I tried to insert a tandem pitching slot and was told swing or tandem pitchers cannot be followed by a regular rotation spot. What is the difference between swing and tandem, and is wis telling me that I have to make all three (or four) of my pitching slots tandem?

You have to use any tandems at the end of your rotation.  I don't like that and never have, but it is what it is.  So if you want 3 starters + a tandem, they would have to be Tandem #4A and Tandem #4B.  And if you have 2 tandems + 2 full-time starters, the tandems have to be 3 and 4.  And so on.

Theoretically if they ever do the engine rewrite they've been talking about for 4 or 5 years and put the code into a more "modern" language they'll be able to make these things more flexible, but right now they can't let a starter come after the tandem without a major rewrite.  Seems like there may have been some questionable coding in the first place, but I really have no idea what the game code looks like, so who knows.

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Tandem is 2 P combining in a game - 1 starts and typically goes 3-5 innings then the other comes in. Swing is 2 P sharing a rotation slot - if A and B pitch every turn while C and D are Swing your starts wll go ABCABDABCABD... Swing can be an effective way to use 120-160 IP players without having to move them in and out of the rotation,

I've never used the swing rotation before. I am curious if anyone ever uses it with success regularly. I use tandems quite often. I find it a very efficient way to build a roster.

cwillis, I am the opposite. I've rarely used tandems but use swing very frequently, for the same reason. Swing gives me the chance to move guys in and out of the rotation smoothly (i.e. if the bullpen gets fatigued, etc.) and then shuffle the order around to accommodate the extra use

Posted by cwillis802 on 9/6/2015 9:47:00 AM (view original):
I've never used the swing rotation before. I am curious if anyone ever uses it with success regularly. I use tandems quite often. I find it a very efficient way to build a roster.

I've used it in high cap leagues, get 2 350 IP pitchers and then swing Maddux and Pedro

In an open league I drafted 6 SP between 140-160 IP. They are in a 6 man rotation, but occasionally I place one in the pen. I like to use 2 270-300 IP, then swing a couple of 150 IP. lots of ways to steer away from a conventional rotation...2005 Halladay is a good example, he is very good as a swing starter.

I prefer tandems if the innings are unbalanced. I prefer swing if the innings are more or less balanced.

I noticed in the recent WIS championship that two time champ Brianjw used tandems with good success. I tried it and the guy on the back end of the tandem ended up with a record of something like 24-4. He was the 4th pitcher I drafted, so he was not a stud. The front end of the tandem pitched well, also, but of course he surrendered his wins to the other guy. He performed much better than I think he would have if he was a regular starter. I was curious as to what makes a pitcher perform better as part of a tandem.

I've used tandems frequently and have never found it to make pitchers perform better than throwing the same innings in another role. Records are heavily skewed obviously — TB will only take a loss if he blows a lead during his 3-4 innings, and TA will have extremely few wins but more losses than if he were a regular SP. If your Tandems are throwing far fewer pitches than they are capable of, common sense says their performance will be somewhat better (i.e., someone who threw 7 IP/G in RL who pitches 3-4 IP as a tandem will have about 88-89% in-game fatigue when lifted, where he might be at 75% after 6 IP).

I find tandems much more cost effective. Say you would normally take a pitcher like Joss who costs $12.5 million. Instead, you take two pitchers around $4-$5 million apiece with similar OAV/ERA stats etc as Joss and make them a tandem. You have filled 2 rosters spots and have saved $2.5 to $4 million off the price you would have spent on Joss. You can allocate that money to offense or quality relief pitching. If a Tandem A is getting shelled, he is pulled and Tandem B comes in. I think this may give you more control of thwarting the big bad inning than a starter or swing starter who is slated to throw 100 pitches.

I'm looking to the day real MLB teams start using tandems. You would especially think this would be useful in the 4th and 5th starter slots which typically are filled by mediocre innings eaters. You would need 4 pitchers instead of two for those two slots but you simply find pitchers you can get for cheap and who can air it out and throw hard for 3-4 innings. It's almost as if you're using two relievers for half the game rather than one crappy starter. I see this as a possible trend in the not too distant future in MLB. The key is getting these guys for cheap. I think this can be done. You use young pitchers hungry for MLB service who have live fastballs and one decent secondary pitch. This way you are planning the game too. How many times have you seen a crappy starter get shelled or not command the strike zone early in the game and then the manager has to scramble for that long reliever. Mentally the tandem pitcher knows they can attack from the get go because they are only going to throw 40-50 pitches. This should save the bullpen for those days as well...at the very least it will allow more control over the game and the pitching staff by the manager.

Also, if Tandem A is a lefty and Tandem B is a righty, then Tandem B gets a bunch of favorable matchups when he comes in.