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Athletics Plan for Handling Pitching Works Out; Hendriks a Skeptic No Longer

When the Oakland Athletics began the season taking it easy on the starting pitchers while asking more of the bullpen, closer Liam Hendriks, among others, wasn't sure why they'd do it that way. With Oakland off to a 13-6 start entering Friday's series opener vs. the Giants at Oracle Park, Hendriks is a believer now.
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Liam Hendriks wasn’t crazy about the way the A’s front office, manager Bob Melvin and pitching coach Scott Emerson sketched out the first weeks of the much shortened 2020 Major League Baseball season.

The Oakland was to go short with the starters the first two times around and gamble that the bullpen would be able to pick up the slack.

Even with a 15-man pitching staff, that was asking for a lot from the bullpen, and it didn’t quite compute for Hendriks, the A’s closer.

Three weeks into the 2020 season, the A’s have 13 wins, tied with the Cubs for the most in baseball entering play Friday, and the bullpen has survived. More than that, the starting rotation has gradually built itself up, although Friday’s scheduled starter, Frankie Montas, developed some upper back tightness and was scratched, Jesús Luzardo moving in to take his spot.

Hendriks said the A’s overall plan made for success

I think we planned, the organization planned, for this ahead,” Hendriks said. “So, the starters were only going three or four innings. That was to prevent them from going too hard too early. They did a very good job of limiting the starting pitchers, much to the chagrin of the entire pitching staff.

“But with the rash of injuries coming across the league and the fact that the A’s have pretty much been OK with that by limiting guys and making sure the guys who have kind of built themselves up through the offseason or the quarantine period were a little bit better off in the bullpen, making sure that the guys who could go a couple of innings were going a couple of innings rather than burdening somebody.”

The back end of the bullpen, including Burch Smith, J.B. Wendelken, Jordan Weems (moved Friday from the injured list and moved to the alternate site in San Jose), and, after his one start, Daniel Mengden, has put in multiple innings enough to keep everybody else from burning out. Except, perhaps, for reliever Yusmeiro Petit, who has pitched in 11 of the team’s first 19 games. But, then, Petit led the American League in appearances a year ago.

Now, after having an off-day Thursday, Melvin’s pitching staff seems in good shape.

“We're at the point where all of the starters have the reins off and they're ready to go 100 pitches and hopefully six or seven innings,” Hendriks said. “That’s give us those little breathers. That was their plan all along, a really good plan, which I freely admit that I didn’t see at the start.

“I was a little bit annoyed that the starters weren’t going long. But, hey, the plan has worked. And it’s one of those things where we’re in a great position.”.

The ultimate goal?

“The bullpen, we’re able to weather the storm,” he said. “Hopefully the starters go six or seven innings and we can kind of lighten the load for a lot of the guys and make sure (Yusmeiro) Petit doesn’t throw in 45 of 60 games.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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