So, hey there. I'm new here.

As you might imagine, I have loads of questions, and fully expect to be walloped in my first (few, probably) leagues. That said, I did comb the forums and "Best of" thread to answer most of them, but the ludicrously clunky search option has kept me from being able to find what I really need to know.

Specifically: How many innings pitched and at bats do I *really* need in a pitchers park and hitters park?


Would be pretty silly to throw away money on innings I didn't need. Anyway, I'm sure you've seen the question before. Sorry for asking again, and best of luck!


Hit on It

If you play in an open league and use a pitchers park, u can draft the minimum allowable and get away with it (if u properly manage ur team and use the AAA players).

I was hoping you'd say that. I've run a few trial balloons in the exhibition league, and in maybe forty games, I think my mop-up has managed to come in and lose 4-5 of them, despite managing my bullpen settings pretty effectively. Would raising the max pitch counts for my relievers keep me from having my mop up come in in such bad spots (namely tie games in the early extra innings)? Do I need a mop-up at all, or can I just use the AAA guys?

I think fatigued pitchers hurt you more than fatigued hitters personally. As far as exact numbers to recommend I'm sure other owners can weigh in on that.

AAA guys are good for mopup. You can also check the "use mopup only when losing" box in your team managerial settings. I usually do this.

The lowest I like to go on IP is 1250 IP.  As mentioned above, the effects of a fatigued pitcher are worse than that of a fatigued hitter.  One thing that can ruin your season is a fatigue spiral of death for pitching.  If you started a pitcher that is fatigued, he will do slightly worse and have to pitch more pitchers.  Then he gets more fatigued and continues to spiral.  You can get by with the minimum of 1200 IP, but it requires a lot of managing and very little room for error.  

Total PA for a team can be a bit different.  1st off,  make sure you are looking at plate appearances instead of at bats.  A player with 800 PA will not use all of his PA, but he cannot use his extra PA either.  You generally won't see a lot of players with really high PA for that reason, you are wasting $ on PA that will not be used.  I shoot for a minimum PA of 550 for each position.  That can be one person or a platoon as well.  Your AAA players can make up the rest of PA that is missing.  So 8 * 550 = 4400 PA.  

You don't really have to worry too much about spiralling on hitters.  A fatigued hitter will hit worse and get more outs, so he will see less PA.  Less PA means he will recover more.  Once again 550 is the minimum I use.  More managing will be required and the room for error is less.