Bullpen Roles

I think it's possible to overspend on the bullpen at 80M. And that means less money for everything else.
One recent team of mine at the 80M level won 101 games with Narleski (1.85 M), an R3, and LaPalme (1.77 M), also an R3, as my two main relievers. I had a 5 man rotation. My other two pure relievers were a .56M guy and a .5 M guy.

My total bullpen expenditure was 4.68M, or just under 6% of my overall 80M budget. And the results weren't bad. Narleski pitched 182.2 innings and LaPalme pitched 93.2 innings. They combined for a 21-11 W/L and 39-22 saves. The two cheapo relievers combined for 69.1 innings, a 3-1 W/L and 3-1 saves. I got a few relief stints out of SP/RP starters.

The rest of the money on this 101 win team went into starting pitching and offense. My hitters scored 1065 runs--which they couldn't have done if I'd lavished money on a bullpen where the #3 & #4 guys pitched just a few innings. My run differential was +250.

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1533409

Notice that Outta Leftfield's total pitching was just under $28 million.....If you had to replace one of his cheapo relievers with a Burke or other super reliever....and still kept total pitching under $32 million you could experience consistent success.

I think it's possible to overspend on the bullpen at 80M. And that means less money for everything else.
One recent team of mine at the 80M level won 101 games with Narleski (1.85 M), an R3, and LaPalme (1.77 M), also an R3, as my two main relievers. I had a 5 man rotation. My other two pure relievers were a .56M guy and a .5 M guy.

My total bullpen expenditure was 4.68M, or just under 6% of my overall 80M budget. And the results weren't bad. Narleski pitched 182.2 innings and LaPalme pitched 93.2 innings. They combined for a 21-11 W/L and 39-22 saves. The two cheapo relievers combined for 69.1 innings, a 3-1 W/L and 3-1 saves. I got a few relief stints out of SP/RP starters.

The rest of the money on this 101 win team went into starting pitching and offense. My hitters scored 1065 runs--which they couldn't have done if I'd lavished money on a bullpen where the #3 & #4 guys pitched just a few innings. My run differential was +250.

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1533409

Notice that Outta Leftfield's total pitching was just under $28 million.....If you had to replace one of his cheapo relievers with a Burke or other super reliever....and still kept total pitching under $32 million you could experience consistent success.

I'd be satisfied with 101 wins. That's success enough for me

You can spend more than 32M on pitching. People act like there’s a formula. There isn’t.

The issue with multiple high price relievers is many will not get used, unless you get low price starters. People seem to like lowbie scrubs like Rueter and Somanstine, if you want to follow the herd (which means Duren, Pineiro, Heredia, Atley Donald, etc etc etc, ad infinitum — you’ll quickly spot those if you play a few leagues. And then there’s the same 3 or 4 RPs who throw waaaay over 200 innings. It’s rather ridiculous. Hopefully, the update will create some diversity amongst the draft portfolios. Till then expect to see quite a few teams built like slow pitch softball rosters, and guys like Tim Burke throwing 250 or more innings.

Funny Honestiago, I just had a draft tonight and got both Murray and Burke on a bomber team. I usually build small ball teams but felt like a change because like you said, same ol' guys. Of course I drafted the same ol' bomber guys and had only one pick for my offense (which is going to hit at least 450 homers) go south...Ruth! I would love it if you brought back randomination, maybe my favorite theme of all time, super competitive and really stretched my imagination, playing in all those seldom used ballparks!

I would love it if you brought back randomination, maybe my favorite theme of all time, super competitive and really stretched my imagination, playing in all those seldom used ballparks!

BRING IT BACK! BRING IT BACK!

Till then expect to see quite a few teams built like slow pitch softball rosters, and guys like Tim Burke throwing 250 or more innings.

Question from a newbie who hasn't played a season yet. How do you get your relievers to pitch 250+ innings? Do you need certain game strategies? When I played the 21 game trial season, my most used reliever only pitched 16 innings. Thx.

Till then expect to see quite a few teams built like slow pitch softball rosters, and guys like Tim Burke throwing 250 or more innings.

Question from a newbie who hasn't played a season yet. How do you get your relievers to pitch 250+ innings? Do you need certain game strategies? When I played the 21 game trial season, my most used reliever only pitched 16 innings. Thx.

Did you go to your Team Pitching settings?
it kind of sounds like you didn't set up roles for your RPs bc they would def get more innings than that.
You also want to maybe go to the team strategy and change it from 'Maximize' which means your closer only comes in save situations to 'normal' or whatever the other one is.

Question from a newbie who hasn't played a season yet. How do you get your relievers to pitch 250+ innings? Do you need certain game strategies? When I played the 21 game trial season, my most used reliever only pitched 16 innings. Thx.[/quote]

The short answer is: You would take a really good reliever and put him in every bullpen role (under pitcher preferences.) However, they just made a new rule to inhibit such a strategy... now a pitcher can only be assigned to two roles.