It’s clear that San Francisco Giants starter Madison Bumgarner (aka “MadBum”) is not a fan of the opener. Here’s is why MadBum should stop worrying and learn to love the opener.
On Saturday, reports surfaced that San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner texted his displeasure with Farhan Zaidi’s comments during the winter meetings regarding the opener to Bruce Bochy. “If you use an opener in my game, I’m walking out of the ballpark,” MadBum is reported to have said.
Bruce Bochy said Madison Bumgarner texted him during the Winter Meetings after hearing that the Giants were considering using openers and said, “If you use an opener in my game, I’m walking out of the ballpark.”
— Maria I. Guardado (@mi_guardado) February 9, 2019
However, maybe MadBum should pump the breaks, and take a minute to understand what exactly the opener strategy is and how it helps all starting pitchers, including himself.
What is an opener and why should my team use one?
Put simply, the opener is a relief pitcher who opens the game before what we would call a starter enters for a presumably longer stretch. The strategy is used to combat high scoring in the first inning.
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According to a study conducted by Retrosheet’s David W. Smith called “Effect of Batting Order (not Lineup) on Scoring,” teams – especially the home team – score more runs in the first inning than in any other inning.
In a more recent piece called “Why Do Home Teams Score So Much in the First Inning?” Smith provides more up-to-date data and it seems that the pattern of teams scoring more runs in the first inning hasn’t changed much.
So, teams are increasingly deploying an opener in order to neutralize hitting in the games toughest inning, the first inning.
You know, the only inning in a game you are guaranteed to see the opposing teams best hitters.
They then turn to the “starter” to face the opposing team when they typically score fewer runs for an extended period of time.
The team that is best known for utilizing an opener are the Tampa Bay Rays, and they have seen great results since implementing the strategy.
Since deploying the first-ever opener, Sergio Romo, on 5/19/2018, the Rays improved their team ERA from 4.43 to 3.50. Their starters went from having an ERA of 4.41 in the 1st half of the season to 3.34.
As a whole, the team went from having a .488 W-L% to a .580 W-L% for the rest of the season.
So, would the opener strategy help a starter like Giants ace Madison Bumgarner?
Let’s take a look at MadBum’s spits by inning.
In the first inning, MadBum has a higher ERA (3.87) than in any other inning other than the ninth (4.50). As for hitters, they hit .261 with a .741 OPS in the first inning against MadBum, which is more than in any other inning.
In fact, hypothetically speaking, if we remove the first inning from MadBum’s pitching stats, this is what it would look like
- ERA: 3.03 to 2.88
- WHP: 1.109 to 1.079
- H9: 7.9 to 7.6
- HR9: 0.9 to 0.8
So, would this strategy help MadBum? The answer is, yes!
The question now becomes, how does San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi convince Madison Bumgarner that the opener strategy actually works?