Bullpen Remedies and Suggestions?

Wondering out loud...

Does it make some sense to get rid of the mandatory “5 pure relievers” requirement?

Would having 11 SP/RPs be so unrealistic? Could it be changed to some number less than 5? Maybe one C6 and one or two pure relievers?

The current problem is rest and available innings - there are far too few R2s and R3s, but there are “relievers” aplenty in the S4/R3 pool.

How would this affect pricing? (Mark!?)

Is it way too early to make any decisions yet?

I suspect that with the elimination of the loogy in MLB that we might see some changes in bullpen usage. We may find a shorter pen in numbers than the past 10-15 years which in turn would cause Strat to change their 365 requirements. Of course it doesnt help us now. In leagues that I have Degrom, I only need four relievers, but in other leagues I do need 5 guys although they dont have to be Reliever onlys as you suggest.

It might just be that you need to carry more pitchers, and I intend to try that. The specialists really only hurt you when they’re forced out of their role due to the bullpen being overtaxed. If you can carry enough endurance with say four longer relievers (ie, R2-R3), then having two or three specialists is unlikely to hurt you like it can when you have just five relievers, two of whom are tired and two who are specialists only.

Finding the sweet spot will be the key. While you don’t want Bleier pitching three innings in a close game, you also don’t want unused salary being wasted unnecessarily either.

The biggest problem I see is the two roles only combined with only being able to assign two of whatever role.

With 5 RP you can't cover all situations--if you have no role assigned, or both are unavailable the cheapest guy comes in--(In my case often Quantrill types who I want to use as a specialist and spot SP)

Now that 2 days rest is required very often, Hal will always bring a cheap guy in with no logic as to the situation at all, not the 3rd best choice in that situation. If we could assign 3 different pitchers to a role (still just 2 roles per pitcher) it may help--especially if you have 6 RP.

If you have a weak RP on the team that can be used at all--Hal is going to use him.

How is limiting RP to two roles any more realistic than super relievers? In real life relievers pitch in at least three to four roles.

So we gave up most control of the pen,to limit the super reliever.

Having Hal make more decisions is not a good thing.

Of course the old guys who exclusively play ATG seem to like having less control. Better that than admit Radagast might have a point.

I got called a racist on the ATG Boards for pointing out exactly what J-Pav is saying( don't ask me to explain, I have no idea). I just know those old guys don't like me. Possibly for taking shots at Babe Ruth. Too soon maybe?

Why do yo need to have every role assigned?? I think HAL works much better if you leave things more open, all i ever assign in CLOSER, SETUP and maybe a LH or RH specialist if I happen to carry them. Look for balanced RP with low WHiPs and use few settings, I bet the results will improve.

I am carrying 12 pitchers and 14 hitters in most leagues. All keeper leagues mind you, but the more RP I have the better it works AND it is more realistic of an actual MLB staff. Using only 4 RP was always kind of dumb in that sense.

Imagine you have five unnamed reliever cards, A, B, C, D and E, priced at $5,4,3,2,1.

Now just assign three (or more) names to each card so you have 15 names. The stats and box scores would then reflect 15 pitchers of similar capabilities and the appearance would be more “realistic”. That’s kind of what you have with the current system (but obviously it only reflects the original first five names, which looks unrealistic).

It’s impossible to simulate a real MLB pitching staff of 25+ pitchers with the team building model of SOM Online, so I’m okay with the current system.

But if “Reliever Card C” is pitching 300 relief innings and getting 25 wins and 45 saves for $3 mil (ie, Super Relief), that’s probably more of a a pricing problem, not necessarily a usage problem (pretending now the stats are shared by three pitchers). Except even under the three names per card method, the tiredness and usage rules would still be very cumbersome, because you‘d have to “bench” three pitchers when a “card” gets tired. It seems to me that if five cards are really representing 15 pitchers, they should be allowed to pitch three times as much, but on a sliding scale so more expensive relievers are required to pitch less.

Imagine you have five unnamed reliever cards, A, B, C, D and E, priced at $5,4,3,2,1.

Now just assign three (or more) names to each card so you have 15 names. The stats and box scores would then reflect 15 pitchers of similar capabilities and the appearance would be more “realistic”. That’s kind of what you have with the current system (but obviously it only reflects the original first five names, which looks unrealistic).

It’s impossible to simulate a real MLB pitching staff of 25+ pitchers with the team building model of SOM Online, so I’m okay with the current system.

But if “Reliever Card C” is pitching 300 relief innings and getting 25 wins and 45 saves for $3 mil (ie, Super Relief), that’s probably more of a a pricing problem, not necessarily a usage problem (pretending now the stats are shared by three pitchers). Except even under the three names per card method, the tiredness and usage rules would still be very cumbersome, because you‘d have to “bench” three pitchers when a “card” gets tired. It seems to me that if five cards are really representing 15 pitchers, they should be allowed to pitch three times as much, but on a sliding scale so more expensive relievers are required to pitch less.

How come no one ever complains about "super starters"? The innings have to go somewhere.