Quote: Originally posted by zbrent716 on 3/21/2010Quote: Originally Posted By jtrinsey on 3/21/2010Figure the difference between a pitcher and your bench bats is going to be like .200 OPS points, which would theoretically net 35-40 runs over the course of the season, which, theoretically would be pretty significant. There would be a cost of not maximizing innings out of your best pitchers, but it does seem like an idea worth trying.
I have tried it and, as tec said, all your pitchers will be in the red after a 30 games or so. For example, try to have the same guy pitch in 4 or 5 games in a row and you will see his stamina will start to crash, even if he pitches the same amount of pitches in each game and he recovered to 100% after the first. <SPAN>Either your bench bats are *really* bad or your pitchers are all sluggers who can also pitch. The difference will likely be more than you suggest.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN><SPAN>That said, to the OP, where did the idea that 1 extra PH appearance per game is going to net you an average of 0.5 runs per game? That seems extremely optimistic to me, and I've been running an unconventional rotation with my NL team that has led to 276 PH AB in 150 games so far.</SPAN><SPAN>EDIT - And I see no reason whatsoever why you wouldn't be able to do this due to fatigue, assuming quasi-quality pitchers.</SPAN>
It's probably more like .250 OPS points. I randomly glanced at two pitchers and their OPS happened to be about .500, but I have several who were in the .200s also, although I did have a couple over .500 as well. I doubt your bench bats are going to OPS much more than .700, so figure .250 OPS points.
The way he's doing it might be possible to do it without too much fatigue, but pitchers do not accumulate fatigue just based on pitching. Just appearing in a game has a fatigue bonus and if they appear in several games in a row, they will be in the red even if their pitch count was low. I have experimented with similar things, it just doesn't seem to work out quite as well as expected.