Okay. I wouldn't even consider doing this if I hadn't just pulled 705 ip out of Silver King in a theme league (using the wonderful expert advice I found on this forum).

I want to make another go at getting 900+ innings out of John Clarkson. Just want someone to check my poor math with pitch counts. Here we go.

Using elbirdo's pitch count formula I got a pitch count total for Clarkson at 13,529. The plan here is to split that total up amongst 108 game starts, micromanaging Clarkson and another pitcher in a 2-man rotation by starting Clarkson on the first two games of each day, with the second pitcher taking the evening game. That should put him close to the 70% limit, but not over it. Dividing the total pitch count by 108 gets him a planned 125 TPC, with the more informal 15 * IP/G putting him at 135 for MPC.

First question: Has anyone tried this approach yet?
Second question: Did I get the math on this plan right?

Please let me know if I (still a rookie prospect) missed anything.

I've used Silver King several times (and am using him in an OL now), and what I can tell you is when I start him in back to back games even though he's not tired from overuse he's "tired from recent game activity" -- usually between 68-80%. And there's a drop in quality in his starts, as you might expect.

I don't know if this will happen with Clarkson, since he had significantly more real life innings than King. But if it did happen, and you start him in 108 games and in 54 of them he's tired and less effective, that'd be trouble. Big, big trouble.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ78UaTUxnU

One thing to keep in mind is that Clarkson gives up a LOT more homeruns than King. So, not only is it harder to do, but he's nowhere near as good a pitcher.

I should have mentioned I'm not concerned with winning with him right now. Only want to see if it is possible to get 900+ innings out of him as an experiment. If I wanted to win a championship, I'd go with another pitcher. However, I will put him in a park that suppresses homeruns so at least some of his games he isn't giving as much away.

Posted by darthmetool on 12/20/2016 8:10:00 AM (view original):
I should have mentioned I'm not concerned with winning with him right now. Only want to see if it is possible to get 900+ innings out of him as an experiment. If I wanted to win a championship, I'd go with another pitcher. However, I will put him in a park that suppresses homeruns so at least some of his games he isn't giving as much away.

If you don't care about quality (and injuries are off) couldn't any pitcher theoretically throw 900+ innings?

Yep. I once abused the 100 inning '27 Art Decatur, threw over 500 innings...

'85 Clarkson averages 8.90 innings per appearance. He can eat plenty of innings. The issue is quality, or the lack of...

Well, I failed. Only managed 852.2 innings, a pitch count of 12,760, 35 wins to 70 losses, 112 games started/played, with 49 complete games.

Despite that, he did get the Golden Glove and Silver Slugger awards for the AL.

Won't try this again for a while. *shrugs*

Player	SN	T	G	GS	CG	SHO	W	L	SV	SVO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	OAV	OBP	SLG	WHIP	ERA
Clarkson, John	1885	R	112	112	49	3	35	70	0	0	852.7	1062	574	448	82	250	330	.297	.343	.419	1.54	4.73

https://www.whatifsports.com/mlb-l/playerstats.asp?teamid=1377813

1885 Version:
This is the best performance insomuch as IP and CG I've been able to get out of someone:



I have gotten more starts from Silver King and Toad Ramsey, and I've gotten better from both of them as well, but Clarkson is the only pitcher I've been able to get more than 770 IP out of. I've twice gotten 830+ from him. I'm confident I can get 900+ out of him, but we'll see. As I posted elsewhere, the most I've been able to get at entirely 100% is 732, and the most above 90% is just below 750. To get this, Clarkson made a few starts between 85-90%.

1889 Version:

So, my '89 Clarkson gives up 6 ER over 5 IP in his final start to bump his ERA to 4.79 -- one point higher than the 4.78 needed to be the best season on his Performance History (Entered the game with a 4.75 ERA).

His performance history prior to this season:




This Season:




I almost didn't start him in the last game to insure that I got the best season on his PH as that would have given me the best season for both the '85 (since surpassed) & '89 Clarkson, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity for 100 starts.

from an old league I ran: