The Royals are shaking things up a bit after the All-Star break. According to manager Ned Yost, the new pitching rotation will look like this:
Zack Greinke, Bruce Chen, Brian Bannister, Kyle Davies and Anthony Lerew.
The reasoning for Bannister going third?
He'll have the most day games, where he excels.
"The spot that has the most day games is the three spot," Yost said. "Four of the nine starts are day games, and Banny excels in day games, so why not (put him there)?"
Bannister is 4-0 during the day and 3-7 at night with an ERA difference of about 5.
"I can’t explain it," Yost said. "There’s no explanation for it. You look at some guys and they may be 15-2 on Saturday. I don’t know why Banny pitches better in the day than the night."
Bannister, the Sabermetrics guru of the group, called it a "smart move." Whatever works, I suppose.