Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I have played a few 162 season Mystery card set seasons and always went with a 4 man starting pitching rotation. (*S) only. My thinking was the 5th starter, that wont be used for the most part during the season, would save some salary cap. I see others going with 5 starters, example the *6/3 players. Will the Strat HAL system later on in the season take that into effect, and pitchers wont produce as well because being used to much with a four man staff? Has anyone done well with a four man rotation only? Just curious to know what your thoughts were on this.


bh327

I think in the 70's most go with a four man rotation at least to start the season. It was a decade when starters pitched a lot, so there are many "*" starters. There is nothing wrong with using the "non-*" starters. The biggest reason not to IMO is that you have to find an extra guy who can pitch. I don't think there is anything wrong with mixing and matching at the beginning of the season either. The way I play, my lineup to start the season dictates what my pitching staff looks like, which sometimes necessitates using a mixture of guys. Some non-"*" starters are cheap(Blass, Keough, etc) are cheap and potentially very good. The thing about the mystery card game is that there are going to be a number of things that don't work out and some unexpected things that do work out, so you just let whoever you have pitch and go in the direction that the results(both hitting and pitching) send you, whether that be the four man or five man rotation.
P.S.-Being used too much has no effect on results later in the season. Fatigue only lasts for whatever game the pitcher is pitching in that day.

As mentioned above, pitchers do NOT tire as the season wears on, they can only tire for one game.

Conventional wisdom says to go with 4 * starters or 5 non-* starters. However, there can be exceptions. For example, with my current 90s team, I plan to have an ace * pitcher and 4 weak non-* pitchers for my rotation. The ace will start every four games. They key is to make sure any tier 1 pitchers pitch as much as allowed.

Also, while it may seem you're saving salary by going with all * pitchers, keep in mind a * pitcher will cost proportionately more than a non-* pitcher.

In the 80s game I almost always go with a 4 man rotation. Most of the times in the other mystery card games I go with a 5 man.