Newb. If I have a 300-inning arm, is it necessary to have a rotation of 6, or will with 5 someone from the pen default start if necessary ? I don't even want to know yet what's up with 900-inning arms, but for now just don't want to waste innings, in this case not sure if 300 innings is enough for 2 rotation spots from 1 guy.

The SIM (sometimes referred to as Sparky) will not spot start guys from the bullpen. You manage your rotation and bullpen entirely by yourself. There's a learning curve to setting a rotation and finding a good balance between IP for each guy and the number of rotation spots you want to use. If you don't want to waste IP, then a 300-IP guy should probably be in a 3- or 4-man rotation, or otherwise eligible to pitch in relief as needed to make up the difference.

300 is a minimum guy for a 3 man or a max for a 4 man. Depends on if you want to get into your bullpen early or want you starters going deep.
I often shoot for 950-1000 total innings out of my rotation with a balanced number of innings, tho I might have my 4th/5th starter be a little short, especially if they aren't a guy i'm planning to use in the playoffs.

So the story of IP for pitching staffs is one of the hardest things for new players to learn here.

Ignore the WIS Draft Center note that tells you how many innings you need.

While some will go as low as 1,200 for the whole staff, you probably want a little more than that but not over 1400 in any OL as this will be a waste of money and make your team less competitive.

You do not need a 6-man rotation unless your strategy is to have good quality pitchers in the rotation that have about 150 innings pitched (and watch the IP/G averages, they need to have been starters essentially in RL), and let's say that will be rare.

So many here go with a 3-man rotation of three 300 innings pitchers and then have a bullpen with the rest of the IP needed to get to say 1300-1350, which I think is probably average, Again, really good players here know how to keep a staff to 1200 innings but that involves knowing very well how to deal with fatigue.

I prefer 4-man rotations with 225-250 average IP and to have at least 1300 IP overall for the staff. But even a 5-man rotation will be rare unless you adopt a specific strategy of getting a particular kind of pitching staff.

The danger here is having to many IP or PA on the bench and not in use on the field. This makes your team uncompetitive.

So if you have one 300 IP pitcher, you are probably better off with a four man rotation but the good number of IP of that starter means you can have a fourth starter that is good quality but with less than 200 if the whole rotation still comes to 900-1000 with the rest of the IP in the bullpen.

If you have two well over 300 IP, you can use a t hree-man rotation if you have a well-over 200 IP as the third starter.

As for the pitch counts, with a three man rotation the simple formula is IP plus 10% (every pitcher here gets a 10% bonus on IP when calculating) times 15 pitches per inning, divided by the expected number of starts, which for a three-man rotation will be 54 starts each. Recall that if you come up with say 105 pitches out of that calculation but your pitcher had only a 5 IP/G average, meaning they went only 5 innings a game, you will need to set the lower rating, the target pitch count goal closer to 75 (15 pitches times 5 innings).

The deadball era pitchers threw fewer pitches than modern ones because they struck out fewer batters (not sure about BBs), and so sometimes you are better off calculating 12.5 pitches per inning instead.

For a four man rotation the expected starts are 41 for the first two and 40 for the next two. For a five-man rotation it is 33 for the first two, 32 for the others in the rotation.

I agree with everything Italyprof says here. The one thing I would add is be prepared to use your AAA starter and maybe a cheap mop up guy to steal about ten starts. This will elevate the ability of the rest of your staff, as you can spend the same $ on 50-70 fewer innings. Good innings cost about $30k so that gives you an extra $1.5-2mm to play with. Typically I still deploy that $ on my pitchers, but take their quality up a notch. I keep my IP down near 1220 (depending on my home park) and choose to burn those 10 games with AAA. Maybe that means I win 98 instead of 105, but come playoff time my rotation is rested and elite. There are many ways to skin a cat but maximizing AAA usage as a way to improve the rest of your team on a rate basis is a strategy almost every great player employs.

In my entire time here at WIS, I’ve never drafted more than 1300ip for OL. As you increase cap in theme leagues, innings become more important (in a $180 cap I have about 1530). But as Italy says, managing the fatigue is a game of itself.

there’s a great thread on here about fatigue, just4me has one that talks about stretching pitchers to their max, i currently have a 3 man rotation with 3 200-250ip, and my plan is to have them pitch in the 70% range. But that is tricky, and takes a lot of trial and error. for beginning, I’d recommend 1280-1380 innings.

In the old days when your AAA SP was actually a starter and not a 50 inning pitcher, it was a lot easier to get by on fewer innings.

Realize this is based on pitches thrown, not innings. You need to calculate how many they can reasonably throw per appearance.

Their actual IP/G cannot be ignored. You have to make this a key component when drafting pitchers or you will fail.
You can ask for several stats at once. This one has to be on that list. Use the draft center to your advantage.

All the math is in those pinned threads. Do your homework. I suggest adding in a bit of cheap innings to pad your staff until you get the hang of this.

Utilize your AAA early in the season. Fatigue can be a bear up past the fatigue buffer, usually around game 30. Your actual innings are being based on the 162 game schedule. So your opening day starter that went 7 is on pace for (7 × 162) for the season. Returning to 100% is exaggerated early in the season.

15 pitches per inning is a proper starting point.The quality of your pitching, defense, higher salary cap leagues, DH usage and several other factors make the number climb. Draft accordingly.

While we're on the subject, a common point of confusion for newbies (especially if you have not specifically identified your AAA pitchers) is what the "stamina" rating means. That letter grade is directly derived from the pitcher's actual IP/G, not his total innings. So a pitcher with a stamina rating of "A" is one whose IP/G is >= 7.0. B=6.0-7.0, C=4.0-6.0, etc. The stamina rating tells you nothing about his total IP.

I see a lot of newbies get an "A" stamina SP and think they've stumbled on a 200IP guy. No. It could be anything, as low as 25 total IP. And the higher his effectiveness rating, the more likely he is to be a guy with really low total IP. If you get an "A" stamina, 10 effectiveness pitcher, congrats, that's a nice piece of luck, but you're looking at a guy who almost certainly threw less than 40 innings, not an anchor for your rotation. Piece of advice: he might be worth trying as your closer.

This is one of the biggest errors in the game: Not spending your money wisely. Do not ignore this component ($ per inning). Do the f' ing math.

1,200 decent innings times $25,000 per inning equals $30M. Adjust accordingly.

Every league is too competitive. Shop wisely. Find bargains. Then you might have the funds to add your favorite player.

Lots of good info here... I definitely recommend starting out drafting between 1250-1300 IP until you get a feel for it. The Pitch Count calculator in the pinned thread is gold. Pitchers fatigue based on pitches thrown not on IP, and because the of how the decision tree works, fatigue effects some stats more than others. Understanding which stats are effected and how to mitigate that can allow you to draft significantly fewer IP. In OL, I don't ever take more than 1200, and usually only draft 950-1050 "quality" IP, and fill in the rest of the required innings with 200K scrubs who I send to AAA. I also usually start 1-3 of those scrubs in the first 1-3 games of the season to help mitigate that early-season fatigue calculation DoctorKz mention above. In theme leagues without AAA and restrictions on players and ballparks, it's often hard to get everything to line up just right, so I usually draft closer to 1200-1250 quality innings, and as the cap goes up, so does the IP, with as much as 1,550 IP in $180m+ leagues.