Short Bullpen & Long Relievers

[the54effect]

I was just promoted to a bronze league, and through my time in the entry league I found my relievers (especially my lowest end guys) were getting very little work. As such, I cut my bullpen down to six guys.

I have a comparatively strong rotation I think, four starters with quality stamina ratings, and have a long leash set for my starters, a slow hook strategy.

Right now I have:
CLOSER (Chapman 84)
SETUP (Ottavino 84)
STOPPER/LOOGY (Hader 80)
MIDDLE (Maton 78)
MIDDLE (Kimbrel 77)
LONG (Woodruff 75)

My first question is:
DO you think at the bronze level, and progressively higher levels, I need to keep a 7th reliever? If I maintain a strong rotation with an eye towards high stamina guys, will six relievers be enough, or am I going to start seeing my fatigued team get tattooed?

My second question is:
Is getting a sixth starter and setting their position to reliever, and using them as a long man permissible, or is it going to backfire since the card lists them as a starter and they'll struggle out of the pen? Woodruff was great for me in entry league, but the idea of plugging a choice mid 80s OVR starter in as my long reliever is tempting.

[Matt Arnold]

You can definitely move starters to the bullpen - that's a common strategy to get a long man. If you change their position to RP you can see what their stuff shifts to in the pen - some guys get a bigger boost than others.

I've found running 6 relievers works well for me even up to Diamond level, although a few times if my starters were sub-par I needed 7 guys or multiple long men. But if you have quality starters, then you don't need as much in the pen.

[mess]

If you have good quality starting pitching, you can get away with a 6 man bullpen.

You may need to shuffle guys out on occasion if you run into a few extra inning games with few off days in between.... but you'll be fine.

[joehart]

Originally Posted by mess

If you have good quality starting pitching, you can get away with a 6 man bullpen.

You may need to shuffle guys out on occasion if you run into a few extra inning games with few off days in between.... but you'll be fine.

Good comment. I have seen this a few times too when the bullpen gets so overextended and all players end up as exhausted.
Usually it happens when you have some games when the computer triggers all pitchers to come in for very short amounts of time (even if they do good and there seems no logical reason to do so).

Two remedies...keep a 7th or 8th pitcher in the pen or keep a close eye on your pitchers and substitute when you need an extra 1-2 fresh players.
Personally, I find this often difficult to manage and it happens while I am away. As a result, my pitchers give up extra hits and I end up losing games.