Quote:
Originally Posted by drhay53
One piece of general advice that took me a couple of seasons to really grasp; sometimes a frustrating bullpen is actually due to your starting pitching, in the following sense: if your starters have a low quality start percentage, that means they are forcing your bullpen to throw a lot of innings. A tired bullpen is a surefire way to a bad record.
Ideally your starter gets you directly to your best setup man or even better, the closer. You really have to pay attention to make sure you have 1-2 quality innings-eaters in your rotation. A supremely talented starter with low-stamina can actually be pretty taxing on your pen; he's going to throw a lot of pitches striking guys out and then come out in the 6th inning, dumping 3 innings on your 'pen.
I will usually try very hard to make sure I have at least one starter with max stamina (for my scouting settings, which are 20-80). Some of the best pitchers I've ever had were ones with slightly above average ratings in Stuff-Movement-Control but max stamina. Put 'em in front of a good defense and watch the innings roll up; and watch your rested 'pen suddenly drop their ERA considerably.
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This seems to be a big problem for me, as my starters have trouble giving me quality starts. My bullpen can be good when they are called upon every now and then, but when they have to pitch from the 6th inning on every day it can be taxing and inflate their ERA's to egregious numbers. Higher stamina pitchers are definitely something for me to look for in the future.