Hey everyone, new user here! I had one more basic question that I am sure has been answered on one of these threads, but what is a good formula to use in deciding how you want to set pitch count? I.E if you have a pitcher who has thrown 300 innings, how many pitches should I have him throw if I want to (mostly) use him in a 2 man rotation? How about a 40 IP reliever? 10 max pitch count? Thanks for the help! I read someone mention something about a user named elbirdo having a chart? I appreciate it!

This and many other links are in the FAQ thread that is pinned at the top of this page...if you make that your first stop for most questions you can find a lot of what you need :)

thank you!

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Quote post by elbirdo on 5/4/2007 7:34:00 PM:
without a lot of explanation:
using draft center stats
given Batters Faced per Inning Pitched (BFIP) = whip+3.00
given Base On Balls per Inning Pitched (BBIP) = BB9/9 or BB/IP
given Strike Outs per Inning Pitched (KIP) = K9/9 or K/IP
the number of pitches per inning that sim allocates for any pitcher can be found by
3.406*BFIP + 3.762*BBIP + 1.964*KIP
multiply by IP/162 to get the pitchers seasonal pitchcount allocation
ex. 03 Gagne
3.406*3.69 + 3.762*0.24 + 1.964*1.66 = 16.75 P/IP or 1390 P/Season
ex. '18 Northrop
3.406*3.73 + 3.762*0.08 + 1.964*0.10 = 13.78 P/IP or 730 P/Season
seems to be fairly accurate
includes 10% bonus that Sim gives pitchers over real life numbers
It should be noted that the calculations are NOT reflective of what the particluar pitcher may have pitched in real life. I know that sim assigns each pitcher has a predetermined seasonal pitch count. Earlier in the season or if you let a pitcher get overly fatigued, you'll get a mouseover message that says something like "Overused -- on pace for 3% more pitches than actual season." If you take his current pitchcount and extrapolate it to 162 games, you can figure out what sim thinks his seasonal pitch count is. Current ex. Gagne after 122 is 3% over with a pitch count of 1084. 162/122*1084 = 1440. 1440/1.03 = 1397 pitches per season. I believe my formula says 1390.
I assumed that sim must be using some sort of calculation based on the relative occurrence of three outcomes - 1. batter puts ball in play, 2. batter strikes out, 3 batter walks. So I took real reverse-engineered data for a bunch of pitchers based on the 'mouseover' stuff and did some curve fitting to come up with the three coefficients. The 10% is included because sim includes it in the mouseover message.
I gather Gagne real-life 110% number is closer to 1308, so I dont think sim uses real life pitch counts, but rather a calculation which I have attempted to duplicate.

I miss El Birdo: King of the 255. That pitch count calculation was brilliant.

I also miss Merkle, another brilliant guy.

Thank god we still have Contrarian, and my pop Just4me is also back.

Great minds for sure.

I don't miss winter_frost. That guy was a loser!

Posted by grizzly_one on 6/20/2020 1:08:00 PM (view original):
I miss El Birdo: King of the 255. That pitch count calculation was brilliant.

I also miss Merkle, another brilliant guy.

Thank god we still have Contrarian, and my pop Just4me is also back.

Great minds for sure.

I second every line in your post here grizzly_one. You are no slacker here either by the way.

Posted by italyprof on 6/21/2020 7:36:00 AM (view original):

Posted by grizzly_one on 6/20/2020 1:08:00 PM (view original):
I miss El Birdo: King of the 255. That pitch count calculation was brilliant.

I also miss Merkle, another brilliant guy.

Thank god we still have Contrarian, and my pop Just4me is also back.

Great minds for sure.

I second every line in your post here grizzly_one. You are no slacker here either by the way.

I'll 3rd it....I have hounded Coach Jordan Bounds (Boundsjordan) to have Contrarian23 as his 3rd WIS guy on his podcast.

