Why a limit on relie I totally understand the ruling on a starting rotation and agree that a starter can only pitch once per week. But why the relief pitchers? I tend to use a lot of relievers in my games (thus my starters normally suck) See Brewers...and the Lefty Lefty matchup usually occurs more than twice per week. I understand the meaning, not wanting teams to bring in their closer every day for 3 innings and needing to utilize all the players...But what about keeping the MR to 2 inning max and CL to 1 inning max...Or something along those lines...I can just see my starter in game 5 of the week going down in inning # 4 and my only option is my closer since I never needed in my previous losses that week. Is it more realistic to have my clser pitch 4 innings in one game or to have a couple relievers pitch 3 times in a one week span.
The reason is that in the Season Info thread there will only be 3 games for 8 of the weeks and 4 games in the other 4 weeks and we don't want to see everyone throwing the same relievers out on the field in the same order as that is not baseball and gets boring facing the same 100 mph fastball each game.
One question Denman... I understand the rules.. But a closer is a different subject altogether. Closers only come in Most (not all the time) in save situations and Most of the time in the 9th inning .. Why couldnt we use the closer all 3 times just as long as we use him in this way... I understand Relief pitchers.. But like I said the closer is a different situation....
Very rarely will you see a closer make 3 straight appearances. A team could sweep the series but at the same time the score may not be close enough to grant bringing in the closer or if he pitched 2 days in a row already then they normally would not count on him to make a 3rd appearance in the series. These rules are mainly put in place to help enforce a simulated stamina since every game is like opening day for all the players.
Trust me when I say you guys WANT these rules. Anyone who has faced the A's chad bradford would agree with me.
If there's an oppotunity for a save, the team will bring in their closer no matter what. For example, I believe Armando Benetez already has 6 saves, and the Marlins have only played 8 games.
the avg appearance of any relief pitcher is just over half the entire games of the season and at 2 out of 3 games for 8 weeks would be 16 G and then 2 out of 4 for 4 weeks would be another 8 games for 24 out of 40 games wich is just over half the games. Without the rules the pitchers would be abused and we would see #1 relief pitcher with 35+ G out of 40 and there isn't any way that is anywhere close to SIM. By having the Rule it will help keep a much better balance with the league from teams based around top pitchers and teams with great bats.
I like these rules. I just got done with a guy who put in Clemens as his relief pitcher. There should be something in the game that prevents that from going on. I even said, "What's this the seventh game of the World Series?" ...must stop playing optimatch games...