NYY82602 wrote:Does anyone have experience dealing with a 3 man bullpen (plus a cheap lefty specialist) and maximizing innings of that bullpen without pushing guys to f0?
This team fits that description:
http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1109357It's a $100 million cap team, in a great league with some top players, where we do a live draft of players for each new league we do.
For this team, my strategy was geared around being in Yankee stadium. I spent a lot less than I usually do on starting pitchers, and more on hitters (and more than I usually do on relief pitchers, also). For the bullpen, I used a mixture of several solid relievers (Casey Janssen, Jim Johnson, Oliver, and Crow, 2 cheap lefty specialists (Mijares and Luis Perez)), and a 12th pitcher, Broxton, for extra good measure of having a deep bullpen that can log lots of innings. My starters were Harrell, Hudson, Fiers, Paulino and Billingsley. The starters were chosen for decently low salary (not too low, though), and a low number of ballpark home runs on their cards. There was no lefty on the SP staff, because my assessment was that my division rivals had lineups that could hit lefty pitchers well (L balanced hitters).
My starters averaged 5.8 innings pitched per game. My relievers averaged 3.2 innings per game.
I detest letting pitchers go to F0. I don't like the idea that some mysterious process is going to affect the performance of a pitcher that I'm relying on to get the other side out. So, for relief pitchers, I either (a) set it to blank (no settings), or (b) "don't relieve before F8" together with "quick hook". In the (a) setting, "Hal" uses his judgement (bullpen logic system), and in the (b) setting, as soon as the pitcher goes below F8 he gets yanked quickly. For the starters, I either go (a) or (b) as above, or, in many cases with cheap starters like these, I will use "quick hook" (the "c" option), although I rarely use a Max on IP. The lefty specialists are set with the lefty role, with "quick hook" and "avoid RH batters". My team setting I use "normal" and "regular" for bullpen usage and closer settings. I don't use the "team strategy" default settings of "aggressive" and "maximize" - I change them to normal and regular and leave it that way for the entire season. The individual starter and reliever settings I may change from game to game, including the bullpen roles, depending on what team I'm facing, how many lefty and righty hitters they have, and what their balance is - left, right, or neutral.
My worst starter, Billingsley, had just 138 innings pitched. My most used reliever, Janssen, had 135 innings. This doesn't seem extreme, but with a $100 million cap, I could afford to have 4 good relievers, not just 3 as you said in your question. With 4 good relievers, the relief innings got moved around a lot. Between the 5 right handed relievers, they had a lot of innings - 474, or 2.9 IP per game. I just was able to spread the innings out over 5 RH relievers, with the high salary cap. With a lower cap, I would have concentrated those 474 innings among fewer RPs, with more innings for the best relievers, in the same way that you were thinking in your question.
My overall strategy was achieved - home runs hit - 322; home runs given up - 174.
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 8:44 am