Should young potential starters begin in the pen?
I have hit on this subject in past posts, however, I wanted to get everyone's opinion on this particular subject.
It seems (although I don't have a lot of evidence) that having a young pitcher come out of the pen for a year or so may be able to help him as a starter. My reasoning is as follows.
- Less immediate exposure. This method would allow the young pitcher to learn to pitch to big league hitters without being overexposed or pitching through the lineup multiple times.
- Situational experience. It would allow the young pitcher to be put in tough situations, and allow him to understand how to adjust his mindset to that particular situation.
- Dominate attitude. Success (which would be a prerequisite to moving into the rotation) would allow the young pitcher to trust his stuff and mold his attitude so that when starting, he will know the situation and be able to cope with it after he inevitably gets himself into a jam.
I write this mainly because I wonder, is this a good system to use with young pitchers? Would it work to get Reyes his confidence and dominant form back? Would a year in the bullpen benefit him? What do you guys think?