When it comes to fantasy baseball it is quite difficult to quantify the value that a manager brings to his roster. There aren’t any stats that show how a manager is doing outside of the standings and you’re certainly not considering who the manager is when drafting a player before the season. Specifically when it comes to pitching the biggest fantasy impact a manager has is how likely he is to let his starter go deep in the game. Obviously a team with above average starters is likely to have less innings used from their bullpen and vice versa. Teams like the Nationals and the Astros are going to be allowed to pitch deeper into games with the caliber of starters that they have and typically low ERA’s so nothing should be surprising with them.

What would be surprising is if a team had an above average ERA from their rotation and weren’t among the top half of the league in terms of innings pitched. This would be as close to a stat as we’d have from managers and would show a trend in his decision making giving us fantasy players a tool to use in regards to in-season starting pitching decisions. We’ll take a look at a couple managers that are a little more forgiving when it comes to starting pitchers as well as a couple managers that may give a quicker hook.

Bob Melvin, Oakland Athletics

As of Sunday morning Oakland is seventh in Major League Baseball in innings pitched by starters. This would imply that either the A’s starting pitching has been above average and is earning extra innings with efficiency or that manager Bob Melvin is fairly lenient with his rotation and is giving them a long leash. Based on the fact that they have a 4.88 ERA (21st in MLB) and have given up the eighth most home runs we’re thinking it’s the leash thing. They’ve only walked 29 batters (3rd in MLB) in just over 114 innings but have also only struck out 92 batters (19th in MLB).

It seems as though having a low walk total coupled with a low strikeout total that Oakland is going deeper into games because of low pitch counts and early contact in the at bats, even if they lead to some runs. Owners of the fourth highest ground ball percentage in baseball at 48.3% shows that they are looking to induce ground balls from their starters and let the defense get them out of the inning . After a no-no from Sean Manea he now leads the team with 7 1/3 IP per start with Daniel Mengden coming in second averaging 6.0 IP per start. Owning either of these two provides you with the confidence of a long leash from their manager, if nothing else.

Jeff Banister, Texas Rangers

The Rangers pitching staff isn’t very good, to put it nicely. A starters ERA of 5.21 (26th in MLB) led by Cole Hamels (4.76), Matt Moore (5.59) and Martín Pérez (13.14) have put the team in a bad spot and if it weren’t for big sexy Bartolo Colón and his 2.79 ERA it could be even worse. The Rangers rank ninth overall in innings pitched from starters with 114 so again we have a case of a manager who allows his starters to go deep into games, even if they don’t deserve it.

A lack of great options means this will matter more to those of us that stream pitchers and are looking for starters that can get a quality start in the right matchups. Bartolo Colón , Mike Minor and Cole Hamels are the only starters averaging over five innings pitched per start this season for Texas, Colon being the only one to average over six, go figure. Banister has to let a few of these guys pitch into the sixth or seventh inning otherwise the bullpen will be shot before the all star break, good news for those of you rostering any of the Colon, Minor or Hamels trio.

Paul Molitor, Minnesota Twins

After a look into what Melvin and Banister are doing with their staff in the AL West, we have a manager in the AL Central who is looking at things a little bit differently. Paul Molitor is a little more quick to pull the starters as they rank next to last with 85 innings pitched, although rainouts have had an impact in that category as well. Despite ranking eleventh in baseball in starters ERA at 3.49, only José Berrios is averaging 6.0 IP per start. Berrios is a star so pulling him early would be a terrible idea.

It’s looking more and more like José Berrios is becoming elite and is absolutely Minnesota’s ace. Aside from his incredible start to the season, Paul Molitor isn’t pushing his luck. He’s getting five innings from his other starters and he’s handing the keys over to the bullpen. Odorizzi has never been efficient and will likely never be an innings eater, Kyle Gibson is just not a good pitcher and Lance Lynn is giving up a ton of base runners to begin the year with 28 allowed in only 15 innings. If you own anyone other than Berrios, expect a season full of barely win qualifying performances with the inefficiency of the starters and quick hook from the manager. If you own Berrios, enjoy the ride and hope he can handle the innings.

Brian Snitker, Atlanta Braves

Atlanta is in the bottom half of the innings pitched category, 18th to be exact, with 109.2 IP from their starters in 2018. In a hitters park it would make sense that this staff is struggling to eat up innings and get deep into games. However that is not the case, the starters are actually ranked fifth in ERA at 3.04 and have ten quality starts in the teams twenty games played. Manager Brian Snitker is getting into his bullpen fairly quickly and with the Braves being so competitive early on, that’s likely due to preserving leads and staying in games.

The bullpen ranks tenth in IP with 77.0 and rank thirteenth with a 3.51 ERA. The success of the bullpen surely gives Snitker the confidence to continue this trend and yank his starters earlier than us fantasy owners would like. Only Matt Wisler is averaging over 6.0 IP and that’s because he’s only started one game and went 7.0 innings. Braves “ace” Julio Teherán is the only starter with an ERA of 4.00 or higher so don’t count on Snitker being more lenient with his starters as their ERAs aren’t likely to remain this low meaning the bullpen should be even more frequently used as the season wears on. Bad news for all of you Anibal Sánchez truthers out there!