5 day pitch counts and fatigue

Vaevictis · 04-22-2016, 01:10 AM

Are there any rule of thumb formulas for pitch count and pitcher fatigue?

For instance, I notice with my relievers that if one starts at 100% and throws 4, 13 or 23 pitches he'll drop to 96%. Does that mean that once you bring the guy in, you might as well take him to 20 or so pitches because the 4% reduction is all the same? Or does throwing 20 instead of 4 have some long term affect on how quickly fatigue will pile up down the road?

redranger · 04-22-2016, 05:53 AM

Seems to me that I have noticed it buildup. As the season progressed my ace, who actually only has 4 as stamina, seem to really wear down by season end not having a great September. Seemed his fatigue built up and took longer if I didn't manage his pitch counts and keep them low by seasons end

I think stamina is a main contributing factor in how quickly they come back along with obviously usage

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NoOne · 04-22-2016, 11:26 PM

on occasion stamina can change quite a bit during a season... but more likely they guy just didn't play well and not related to 'wearing down' -- not sure if that is actually coded into the game or not... it's not something you can tell just by using pitchers heavily, which i do for the cy-young quality arms. i've started a pitcher 45 times in a modern mlb setting before and very often go 40ish... no problems, but that's not enough to be certain it doesn't exist.

for the most part:
it's all about # of pitches in their last start and their stamina rating...

this will be all made-up #'s....

say he's a 70/100 stamina... if he pitches less than 125, he will be 100% after three off days -- low SP stamina setting, 5-day rotation. if he stayes under 150 pitches, a normal 5-day rotation is long enough to be 100%. these are the thresholds worth hammering out for each SP.

this is how you can make good use of pitch counts... starting your Ace 5-10 extra starts will far outweight working that SP an extra inning on occasion, which will force an extra day of rest to get to 100% (or what you deem acceptable to make a start). E.G. for the pitchers i want to start as often as possible, i flesh out how many pitches they can throw while still being 96%+ after 3-days rest. then deduct ~10 from that amount for that pitcher's Pitch Count. *they will go over the assigned pitch count by 10 or more on occasion. from what i can tell, they will start an inning as long as not withing X pitches of the pitch count... say 5-10 as a good guesstimate. if they too often pitch <100, i will up it and live with a bit of tiredness or an extra days rest.

so, combination of stamina and # of pitches in last outing for SP is the key.... Relievers may require a differnt perspective.. e.g. how many pitches to reduce the fatigue % relative to stamina like you mentioned in the original post. i don't worry so much about them... if they have to go 30-40 pitches, i just know they need a day off soon, if not the next day. i don't worry too much about work for relievers... they've said in the forums that if the player is on your active roster, he does not develop "rust." ie, i won't 'work' a high-leverage/back of the bullpen reliever when the score is 8-2 and he hasn't pitched in X-days.

with 5star scale, it may be less clear. a 1-10 scale is probably going to be fairly clear, and 1-20+ scale will be very clear about what to expect. but you'll still figure it out with the smaller scales.. it just might take more than 1 start to flesh it out for that particular player.

maintaining a strict pitching rotation or not will not affect results for the individual pitcher (assuming you have a modicum of common sense about fatigue %, lol)... but getting extra starts out of your top 3 and less from your bottom 2 defitnely helps the record out after 162 games.

PSUColonel · 04-22-2016, 11:43 PM

My biggest problem with using any sort of pitch count, is I don't believe the AI does this.

04-22-2016, 01:10 AM	#1
Vaevictis Bat Boy Join Date: Oct 2013 Posts: 3	5 day pitch counts and fatigue Are there any rule of thumb formulas for pitch count and pitcher fatigue? For instance, I notice with my relievers that if one starts at 100% and throws 4, 13 or 23 pitches he'll drop to 96%. Does that mean that once you bring the guy in, you might as well take him to 20 or so pitches because the 4% reduction is all the same? Or does throwing 20 instead of 4 have some long term affect on how quickly fatigue will pile up down the road? Last edited by Vaevictis; 04-22-2016 at 01:20 AM.

04-22-2016, 11:26 PM	#3
NoOne Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2015 Posts: 7,268 Infractions: 1/0 (0)	on occasion stamina can change quite a bit during a season... but more likely they guy just didn't play well and not related to 'wearing down' -- not sure if that is actually coded into the game or not... it's not something you can tell just by using pitchers heavily, which i do for the cy-young quality arms. i've started a pitcher 45 times in a modern mlb setting before and very often go 40ish... no problems, but that's not enough to be certain it doesn't exist. for the most part: it's all about # of pitches in their last start and their stamina rating... this will be all made-up #'s.... say he's a 70/100 stamina... if he pitches less than 125, he will be 100% after three off days -- low SP stamina setting, 5-day rotation. if he stayes under 150 pitches, a normal 5-day rotation is long enough to be 100%. these are the thresholds worth hammering out for each SP. this is how you can make good use of pitch counts... starting your Ace 5-10 extra starts will far outweight working that SP an extra inning on occasion, which will force an extra day of rest to get to 100% (or what you deem acceptable to make a start). E.G. for the pitchers i want to start as often as possible, i flesh out how many pitches they can throw while still being 96%+ after 3-days rest. then deduct ~10 from that amount for that pitcher's Pitch Count. they will go over the assigned pitch count by 10 or more on occasion. from what i can tell, they will start an inning as long as not withing X pitches of the pitch count... say 5-10 as a good guesstimate. if they too often pitch <100, i will up it and live with a bit of tiredness or an extra days rest. so, combination of stamina and # of pitches in last outing for SP is the key.... Relievers may require a differnt perspective.. e.g. how many pitches to reduce the fatigue % relative to stamina like you mentioned in the original post. i don't worry so much about them... if they have to go 30-40 pitches, i just know they need a day off soon, if not the next day. i don't worry too much about work for relievers... they've said in the forums that if the player is on your active roster, he does not develop "rust." ie, i won't 'work' a high-leverage/back of the bullpen reliever when the score is 8-2 and he hasn't pitched in X-days. with 5star scale, it may be less clear. a 1-10 scale is probably going to be fairly clear, and 1-20+ scale will be very clear about what to expect. but you'll still figure it out with the smaller scales.. it just might take more than 1 start to flesh it out for that particular player. maintaining a strict pitching rotation or not will not affect results for the individual pitcher (assuming you have a modicum of common sense about fatigue %, lol)... but getting extra starts out of your top 3 and less from your bottom 2 defitnely helps the record out after 162 games. Last edited by NoOne; 04-22-2016 at 11:41 PM.*

04-22-2016, 05:53 AM	#2
redranger All Star Reserve Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Birmingham, Alabama Posts: 573	Seems to me that I have noticed it buildup. As the season progressed my ace, who actually only has 4 as stamina, seem to really wear down by season end not having a great September. Seemed his fatigue built up and took longer if I didn't manage his pitch counts and keep them low by seasons end I think stamina is a main contributing factor in how quickly they come back along with obviously usage Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

04-22-2016, 11:43 PM	#4
PSUColonel Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 13,096	My biggest problem with using any sort of pitch count, is I don't believe the AI does this.