I’ve been listening to Gabe Kapler too much. I’ve been experimenting with openers and bulk pitchers recently. I started doing it because I play in so many progressives. It is often extremely hard to get 4 or 5 decent (200+ IP) starters in these leagues. So I’ve been going with 3 openers and 3 bulk guys.

A positive so far your 3 best pitchers are usually in the game during late critical innings.
A negative so far your openers can blow up and lose game early. Below I’ll give one example where I switched to this midstream.

But I really would like to hear from anyone else that’s done something similar.

Jim Lonborg '74 (R)		100	19	3-6	0	98.1	4.48	.266	1.34	3.39	2.65	6.19M
Nolan Ryan '74 (R)		100	20	10-7	0	122.0	4.72	.197	1.47	9.15	6.79	9.66M
Bill Singer '74 (R)		100	25	0-1	0	41.2	3.24	.245	1.42	5.62	4.10	200K
Steve Carlton '74 (L)		100	20	13-4	0	135.1	3.52	.232	1.29	5.99	3.66	7.38M
Dick Ruthven '74 (R)	Tandem #3A	100	19	3-6	0	77.2	4.06	.234	1.45	4.98	5.21	5.15M
Aaron Nola '18 (R)		100	19	9-3	0	112.0	4.42	.256	1.41	6.43	3.70	7.39M

yeah openers can be very effective, especially the way the WIS pitching fatigue model works. often the only way to get the full innings allocation for your best players without using them fatigued is to have them on a limited pitch count

I am a huge fan of nontraditional pitching staffs in progressives. SP is so difficult and expensive to find. I use a lot of tandem pitching to maximize innings usage. Won a world series in 2007 with the staff getting a combined 3 quality starts all season and only 4 pitchers logging more than 100 IP. I ended up trading Francis before the deadline as well.

Player	G	GS	W	L	IP	ERA
Hudson, Tim	54	54	22	14	248.3	4.06
Verlander, Justin	55	34	11	13	220.7	4.85
Bergmann, Jason	57	49	1	14	129.3	4.45
Lee, Cliff	43	0	2	2	82.7	6.42
Brocail, Doug	83	0	8	5	80.7	6.47
Isringhausen, Jason	74	0	1	1	74.7	3.74
Papelbon, Jonathan	72	0	2	3	70	2.44
Lindstrom, Matt	78	0	4	0	61.3	3.96
Chulk, Vinnie	63	0	10	4	59.7	5.13
Perez, Oliver	19	5	4	3	59.7	5.58
Shouse, Brian	74	0	1	2	50	3.60
Brown, Andrew	49	0	3	3	45.7	5.72
Morales, Franklin	28	20	1	1	43.3	4.98
Wheeler, Dan	43	0	7	1	42.3	3.83
Fultz, Aaron	62	0	1	1	40	4.05
Lugo, Ruddy	12	0	1	1	10.7	5.91
Francis, Jeff	35	0	13	2	127.7	5.64

Won again in 2011 with a team total of 4 quality starts. Also started P Alfredo Aceves (114 IPs 2.07IP/G 2.84 ERC) for 70 games. This team had a total of 972 pitcher appearances for an average of 6 pitchers a game. I feel like this might be a record. Anyone have other high pitcher appearances?

Player	G	GS	W	L	IP	ERA
Verlander, Justin	73	73	5	12	268.7	2.45
Hudson, Tim	70	0	29	7	225.7	2.67
Aceves, Alfredo	76	70	1	6	123.7	3.86
Liriano, Francisco	35	18	5	6	121.7	3.99
Estrada, Marco	70	1	23	3	110.3	5.87
Bard, Daniel	75	0	4	1	84.7	2.34
Mujica, Edward	79	0	5	5	81.3	4.2
Loe, Kameron	77	0	3	2	74	3.53
Guerrier, Matt	73	0	7	3	73.7	5.13
Papelbon, Jonathan	69	0	2	2	63.7	1.84
Madson, Ryan	71	0	5	5	59.3	5.16
Lopez, Javier	81	0	3	2	59.3	3.19
Lindstrom, Matt	72	0	4	2	49.3	3.83
Wheeler, Dan	36	0	7	3	37	3.41
Benoit, Joaquin	15	0	0	0	17	1.59