F ratings - can anyone explain this?

I have Wilhelm set to “don’t relive before F6”. He pitches well for 3 innings and the in his fourth inning he gives up a Hit and 2 walks. I check the play by play - he is f9 through the hit and the first walk. He is then f2 after the second walk at which point Hal replaces him. What happened to f8, f7, etc?
If I had set him to not to relive before F7 instead of f6, would that have made a difference?

"If I had set him to not to relive before F7 instead of f6, would that have made a difference?"

It would make no difference I think.

I can't explain a drop all the way to f2 from f9 on a walk, though I have seen it some this year on my teams also, even f9 to f0 drops, usually in closing situations when a pitcher hits the closer weakness--It probably has something to do with pitch count, and how many games in a row he pitched also.

The drop can be precipitous. But, I think it would be illogical for it to have to hit each F8, F7, F6, F5 and so on all the way down. Your pitcher could pitch for two more innings or more if he had to drop by only one increment every batter he faced once he began to fatigue.....

From Strat-O-Matic Online Wiki:

Pitch Count Fatigue is a special system found only in SOM Online and the CD-ROM game that is a replacement for the board game's Super-Advanced Point of Weakness (POW) rules. It improves upon the all-or-nothing fatigue state of pitchers in the POW system by more realistically and gradually tiring pitchers as they throw more pitches and give up baserunners in a game.

In the Strat-O-Matic Online game, PCF is in effect for all leagues, and has been since the game's inception.

Suggested Pitch Count
A Suggested Pitch Count is determined for each pitcher at the start of each game. This represents the approximate number of pitches he may throw before his condition starts to deteriorate.

It is possible that a pitcher may have his Condition altered well before or well after the suggested number of pitches for him. For instance, if he gets his doors blown off early in the game he might have his Condition affected earlier. Conversely, if he is pitching a gem he might be able to go many more pitches before his Condition deteriorates.

Pitcher's Condition (F0 - F9)
The pitcher's Condition can be from F0 to F9. F9 means that he is operating on all cylinders, whereas F0 indicates that he has nothing left in the tank. Normally pitchers start their appearance as F9 and maintain that level until they approach or exceed their Suggested Pitch Count.

If a pitcher's Condition drops to F0 he will continue to fatigue the longer he stays in the game. His Condition rating will remain displayed as F0, but he will start to give up hits and walks at a higher rate if you leave him in the game.

The situations wherein a pitcher can reach his Point of Weakness (POW) as per the Super-Advanced POW rules do still apply, but in these cases he is not to be considered suddenly "tired", nor do all "@" readings automatically turn into SINGLE**. But this DOES significantly speed up the pitcher's Pitch Count Fatigue deterioration.

Otherwise, in general, if the pitcher hasn't reached his POW per the Super-Advanced POW rules, he will gradually start losing points in his Condition (e.g. F8 -> F7) as he throws more pitches, once he has exceeded his Suggested Pitch Count for the game. However, if he has been pitching particularly well in his most recent innings, this rate of deterioration will be slower.

How Condition Affects Gameplay
Similar to POW, PCF affects readings on pitcher cards preceded by an "@", but it doesn't automatically turn them all into SINGLE**. Instead, it is a more gradual effect, and the variety of the resulting penalties is greater. Basically, once a pitcher's Condition falls below F9 (full strength), the chance of an "@" reading turning into a hit or a walk increases incrementally with each point descending towards F0. The hits can be singles, doubles, triples, or homeruns.

From the rules: Don't Rel. B4- For each of your pitchers, you can indicate that you don't want the computer manager to decide to "give him the hook" based on his overall game performance unless he has reached a certain Pitch Count Fatigue level. Note that there are ways that he may still leave the game before his designated fatigue level, including if he's set to Avoid Lefties or Avoid Righties, if the situation calls for another pitcher you've assigned to a matching Bullpen Role, or if the computer manager decides to pinch-hit for him.

From the Maximum rules: Correct Board Game Excesses -- This improves overall statistical accuracy by adjusting for minor variances that cannot be accounted for in the board game. This improves the statistical accuracy of certain players who had extreme performances. For instance certain pitchers such as Greg Maddux allow very few walks. Using this will enable Maddux to duplicate his real-life dominance in this area. A number of categories are affected by this option including home runs, walks and strikeouts. Also pitchers hitting will be affected by using this, resulting in less walks and extra base hits by pitchers.

I'm not sure any of this addresses your original question. Did Wilhelm relieve in the games leading up to his start? That would be the easy explanation. If not, I guess it's possible the situation and settings recommended an early hook, or, one of these newer maximum rules were placed into effect.

Wilhelm is resistant to fatigue for his first two innings unless he really stinks it up. Then, as long as he doesn't allow any hits or walks, he can go quite a bit farther. However, once he does start giving up hits and walks (starting inning #3), he will drop in a hurry because of his pitch count.

SOM intentionally doesn't share exactly how the fatigue rating is figured. If they did, it would eliminate the need to visit the mound when playing live. That's normally the only way to find out if a pitcher is fatigued. In fact, unless they changed it (I haven't played the computer game in years), you didn't ever know the actual F-rating when a pitcher was fatigued. (Anyone: Have they changed this in the computer game?)