I've read through several of the threads here on pitching and setting up your rotation; if this has been answered, I failed to grasp it and apologize in advance.

Is it possible to set your rotation so that the top 3 always pitch, with the #4 starter getting a spot start every 2nd time through the rotation? So: SP 1, SP 2, SP3, SP1, SP2, SP3, SP 4, repeat?

I think you will need a 4a/4b to do that. Otherwise you would have to do it manually.

Thanks for the reply!

You might be able to somewhat simulate this by having a pitcher that doesn't have the IP to make a start every 4 games, set him to SP4, and set his autoskip to 99. He'll probably get skipped about that often. You can't be sure that it will happen exactly on line to skip every other start, but you'll get close by the end of the year.

Posted by uncleal on 8/8/2016 1:07:00 PM (view original):
You might be able to somewhat simulate this by having a pitcher that doesn't have the IP to make a start every 4 games, set him to SP4, and set his autoskip to 99. He'll probably get skipped about that often. You can't be sure that it will happen exactly on line to skip every other start, but you'll get close by the end of the year.

That's an interesting idea.

The best way to be sure it's done the way you're suggesting is to manually set the spots. uncleal's idea is interesting, but would have to be watched.

Intended to do what uncleal suggested in a progressive league, where my team is just now entering the world series. Put my 3 starters with 200+ IP in slots 1-3, and put Jim Perry in the #4 slot. Perry had only 139 IP in RL, and a low IP/game, so I set him to be skipped at 97% or something, and set his pitch count pretty low. In fact, set is so low he was only skipped 3 or 4 times, but he could have been skipped more often.

Jarvis, Pat	1968	R	40	40	2	0	22	9	0	0	280.3	264	104	98	23	65	156	.246	.292	.346	1.17	3.15
McNally, Dave	1968	L	42	42	3	1	18	12	0	0	280.3	276	151	139	54	69	209	.249	.296	.443	1.23	4.46
Smoltz, John	2006	R	42	42	0	0	20	8	0	0	259.0	262	144	130	36	62	215	.258	.304	.416	1.25	4.52
Perry, Jim	1968	R	37	37	0	0	8	9	0	0	151.3	177	79	71	13	41	67	.291	.340	.397	1.44	4.22

In other news, it was surprising to me that Jarvis pitched so much better than McNally - other way around in real life, but lefties are penalized in progressives with mainly right-handed line ups...

You got the two best answers. If you're an active owner do it manually. If you don't check in every day use a 4-man ro and let him be skipped when his fatigue level hasn't recovered, he won't be skipped exactly every other time but that doesn't matter. or some combination of the two, move him manually but you don't need to to it every day, leaving him in for auto-skip if you expect to be away for awhile. If you're concerned about being short on innings get a cheap 25ip SP with high ip/g and use 4a/4b with auto-skip, I've use Jim Moroney for this purpose he sometimes performs better than he should..

Posted by crazyamos on 8/13/2016 9:49:00 PM (view original):
In other news, it was surprising to me that Jarvis pitched so much better than McNally - other way around in real life, but lefties are penalized in progressives with mainly right-handed line ups...

I would love to see a % of lefty/right/switch hitters in a given league. I think there are at least a few of us using switch hitters when available, and I try to avoid a lopsided lineup. My guess is that I draft more left-handed hitters, since I see more right handed pitchers...