Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I may have missed something online, but I can't figure out what the C ratings mean on a reliever's card. For example, R2/C0 - what does the C0 mean? I have a feeling it's for advanced leagues, but can anyone help me out?

It's the pitcher's closer rating. Similar to starting and relief pitchers, it indicated at what point the pitcher will become fatigued. For example an S6 will become fatigued after 6 innings. The pitcher continues to be ok, but may begin to struggle once a runner reaches base. The same principle applies to closers, but the number is in terms of outs rather than innings. Therefore, a guy who is an R2/CO (e.g. Carlos Marmol) will be at full strength for two relief innings, provided that it is not a closing situation. If it is a closing situation, he is ok only until he gets a runner on base. If he were an R2/C1, his fatigue would kick in once a baserunner reached following 1 out being recorded. That's why most of the top closers are R1/C6. They are probably ok for an inning if it's a non-save situation, but if they are really needed to finish a game, they can suck it up and mow 'em down for 2 innings before starting to break down. I hope this makes sense, and if anyone has anything to add or correct what I said, I welcome him/her to do so. I do wonder why some guys that don't have a closer rating (e.g. Troy Percival) can be placed in save situations and routinely pick up saves. Perhaps someone else can answer that.

Thanks very much, now I know why my closers on past teams may have performed far worse than I could imagine.