I am curious what the bullpen make up would have to be to effectively run tandem pitching. I have an NL team with a couple decent stamina starters and a couple guys with low durability. Currently for whatever reason the pen is getting crushed even though defense and ratings suggest it shouldn't continue. I just called up another starter and another reliever to the BL club and am presented with a variety of options. I have a couple of aging veteran pitchers with lower 59/68 stamina, the rest are 70s and the fresh call up is a 94 although only 21 durability. The pen has 4 guys with high durability and decent stamina 80/31, 75/41, 77/29, and a 69/49 guy without the greatest of ratings.

You don't HAVE to use tandems for 59/68 starters. I use those guys as SP all the time. You just have to understand they will only pitch 4-5 innings(kind of like the SP in the MLB playoffs). You just have to build a strong bullpen to use those guys.

I haven't used a tandem with them, I was just curious what it takes or the overall composition in order to consider it. I don't know if it makes sense to do so or not

Posted by wallyworld15 on 10/31/2017 3:38:00 PM (view original):
I haven't used a tandem with them, I was just curious what it takes or the overall composition in order to consider it. I don't know if it makes sense to do so or not

in theory, it's an R/L thing where you begin with let's say a RHP for the minimum number of pitches so that your opponent plays all of his LH hitters, and then you switch to your LHP for the majority of the game so that he's taking advantage of the L/L matchups that he would not otherwise see if you simply started the LHP for a full game. If you have a R/R or a L/L tandem then it's kinda redundant unless both pitchers have something like 45 stamina and you're just lengthening them. But under those circumstances it could still be better to just make one the SP and make the other a LRA along with other LRAs so that simmy could choose from a group based on whatever scenario presents itself at the moment it's time for the pitching change to occur. Hence, in general it's mainly a L/R thing, it's more exploitative than it is game-theory-optimal

If you run 4 tandems, you probably need 13 pitchers or some sick DUR/STM combos. Again, a 59/68 is going to give you 4-5 innings. That might get you thru a game if used together but that's disregarding PH or getting shelled. So, essentially every day you need 1-2 RP. Not a big deal, I use 2 most days. But, if you only carry 4, a couple of back to back extra inning games and you're screwed. You need an innings eater. Which essentially means you're carry 9 SP-types. I normally carry 7(5 SP, 2 LR) because the good ones are pricey.

In short, you might price yourself out of tandems unless you've got some ML minimum/1st arb guys in there. It's not a long-term solution.

I have a team with 4 tandem groups and three bullpen arms. But two of the bullpen guys are 25/65 types also. So I'm running 11 pitchers and as soon as a few extra inning games come around (or one 18 inning game) my staff is ******. I also have to keep their pull settings at 1. I set the target pitch counts of each tandem to = ~140 pitches.

Side note: I'm starting to sour on a full tandem staff. I can't seem to get it as effective as I'd like. I've got 4 R/L tandem groups and I seem to be doing better going back to a traditional staff with stricter pull settings.