The "Opener"

[evanbarth]

How does OOTP account for the new phase of bullpening -- do you change positions for a RP And make him a "starter" but that lowers his stuff usually, which isn't the point. Curious what others have done.

[Cactusguy21]

There's really no way to work around that in OOTP. Kind of a shame really.

[Baseballman2K5]

if you are going to use an opener, I'd leave his position at RP, since he is only pitching 1-2 innings anyways.

[Matt Arnold]

Originally Posted by Cactusguy21

There's really no way to work around that in OOTP. Kind of a shame really.

We'll look to do something for this for next year, now that we have a full season of fairly solid usage to base things on.

[Cactusguy21]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

We'll look to do something for this for next year, now that we have a full season of fairly solid usage to base things on.

Awesome!

[Charley575]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

We'll look to do something for this for next year, now that we have a full season of fairly solid usage to base things on.

I dare say we have entered a distinctive new era in baseball, "The Analytics Era".










It sucks.

[t-bone shuffle]

I've played around with this a little with a team that's going nowhere.

On 4 different games I've "opened" with one of my relief pitchers (20 to 30 pitch guy normally), and I have replaced them at some point in the 2nd inning with a fully rested Starter, each of whom have average to above average stamina (and position is set to SP). Each of these SP's used have regularly thrown into the 90+ pitch count, when starting games.

The unusual thing I'm seeing with the above scenario is that the SP's mentioned are "tiring" at around the 60 pitch mark, never able to go more than 4 innings. While this doesn't seem totally unrealistic to me, I'm wondering if this is by design, or simply a matter of the game handicapping pitch limits on any pitcher entering as a reliever? Fact is, IRL, the above pitchers would not be tiring at a lower pitch count when fully rested and pitching in their normal spot in the rotation.

Just an observation more than anything else.

[x McLovin x]

Originally Posted by t-bone shuffle

I've played around with this a little with a team that's going nowhere.

On 4 different games I've "opened" with one of my relief pitchers (20 to 30 pitch guy normally), and I have replaced them at some point in the 2nd inning with a fully rested Starter, each of whom have average to above average stamina (and position is set to SP). Each of these SP's used have regularly thrown into the 90+ pitch count, when starting games.

The unusual thing I'm seeing with the above scenario is that the SP's mentioned are "tiring" at around the 60 pitch mark, never able to go more than 4 innings. While this doesn't seem totally unrealistic to me, I'm wondering if this is by design, or simply a matter of the game handicapping pitch limits on any pitcher entering as a reliever? Fact is, IRL, the above pitchers would not be tiring at a lower pitch count when fully rested and pitching in their normal spot in the rotation.

Just an observation more than anything else.

While I haven't taken a deep dive into the stamina issue you mentioned, I've been doing something similar lately with my team. The main difference in the version I'm running is that I'm accumulating pitchers in the bullpen (set to RP) with 3 pitches (or some with 2 pitches but very high stuff/movement/control and with their 2 pitches rated highly) and 40+ stamina ratings to come in after the "opener" which is primarily a high strikeout reliever (or an mediocre/average starter who gets a nice bump in stuff when converted to a reliever) who is capped at 20-30 pitches to start the game. I'm trying to focus on having as many quality long relievers as possible to be the strength of my team and so far, it seems to be working out pretty well. Hopefully OOTP 20 includes a more mechanized way to use this as a strategic option.

[itsmb8]

I think a good fix would be a universal stamina rating and/or being able to designate whether you want a guy to prepare for a long stint (+ stamina, - stuff) or a short stint (- stamina, + stuff). For example, the Brewers bullpen has a lot of guys that were starters, either in the majors or minors, but dont normally go many innings because they aren't supposed to, so they prepare for a short stint and therefore have higher velocity and stuff.

[x McLovin x]

Originally Posted by itsmb8

I think a good fix would be a universal stamina rating and/or being able to designate whether you want a guy to prepare for a long stint (+ stamina, - stuff) or a short stint (- stamina, + stuff). For example, the Brewers bullpen has a lot of guys that were starters, either in the majors or minors, but dont normally go many innings because they aren't supposed to, so they prepare for a short stint and therefore have higher velocity and stuff.

I’m 100% behind this idea. Seems like it would be a great improvement and not extremely hard to implement, but what do I know.

Something else to consider, if possible, is a “use more often” option for long relievers. I feel like the current setup - normal/avoid high leverage - isn’t enough when you may have, say, around, 4 or even 5 long men of varying quality. What if I have 2 great long men who were formerly starters, 2 average ones and 1 slightly below average long man? Instead of having 2 set to normal and 3 to avoid high-leverage, I’d prefer setting 2 to use more often, 2 to normal and 1 to avoid high leverage.