Sort of a schmorgesborg of questions, but at least they're all related to pitching in some way:
1) Do you manage your starting pitchers' innings and pitch counts (beyond simply keeping them rested), and if so how closely? Should a young guy or a player in his first year back after TJ have a pitch count each game or be shut down in September (or more wisely, have starts skipped throughout the season)? If I have a pitcher who has the stamina to go 110 pitches every 5th game, is there any reason I shouldn't let him try and go for a CG every start (provided he's sharp)? Guess I'm just trying to see how closely the game emulates real life, since there's no direct feedback on this sort of thing. Am I risking (re)injury? Making players decline faster (wearing out their arms so stuff/velocity goes down)? Or does it not matter?
2) Similarly, how much are you guys seeing pitchers go down requiring TJ? I'm in mid August, and I haven't seen any injuries requiring TJ the entire year. Not that I'm upset by this, just curious if the surgery is more common in more recent years.
3) Are the long term effects of injuries like TJ very realistic? Or is it just a "once he's healed, he's healed" situation (minus some appropriate rating drops presumably).
4) When do you guys know to convert a starter into a reliever? Anything to think about besides low stamina and only 1-2 pitches?
5) Relatedly, would a SP's stuff/velocity improve when being converted into a reliever, since he's going from trying to pitch 5+ innings to 1doesn't have to hold back in the tank? What about when I want to temporarily use a starter in relief, such as during the playoffs with my #5 SP or calling up a SP prospect to pitch in relief during September. I figure this would be hard to do since I can't tell the computer "hey I'm only going to pitch him for 1 inning instead of the usual 6".
6) Speaking of velocity...checking a lot of players' velocity stats in-game and comparing them to real life...is the 3 MPH range basically meant to represent where a pitcher's velocity "sits" (as in, his fastball sits at 92-93 and he can hit 96/97)? Because I'm looking at guys who hit 100 MPH on the gun in real life, but their OOTP velocity is 95-97.
7) When picking pitching coaches for your Minor League system, do you go for a mix of pitching coaches with different preferences (groundball, power, finesse) so that no matter who you draft or sign, they'll get a taste of everything. Or do you just commit to one and try and get every level of your organization on the same page?
8) At about what age are a young (17-19) prospects' secondary stats (velocity, stamina, etc.) not likely to increase any more? I get most won't develop, but if my scout finds a 17 year old with 25 stamina and 88-90 velocity, is there reason to hope he COULD get to 40 Stam/91-93 or something by the time he's finished growing? Similarly, can prospects ever add another pitch?
9) Is there a global setting to permanently turn off Warmups for bullpens? I switched this off in my first game of the season (that's a little too micromanage-y for me, plus the AI doesn't have to do it) in the Options tab for that game, but recently I noticed my pen was always allowing 1-2 baserunners on every inning when they first came on, even my top guys. And I realized the setting had somehow been switched back on. I'd like to ensure this doesn't happen again if possible as I don't always remember to check this setting before playing the game (after which it's too late to change).
10) Does anyone carry an extra reliever instead of bench player? I did for the middle third of the season after I traded my long man (OOTP rated him wayyyyy too high, and I couldn't resist selling), and it didn't seem all that effective, though that might've just been a symptom of only having 3 relievers I trusted and the number of close games in the 7th inning or later my team was in
