be involved in a defensive play, but if the ball goes to 3b, and the P/3b mucks it up, the strategy will look really bad.
with a runner on 1B, no way you could put a pitcher at 3B.
* stolen base attempt > ball into CF > runner advance to 3B where P has to cover
* grounder or bunt toward 3B – P has to field, esp. a lefty who has no chance to make a throw
* hit to OF > middle infielders have cutoff and 2B coverage assignments that don’t change, so runner on first advances to third with P covering
so 1B and the opposite field corner outfield spot would be the only reasonable options.
Pitchers know the basics of fielding, so just because a pitcher is covering a base doesn’t mean it’s an automatic extra base for the runner.
The hardest play is on defense, especially given it was a pull-heavy right handed batter up, and a left handed thrower. There’s no way he could start a double play in that situation, and any moderately hard hit ball is now going down the line for extra bases and a likely tie game.
Depending on the hitter’s tendencies, it seems it might even make sense to hide the non-pitching pitcher somewhere completely out of harm’s way for one batter. For example, with an extreme fly ball hitter, play defense with three infielders and three outfielders with the non-pitcher playing as a fourth outfielder with almost no territory to cover.
Yep, and the beginning of that is mentioned in the article with Rendon. I’m a Rays fan. What they did excites me because there were almost certainly stats that backed up the situation.
The ideal case is probably a hitter like Gallo at the plate, in which case you basically play the pitcher like you would the rover in a slow pitch softball game. While there may be balls hit that way, there’s enough other guys in the area that he won’t cost you much if he can’t make that play.
Apparently 1989 was a banner year for pitchers playing first base, as Fernando Valenzuela also did in an extra inning game (he didn’t pitch)
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/HOU/HOU198906030.shtml
MLB should contract this franchise. They are not even trying and embarrassing themselves in the process. It is really interesting to see them not getting roasted in the media… which tells me something… although I am not sure what it is!
I think part of the reason you’re getting downvoted is because TB seems to have a plan, and it seems to be working. 1 game under .500 at almost the halfway point, given their payroll and youth movement, is quite an accomplishment. And it’s particularly refreshing for those of us who are tired of all of the whining about tanking, just because teams have wised up some and are not outbidding each other to overpay washed up or nearly washed up veteran players in free agency.
The plan of dropping payroll and starting over with a youth movement is far from new. Small market teams have done it for decades, and even the Yankees tried it to some degree over the past couple seasons, prior to this season (which *is* perhaps a bit unusual) and it has worked even better than they imagined. If anything, teams have gotten better at executing the strategy in recent years. So, to say that TB is not even trying, when they’re clearly employing a youth movement, and then to say they’re embarrassing themselves, when they’re ahead of Baltimore, Toronto, and Minnesota in the standings—all of whom were spending to contend this year—is so clearly mistaken that you’re begging for downvotes. I don’t like to indulge beggars, but you got a downvote from me.
I can’t believe how disconnected the FG community (commenters) are from baseball realities. So much chatter about strategy – like nobody prior to yesterday ever though about strategy. Most of these new ideas are bad ones that could only be entertained by those that just don’t understand how things work. This isn’t a farming sim or a tower defense game – strategy is not what decides game in most instances – its execution. In boxing they say something like everyone has a plan until they get hit.
One of the key attributes of a good coach/organization used to be to let the players play – let them do what they do best. It blows my mind how we are speeding away from that mindset. The people off the field are trying to pretend that they are the ones responsible for the on-field success of the players.. its crazy to me!
Let’s take the over-shift for example – teams are not doing it more and more… what does that tell you? It tells you that it isn’t necessarily a good idea. Teams are beginning to take the over-shift guy and cheat him towards the middle… which isn’t really an over-shift – that’s kind of how you have always played a pull hitter with a moderate exaggeration. Even the over-shift is transitioning away from itself and I think people like the over-shift as the example of progress and strategy in baseball. Doing things differently just to pat yourself on the back isn’t good strategy. Many of these ridiculous ideas are headed nowhere or in the case of the Rays – they are just tanking and doing a wonderful job of being creative about it and the progressive-minded are eating it up. Something new… I want that!
Everyone knows [baseball] achieved perfection in 1974. It’s a scientific fact.
