SP*

I wonder what determines a pitcher getting SP*? nobody pitches on 3 days rest anymore. Why is it even in the game?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think 200 IP in a season gets a starter the asterisk.

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think 200 IP in a season gets a starter the asterisk.

everybody over 195 in the 2013 set is

It's a combination of innings and number of starts.

that answers how, but why SP* at all?

Agree with Alk. It's time to make all pitchers startable on 4 days rest only. Perhaps with some leeway for postseason.

The reason why is that pitchers who threw at least 200 innings or so and had 35 or so starts probably could go every 4th game. It started back when there were 4 man rotations and that was pretty much the standard and has been carried forward for compatibility and flexibility. Perhaps the standard should be higher. But at the time such pitchers were considered candidates and did occasionally pitch on 4 days rest with 5th starter skipped. Skipping 5th starter in real life gets a pitcher on that 4 day rest but 3 games skipped cycle. So there should be such a thing as the SP* with the question being where to cut it off. Why not make the cutoff where it has always been?

To change it now would imply the need to go back and redo the ratings for all pitchers in all seasons for inter-season competitive compatibility. And Strat has always been reluctant to go back and redo the cards. It would be easy to do with the computerized rosters. But there is such a rich history of printed card sets which would be invalidated by such a change. Historically any hint at changing those collector items has met with fierce resistance in the Strat community which is more than just us online players.

Exactly. As a side note, in tournament play starters have always been allowed to start with 3 games rest regardless of whether they are asterisked or not. I've played in a few tourneys, and these are some hard core card-and-dice guys!

Well explained Valen your reason are very valid. Wasn't really complaining more curious. When I 1st starting playing start-o in the early 70's there was no such thing as a 5 man rotation and no TJ surgeries

I think one solution would be to allow a 3-day start but with penalties. For example, if you start one three days rest, you start at F7 and a pitch count (for fatigue purposes) of 10. These penalties could be adjusted based on how many innings were pitched in the last start.