I haven't seen JP Smith play but in that clip above he showed really good bat to ball skill on that pitch. Looks like he had decided he was going to swing and the pitch was very low; he went down and somehow poked it into CF for a hit. Who does he think he is, Luis Arraez? Will have to watch his progress.
In 1877, Jim Devlin was the only pitcher used by the Louisville Grays and he pitched every inning played by them. 61 starts, 61 complete games, 559 innings. Easy peasy.
I wonder if this type of strategy would allow young pitchers who are pitching well in the minors to move up to the major league club sooner.
There would be less demand to be able to navigate a lineup 3 times or more through, less demand on commanding a whole arsenal of pitches and less demand on being able to provide a mass quantity of innings.
But It sure could make for some strange won-loss records for starters unless MLB reduced the qualifying for a decision innings quantity from 5 down to 4 which maybe should happen anyway.