Rookie Question: Pitch Count fatigue

Just had my first set of games simmed and am looking over play-by-play. The only thing that I noticed that I may need to read up is that my starting pitcher pitch counts were very high. I set my starter fatigue to F6 for my starters Scherzer, Cueto and Syndergaard. I had slow hook and no IP max in my pitcher preferences.

Scherzer threw 135 and didn't get to F6 until 2 outs in the 9th where he was then replaced by my closer. So from a fatigue rating sense, it seems like it worked like it was supposed to.

But in the next game, Cueto dropped from F9 to F8 to F4 to F3 with no replacement pitcher coming in. He ended up throwing 137 pitches thru 8 and was left in to finish what only ended up as a one-run ball game.

In the finale, Syndergaard threw 125 pitches. Got to F6 in the bottom of the 9th and then finished at F5 to get the CG victory.

Is there any danger to high "pitch counts" or should I focus more on hook and IP max for more realistic usage?

You're right in pointing out that the relationship between the pitch count and the "fatigued" mode in STRAT is rather lazy.

To better understand the grasp of the pitch count in Strat, you have first to understand the fatigued rule in face-to-face mode. In that mode, you are probably aware that the fatigued mode starts in 4 specific conditions:

1) Once the pitcher reaches his vulnerable inning (say the 7th inning for a SP(7), or the first inning for a R(1)), a pitcher becomes fatigued when he allows a 3rd hit/walk within an inning (or a 4th hit/walk in two consecutive innings, or a 5th hit/walk in three combined innings);
2) A pitcher becomes fatigued when he allows 5 runs in any inning (or 6 runs in two consecutive innings or 7 runs in three consecutive innings).
3) A pitcher becomes fatigued when he pitched his limit of innings (10 or 11 for starting pitchers, 3 for a R1, 4 for a R2
4) A reliever becomes fatigued under some closing situations (won't get into the details of that for now).

In the online game, when any of these four conditions are completely fulfilled (that is, when that 3rd hit/walk is allowed or when that 5th run is allowed), the pitcher is almost always in F4 or F3 fatigued state (some relievers may be as low as F2 or F1 when two situations or more above apply).

Sometimes, the pitcher goes directly from F9 to F4/F3, but often, the shift is decremental. He'll become F8 or F7 with a second hit after he reaches his inning of vulnerability, or when a starting pitcher goes well beyond his inning of vulnerabilty or approaches his limit of innings.

The pitch count is simply the way that SOM conveys that logic, and it's loosely based on the real-life pitch count.

Thanks Marc. Much appreciated.