Throwback Thursday: Switch to the Five Man Rotation

Things are getting weird in Major League Baseball. Buck Showalter has hinted at going with a six-man rotation for a while, when Johan Santana joins the club. Other teams are experimenting with a “tandem of starters” approach in which two pitchers take significant innings (maybe a 5IP/4IP split). Bullpen specialization is at an all-time high, and the velocity which the modern game (supposedly) requires is literally tearing pitchers’ arms apart. Something has got to give. You can feel a change in the winds.

But this isn’t a post about the future of pitching in baseball. Instead, I want to look back to the last significant shift. The Orioles and “dominant pitching” were at one point synonymous. When was it, then, that Baltimore shifted from the four-man rotation to the five-man? It seems the change occurred in 1983, when Joe Altobelli replaced Earl Weaver as manager.

Under Weaver in 1982, the Orioles starting rotation owned a 3.99 ERA, which was the worst the team had posted since 1956. When Altobelli took over, he  brought with him the five man rotation that he had implemented in San Francisco and New York. He also listened to coaches Ray Miller and Cal Ripken Sr. a fair bit more than his predecessor, who both favored the change. By May of 1983, Orioles starters were consistently getting four days rest. What followed was a championship season in which the Orioles ranked second in the AL in both wins and ERA.

I’m not suggesting that the five man rotation is responsible for the World Series championship. The Orioles had great pitching, which probably would have carried them regardless. But the Altobelli regime brought the club to what later became the norm. As teams continue to feel the strain of the five man rotation in the modern game, it will be interesting to see what becomes the next big thing, or the “new norm,” and see if we can pinpoint exactly when the Orioles made their move.