Middle relief slots 6 thru 9

[hcorry2001]

This is an area i admit i always overlook....it's always my weakest area when rebuilding because quite simply i don't know who to put there. All i know is i want pitchers with yellow stamina or higher there. I really want a dominant middle relief corps....slots 10 thru 12 are easy.

Any suggestions?

[Number4]

Don't watch stamina, watch quality. Sure, that stamina 80 guy might look nice, but if he needs to face twices as many batters to eat the innings he'll be just as tired and he'll let some runs score too.

If your pitching corps as a whole is getting too tired, sacrifice a bench bat for another reliever.

[NoOne]

yeah, the long guys go 3 innings at most from what i see. so even a 20-30stamina / 100 can eke out 3innings... maybe 25-30? it's lower than you expect.

i typically use future starters in the long relief role. especially those that haven't quite developed the third pitch, but it's not a "1/100" either. three pitches are nice, but not a requirement for 3innings... they may not even see a batter a 2nd time.. and especially not the third time, which is the real zinger for 2-pitch guys.

for a pen i will spend on 4 quality guys.. and if i have a prospect i either short that one or enjoy the riches of an extra dependable guy. the closer and 2 setup guys are liekly a bit better than the 4th - typically a difference in stuff as you go down. i do the best i can relative to the current situation with the rest of the pen... quite often you can find a gem reliever between the FA junk heap and you minors. on better teams these last 2 spots (MR, not LR) only pitch a total of 40-70innings (ignores injuries).

cl 9th, su 8, su7, mr use more my su7 is actually the better setup man. if you manage games, don't do that, lol. that's soley for the AI. also why i use the 8th inning guy as the secondary closer, because he is more likely to be available. my 7th inning guy will do 70-90innings like clockwork on great teams.

the other guys are MR "use less" x 2, except when that good prospect is around. he'll get a normal use. 1 long reliever - rarely a future component of the top 4. the role they fill isn't interchangeable with that, imo.

i'll use 2 MR as "more often" if their staminas are lower and can't do regular work -- figure sub ~10/100 stamina. be careful of putting a low stamina in teh SU 7th or later role. otherwise, startification is good in my opinion. regular work is a good thing, maybe? rust isn't a concern onthe active roster, so i'm 50/50 or less on that.

keep it simple with roles, the ai does a better job. i will use the 8th inning guy as secondary closer role. if the middle reliever is really good, i'll set him to setup, or if the guy i want to do that is not the "next" best rated reliever. in other words, i only use a secondary role if i think the AI will do something else. if the LR guy is a future starter or soemthing worthwhile, i will set them as a MR secondary to get extra innings.

don't react too much to slumps in relievers... if they have a strong track record trust it... if they are unknown be more willing to shift them down in use. another reason why stratification is good... you shift the underperformers down for a month or two and revisit the problem later.

i just recently gave up on a very well rated reliever. he had 2 good years out of 5... should have been a dominant guy.... he may very well be later in his career. he was a 76-78 overall guy and the individual bits were equal to the task. they guy who replaced him has had back to back years with ~.750-.850whips and low 1's ERA over 160+innings (70ish/90ish)... he's a 62 potential guy with less movemnt and less control and less stuff... go figure... he may yet show his true colors... but it took the other guy falling on his face for me to take that leap the first year with this young RP. both high velocity guys too...