Over the years I've regularly struggled with how to set pitch counts and the speed to send in relief -- 1 thru 5. I'm not unsuccessful , but I've got a feeling I'm missing some tricks or better understanding. Thoughts?

I usually hit "recommended" and then add about 5-10 pitchers for relief pitchers and 10-15 for starters  -not really a scientific method but it always seems to work well.  Others have it down more to a science (figuring out how many pitchers a pitcher has for the season and so how many to allow per start...etc and those are posted in another thread I believe.  

There is a thread that tells you how to calculate a pitchers "real life" pitches/ season and pitches/ game.  However, I usualy look at the pitchers IP/G and multiply by 15 or 16.  That is the max pitch count I'll alllow on any given pitcher.

I then work down from these maximums to get ~7 ip/ game from my starters and split my innings between the starters are the bull pen such that 75% of my ip is in the rotation.

For starters, I set the typical pitch count 10 less than the max setting and for relievers I set typical pitch counts 5 less than the max setting. 

chargingryno, you are kidding me? You got Bob Gibson to win 35 games in 1970 by "hit recommended and adding 10-15 pitches for starters"? 

sigh. 

Posted by italyprof on 6/22/2013 7:23:00 PM (view original):
chargingryno, you are kidding me? You got Bob Gibson to win 35 games in 1970 by "hit recommended and adding 10-15 pitches for starters"? 

sigh. 

Actually for that one, it was a little different.  I had 2 starters - GIbson and Palmer - and 3 long a relievers (Grant Jackson, Frank Reberger, and Steve Hargan) - Hargan was one of my few GOOD arms so I had him as my setup A to come in as frequent as possible) and set up my rotation as SP1: GIBSON SP2 PALMER SP3A: Jackson SP3B Reberger -  Gibson and Palmer were set at 90-100 pc's wanting my bullpen to come in around the 7th and 8th innings.  I knew I'd win the majority of Gibsons starts because of my offense (and I was right as he went 35-9) and thought the same would be true of Palmer, but he didn't perform as well as I'd hoped (finished 23-19 but was 15-19 before going on a hot streak).  I knew my chances of winning with my 3a and 3b starters were slim - but also new I had an amazing offense and hoped to pull out a few.  I had them on 100-115pc - wanting them to go as deep as possible to save my bullpen). They went 20-18 combined (much better than I'd anticipated).  At game 140 I pulled my sp3's and went with a 1-2 rotation of Palmer and Gibson and increased their PC's to 100-110 to go deeper into games.   Again, not scientific - but it worked

Thanks ryno, this is very helpful for a different team in a different league where I might be able to put a slightly different version of this system to work. 

Very creative. Still wish my team had won game 7 of the LCS so we could have faced yours in that World Series, Gibson or no Gibson. 

I use the Starter A/B and Tandem starter A/B very frequently - 

In another league that I just won the WS with - I had a SP1 (Walter Johnson) SP2a (Hippo Vaughn) SP2b (Harry Harper) as my rotation most of the year.  Occasionally I'd move them to a traditional 3 man rotation to help with fatitgue - but I was able to get the most out of my starters.  They went 35-14, 28-12 and 24-16.  Including the playoffs Johnson had 496IP and was 90 (100) after his last start of the year

Progs are THE place to use the A/B settings....because you rarely have evenly distributed IP.  Also the Tandem setting is perfect for those guys who both started and relieved and ended up with something like 4.2 IP/G....

Ignore recommended PCs. Set it at or below their real life ip/g, using about 15 pitches per inning making adjustments for whip walks and k. Most of my pitchers have pull setting of 1 or 2, I don't want them pulled quickly it messes up my bullpen. If there's a spread between Target and Max pitch count they are more likely to be pulled between innings and that makes it more efficient if you're trying to do a lot of pinch hitting. and if your PCs aren't working then no problem just adjust your rotation as you go.