We're going to disagree.   I think most will agree with me but I doubt there's any way to test it.

I think it's silly to believe that hitters have a limited number of PA/innings in field at 100% and that pitchers do not have a limited number of pitches thrown at 100% when ST and regular season are combined. 

I don't think ST and regular season are combined though when counting season-long fatigue.  The total cumulative innings a pitcher "has available" starts at 0 on the first day of the season as far as I understand.  Yeah, you can screw that up by destroying them in ST and the pitcher will take just as long to recover from 0 (0) as he would in the regular season (ie recovery from ST abuse could stretch into regular season), but I don't think it changes the long-term affect.

I could be totally wrong, but that is how I have always approached ST and never seen an issue.  This season of GAP will be a good example for me as I started my regular 5 SP every game of ST.  They all ended up with 30-40 extra innings pitched.  If they all fall short of their career average in IP by 30-40 IP, then I will start to suspect something is different than I thought.

It isn't really up for debate.

As your pitcher's innings total start getting close to their upper limit, recovery time is affected. A pitcher who, at the start of the season, recovers 25 points every day of rest will start recovering only 24, and then 23, and then 22, etc.

ST usage will hurry that process along.

Again, it's impossible to prove but, if a guy hits 0(0) in ST, he recovers the same as he would if he hit 0(0) in the regular season.   That leads me to believe that ST counts.    Especially since everyone seems in agreement that ST counts for position players.

I'm in with Mike and McHale, there is a limit on how many total innings a pitcher can throw before his recovery starts being influenced.

I'll throw this out there - I understand some people believe that playing older veterans in ST will help slow down rating decline.  But what is the benefit of pitching a 28 year old pitcher ANY innings in ST?

Posted by moethedog on 7/20/2012 10:29:00 AM (view original):
I'm in with Mike and McHale, there is a limit on how many total innings a pitcher can throw before his recovery starts being influenced.

I'll disagree.

Some time ago, I tracked minor league pitching for one of my AAA teams for an entire season with respect to fatigue and recovery.  I saw no difference in fatigue recovery from the beginning of the season to the end of the season.  It was consistent and predictable for the entire season.

If you keep yor pitch counts down and never "push" the stamina of your pitcher that will remain true.
If, however, you do push the limits of your pitcher in regards to pitch counts you will most certainly see a decline in recovery time.

Posted by mchalesarmy on 7/20/2012 9:24:00 AM (view original):
It isn't really up for debate.

As your pitcher's innings total start getting close to their upper limit, recovery time is affected. A pitcher who, at the start of the season, recovers 25 points every day of rest will start recovering only 24, and then 23, and then 22, etc.

ST usage will hurry that process along.

Are you backing off your claim in this post, that daily recovery rates can change as the season progresses.

Because if not, I'd love to see some data that backs it up.  I have some hard data that refutes it.

Not at all. I push my pitchers pretty hard all season, and definitely have seen recovery rates drop as the season progresses.

How?

I can start taking screen shots of my pitchers now and compare them to seasons end I suppose.

Do you have a better solution? As I am not the saviest of computer users.

Well, without being able to provide any specific data to back up what your saying, then it's just an unsubstantiated claim.  How you collect and provide the data is up to you.

I am getting close to the end of the season in one of my worlds and all season I ran 4 man rotation. I had Pedro Rodriguez spot start when I had a couple guys go down earlier in the season, but as the season is getting closer to the end I have needed to spot start him more often. I am not saying anything one way or another but it seems that as the season went on they did not rest to 100% as fast. Now my 4 starters are little under for their normal innings pitched because I had to lower the pitch count a bit.

In another world I also ran a 4 man rotation but since the season has ended I cant look over the game logs but here is the team.
http://whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/FranchiseProfile.aspx?fid=3525
 Agian it seemed to me that I needed Pat Park to spot start more often towards seasons end.