DownSwinging.com

In 2007, the powers-at-be in Major League Baseball decided to put in additional off-days into the playoff schedule. While it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, it has changed the playoffs into something vastly different from the regular season, which I don’t believe was the original intention of the move.

The Yankees announced today that they plan on going with a three-man rotation for the ALCS, hoping to avoid starting Joba Chamberlain and Chad Gaudin. They can pull off the rotation with exactly one start coming from a pitcher on short-rest—Game 4 with Sabathia pitching. The reason they can do this is the inexplicable day off that happens after game 4, meaning that Burnett will go on full rest in game 5, and with the travel day after that Pettitte can pitch game 6 on full rest and Sabathia again on full rest for game 7. I’m not hating on the Yankees here—it’s exactly what I would do if I was them, but it isn’t what should be happening.

The regular season, something that I like to emphasize as much as possible, is played with a five-man rotation. Understandably due to the short and irregular nature of the playoffs, you only need four starting pitchers. But with the added day off you really only need three. And that shouldn’t be the case. The playoffs should test a team’s pitching depth, not just their ace. If that extra day off was taken away, everyone’s second start (and third for Sabathia) would be on short rest, which would be perfectly acceptable, though a much harder decision for a manager to make than the one Girardi has to make now.