CLEARWATER, Fla. - It was impossible to ignore last October. They called it a revolution, one that spawned dozens of think pieces and praise for forward-thinking managers who deployed their bullpens in aggressive and unconventional methods during the postseason. The modern bullpen, filled with one-inning pitchers, was dead. The era of extreme specialization was over.
Or not.
"If you try to do what they did all year, you would kill these guys," Phillies assistant pitching coach Rick Kranitz said. "You really would. It's just impossible to do it."
The postseason at least forced some baseball people to think about it.