Pitcher Fatigue

[travelingjack]

Are there any plans to tweak the game so starting pitchers don't routinely throw 140-160 pitches per start? While it does cut down on angst over how HAL handles relief pitching it's obviously unrealistic for pitchers from the 90's onward to be throwing that many pitches. Also devalues guys like Halladay who actually do throw a lot of pitches/innings in real life.

[LMBombers]

The pitch count is irrelavant. But I guess to answer your question is no.

[travelingjack]

You have a lot more experience with SOM than I do so maybe I am missing something, but how can the pitch count be irrelevant? This is from the SOM wiki:


[quote:989e2c078a]A Suggested Pitch Count is determined for each pitcher at the start of each game. This represents the approximate number of pitches he may throw before his condition starts to deteriorate.

It is possible that a pitcher may have his Condition altered well before or well after the suggested number of pitches for him. For instance, if he gets his doors blown off early in the game he might have his Condition affected earlier. Conversely, if he is pitching a gem he might be able to go many more pitches before his Condition deteriorates.

[/quote:989e2c078a]

I'm not trying to be combative or hostile, just don't understand what exactly you mean by irrelevant. If you mean it's irrelevant to SOM rules, then I'm not understanding the rules. If you mean irrelevant to you as it relates to baseball and playing the game then I disagree but so be it.

[Knerrpool]

It gets back to the age old question of "do you want it to be realistic" or "do you want to see what kind of extreme performances you can get in a scaled environment". Is it realistic in 2010 that a starting pitcher routinely throws 160 pitches? No. Is it realistic that a relief pitcher throws 225 innings in a season? No. Is it realistic that Mark McGwire has 95 homeruns in a BTT 90's league that I'm in right now (and the season is not over yet!!)? No....but it is kind of fun to see.

[travelingjack]

True enough, and the majority opinion might be that it's not worth messing with. But, pitch counts are a pretty big part of modern baseball and SOM is supposed to be a somewhat accurate representation, I think I remember that claim being made somewhere. :D

It's not that big of a deal to me, I'll keep playing regardless, just kind of bugs me to see something that's not very realistic happening a lot. According to the SOM wiki pitchers should start wearing down when they reach a certain number of pitches, maybe the numbers should be tweaked a bit so pitchers don't go quite so long. Another suggestion would be to not allow * starters to pitch on three days rest if they threw more than a certain number of pitches the start before.

[Knerrpool]

I hear you. It's definitely an interesting discussion.

[LMBombers]

What I meant by irrelevant is that SOM does not use pitch count to determine fatigue. They only use IP and H/BB.

I don't mean to demean your question and I understand that in real baseball pitch count is used even if the SP is pitching pretty good.

[tony best]

I have just started in SOM online but I agree with Blackjack. My first season starting pitchers project to
26-10
16-24
16-24
22-10

This looks more like a pitcher roster from 1911 than 2011. I also agree that relief pitchers going 200 innings is silly.

Putting Jose Bautista in Coors Field and watching him wack 80 homers is indeed fun but ballpark manipulation is not the same as say having Bautista get 800 at bats.

1. make pitcher fatigue more Draconian
2. increase pitcher injury due to overuse
3.increase pitcher roster size by having a minor league roster

[travelingjack]

LMBombers- Ok, thanks for the explanation. Sorry if I was a bit oversensitive. :) I thought pitch count did matter in the advanced rules and the computer game.

I do agree that no game can be 100% realistic and having occasional outliers and unusual stuff happen is fun. SOM wouldn't be much fun if McGwire hit 73 HR's every 98 season (or was it 99?) or the Giants won the world series every time you replayed 2010. It's just that the higher pitch counts combined with around 30-40% of pitchers being able to pitch on three days rest makes for a different type of pitching game than the real life version. Since it seems like SOM favors offense a bit heavily having the best pitchers throw longer and more often evens things out anyway.

[JOSEPHKENDALL]

You also have to remember that most leagues are 12 team leagues. You are picking the best of the best to play in those leagues. The numbers will not work out correctly. SOM created the game to replay a season, and it will do a very good job at that. It does not do well when you mix players from different years and only have the best players.