I can not believe that the connection with S FI is just like baseball. They talk about a lot of strategies – no one else yesterday, but about a strategy. The practice of new ideas is a storm that can only take away those who do not understand how things work. It is not an agricultural sigra or a table strategy game that is not what he decides in most of his performances. In boxing, it’s as if everyone has a plan until it hits.
One of the main attributes of a good trainer / organization is to play players who do what works best. It was clear to me that we accelerated things. People in this field are trying to pretend they are responsible for the success of the players. He’s crazy for me!
Take the money as an example – teams do not work more and more … what does that tell you? It will appeal that this is not a good idea. Teams will attack and cheat … Not really exaggerating that change is the way you always dance with moderate exaggeration. It also moves through AC, and I think people like Turn-Off as an example of promotion and baseball strategy. Doing different things just as Lerima’s potion is not a good strategy. Many of these ridiculous ideas have not started anywhere or in the case of a beam – it takes only strings and has done a great job of creativity on it and constantly consumed. Something new … I do it!
“The practice of new ideas is a storm that can only take away those who do not understand how things work”
Wow. The translator thingy should give motivational TED talks…
No baseball was it’s best back in the 1800s when pitchers just lobbed the ball and you never struck out! Dang Nabit!
RonnieDobbs, perhaps it’s YOU that doesn’t understand how things work. The “over-shifts” were put into place because the analytics show that’s where the balls are hit. Now that we have things called computers that can handle large amounts of data and output scatter charts, we get information that’s useful to managers. You can stay stuck in the 1950s if you’d like, but the rest of us would like to take advantage of whatever information is available to us. THAT’S how things work.
And if you think the “over-shifting” is decreasing (I am not sure if that’s even true or not), but perhaps opposing teams are now trying to take advantage of that? It’s called “adjustments”, something that happens between pitchers and hitters all the time throughout baseball history.
In the 15 minutes since I did my posts a wave of bots/trolls rained down a bunch of votes without comments… not just my comments which I totally understand will be objectionable to many. So I guess this is one of those articles….
Sorry but you’re borderline trolling.
“Anyone who downvotes me is a bot or a troll” seems like the sentiment of a troll to me.
Good to see actual comments. I guess I was trolling for those!
Tampa’s opening day payroll; $69.61 million. 2nd lowest in MLB. Revenue seriously lacking for years, playing in a horrible park where no one much came when they were winning either. Injuries to several key young players with good upsides. And you want them contracted? They should get an award for being 1 under .500. You know nothing about success in Major League Baseball in 2018.
Better idea: Contract the Marlins and move the Rays to that beautiful ballpark in Miami.
Maybe RonnieDobbs Fangraphs account should be contracted?
Especially when you are just shit posting (The Rays, and FG commenters). Sorry people don’t like shit posting. Also, the McKay comment was obviously a joke. People also don’t like replies that take obvious jokes seriously.
I have no idea why I took the time to explain this.
… because you’re an attorney – but we won’t hold that against you.
I downvoted and reported you to the authorities for ellipsis abuse.
Who hurt you Ronnie? And why are you taking it out on us?
Not a bot or troll, but I did downvote multiple of your terrible comments lol
Username does not check out.
Well crap, now I kinda feel like Blade Runner. Am I really me…?
Lets say a very likely scenario of a WC game with the Dbacks and the Cubs. The Dbacks should use tandem starters to begin the game. Some combination of Greinke and either Ray or Corbin . The Cubs have platoon hitters+ guys with significant career splits, and they also have a coach who loves to shuffle the line up.
The issue with this would be whether or not Ray or Corbin could hold down a position (thinking an outfield spot) since Greinke would likely be passable.
You probably are better off when taking the field but you are now removing another bat from the lineup.
Valid point, but you are also giving yourself two hitters to pinch hit for later on in the game in a key scenario.
Yeah. It’s one thing to consider this for a batter or two once, in the late innings. But it’s never going to happen with two starters alternating batters for the full game. You lose too much dropping the hitter from the lineup, and the chance of a defensive disaster becomes too great … let alone the unknown effect of breaking up the pitching routine.
