Pitching Strategy

Warfsu · 08-07-2021, 10:35 AM

Having only played this game for a year now, I was hoping to see if my pitching adjustments were in line w/ what other people do.

In rookie level, I tended to go w/ a 'tactician' strategy, as I felt the hitters I'd be facing were weaker, and INF/OF shifts would be beneficial. As I've moved up levels (year 5, in Silver) I've found myself moving those sliders down to more neutral, as the overall hitters improve greatly. I'm afraid to go much past neutral, but I do see my SP's giving up more hits then IP's in a lot of games (maybe it's a lot of game to me, as my overall stats compared to others in my league are still near the top).

I also had a stretch of five consecutive games in which I blew a save. I tend to tinker w/ things probably too much, but after the fifth game, I removed relief pitchers who were struggling/or labeled them 'avoid high leverage', and placed a pitcher who wasn't struggling as the closer.

I guess what I'm getting at is, when you're seeing one of your pitchers struggle, what adjustments do you make? How often? Is it accurate that the higher the level, the fewer shifts? I feel like my SP's stay in an inning too long. I've tried capping total pitches at '100', but should I also adjust how quickly they're pulled? Lastly, do you tend to keep all pitchers on the same 'global strategy', or do you adjust for flyball/ground ball pitchers, at the extreme levels? I find that struggling pitchers, I want to pull quicker, but I don't want that to be the case with all pitchers.

Play4Thrills · 08-09-2021, 03:35 PM

Before you mess with pitcher settings, you may want to confirm that it's your pitchers and not your defense causing the problems. You can check how your team's defense stacks up against others in your league by using the "Info" tab on your team's home page. It may be that you need some defensive upgrades more than you need pitching improvements.

I generally cap the total pitches for each of my pitchers separately, based on what I observe in game results (looking for innings where a starting pitcher started to give up too many runs before being pulled and the pitch count at that point). I prefer to leave my pitchers in longer but set the aggressive rest option and rely on pitch counts to limit pitching through fatigue.

Re hitters improving as you move up: consider that the pool of batters might be getting stronger and better at connecting with the ball but they might not actually be any better at spraying the ball; there may still be a number of pull and extreme pull hitters to defend against. Also consider that those shift sliders generally need to be pretty high before the AI starts shifting against neutral batters, so even if you keep the sliders around neutral, you shouldn't see defensive drop-offs from errant shifts.

Re frequency of changes, I like to see about 50 IP before I try to find a pattern in any individual pitching performance. You really need more than that to reduce statistical noise, but if I suspect there's a problem and need to make some quick improvements, I might start doing it as early as 50 IP. Unless things go sideways quickly, I would then wait for another 100+ IP to see if further adjustments are needed.

ncap99 · 08-12-2021, 12:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warfsu

Having only played this game for a year now, I was hoping to see if my pitching adjustments were in line w/ what other people do.

In rookie level, I tended to go w/ a 'tactician' strategy, as I felt the hitters I'd be facing were weaker, and INF/OF shifts would be beneficial. As I've moved up levels (year 5, in Silver) I've found myself moving those sliders down to more neutral, as the overall hitters improve greatly. I'm afraid to go much past neutral, but I do see my SP's giving up more hits then IP's in a lot of games (maybe it's a lot of game to me, as my overall stats compared to others in my league are still near the top).

I also had a stretch of five consecutive games in which I blew a save. I tend to tinker w/ things probably too much, but after the fifth game, I removed relief pitchers who were struggling/or labeled them 'avoid high leverage', and placed a pitcher who wasn't struggling as the closer.

I guess what I'm getting at is, when you're seeing one of your pitchers struggle, what adjustments do you make? How often? Is it accurate that the higher the level, the fewer shifts? I feel like my SP's stay in an inning too long. I've tried capping total pitches at '100', but should I also adjust how quickly they're pulled? Lastly, do you tend to keep all pitchers on the same 'global strategy', or do you adjust for flyball/ground ball pitchers, at the extreme levels? I find that struggling pitchers, I want to pull quicker, but I don't want that to be the case with all pitchers.

I tend to make adjustments for low movement or low control pitchers in the pitch around settings, and hook settings for lower stamina pitchers.

