Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I wanted to get a sense of opinions out there... is a 4 man or 5 man rotation more successful?

I like having one 4 day ace followed by 4 or 5 5-day guys. For a given price, the 5 day guys are better than the 4 day guys, but that ace is nice to have to eat up lots of innings, give your team a good chance to win every 4th day, and be available to pitch multiple playoff games in a series.

I have used a 4 man, 5 man and a mixed rotation many times. Sometimes it is more fun with a mixed staff which gives you flexibility on who to pitch when. With a straight 4 *S or 5 non-*S you don't have any flexibility at all.

However a *SP is priced a little higher than the exact same strat card if it wasn't a *SP so you are not getting your full money's worth if you don't pitch them every 4th game. So to maximize your dollars you would go with the straight 4 man or straight 5 man rotation.

[quote:dad0709b4b="LMBombers"]I have used a 4 man, 5 man and a mixed rotation many times. Sometimes it is more fun with a mixed staff which gives you flexibility on who to pitch when. With a straight 4 *S or 5 non-*S you don't have any flexibility at all.

However a *SP is priced a little higher than the exact same strat card if it wasn't a *SP so you are not getting your full money's worth if you don't pitch them every 4th game. So to maximize your dollars you would go with the straight 4 man or straight 5 man rotation.[/quote:dad0709b4b]

If you go with 1 good SP* and 4 non-*-SP's doesn't HAL automatically start the SP* every 4th day? I haven't checked for sure but from when I've noticed it appears that the SP* starts whenever he's rested

I usually do a combo of SP*'s and SP's. My favorite staff is to get 3 good SP*'s and one cheapy SP* and two cheapy (by cheapy I mean < 1 mil) SPs. My ideal starting staff usually looks like this:

good SP*
good SP*
good SP*
cheapy SP*
cheapy high Bal R SP/RP
cheapy high Bal L SP/RP

I set my rotation up as the 4 SP*'s and I set my cheapy L and cheapy R to be specialists. The three good SP*'s start games 1, 2, 3 then I look at the matchup for game 4. If it's a heavily balanced L team I start the cheapy starter that's tough on lefties, same for righties. If it's a balanced team I start the cheapy SP*. If the L and R starters don't get a lot of starts, they still get use as specialists out of the bullpen.

all valid points.....

but I prefer a 5 man rotation based on the fact that I can find 5 good value non * easier that 4 SP*

The value of having one *ace comes in game 5 of a first round playoff. I recently faced a 2003 team which had Schmidt, Pedro, Contreras, Schilling and....K Wilson. I had K. Wood. We split the first four games and in game 5, wood vs wilson was no contest.

The timing is perfect for me - have been pondering this subject as my mediocre 4 S*'s have begun my latest season s-ing the bed, so to speak. I finally see the wisdom of the 5-man - you've gotta see for yourself, obviously, although my sample is short-lived so far. I've played a couple/few $100M 2009's, when the SP's become pretty darned thin, so it becomes necessary to think in terms of non-* starters. That could be another poll - who prefers the $80M budget over $100? The players tending toward "purist" views, I suppose, but it's fun to get a chance to put more of the upper echelon players on the field, too. Anyway, good board topic. Thanks.

Depends on the context

you have more extreme cards,, a la Maine, with non SP. Easier to build a rotation around an extreme stadium. In offensive stadiums, the S5/S6 doesn't hurt much because you need a strong bullpen anyway. So you better go with non *SP.

On the other hand, if you go with a not-so-extreme stadium, say Busch, and wish to buy the best rotation money can buy, you better go with 7-inning guys, and spend the minimum on the bullpen, and on this regard, there are more choices among S7 if you go with *SP.