I've tried almost everything. Sparky will leave no one alone when he's desperate. The worst part is that he will make the problem worse by pulling a starter in the third inning, if he's given up 8 or more runs, even if you have that starter set at 1 for pull and 175 PC. This compounds the demands on the relief pitchers.

I may have to start relievers with 5 settings and 40 PC, and turn all the starters into relievers. That's the only trick I haven't tried yet.

Ouch dude.  You went with 1800 innings for a high-cap all-Coors?  Ouch.

Has the most recent update had a greater effect on pitching fatigue? I haven't played one of those leagues since the last update, but in every previous version of the sim I've played at least one $180-$255m Coors league (or parks with a 1.05+ park factor) and I don't think I've ever drafted more than 1800 IP (with maybe one exception) and I don't ever recall having fatigue problems. I know that in at least one $255m league I drafted just barely over 1600 IP and lost the WS. That team was on autopilot for virtually the entire season.

Posted by doubletruck on 6/8/2011 7:33:00 PM (view original):
I've tried almost everything. Sparky will leave no one alone when he's desperate. The worst part is that he will make the problem worse by pulling a starter in the third inning, if he's given up 8 or more runs, even if you have that starter set at 1 for pull and 175 PC. This compounds the demands on the relief pitchers.

I may have to start relievers with 5 settings and 40 PC, and turn all the starters into relievers. That's the only trick I haven't tried yet.

When Sparky's pulling your starter whom you set as described above after giving up 8 or more runs by the third inning, is it a situation where you have set OTHER pitchers as being available in the third inning, or is Sparky just taking the guy out despite the unavailability of other pitchers and the starter's 175 pc and 1 pull?  The reason I ask is because if he's pulling your starter notwithstanding the unavailability of other pitchers as well as his settings, then perhaps you should send a ticket to admin. Of course I'm assuming your starter is at or near 100% when he starts the game and has a high enough IP/G rating to expect him to be allowed to stay in after the third inning.

The situation is in flux, because I've moved to a different strategy now, but as I recall I had no one set as available that early except the starter, and all but two relievers were set at 99% avail, 5-5 PC and 5 pull. The two relievers who were available were already below 70%.

We may have to submit the whole league to WIS for review; however, if this third-inning thing recurs, I'll send in a ticket specifically for that.

My latest strategy is tandems with the reliever starting (40-40 PC) and the normal starter being the Tandem B. In its first test it worked, as the B guy (Randy Johnson) stayed in for 172 pitches once he took over.

The pattern that's developed is that I usually have tandems ready at 87-100%, and most often above 94%. But the relievers are shot, and are not likely to recover with two-thirds of the season remaining. Once the tandem pair is used up, in go the wasted relievers and the other guy's offense takes off in the late innings.

I wish WIS sometimes played rain-shortened games.

The owners who are doing well in this league drafted more than 2100 IP, although elbirdo (who ought to know) thinks 1850 IP should be borderline manageable.

The average pitches per 9 innings in this league is 178.  That's 28894 pitches required for 162 9 inning games.  To get that many pitches, you need to draft 1913 innings (at 15.1 pitches per real-life inning pitched). 

This "average" is skewed because several owners are allowing pitchers to pitch when very fatigued.  There are 8 owners averaging less than 172 pitches per game.  That equates to roughly 1848 real life innings. 

Every pitcher starts the season with a certain number of pitches "in the bank".  As the season wears on, his pitch balance decreases.  Pitching at anything less than 100% causes the balance to decrease more quickly because he allows more hits and throws more balls.  This has a snow balling effect.  The more fatigued a pitcher is, the more pitches he uses up per inning causing him to fatigue even faster.  I try to absolutely never use a pitcher when he is not at least 99%.   I also try to maximize the pitches my starters use by calculating his per-game allotment and setting his target to that number and his pull setting to "1".   My goal is to finish the season with my very best pitchers 100% used up (well actually 95% if I'm heading into the playoffs).  

This particular league is a bit unusual in that Pedro, Maddux, W. Johnson, Mathewson, Joss, Alexander, Chamberlain, Gagne, and Eckersley are blacklisted.  So we got lots of Browns, Walshes and King Silver's.

King Silver presents a unique problem regarding drafting innings pitched in that you have to get 127 pitches out of him every other game in order to maximize his innings.  Not realistic.  Best I've seen anyone do is about 83%, so you can throw 120 of his 703 innings out the window, making his "real-life" innings pitched more like 583. 

That being said, I drafted Silver, Walsh and Brown for my starters and 9 of the best relievers (imho) for a total of 1815 real life innings.  With lots of $$$ left,  I filled my last pitcher spot with Koufax to be my mop-up/saftey cushion.   Turns out he is doing as well as Brown or Silver, so I'm using him a bit more than I anticipated.
Bottom line - 58 games into the season, I'm on a pace to use 1848 real life innings-pitches.  I'm in line for the wild card as I'm in the same division with PennQuaker and his King Silver has an ERA a full 2 runs per game better than mine.  Incidently, PQ's team is on a pace to use 1702 real life innings-pitched.

I'm totally in agreement with you Elbirdo insofar as pitchers being 100% because I freakout if I have to use a starter or reliever at less than full strength.  I know lots of guys have no problem using pitchers in their 90's, but I just make a point not to do it unless ABSOLUTELY necessary.

I understand (I think) elbirdo's reasoning. But all I can make of it at this point, is that I might have burned one pitcher early in order to save others. At this point, my team is on a declining scale -- and I can't keep Sparky's hands off any pitcher long enough for him to recover.

If any pitcher at any status on my staff is above 90%, Sparky puts him in as soon as the starting tandem is done.

Other than his use of Koufax, I don't understand how elbirdo kept the same thing from happening to his team. And it's my loss, because his team recently passed mine to take over the WC lead -- and mine has no chance of recovering.

elbirdo's Silver King discount notwithstanding, the fact is that he drafted 2273 IP and I drafted only 1823. That appears to me to be the key difference in this league.

The key difference here and with what I originally stated about my IP use at this cap is that all of the best pitchers are blacklisted, you will need more IP in this case. I would wager around 1800 and that's about what I would have drafted (prolly 1850 with a mop up or two (if injuries are on)).

I almost never draft less than 2200 IP for any 255 mil league

Either that, or throw about 5-7 games with a scrub at max pc.

mixtroy: Exactly the problem. I cannot dump anyone (because of theme rules) and throwing two scrubs in alternating games at max pc won't work, because Sparky pulls them after they give up about 8 runs (which occurs in the 2nd or 3rd inning), and then starts using all of the other pitchers on my roster, pretty much one by one in descending order of fatigue.

Meanwhile, I'm trying a new approach suggested by elbirdo, and will report here after several games on whether it seems to be helping.

On another point that has come up here (and often elsewhere): Silver King.

Reputable, experienced owners say they can't get 700-710 innings out of SK. But I don't understand. If he starts and pitches 9 innings every other game, he would max out his IP. Or, if an owner runs a three- or four-man rotation, and constantly moves SK ahead in the rotation, so that he starts every other game, and also checks him as available for relief pitching, I would think you could get him into 100-110 games.

In a league such as the one this thread is about, I would think it would be even easier, because of the high-quality hitters and the high pitch counts that Coors Field induces.

Is there something in the SK equation that I'm not allowing for?