Historical Pitching rotations question

[Orcin]

Originally Posted by warneke

Actually, now I recall that

Version 19 has added two Settings under General Strategic Tendancies for
Hook for Starting Pitcher and
Hook for Reliever

and has 11 settings for both, ranging from -5 Very Quick to +5 Very Slow. Theoretically I guess, one could play around with these and see what the result is on starters' IP and CG and stuff. At least setting it to +5 for relievers would seem to mean that relievers would pitch much longer in games than they do now, and less relievers would be used per game, which would model older eras.

I have been using +5 for both starters and relievers in my deadball era league. I rarely see more than 2 pitchers used in a game. Typically, it is only the starter, sometimes for 10+ innings. Cy Young pitched all 16 innings in one game. Occasionally, I will see the starter lifted in favor of another starter in a tie game, then a final closer inning pitched by a reliever. I can't remember seeing four pitchers used in any game.

[joefromchicago]

I have no idea what the hook ratings mean, and I haven't seen the developers give an explanation for them, so I'd be cautious about messing with those ratings. Having starters finish games in the deadball era is realistic, but even in that era there was a gradual tendency to use relievers. In 1901 in the NL starters finished 87% of their starts. In 1910 that percentage was down to 56%, and it stayed at 56% in 1920. So if your starters are completing 87% of their starts in 1920, that's as unrealistic as having them complete 30% of their starts.

The problem with OOTP isn't that it has relievers in the deadball era (there are many who claim that Doc Crandall was the first relief pitcher in the modern sense when he pitched for the Giants from 1909 to 1913). Rather, it's that it has relievers in that era who only relieve. Even Crandall, when he was used by John McGraw primarily as a reliever, started games as well. It wasn't until 1925 that there was one pitcher - and only one - who was used exclusively as a reliever, and it really wasn't until the 1940s that teams began to designate one of their pitchers as a relief specialist.