How do I get a 5th man out of my rotation?

[Rigged Splits]

I originally set a 5 man rotation so HAL would use some S/R as relief pitchers. Now I'm using a 4 man but don't know how to get the 5th guy out. He hasn't pitched since I got the 4 * players.

[Semper Gumby]

Remove him from your rotation setting (done, yes?) and mark him for mop-up duty with all your best RPs mark for "Avoid Blowouts".

HAL will toss your 5th SP under the bus early and often!

[Rigged Splits]

There must be a trick or I'm really stupid because I can't get him out without putting some else in. Maybe I'll just try checking him for mop up and see if he gets used while in the rotation.

Ah hah! I am really stupid. For three years I've never known that you could click on Select Starter and it replaces your old starter with a guy named Select Starter. :oops:

[Paul5757]

You don't need to use the mop up setting. If the S/R is any good, HAL will use him.

Just leave the 5th spot blank, and make sure to set you starter schedule, and HAL will do the rest. That can be either good or bad, depending on HAL's mood.

Semper's idea is good if the would-be 5th guy sucks. I would say, though, that if the 5th guy sucks, you'd want to put him in the rotation then set the starter schedule so that he would never see the light of day. (BP won't get fatigued too often, and the extra mop up innings give you more data.)

[Semper Gumby]

If you set your routine rotation with the 4 SP*, HAL should prefer to go with them for the 4 game sets.

Of course, he loves to drop in that 5th guy every 8 or 9 games (he does on my recent team).

I just pull his ass and drop in my own starter.

Otherwise, I typically hit my 5th SP (Kison / Falcone) with the mop-up tag and he gets a few junk innings every other series especially when you've locked off HAL's ability to toss Eck in on a 2 to 11 in the 6th inning smackdown.

Why? I mean HAL should want to use the best arms, yes? We're told HAL can smoke out the best card via usage. Maybe so.

However, I find that my 5th SP (the dual SP/RP) ain't nearly as good as my primary RPs so it makes sense to waste the innings on my seldom used SP (Kison).

[yak1407]

Unless, Yountfan is correct in his theory that starters do start to wear down and HAL is dumping the fifth guy in to give them some rest.
Of course,my two current teams have Kison and Sorenson as the fifth starters and I haven't even been managing my starting rotation and between the two of them they've pitched one inning in relief.
Semper, when he drops your fifth guy in, is he an SP*?

[Rigged Splits]

The guy is Heaton. I doubt it's one of his good years but he's 4-1 with an ERA almost a point below my teams, so I want him to pitch more until he proves how bad he can be. I don't think HAL has brought him in to relieve in the whole season.

[Semper Gumby]

HAL seems to go for the pitchers with * for the rotation if left open.

I just added Vuck (SP*) to one of my established squads (135 games completed) and HAL wanted to add him to the rotation (Front Office page starters) despite having Anderson (best card - 6 games of rest) and Moose (near best card - 5 games of rest) available to start and Anderson is listed in my default rotation.

[b:6376c2f138]Default Rotation[/b:6376c2f138]

Higgie *
Petry *
Caldwell *
Anderson (3.18 era season?)

[b:6376c2f138]Available to Pitch[/b:6376c2f138]

Moose Haas
Vuck

[yak1407]

That's my experience too, HAL always goes with the *SP over the others.
So if you want to keep the 5th guy out of the rotation, make sure you have four SP*

[Paul5757]

Aren't using using the per-game starter schedule?

I rarely, if ever, have any trouble getting S/R's to relieve. I fill out the "set your rotation" the best I can, then set the per-game starter schedule to exclude the S/R, then HAL will use the S/R in relief. (But I also don't use many reliever settings, so this may have something to do with it.)

Semper, I would put Haas in the default rotation (as I recall, he doesn't have a reliever rating, so that won't matter), then I'd use the per-game starter scedule. Vuckovich would then relieve.