Gah. I was going to rant about how Sparky never seems to pick the pitching rotation I would like to see, but instead I figured I'd ask what I'm missing, because apparently I don't understand how Sparky works the pitching rotation.

Here is my understanding of how it should work:

I am assuming between 120 and 160 pitches a game.

Starter, throws 90 to 120 pitches a game.

Long Relief, throws 40 to 60 pitches a game.

Closer, throws 10 to 20 pitches a game (under save situations)

Setup men, throw 15 to 20 pitches a game and bridge any gaps.

Mopup, inning eating garbage man.

A&B (LRA&LRB, etc) positions rotate from use to use (ie A pitchers are used before B pitchers).

Somewhere in that is an error of understanding, and so Sparky gives rotations that look like starter, SetupB, SetupB, LRB, or Starter, closerA, closerB, LRA.

I wish there was a way to set pitching order like there is with PH.

I think it works like this:

starter goes until his pitch count settings or pull settings are reached

when sparky goes to the pen, he prefers setup guys over long men (and both over Mop obviously) ... inning available setting keeps him from tapping the setup guys "too early" based on owner preference

SuA and LongA get preference over SuB and LongB ... but inning available settings and fatigue settings trump those

sparky starts violating those general rules if you run out of available options ... for example, if your 3 setup guys are available in the 4th, sparky might use them for 4/5/6 ... when he needs a guy for the 7th, only your Long guys are available ... he'd go Long/setup/setup/setup if the setups weren't available until the 6th

Thanks, based on this and some world chat it sounds like my misunderstanding is in my preferce to use LR over Setup.

I was looking at it like Starter (90 pitches), LR (50 pitches), and then closer, with the setup men being thrown into fill any missing innings.

Instead it looks like Sparky would rather have a setup man throw 40 pitches than an LR throw 50. So I'm going to test that out, thanks.

One thing you can do, but which requires you shuffling your rotation every game, is to use Tandem Starters to ensure your "Long man" is the first pen guy used ... just put the one you want as the TandemB, and he will be the 2nd pitcher used no matter what (except maybe the close will trump him if the "starter" ptiches 8 innings)

I do not think even the close will trump him. Your Tandem B guy will be the second pitcher in, assuming his inning available and rest settings allow it.

One other point, I think that Sparky goes to the "A" relievers in close games, and "B" relievers in blowouts. I also tend to put the available inning for the good SetupA relievers to be 7 or 8, with the SetupB guys at 5 or 6.

Also remember that we're running around 15-20 pitches per inning on average, meaning a 90-pitch limit only gets you 4-5 innings. If you don't have a reliever eligible to come in that early, Simmy will pull whomever he wants, and that will cascade through your bullpen.

Ok, so here's an update.

Two games ago, I set moved Franco from LRA to SetupA. His TPC was set to 50 and his MPC is 80. With the score tied 0-0, Sparky brought him in to replace the starter.

He completed one inning, striking out two and giving up one hit in 18 pitches, before being replaced by another setup pitcher, with the score still tied at 0-0.

Sparky brought in a PH for him, which blows me away, given the guy he brought in is batting .120.

In the next game, down 3-0, Sparky again brought in Franco in the seventh, who then threw 34 pitches giving up two hits and one walk in two innings to end the game.

My only question with that on is at what point does Sparky consider the game beyond reach/blow out/ will use the Setup B pitcher? It wasn't much of a factor as its early in the seaon and Franco didn't get any fatigue, so he's good to pitch the next game (if required). I worry that later though he'll end up pitching in a game like this and not be able to pitch in the next close game.

Was the guy hitting .120 the next available on your ph hierarchy?

He was for power, but not for contact (#3) or other (#5). I'm not certain I would have brought him with no one on (ie brought in a contact hitter rather than power hitter), but I'm more confident in my ability to adjust that than I am my pitching rotation.

It was an obvious PH situation, but its also one that should have been planned for a little better I think. I would have brought in the other Setup pitcher (the guy who finished the game), then brought in the PH, and finished the game with Franco, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get Sparky to manage that. Of course I've just now figured out how to get Franco in teh game at all.