Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

The question is: Does a pitcher of record still use his closer rating? At bottom is the closer rule from the instruction booklet. Situation is tie game and reliever came in to pitch in the ninth. Top of tenth his team scores a run. According to the rules, it is now a save situation but he is eligible for the win and can not get the save. Does he use his closer rating for fatigue or continue with his reliever rating?


CLOSER RULE

This Super Advanced system encourages realistic use of relief pitchers, emphasizing the use of pitchers in late-inning save situations who where the real big-league closers. Each reliever is given a second POW rating, call it "closer endurance". For example, a rating a "relief(2)/3" indicates a regular POW rating of 2 and a closer endurance rating of 3.

28.1 Closer ratings range from 0-6, with 6 being the big-league's most frequent and successful closers. If a relief pitcher is rated "N" for closer endurance, he should not be used as a closer.

28.2 Closer endurance is the duration, measured in number of outs, a pitcher can maintain his effectiveness in closer situations. In Strat-O-Matic, a "closer situation" is defined differently than a big-league save opportunity. Your pitcher will be in a "closer situation" whenever you have the lead in the 9th inning or later and the tying run is on base or at bat.

28.3 A pitcher may enter a game in a closer situation or a game he already has entered may suddenly become a closer situation. Here are some rules to govern both possibilities:

28.31 The closer rules do not affect the current game's starting pitchers, who always use their starter POW (even for starting pitchers who have ratings both as starters and relievers).

28.32 Each reliever enters the game using either his closer endurance (if the game is already a closer situation) or his regular POW rating (if the game is not currently a closer situation).

28.33 If the pitcher begins his appearance with his regular POW and game becomes a closer situation, he CHANGES to his closer endurance rating. At that time, reduce his closer endurance by the number of outs he has already recorded. This number cannot be reduced to lower than 0, unless the pitcher's closer endurance is "N".

28.34 Once a pitcher begins to use his closer endurance rating, that is his endurance for the remainder of his appearance, even if the score changes and the game is no longer a closer situation.

Example: A reliever enters the game in the bottom of the 9th inning with a 3-2 lead - a closer situation. The opposing team ties the score in the bottom of the 9th. In the top of the 10th, the pitcher's team scores four times. If the same pitcher remains in the game for the bottom of the 10th, he is still using his closer endurance rating to determine when he becomes fatigued.

28.35 The closer endurance rating is the number of outs the pitcher can record before becoming fatigued. Once this number has been reached, reducing his endurance rating to 0, he becomes fatigued AS SOON AS he allows a hit or walk (or HBP in our league).

28.36 Any pitcher with a closer endurance rating of "N" is immediately considered fatigued with the first batter he faces in a closer situation.

28.37 As with regular POW, once a reliever becomes fatigued under the terms of the Closer Rule, out readings followed by dots become SINGLE**.

Follow Rule 28.33: If the pitcher begins his appearance with his regular POW and game becomes a closer situation, he CHANGES to his closer endurance rating. At that time, reduce his closer endurance by the number of outs he has already recorded. This number cannot be reduced to lower than 0, unless the pitcher's closer endurance is "N"

This happens often. If your pitcher came in for 3 outs in the 9th in a non-save situation and he didn't become fatigued, his new closer rating in the bottom of the 10th for the save situation is equal to his normal closer rating MINUS 3. If he came in for only one or two outs in the 9th, reduce his normal closer rating by that number. As always, once you've started using the closer rating for endurance, ignore his POW rating for the rest of his appearance.

But as per 28.2 Your pitcher will be in a "closer situation" whenever you have the lead in the 9th inning or later and the tying run is on base or at bat.
he isn't in a closer situation in the ninth yet because the game is still tied. So he becomes the pitcher of record AND uses his closer rating? Edit: After waking up a bit, it makes more sence now. It's not a question of a save, blown save, win or loss. It has to do with fatugue. Once the factors of the game make it a closer situation, closer rules come into effect. The "closer" of record would then get the Win instead of a Save.

The real-life win, loss and save criteria are irrelevant to the SOM closer rule.

If the pitcher is in the bottom of the 10th with a one-run lead, it is a SOM closer situation.

(Note that, when it moves from a non-closer situation to a closer situation, the previous outs recorded by the pitcher are subtracted from his C rating. So if he pitched the entire 9th inning, you would subtract three, as in three outs, from the C rating when he starts the 10th. If he is C6, this is not a big problem because that still leaves him at C3, enough to get through the inning. With any lower C rating, he is in danger of tiring before the inning ends.)

I find it interesting that in the CD-ROM version of the game, it actually bumps the "target" pitch count upwards for the closer when he gets in a closing situation. The "target" pitch count bump appears to have some mathematical relationship to his C rating. But I guess the online game doesn't use this, as many people have told me. It just seems odd to me that the CD-Rom game would do something different than the online game.

I'm not trying to make a point, other than that this seems odd to me.

Well, let's say that in the situation we've been discussing, a R1/C6 closer came in with two outs in the 9th inning (when the game was still tied). Since it is not a closer situation, he is R1 at this point. Then, his team scores and it becomes a closer situation. When he comes back out for the 10th, he is now C5 (C6 minus the one out he already recorded). C5 (i.e., being able to go five outs without danger of fatigue) represents higher endurance than R1 (i.e., being able to go three outs without danger of fatigue). Therefore, he now has more pitches available.

I find it interesting that in the CD-ROM version of the game, it actually bumps the "target" pitch count upwards for the closer when he gets in a closing situation. The "target" pitch count bump appears to have some mathematical relationship to his C rating. But I guess the online game doesn't use this, as many people have told me. It just seems odd to me that the CD-Rom game would do something different than the online game.

The online game is based on the cdrom game. The online game uses advanced fatigue. Therefore the R3 rating or whatever is not directly used. Pitch count is used to determine fatigue. Thus instead of counting outs target pitch count is bumped. But in theory principle is the same. Once game situation shifts from non-closer to closer situation closer fatigue kicks in on a prorated basis.

All of this of course assumes 200x game because supposedly closer rules are turned off for ATG game. Unless of course you are among those who believe closer rules are not totally ignored in the ATG game as officially stated.

Valen wrote:

I find it interesting that in the CD-ROM version of the game, it actually bumps the "target" pitch count upwards for the closer when he gets in a closing situation. The "target" pitch count bump appears to have some mathematical relationship to his C rating. But I guess the online game doesn't use this, as many people have told me. It just seems odd to me that the CD-Rom game would do something different than the online game.

The online game is based on the cdrom game. The online game uses advanced fatigue. Therefore the R3 rating or whatever is not directly used. Pitch count is used to determine fatigue. Thus instead of counting outs target pitch count is bumped. But in theory principle is the same. Once game situation shifts from non-closer to closer situation closer fatigue kicks in on a prorated basis.

All of this of course assumes 200x game because supposedly closer rules are turned off for ATG game. Unless of course you are among those who believe closer rules are not totally ignored in the ATG game as officially stated.

Thank you Valen for confirming what I was thinking. I realize some people may have an opposing view - Ie that the board game rules still prevail in the online game for the close rule - but my guess/belief was the opposite - that the online game is like the CD Rom game for closers. Like I said, what I have seen, playing the CD-Rom game, is that the closer pitcher gets a sudden bump in his target pitch count when the closer situation arises (actually, I think it did this at the start of the 9th inning in a closer situation). Like Valen said, the bump in the target pitch count appears to relate in some mathematical way to the closer rating of the pitcher. The overall effect is probably approximately the same, but the mechanics would be different.