Hamels is whining about Rangers plan to use a 6 man rotation to ease workload on 2 SP converting from being RP. He says "it's not a part of baseball." Seems he is not much of a baseball historian because the current normal 5 man rotation wasn't part of baseball all that long ago.

John Ward set the record for inning pitched with ... get this 580 innings in a single season. I don't know how many folks were in the rotation but I doubt it was 5.

PS: He also played SS and 2B that year so Ohtani is a whimp if he can only pitch 1 day in 6 and play DH.

This seems to be the wave of the future, 6 man rotations. I've read in several places now where other teams are also considering 6 man rotations to include the Angels and the Mariners.

:grimacing:

Will the Mariners go to a six-man rotation?
Rick F., Spokane, Wash.

They definitely are looking into the possibility, but only in parts of the season when they'd be playing long stretches of games without any days off. The new schedule has more off-days, so that will happen less now. But when there are stretches without a break -- there are five spans of 10-plus consecutive games this coming season -- they'll consider bringing up a starter from Triple-A Tacoma or going with a long man from the bullpen in the right scenario.

There is one place where the six-man rotation is common in professional baseball: the Japanese professional league, the NPB. The NPB is notable for having pitchers with a much lower incidence than MLB pitchers of the UCL injuries that require Tommy John surgery. It’s hard to credit this as innate resilience on the part of their individual players — Yu Darvish had Tommy John surgery a few years after coming to America from Japan, and Masahiro Tanaka was lucky to avoid it by only partially tearing the UCL in his throwing elbow and managing it with rehab and rest.
https://www.fanragsports.com/mlb/can-6-man-rotation-work-in-major-league-baseball/