Posted by boogerlips on 6/21/2020 12:37:00 AM (view original):
I don't miss winter_frost. That guy was a loser!

Loser? To quote Inigo Montoya, " I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Posted by italyprof on 6/21/2020 7:36:00 AM (view original):

Posted by grizzly_one on 6/20/2020 1:08:00 PM (view original):
I miss El Birdo: King of the 255. That pitch count calculation was brilliant.

I also miss Merkle, another brilliant guy.

Thank god we still have Contrarian, and my pop Just4me is also back.

Great minds for sure.

I second every line in your post here grizzly_one. You are no slacker here either by the way.

He's an exceptional slacker...was notorious for ******* the first 20-30 games away while saving his guys for later....

I appreciate the kind words, but the true geniuses were johngpf, biglenr, zubinsum, and elbirdo... every one of their posts was a lesson in how the sim worked. I just have fun testing the limits and pushing boundaries and try things based on ideas. I leave it to people like Grizzly_one to take the strategies that can be gleaned from my tests and apply them to great success.

Who knows, maybe somebody will develop a way to dominate from pushing pitchers to 70% fatigue (maybe by stashing a couple Rich Hill and Bob Milacki like pitchers until playoff time), or this super cheap defense thing I'm testing now (that started with me, on a whim, drafting the literal worst players in history) will have someone figure out a way to to run through leagues with a variation of it, or maybe the ballpark effects modifiers can be used to find some unique underpriced players in certain ballparks that just dominate.

I find it more fun to test and try crazy things than to win, though winning can be fun too. To me, it usually means I didn't push far enough, though sometimes it's a validation of the thing I'm testing after a few iterations as I start to apply what I've learned to see if it works.

given Batters Faced per Inning Pitched (BFIP) = whip+3.00
given Base On Balls per Inning Pitched (BBIP) = BB9/9 or BB/IP
given Strike Outs per Inning Pitched (KIP) = K9/9 or K/IP
the number of pitches per inning that sim allocates for any pitcher can be found by
3.406*BFIP + 3.762*BBIP + 1.964*KIP
multiply by IP/162 to get the pitchers seasonal pitchcount allocation

Is that formula going to equal the recommended pitch counts the AI gives to every pitcher? And why not go with the recommended pitch count? Unless 5 to 10 pitches for Rivera (60 IP real life) seems to small and u really don't want Horton to follow Rivera in the 9th and your guys up one.

For the record: SIM recommendations suck. But that's only if you're trying to win though.

Posted by Dallas11 on 7/26/2020 6:16:00 AM (view original):
given Batters Faced per Inning Pitched (BFIP) = whip+3.00
given Base On Balls per Inning Pitched (BBIP) = BB9/9 or BB/IP
given Strike Outs per Inning Pitched (KIP) = K9/9 or K/IP
the number of pitches per inning that sim allocates for any pitcher can be found by
3.406*BFIP + 3.762*BBIP + 1.964*KIP
multiply by IP/162 to get the pitchers seasonal pitchcount allocation

Is that formula going to equal the recommended pitch counts the AI gives to every pitcher? And why not go with the recommended pitch count? Unless 5 to 10 pitches for Rivera (60 IP real life) seems to small and u really don't want Horton to follow Rivera in the 9th and your guys up one.

You could push Rivera harder, just don't expect as many appearances without hitting a wall. This Sim is pitch based, not inning based. If you push them beyond their limits you might not like how they respond. This is especially true early in the season.

Griz is right. The pitch count recommendations are garbage.

I use a pull setting of 2 for SP unless it is a critical game that requires a shorter leash. Relievers I usually go 3.

15 pitches per inning is close enough to begin with. Adjust from there.

I hope you are paying attention to actual IP/G numbers. A 200 inning guy with 5.50 actual can't go 90 pitches per start without faceplanting...

Abusing pitchers is like mistreating your truck. Once in awhile you can ask it to do a bit more than it's capable of. Constant abuse will cause it to blow up.