[StyxNCa]

Originally Posted by sfeldkamp

If you are like me, you kind of hate the current bullpen usage in MLB and would like your team to use a more leveraged approach, where your best relievers are used when the game is on the line, no matter what inning that is, and your worst relievers pitch fewer innings throughout the year. I didn't see a setting in game setup for this, but I had a thought, I wonder what would happen if I didn't assign an pitchers any of the reliever roles? I took a chance and the early returns are better than I hoped. Take this game for instance.

Starter goes 7.2 innings, but has given up a run in the 8th to bring the opposition to within one with runners on 1st and 2nd. My manager (I sim) brings in Joakim Soria from the bullpen, who is mind you, not in the closer role and he finishes the game off for a 4 out save.

I've also seen a similar game where Soria came in in the 7th and part of the 8th when the opposition was threatening and then another pitcher finished the game off after we scored a few more runs.

Right now I do designate a mop-up reliever so that good quality relievers aren't used in this low-leverage situation.

It's been about a month of games, with me looking at every game log. Bullpen era rank has improved quite a few ranks (though I did replace one underperformer).

Has anyone else tried this?

Keep us posted on how this works out. If it works well I will do this for all the AI teams in my league so it will play more intelligently and hopefully provide me with better competition.