Question about relief pitchers Topic

So I'm in my second league, a theme league, post '70. One of the things I emphasized while drafting my team was a strong bullpen - going down late in the game is the worst, especially if you're starter performed fairly well. Thing is though, in my first 8 games my best relief pitchers have given it up pretty badly. 

This is the bottom of my bullpen, actual stats, closer omitted 
                                                                        ERA
Mike Myers '05 (L)   100 65 3-1 0 38.0 3.13 .224 1.15 5.06 3.13 959K
Billy Wagner '08 (L)   100 45 0-1 27 47.0 2.30 .185 0.89 9.96 1.91 1.86M
Keith Foulke '04 (R)   100 72 5-3 32 83.0 2.17 .206 0.94 8.57 1.63 3.00M
Rick Aguilera '94 (R)   100 44 1-4 23 65.0 3.63 .306 1.51 9.34 2.03 1.03M
Trevor Hoffman '04 (R)   100 55 3-3 41 55.0 2.30 .211 0.91 8.73 1.32 1.91M


And this is the league stats so far, 8 games in
                                                                  ERA
Mike Myers '05 (L)   100 1 0-0 0 0.2 0.00 .000 0.00 27.00 0.00 959K
Billy Wagner '08 (L)   100 3 0-0 0 3.1 8.10 .357 1.80 2.70 2.70 1.86M
Keith Foulke '04 (R)   100 4 0-0 0 4.0 13.50 .400 2.25 9.00 2.25 3.00M
Rick Aguilera '94 (R)   100 1 0-0 0 1.2 0.00 .167 0.60 10.80 0.00 1.03M
Trevor Hoffman '04 (R)   100 3 0-1 0 1.2 21.60 .500 3.60 0.00 5.40 1.91M


As you can see, besides Mike Myers, all the pitchers with the exception of Rick Aguilera (who I just picked up off the waiver wire) have pretty high ERA among other things. And, besides Myers, they are all closers. 

So my question is, in Simleagues, do closers HAVE to close? Do they get hammered when put in another part of the pen? Obviously some of the best relief pitchers in the game are closers, so thats who I drafted for my pen. But in the sim, if you take a closer out of his role, does he get all screwed up? 
7/14/2013 1:44 PM
The sample size is way too small.

Closers do not HAVE to close - the sim doesnt know who is who - it only looks at the numbers of the pitcher in the game.

And also, your sim closer does not HAVE to be a real life closer - you can make ANY pitcher your closer.
7/14/2013 2:01 PM
I know it's a small sample, I just didn't know if it was a coincidence that my closers were doing terrible in a setup role. Thanks for the reply though
7/14/2013 3:46 PM
A couple of things to be aware of though:

-- The way WIS works, the only stats that really matter from your pitchers are their actual and normalized OAV, BB/9, and HR/9.  Things like saves don't factor in at all.  If you don't know what those stats are, or don't know what I mean by normalized, it would be a good idea to search through the forums for posts that describe what they mean and how they work.
-- Your pitch count settings are extremely important, especially for modern day relievers who often averaged ~1 inning per game (or less).  If you are asking these guys to throw 25 pitches a game, they are going to get tired (during any appearance) and will get hit hard the longer they are in the game.  Do NOT rely on the SIM recommended pitch count settings.
-- What cap are you playing?  Your Aguilera is going to get lit up at any cap...but the effectiveness of the other guys will vary tremendously based on the quality of the opposition they are facing.
7/14/2013 4:35 PM (edited)
100m cap post '70. I know ERA isnt rhe biggest factor, it's the one I used though since its basically a product of whip and oav. I was just worried that the fact that I drafted closers is affecting their performance. I guess it's just some bad luck.

Thanks for the replies though, still helpful!
7/14/2013 4:07 PM
contrarian23, I've been playing this SIM for a long time but I still learned something from your post above.  I know these forums have all but died from the glory years, but the posts from all you great veterans are still helping us strugglers.  Maybe someday these forums will return to their former glory.  But until then...thanks.
7/16/2013 7:01 PM
Yeah, at first glance I would guess your pc's aren't right. As a general rule, your max pc shouldn't be more than their rl ip/g times 16.

Myers should probably be 10.
7/16/2013 7:57 PM
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Posted by cuppie1 on 7/16/2013 7:01:00 PM (view original):
contrarian23, I've been playing this SIM for a long time but I still learned something from your post above.  I know these forums have all but died from the glory years, but the posts from all you great veterans are still helping us strugglers.  Maybe someday these forums will return to their former glory.  But until then...thanks.
The pinned thread at the top of the forum has links to some of the best threads still on the site. It's a gold mine still.

http://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?TopicID=462961&TopicsTimeframe=30
7/31/2013 11:04 PM
Posted by beachbum3494 on 7/31/2013 9:23:00 PM (view original):
I don't have time to sift thru all these different forums....can someone explain to this newbie what "normalized" means?

What you are saying is " I want to be competitive, but I don't want to actually do anything for it.  Can someone please do my homework for me, and then spoon feed it to me?"

Someone was nice enough to give you the threads.  What you do with it is up to you.   If you understand the basic concepts (what stats are used, normalization, etc) you'll be competitive quickly.

8/1/2013 2:15 PM
Wow, usually I'm the only one that says that. Perhaps I will switch roles and call all of you meanie heads.
8/2/2013 6:54 AM
Question about relief pitchers Topic

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