Don't overreact to a pitcher getting shelled, sometimes you just have bad luck. I had Bill Campbell go an entire season with like an 8.00 ERA. Every outing he just got rocked. The next season with the exact same settings he was brilliant:

That first year was pretty annoying but sometimes you just have to let it ride. I mean .412 BABIP is just ridiculous, and that doesn't even include the insanely high HR/9. Just bad luck, it happens.

Warfsu · 08-12-2021, 02:26 AM

Yeah. I really need to work on patience with this. I think part of my problem is I have a job that allows me to tinker with things daily if I want to. It always seems like I start as a .500 team early on, tinkering after every few games to see what works, and I usually “luck” into a combination that gives me a 60-70% winning percentage on the year.

This current season, I saw Johan Santana early on struggle, and watching him succeed on other teams, I’m wondering, what could they possibly be doing differently then me. He’s currently on a string of 4 straight dominant starts without me touching a thing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ncap99

I tend to make adjustments for low movement or low control pitchers in the pitch around settings, and hook settings for lower stamina pitchers.

Don't overreact to a pitcher getting shelled, sometimes you just have bad luck. I had Bill Campbell go an entire season with like an 8.00 ERA. Every outing he just got rocked. The next season with the exact same settings he was brilliant:

That first year was pretty annoying but sometimes you just have to let it ride. I mean .412 BABIP is just ridiculous, and that doesn't even include the insanely high HR/9. Just bad luck, it happens.

08-07-2021, 10:35 AM	#1
Warfsu Minors (Double A) Join Date: Apr 2021 Posts: 111	Pitching Strategy Having only played this game for a year now, I was hoping to see if my pitching adjustments were in line w/ what other people do. In rookie level, I tended to go w/ a 'tactician' strategy, as I felt the hitters I'd be facing were weaker, and INF/OF shifts would be beneficial. As I've moved up levels (year 5, in Silver) I've found myself moving those sliders down to more neutral, as the overall hitters improve greatly. I'm afraid to go much past neutral, but I do see my SP's giving up more hits then IP's in a lot of games (maybe it's a lot of game to me, as my overall stats compared to others in my league are still near the top). I also had a stretch of five consecutive games in which I blew a save. I tend to tinker w/ things probably too much, but after the fifth game, I removed relief pitchers who were struggling/or labeled them 'avoid high leverage', and placed a pitcher who wasn't struggling as the closer. I guess what I'm getting at is, when you're seeing one of your pitchers struggle, what adjustments do you make? How often? Is it accurate that the higher the level, the fewer shifts? I feel like my SP's stay in an inning too long. I've tried capping total pitches at '100', but should I also adjust how quickly they're pulled? Lastly, do you tend to keep all pitchers on the same 'global strategy', or do you adjust for flyball/ground ball pitchers, at the extreme levels? I find that struggling pitchers, I want to pull quicker, but I don't want that to be the case with all pitchers.

08-09-2021, 03:35 PM	#2
Play4Thrills Minors (Single A) Join Date: Apr 2021 Posts: 57	Before you mess with pitcher settings, you may want to confirm that it's your pitchers and not your defense causing the problems. You can check how your team's defense stacks up against others in your league by using the "Info" tab on your team's home page. It may be that you need some defensive upgrades more than you need pitching improvements. I generally cap the total pitches for each of my pitchers separately, based on what I observe in game results (looking for innings where a starting pitcher started to give up too many runs before being pulled and the pitch count at that point). I prefer to leave my pitchers in longer but set the aggressive rest option and rely on pitch counts to limit pitching through fatigue. Re hitters improving as you move up: consider that the pool of batters might be getting stronger and better at connecting with the ball but they might not actually be any better at spraying the ball; there may still be a number of pull and extreme pull hitters to defend against. Also consider that those shift sliders generally need to be pretty high before the AI starts shifting against neutral batters, so even if you keep the sliders around neutral, you shouldn't see defensive drop-offs from errant shifts. Re frequency of changes, I like to see about 50 IP before I try to find a pattern in any individual pitching performance. You really need more than that to reduce statistical noise, but if I suspect there's a problem and need to make some quick improvements, I might start doing it as early as 50 IP. Unless things go sideways quickly, I would then wait for another 100+ IP to see if further adjustments are needed. Last edited by Play4Thrills; 08-09-2021 at 03:38 PM.