Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

New player here. My main question is about SP/RP capable pitchers. Mostly a question of if they are an either/or proposition, and for how long. Here are the questions:

1. I have one SP/RP pitcher as one of my "default rotation" pitchers. Does that mean that he will never come in as a reliever? Could I use him as a LH/RH specialist for one out? If he can/does come in for relief, does that mean he misses his next start? Or he starts out more fatigued than usual? How long until he can start again?

2. I would like to have one of my non-default rotation pitchers make a spot start during one series. To that end, I put him in my "per-game starting pitchers" but they are still not in my default rotation. Will they be available as relievers during the other 2 games of the series? If they pitch in relief before their scheduled start, will their start be skipped? Or does HAL take into account that the pitcher is scheduled for a spot start, so it won't be used as a reliever for X days before the scheduled start?

3. I guess the more general questions would be: If an SP/RP pitcher starts, how long until they can come in as a reliever? If an SP/RP makes a relief appearance, how long until he can make a spot start?

Thanks

A starter/reliever used in relief is not prevented by the game engine from starting the next game if that's your intent. He will not be fatigued when starting the game, nor will his previous relief appearance affect the endurance of his start
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A starter/reliever who starts will only be fully rested for a relief appearance after he's had four days rest if he's a "non-asterisk" pitcher; three days rest if he's an "asterisk" pitcher.

If the game engine is forced to bring in that pitcher before the required rest subsequent to his start you will find he'll be partially or fully fatigued, so, do not count on him to pitch to one batter as a strategy.

I'm not sure if a starter in the " per-game queue" is less likely to be brought in to pitch relief in the other two games even if he is fully rested for all three games. Generally, I try to remove pitcher from any present and future per-game queue if I want him available for a relief appearance.

If you have a S/R in your default Rotation setting he will never be used as a RP unless every other RP has been used in a longer game or has pitched in the previous two games.

If you keep up with your team every day you do not need to use the Rotation settings and can simply use the Per Game Starters settings if you have multiple S or S/R available to pitch in those games.

Typically however you get the most for your player value if your S/R players only make Starts and do not relieve. That is because their salary is based on if they started every 5th day which would give them the most IP by the end of the season. If they pitch less than that you are basically loosing salary value to the other teams in the league. I would suggest to use any pitcher who can start a game as Starters only and leave the relief pitching to RP only pitchers. You maximize your salary cap value that way.

Thanks for the replies! I understand that you get the max value for a SP/RP if they start a lot, but this was a special case. I don't want this particular pitcher to start normally, he is a 9R lefty picked as my RH specialist, pretty terrible against LH batters. But I was playing against a team of all RH batters and a couple of S batters, and I figured this pitcher would be perfect for a spot start. I really don't want him to start in any other situation. And he's cheap enough that I'm happy with the value I'm getting for his few starts (he will probably always start when I'm playing against this particular team).