You're looking at a three-man rotation, approx. 300+ IP/162 per starter.  You've got two solid guys, and two 150+ IP/162 guys to make up the rest of the rotation.  Do you prefer Starter 3A and Starter 3B, getting them each a start every sixth game, or Tandem 3A and 3B?  I know it doesn't matter, but I always feel sorry for the Tandem 3A guy: he's rarely in enough innings to get the W, whereas the 3B guy not only can get cheap Ws but gets a handful of Saves as well.  If I were the Tandem 3A guy's agent, I wouln't be happy.

As Tandem 3A guy's agent I would put in his contract that Tandem 3A and Tandem 3B switch spots half-way thru the season!!
Umm.... I've always used "Starter" 3A and 3B.

Any particular reason, bh?

I don't care about W's. I use Tandem when a SP has low ip/g not enough stamina for  a full start, or I have one of those albatross RP with too many innings. otherwise I prefer a full Starter because it seems just a little more fatigue friendly.
If your opponent has several platoons you can use L/R tandem to improve your matchups.

rbow, I was joking about caring who gets the W; a W is a W, no matter how you get it.  I was just wondering if anybody had noticed a Sim difference between using A/B and Tandem stttings.

If they're both righties (or both lefties) and both have a high IP/G then I'll go starter 3a/3b... why remove a guy when he's pitching well? 

If they're opposite handed or have lower IP/G then I'll usually go with a tandem. Theoretically you should get a good PH opportunity at least some of the time, though I don't know how well that works in practice.

I had a team I did built on that premise. Drafted 8 pitchers with between 110-160 IP. Four LHP, four RHP, and had them set up in 4 four tandems, and then drafted a couple of guys I could use as routine PH. Led the league in PH AB (248, next best had 226, and league AVG was 180). My PH hit .283 (and I don't know what else they did as WIS stats only track hits and ABs). 

I also found that WIS has a bug in tracking PH ABs, that they said will be fixed in the future. It pertains to double-switches mainly as it doesn't count it as a PH AB if the player then stays in the game ( I noticed this when after the first two games I only had three PH AB showing instead of the five I actually had when two of my PHers stayed in as part of a double-switch).

Pitching staff was:

Chamberlain '88
Pedro '01
Sabathia '08
Toney '18
Nehf '19
Ramsey '85
Richard '80
Washburn '09

Then I had four 50ish IP guys in the pen (plus AAA), and a mop up. 

We won our division, and in the playoffs I went away from the tandems and tried to just start my pitchers as normal, figuring with their IP/G they'd be great playoff pitchers, but it didn't work out the way I imagined as we got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs.

In my progressives I use Tandems alot. They are usually a rh/lh combo and when can, I switch them up against teams that employ platoons...

Posted by pinotfan on 3/22/2012 6:24:00 PM (view original):
Any particular reason, bh?

I seldom draft a starting pitcher that has a low IP/9 count. Thus I figure you get better usage of each pitcher by going with Starter A - Starter B than tandem setting.