Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

In the newbie advice thread, one common piece of advice is to carry 13 hitters and 10 pitchers. Is the 10 man pitching staff idea good or should we, as many have since mentioned, go with more pitchers? Having a six man bullpen makes sense, allowing us to have a Closer, Set up, lefty, righty, rev lefty, rev righty, but this obviously costs more.

10 pitchers, unless you are in an extreme hitters park or possibly in a non-dh league.

But why only 10? That only allows you to have a Closer, Set up, one mid range and two cheap pitchers.

You may be able to get by on a 10 man staff in a pitcher's park, but I prefer at least an 11 man (preferably 12 man) in a hitters park.

Having a 10 man staff in Coors (unless you run 4 good * starters and 6 relievers) can really destroy a season.

The more relievers, the better HAL will manage your bullpen. Other managers will tell you that value-wise, it's best to carry the minimum roster with the minimum priced bench players. While this is probably true in theory, I've seen (and had) so many teams that violated this concept and succeeded that I can't count them all.

You should set your team up to the point where you feel comfortable with who you have. As you get more experienced you will know what works and what doesn't.

I usually stick to how most real teams are run -14 hitters and 11 pitchers. I like to have options

[quote:74dc153f86="Worrierking"]10 pitchers, unless you are in an extreme hitters park or possibly in a non-dh league.[/quote:74dc153f86]

Who are we to question the more experienced, but here it goes...

BernieH is basically confirming that in running tests, a deeper bullpen is better. IMO, the following construction is very good (albeit not the only way to go):

five starters plus...
STUD CLOSER R2/C6
GREAT R2 SET UP (not necessarily too expensive - depends on park etc)
HARD RIGHTY
HARD LEFTY
REVERSE RIGHTY
REVERSE LEFTY

This makes common sense to me. Some of these guys can be had for pennies on the dollar.

[quote:a2baf2d81d="Roscodog"]I usually stick to how most real teams are run -14 hitters and 11 pitchers. I like to have options[/quote:a2baf2d81d]

I think there can be an underestimation of how valuable it can be to have extra weapons in your arsenal. HAL seems to do better with a deeper bench as well.

If I get who I want, I go with 10 pitchers.
If I have to, I will go with eleven.
My formula usually is
5 starters (4 with * then a 5th that can relieve to use as mop up)
Closer
Stud midreliever
stud midreliever
Hard lefty vs lefty
Hard righty vs righty
if I need an eleventh because I had to use 5 non-* starters,
it would be a LH vs Left