[ALB123]

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

I would be very hesitant to use the "strict order" setting for any league in any era, in large part because it is extremely rare to find any team that actually did use a strict rotation for an entire season. In 1995, the Braves came very close to having a strict five-man rotation (Maddux-Glavine-Avery-Mercker-Smoltz), but that was the result of having some exceptionally durable pitchers and a schedule that had no double-headers and no rainouts.

No other team that year could boast such a stable rotation, which is one reason why I'd probably set the rotations in 1995 to "strict order, occasionally highest rested." It is, I think, more historically accurate. The other reason is that adhering to a strict rotation can lead to some pretty bad results if you have any injuries or double-headers. Taking away a rest day will lead to a cascading series of exhausted starters who never have a chance to get fully rested until there's an off-day.

One reason I was setting the rotation to Strict Order was that I have the luxury of playing a game and then looking over all of my rosters quickly to see if anyone got hurt. With a 5-man rotation, if pitcher 3 stubs his toe and needs 10 days off, I get that #3 spot filled by the end of the very next day, no waiting for his normal position to be due to pitch again. Everything keeps running as nothing happened.

The bigger reason why I was using Strict Order was that in my MLB world I have been using OOTP Default settings for Stamina, as I've already mentioned...and with a 5-man strict rotation, let's say after the first 5 games, Pitcher 1 is next to start and then P2, P3, etc... Pitcher 1 will be at 100% rested just in time to take the mound. P2 will always be somewhere between 75-80% rested. P3 will be lower, etc... So, in my mind the "Highest Rested" will always be the pitcher due to pitch because my 5-man rotation will always have 5 pitchers listed.

As you've pointed out, and I feel foolish for not thinking of this myself, is that the AI doesn't always work that way. I am certain that by choosing Strict Order I have screwed up the AI rotation several times. I feel terrible that I now know it's mainly my fault, probably in most of those cases. I'll be making that change immediately and hopefully, that will limit AI pitching staff disasters. I am going to also increase Pitcher Stamina in the General Strategic Tendencies to Normal (maybe even High) which should also help the AI quite a bit.

Originally Posted by Garlon

Setting Relievers to Normal seems to be the best thing to do for any season. The league totals modifier for starting pitcher stamina distributes the IP correctly between the SP and RP, so if you set Use Relievers to anything above Normal apparently you are just telling the game to make more pitching changes among relievers. If you set this to anything below Normal the game will be reluctant to switch relievers when it should. I have found that keeping that at Normal seems to produce better results. In fact if you increase Use Relievers and Use Closers together you actually get fewer saves from your closers.

These are the settings I am currently using for different seasons. Joe will disagree with my use of 4-man strict rotation from 1903-1935. I was trying 5-man highest rested for 1920-1935 today, but I am not convinced with the results yet. I want to use 5-man rotation but doing so has an impact on Ruth HR totals unfortunately. This is because there are now a weaker set of pitchers starting, making it easier for the rest of the league to steal some HRs away from Ruth. I may try again though.

Even though I do not want to use a roster of more than 25 players, right now due to problems with the game the computer is tending to leave some substitution slots empty at some positions if you use lower than 16 position players. This still can happen even with 16 position players but not as often. When this happens the starting position player will play every game of the season and stay fatigued and end up batting about .140 with 275 strikeouts for the season.

Thank you for sharing that chart. I downloaded the image for safekeeping.

Once again, I feel a bit foolish for not recognizing what you mentioned about setting Use Relievers above Normal and especially the combination of Use Relievers and Use Closers long ago. Well, I have noticed it, in a way, but it didn't register that it was a settings issue. For a few seasons now, I've noticed that Save totals were down throughout the MLB and just shrugged my shoulders.

Originally Posted by joefromchicago

In 1997 the average team used 19 pitchers. So it would be highly unlikely that a team would go through a season using only five relievers. The Dodgers used the fewest pitchers that season (16), and they still had 11 relievers who made a total of 407 relief appearances. I'd say that a staff of five starters and six relievers would be about average for a team in 1997.

I would say 6 relievers in 1997 as well. That's what OOTP defaults to in 1995 and I don't think there were really any philosophical changes as to how to best build a 25-man roster in the next 2 years.

Speaking of...I might just have terrible Google Fu, but at some point in every ootp season I say to myself, "Hmmm...I'd like to see what the Yankees opening day 25-man roster was this season..." and I can almost never find that information. 40-man roster? Yes...All MLB Yankees that year? Yup. But the basic 25-man I can't usually find it.

Originally Posted by scurvycure

I am using 5 man rotations with most teams set to Strict, occasionally highest rested. Use of relievers is set to normal.

Other settings: Hook starter -2 (quick); Hook reliever +1 (I'm not sure what those mean or what impact they have, but those were the settings the game implemented when I ran my initial setup.)

Pitcher stamina Normal, PH for pitchers Normal
Starting pitcher stamina = 1.013 and RP stamina is 1.000


I will add that I started paying close attention to this beginning at the late-June early July stage of the schedule. Teams are making their second swing of road trips to opposing teams and so any early season rainouts are showing up now as double-headers and/or fewer off days. I did notice that the couple teams who are set to use strict rotations are facing issues with tired starters, so I will have to change that setting.


I've also realized how much it pays to have at least one or two higher stamina guys in the bullpen for those occasions when you need someone to just eat up some innings or make a spot start. And I like ALB's suggestion that even though I increased roster limits to allow teams to maintain 12 man staffs, the team I am managing every day should have to play at the original 25 man roster limit.

What season are you currently playing, scurvycure?