Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Rotation: S9*/S9*/S8*/S8*/ - fifth is S7/R4 - a quality arm intended to be used only in the bullpen

Bullpen: S7/R4 plus R4/R4/R3/R3
I have a dedicated closer, so I'm trying to find out if this is the best way to use my best arm (the s/r guy):

Closer - is an ideal closer/setup guy (Elroy Face)
Of the other 4:
best arm (the s/r guy) - middle/setup
next best arm - setup/closer
3rd best arm - middle
weakest arm - mopup

is this the best way to get that s/r fifth starter (who will never start) the most innings in relief?

Can you post a link to your team? Also... (if it's an ATG9 league) you'll get more responses if you put this in the All-Time Greats section.

need to see a link to the team, and need to know if this is a dh league or not - but in general if you have 4 *starters you don't want to spend real money on a 5th one. having a starter rating will make the card more expensive therefore you will get less bang for your buck using him as a reliever. if you really like the guy use him as a starter and use a 5-man rotation.

a common rookie mistake is treating your stratomatic pitching staff the way one would treat a real life one. for better or worse, this world is very different.

many thanks for the thoughts and suggestions - have not created the team yet, so no link -

Like tmfw30 said, you're paying extra for the S7 rating with the S7/R4 option. Have your 5th starter cost 50 cents. He won't be used.

Closer - is an ideal closer/setup guy (Elroy Face) - Yup
Of the other 4:
best arm (the s/r guy) - middle/setup - Yup. Gets the most innings from your best RP. RP only guy though.
next best arm - setup/closer - You can't have 3 setup RP's so I would do ...middle/behind and late.
3rd best arm - middle - the 2 middle slots are taken so ...behind and late/tied and late.
weakest arm - mopup - Yup

This is what I do in the 20xx game. RP's in ATG don't have a closer rating so I'm kinda out of my element. Is Face a good closer? Should you have a 2nd closer in ATG? I don't know. As jjii66 suggested, I'll copy this to the ATG Forum and we can see what they think.

specifically re: why I would try this with 5th starter: (leaving aside my inability to count the number of middle relievers!):
it's Frank Wickware, and I've been trying to figure out why this costs 1.24m a year:
S7/R4 W13 L8 Sv1 196.0 IP ERA 2.30 WHIP 1.11 1.24M?!?
Also can't grasp Lou Brock 1974:
635 AB, 118 SB, .306/.368/.381 for 1.75M? What am I missing?

If you're looking for a pitcher to absorb innings in middle relief, Wickware would get slaughtered by left-hand batting (take a look at his stats history: 6.01 ERA and 1.84 WHIP). If you're looking for a specialist against right-hand batting, there are much better options among the pure relief pitchers.

For Brock, defense plays a big role in pricing, and the defensive rating for his '74 card (4(+1)e12) is not exactly stellar.

Bubblehead wrote:Also can't grasp Lou Brock 1974:
635 AB, 118 SB, .306/.368/.381 for 1.75M? What am I missing?

Bad defense, and a pretty empty .308 (not great OBP).

Here’s a mini-Brock discussion from 3 years ago.
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=645521&p=5703157&hilit=lou+brock#p5703157

this is very helpful in my education - thanks all!