If you’re the Rockies, it actually makes a lot of sense since their first basemen have been hitting at about the same level as a pitcher.
this occurred to me too, simply because Greinke is a pretty athletic guy who’s always hit well, fielded well, and even has 24 stolen bases. Take him as one extreme, and (just for fun) Bartolo Colon as the other. Pretty clearly a manager can’t shuffle just anyone out there. It’s not APBA.
I see 6 stolen bases for Greinke – although he’s never been caught, so a little less risk-aversion could have paid off.
oops. Next column over, 24 career RBI. Damn my eyes!
This is much more likely at high school or college, where you might have two good pitchers who are also your best hitters and defenders. In the pros, it’s a cute trick that doesn’t really work because of how high the talent level is.
Are you suggesting this for just for the first one or two innings, so two pitchers don’t have to bat (unless the Dbacks offense gets rolling in the first and goes through the entire lineup)? I think tandem starting might work better if one guy goes 3 innings, and the other guy takes the next 3 innings. Of course, that wouldn’t be new strategy for playoff baseball, but I have been advocating for this during the REGULAR season for a while now.
While the numbers might pencil out as an advantage, in real life I expect that the players switching between the mound and a position would have their concentration affected and that would show up in their results.
Not if they practiced it a bunch beforehand.
It’s worth noting that the Rays not being close to the WC has more to do with Seattle and less to do with their record. One game under .500 is not great but the last two WC2 in the AL had records of 41-37 (Toronto 2016) and 39-36 (Twins 2017) on 06/27, both better but not out of reach leads. Take that the Rays finish playing the Astros this weekend and have already played all west coast games while still having to play KC, DET and CHISOX at the Trop and you can make the argument that the Rays would have been at least a WC2 pretender. OAK is the 6th best team in the AL but 7 games back on the M’s. Your Mariners broke baseball Jeff.
Now, it’s better for the Rays this way. It’s easier for the fanbase to stomach selling on Ramos, Eovaldi, etc. when out of the race and they NEED to cash in on everything not in Adames/Bauers/Honeywell time but it’s not their record making them irrelevant, the Mariners are doing that to the whole WC2 field.
isn’t this right out of Tom Tango’s book?
Btw I posted this in a forum and someone said 80s orioles manager Paul richards used to do that sometimes. So maybe not super new but my history knowledge is not enough to confirm it true. Can someone?
Came for the game-within-the-game Sullivanian GIFerific analysis, left with the such-is-baseball-such-is-life Sullivanian existential philosophy.
I think it might have been a stroke of genius. That it didn’t work was just unfortunate lol. The Rendon spray chart is what sold me.
I think to determine success, you must look at what the alternate option would be. Since the rays only trust Alvarado against lefty matchups in the ninth, I believe they would have left him in against Rendon. Therefore, Chaz Roe doesn’t get that crucial strike out and the Rays may lose that game since they were only a sac fly away. I consider this sample a success
like mixing daiquiris and ambien
It’s pretty bizarre that they get accused of tanking for trading away expensive yet unproductive players to clear major league playing time for what everyone would agree is a loaded farm system, to note, Adames Bauers Field and Arroyo. Obviously Honeywell and JDL would be in the rotation if not for surgery.
The tanking narrative is so simplistic and only offered up by the laziest baseball writers. Almost to the halfway point and Evan Longoria is injured and on pace for 1 WAR this season. Odorizzi pitched better than his peripherals last season and even still only brought in a “light” return, imagine what he would fetch now that his results match his peripherals? Overrated Corey Dickerson could have done his thing in the Trop for $6 million, but now his playing time goes to see if Mallex Smith and Johnny Field can make big league contributions. In a year when everyone gave the division to NY and BOS before the first pitch of the season, and called TOR the sleeper (lol), the plan seems to always have been to try to win with what was on the farm, or at least see what they had in those kids.
Stuff like this is exactly why I got back into baseball. May not have worked but I love that they’re trying something new which has some statistical backing. Arguable whether or not it works IRL but we won’t know until we try!
My god i love this so much. As a Yankees fan, i kind of have to hate the Rays, but man i have such a soft spot for them.
I think it’s a competitor for most Nationals thing ever that they thought Harper should try to time the pitcher and steal second in this situation rather than drawing as many pickoff throws as possible to try to get to third.