FanPost

The Kameron Loe Factor: Does less rest equal better performance?

We've heard Ron Roenicke talk about this. Kameron Loe pitches better when he pitches as much as possible. However, that seems counter-intuitive. Pitching a lot would tire him out. Wouldn't it make sense to get some rest between appearances? Maybe there's something in the stats that suggests this is true.

It's tough to analyze splits for a reliever, since the amount of data is limited. We can look at this season, but there's only two scenarios we have enough data to reliably look at right now. The scenarios we will look at are Loe pitching on 0 days rest and 2 days rest.

Rest G PA AB IP R ER H BB SO SO/9 SO/BB Slash Line BABIP ERA WHIP
0 Days 14 61 53 14 7 7 12 6 10 6.4 1.67 .226/.317/.377/.694 .244 4.5 1.286
2 Days 15 54 49 12.1 9 9 13 4 10 7.3 2.5 .265/.333/.388/.721 .316 6.57 1.378

The stats show that while strikeout rate does increase, so does his slash line, ERA, and WHIP. Maybe there is something behind the strategy when looking at those stats. However, the data is so limited, that it's tough to say for sure. The two days rest stat is inflated from a few bad performances. So, let's pull his career stats as a reliever and look at what that shows.

Rest G PA AB IP R ER H BB SO SO/9 SO/BB Slash Line BABIP ERA WHIP
0 Days 38 150 138 35.2 17 14 37 9 24 6.1 2.67 .268/.315/.420/.736 .297 3.53 1.29
1 Day 35 174 161 41.2 16 10 39 12 40 8.6 3.33 .242/.299/.379/.678 .293 2.16 1.224
2 Days 36 167 150 37.2 26 22 40 12 29 6.9 2.42 .267/.333/.393/.727 .314 5.26 1.381
3 Days 20 136 122 29.2 23 19 39 12 17 5.2 1.42 .320/.375/.451/.826 .340 5.76 1.719
4 Days 6 31 29 8.2 2 1 5 2 4 4.2 2 .172/.226/.207/.433 .200 1.04 0.808
5 Days 3 18 16 3.2 3 2 4 1 2 4.9 2 .250/.333/.313/.646 .286 4.91 1.364
6+ Days 10 72 70 20 5 5 14 2 11 5 5.5 .200/.222/.400/.622 .196 2.25 0.8

This shows some interesting stats. He does pitch well on no rest. However, there is an improvement in his stats when he gets just one day of rest. His strikeout rate is up, slash line is down, ERA and WHIP are down. Overall, there is a noticeable improvement when he gets a day of rest. However, there is also a jump after that. On 2 or 3 days rest, there is a significant decrease in strikeout rate, and an increase in his slash line, ERA, and WHIP.

So, is Ron Roenicke right? Is pitching Kameron Loe as much as possible good for him? The splits show that he does pitch well on no rest. However, it won't hurt to get a day of rest here and there. He just shouldn't rest too long.

What do you think? How often should Kameron Loe be pitching? Is he being utilitzed in the best way possible?

All stats are from Baseball-Reference.com.