Why does my pitching suck??

[frankbama]

I started with an inaugural draft in 1994. My whole pitching staff was terrible other than Maddux. I figured it might be coaching and that was too much of a pain anyway so I turned off coaching for 95.



This year, '95 my SP has been a lot better but my bullpen is terrible. I've tried a lot of different guys, traded for a few who were good on their teams and immediately become terrible on mine (Paul Quantrill, Kirk McCaskill, others) Scott Radinsky was ok but not great before I traded for him and has a 9+ ERA and I sent him to AAA. I have Curt Schilling and he has been God awful but he had a 3.46 FIP and 4.02 ERA in 1993. He's got a 7+ now with no improvement in sight. Percival was ridiculous from the get-go in real life and his ERA is 7+. Anyway, I could go on and on but what am I doing wrong? I think I'm using their strengths and weaknesses correctly, roles/stamina, etc.

[Blackmissiongoggles]

What does your defense look like? Defense plays a really big factor in this game. There's also always an element/possibility of things just not going your way, even if players look great on paper. What is your sample size?

[Syd Thrift]

Relief pitchers can be very volatile; really, one or two bad games early on can make them look like absolute garbage, even if they then string together 10 solid appearances after that. Conversely, a guy can string together 50-odd appearances without ever getting lit up - maybe on the day he’s got the bad stuff, he gets bailed out by a double play or a diving catch or the guy who comes in after him with the bases loaded strands everyone. Generally I recommend paying less attention to stuff like ERA and a lot more to Ks, walks, and HRs. If Curt Schilling is still striking batters out and has his same good control, that 7 ERA is probably not a reflection of his true value.

[frankbama]

Schilling as of 9/16: 80 IP 111HA, 73 K.
Beck 46 IP 54 HA 7 HR
Xavier Hernandez 54 IP only 44 HA but 28 BB. He's probably my best.
Percival 32 IP 44 HA 9 HR 23 BB
Quantrill 42 IP 45 HA 21 BB
Radinsky 13 BB in 21 IP with 27 HA. Even worse in AAA.


Most used defense is
C Charles Johnson 80
1B Thome 75
2B Duncan 45
SS Trammell 55
3B Randa 70
LF Chipper 45/50. I forced him to LF to allow Nomar to come up once ready.
CF Edmonds 75
RF Guerrero 65

[Tony820]

Originally Posted by frankbama

Schilling as of 9/16: 80 IP 111HA, 73 K.
Beck 46 IP 54 HA 7 HR
Xavier Hernandez 54 IP only 44 HA but 28 BB. He's probably my best.
Percival 32 IP 44 HA 9 HR 23 BB
Quantrill 42 IP 45 HA 21 BB
Radinsky 13 BB in 21 IP with 27 HA. Even worse in AAA.


Most used defense is
C Charles Johnson 80
1B Thome 75
2B Duncan 45
SS Trammell 55
3B Randa 70
LF Chipper 45/50. I forced him to LF to allow Nomar to come up once ready.
CF Edmonds 75
RF Guerrero 65

That D up the middle isn’t ideal, could be hurting you with double plays...

[Garlon]

You need to disable player development in the players and facegen menu. Players will still develop but not during the season. There may be other settings that may be an issue too. I need to post a guide for getting best results from historical games.

[jimmysthebestcop]

I can't really help with historical. But I use fip-, hr/9, bb/9, k/9, bb%, k%, babip to judge my pitchers.

Especially to judge development and decline. Usually you will see one of the x/9 completely off.

If a prospect has great stats but he has like 5 bb/9 he will get rocked in the show.

While you can have an ok pitcher if they don't give up walks or he and have grade A defense they can do well in the show.

I would really want fip+, xfip, xfip-, and siera. No idea with all this stuff in game they aren't. I've been begging for 3 years.

[Tony820]

Originally Posted by Garlon

You need to disable player development in the players and facegen menu. Players will still develop but not during the season. There may be other settings that may be an issue too. I need to post a guide for getting best results from historical games.

I’d like some more information on that actually. I haven’t done a historical sim before and mostly because I don’t know how to craft the settings. Ideally I want to be able to start in say 1990, and have historical players in the draft, but their player development can go a bunch of different ways. ARod would be highly rated, but maybe he never pans out. Someone like JD Drew might become the best player in the game, etc.

[frankbama]

One of the reasons I got this game was exactly for the historical play. I will probably try multiple seasons with and without fantasy inaugural drafts but also will eventually see if I can pull the 2020 Orioles out of the gutter by 2023.

I guess I could disable the potential ratings but wouldn't that hurt guys like Chipper who aren't great defensively when they're young? Ironically getting a plus defender in LF is pretty easy but I've got Nomar in AAA and Joe Randa winning a "Great" Glove at 3b.

The reasons I don't look for deep stats in this really is because I'm doing historical. I like playing with the real players and I loved the fact I drafted Todd Helton first overall after the 94 season. So I'm not using ERA and surface stats as be all and end all I'm just seeing all these high numbers and losses piling up and am pretty concerned it's just going to keep going on and on.

I am extremely new to this so I am still working things out. I appreciate all the help.

[Syd Thrift]

Unless he's given up a butt-ton of HRs, Schilling is almost certainly getting very, very unlucky on hits. I bet his BABIP is like .400. That's very possible for an 80 IP sample - that's like a league average player hitting like .340 for 250 at-bats.

Otherwise, yeah, I agree with others that your up the middle defense is *really* bad.I usually try to put a 60 out of 80 fielder at both positions and even that's only going to give you roughly average defense. A 55 at short might be doable if you're OK with giving up a lot of hits; a 45 at 2nd is something I'd probably only do if I had a plus defender at short. Remember, those are defense-first positions.

I'd personally be much more leery of the high walk totals in general than the hits allowed, which are basically a function of strikeouts, HRs allowed, and team defense (the latter of which, none of your pitchers can affect much).

[Syd Thrift]

dola,

Originally Posted by frankbama

One of the reasons I got this game was exactly for the historical play. I will probably try multiple seasons with and without fantasy inaugural drafts but also will eventually see if I can pull the 2020 Orioles out of the gutter by 2023.

I guess I could disable the potential ratings but wouldn't that hurt guys like Chipper who aren't great defensively when they're young? Ironically getting a plus defender in LF is pretty easy but I've got Nomar in AAA and Joe Randa winning a "Great" Glove at 3b.

The reasons I don't look for deep stats in this really is because I'm doing historical. I like playing with the real players and I loved the fact I drafted Todd Helton first overall after the 94 season. So I'm not using ERA and surface stats as be all and end all I'm just seeing all these high numbers and losses piling up and am pretty concerned it's just going to keep going on and on.

I am extremely new to this so I am still working things out. I appreciate all the help.

If you turn off development, the game will sitll recalc everyone's ratings every year. It just won't continue to do it during the season itself. Personally, I like leaving it all on all the time, but I generally play fictional so I'm not the best judge.

Even if you want to eschew 3TO stuff for pitchers, I feel like you're doing a bit of a Mt. Piniella impersonation with the way you're handling guys. I mean, who sends Curt freaking Schilling down to the minors after 80 bad - not even bad, just superficially not great - innings? I feel like even Lou Piniella in the 1990s would have stuck with him (in fact, he usually saved the Mt. Piniella act for younger guys). If a guy you know should actually be good is having a couple bad weeks or a bad month, stay with him by all means.