I have a mediocre 'pen with only 2 decent arms and everyone of them have terrible durability and health ratings...I have to shuffle up and down relievers every single day to triple a because I ALWAYS have at least 3-4 guys at 0(0) and am really getting frustrated because I have to wait 10 days to recall guys... I've been getting shelled on the reg and at least once every 4-5 games have a pitcher on rest come into a game and get bombed and blow the game... Does anybody have any tips as to keeping guys fresh going forward? It's my first season to play HBD and love it but it's getting extremely frustrating losing games this way... This team is awful and I doubt I reach the MWR despite an offense that hasn't been bad...all tips about the game are welcome in DMs thank you...

I'd suggest trying to stay ahead of bullpen fatigue for your short relievers by keeping some long relievers available, and when you see the bullpen on the verge of problems (less than 100%, but before they get to 0%), increase the pitch count for your starting pitcher and tandem him with one of the long relievers (with starter DUR/STA),  The goal would be to only pitch the tandem and give the rest of the bullpen the game off.  Sometimes, you may need to do this for a couple of games in a row.  Or you can use the schedule to do that before a scheduled off day to give the pen two full days of rest.

It's much tougher to manage bullpen fatigue after it's already taken root than it is to take proactive steps to avoid it in the first place.

Also, be aware . . . you run the risk of demotion penalties if/when you are demoting guys to AAA.  So that should only be a last resort.

Speaking of bullpen tips... do LH specialists and RH specialists EVER pitch?  I have a couple of relievers at various levels who are clearly best suited for one of those roles based on vL and vR ratings, but they seem to pitch once in a blue moon.  Almost seems like wasting arms to even put pitchers in those roles.

Posted by davis on 8/15/2015 9:45:00 PM (view original):
Speaking of bullpen tips... do LH specialists and RH specialists EVER pitch?  I have a couple of relievers at various levels who are clearly best suited for one of those roles based on vL and vR ratings, but they seem to pitch once in a blue moon.  Almost seems like wasting arms to even put pitchers in those roles.

LH/RH specialists rarely pitch.  Very few HBD owners use RPs in those roles.

Craigraz - The problem with your bullpen in world Mauer came about because your starting pitchers as a whole are way too low on Dur/Stam.  I only see 2 SPs capable of going more than 5 innings.  I would try using the world chat page to find an owner who would be willing to trade a high Dur/Stam SP in exchange for 2 of your RPs.  Check other teams starting pitchers, looking at the Dur/Stam of those SPs to get a better feel for what levels are needed in an SP.

Use some of those 5 IP guys as tandems, as suggested. Pair your 66-54 and 64-61 as tandem 3A/B and 4A/4B and your bullpen will get two days of rest unless they get pounded. When fatigue in the pen is dire, set all four to 1 for Call Bullpen (in Manager/Player Settings) so each pitches 4-5 IP regardless. If fatigue is under control, set it at 3. If your higher-DUR SP start to get some fatigue from the #1/2 slots, switch to a 6-man rotation for a cycle or two but separate the higher-STA pitchers so your pen gets a break every third game.

Don't make a trade unless you have a mentor outside the world who can tell you whether it's a good deal. A someone new, you'll be trading with someone who has a better understanding of the ratings than you do, and can easily be taken advantage of. Get a mentor from the list, and run any potential trades by him.

Thanks guys... This team was so bad and I got caught up in signing a few guys who would get me outs more often and didn't pay much attention to their durability and stamina...learn something new every day..

You can work with a few low guys. That makes it more important to view your pitching as a whole instead of SP and RP separately. Another thing you can probably do is shift into LRA if most of the rotation is at 100%.

You absolutely want to avoid shuttling players between ML and though, especially any players you have long-term plans for. A large part of this game is maximizing development, and demotions minimize it instead. In general, when you bring a player up to ML it should be permanent (with the exception of roster expansion, followed by demotion before the next season's first ST game is scheduled.

Last season I ran into this problem in Rookie league, didn't have enough starters to make a regular five man rotation.  I set all their pitch counts exactly to their stamina ratings, checked off available in relief, pull ratings to 1, then just shuttled nine or ten of them between Tandem A and B and Long Relief depending on who was rested.  Set my short relievers to never come in before the 8th inning.

I would say your DUR/STA of your bullpen pitchers is a bigger issue than the DUR/STA of your starters

Which is why making the most of the SP is the priority. Using 3 SP with 60s STA has killed the relievers. Limiting RP innings is easier/better than replacing everyone, or taking demotion hits so players can recover. Step 1 is getting bullpen fatigue resolved so he can stop shuttling players down to AAA and back. After fatigue is resolved, Step 2 is setting up the best sustainable ML staff. Obviously there's not nearly enough IP in the pen. By using tandems, there's usually someone available for LRA when not scheduled to pitch. It requires micromanaging, but that's a given anyway with the makeup of the pen.

I often use a staff full of low stamina starters.   In order to do that, I'll run 5 long relievers and 2, maybe 3, short RP.     I'm doing it in Albuquerque right now.

Name (throws)	Age	Pos	%														0	$
Sammy Burnett (R)	31	SP1	100	22	65	60	88	85	86	86	26	74	63	49	56	0	2	$5.4M
Miguel Tabaka (R)	32	SP2	85 (100)	17	97	74	82	58	77	92	69	95	79	96	32	0	2	$5.8M
Gregg Lewis (R)	29	SP3	39 (55)	14	90	62	87	82	97	89	82	89	80	54	48	31	2	$7.6M
Vin Park (R)	33	SP4	24 (50)	29	81	54	81	70	81	85	57	86	71	60	65	48	2	$14.0M
Carlos Moya (R)	21	SP5	100	28	80	62	86	77	80	91	81	72	72	58	55	0	3	$327K
Darryl Hamilton (R)	39	LRA	100	24	50	55	80	69	79	28	63	76	71	47	58	0	-	$5.2M
Felix Siddall (L)	33	LRA	100	23	59	84	68	74	82	33	68	79	84	61	47	33	1	$5.4M
Doug Boskie (R)	26	LRA	100	23	98	79	58	65	82	35	66	82	68	62	42	0	-	$360K
Ray Lowry (R)	31	LRB	100	33	54	62	80	63	80	39	75	72	64	61	41	0	1	$8.0M
Stump Warden (R)	33	SuA	41 (100)	76	75	25	82	72	80	84	66	90	53	0	0	0	1	$5.8M
Marty Hill (R)	34	SuB	46 (100)	67	56	20	82	62	79	29	37	84	83	0	0	0	1	$2.6M
Rico Mesa (L)	33	P	64 (91)	31	81	66	54	87	65	91	79	84	68	74	72	0	-	$2.2M

I'm taking a more long term view than what he needs right now.

He has around 5 guys with STA of 20 or less and one guy who has a STA of 7 another with a DUR/STA of 37/12 another is 38/20. Unless you have 5 guys with 25/90 starting that isn't a sustainable pen.

  

Since the question was about an immediate crisis, that seemed the more  logical approach. Seeing how he stated that he has learned from this that he needs to pay attention to STA/DUR, telling him to pay attention to STA/DUR seems a little pointless, no?

Obviously I don't agree. Perhaps you missed the end of his post.


all tips about the game are welcome