Starting Pitcher stamina in playoffs

[Steven78]

This design would actually make you use more pitchers in the rotation not less. Head scratching...

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell_SCEA

Not a bug this was changed to help facilitate 4 man rotations and the fact that your SP have all just pitched all those innings throughout the season.

I have to agree with people claiming that this change is a head-scratchier... according to the Strategy Guide, there has been a mechanism to let pitchers tire in different ways in situations where they could be overused, as in playoff games:

Quote:

Pitchers who get insufficient days of rest will tire faster if overused. Starters tend to trigger this when pitching three or more quality starts in seven days, such as with a key pitcher in a playoff situation. Relievers and closers follow different criteria, which depends on their pitch count between the previous two days.

The use of 4- or 3-man rotation in playoffs is motivated more by the desire for teams to give better-quality starters chances to pitch more innings even if that means the bottom of the rotation guys are not used at all (or sent to bullpen).

I think the new mechanism makes the mechanism described in the Strategy Guide less meaningful, and also makes the use of smaller starting rotation in critical games way too risky.

[Jr.]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell_SCEA

Not a bug this was changed to help facilitate 4 man rotations and the fact that your SP have all just pitched all those innings throughout the season.

This is definitely backwards. What was the thinking behind needing it changed?

Teams go to a 4 man rotation in the playoffs mostly because of the extra off-days. Game 1 starter still gets his normal 4 days of rest and throws game 5, even though it's only 3 games between starts because of travel days between games 2 and 3.

This really puts a damper on the playoffs because, as others have stated, you need 6 starters instead of 4. I had my #1 pitch the Wild Card game, and was still only at 85ish% stamina 7 days later. So instead of being able to use him in Game 3, or 4 at the worst, in the Division Series, he didn't get to pitch at all.

If it's not a bug, it seem to be very poor implementation. Hopefully y'all can see the error in this and change it very soon because it makes the playoffs very unrealistic when it comes to the starting rotation.

[Fours]

Madison Bumgarner in the World Series last year:

Game 1 7IP 3H 1R 106 pitches

4 days rest

Game 5 9IP 4H 0R 117 pitches

2 days rest

Game 7 5IP 2H 0R 68 pitches in relief

In game, he would have been pitching game 5 at 50%, and Game 7 around 15%. I don't think his results should be common, but it should be possible, and with standard in season fatigue, it's probably possible.

Is the game trying to "fix" something they've decided is an issue in real baseball? Is overuse of a pitcher considered an in game balance issue?

Pitchers can absolutely be effective with 3/4 days rest over the short term, it's been done for decades now where an ace can pitch 3 games in a series if the days off allow 3/4 days rest.

Even if you decide that the pitcher is pitching tired, there's no reason to also assume that he's suddenly feeling the effect of the season and needs 8 days rest.

The game in general handles fatigue questionably. I think they fail to account for the fact that in real baseball, every healthy day off isn't due to fatigue, but often to keep bench players sharp and for platoon/matchup reasons. Likewise, a pitchers arm fatigue is usually the result of years of damage, not this weeks pitch count.

Maybe it would be a cool franchise feature to have to manage young arms, and have detailed medical info on them.. You could have guys on pitch counts, make him drop his splitter to reduce UCL stress, improve his delivery to reduce injury chance and improve control..

I'm all over the place now.. bottom line, remove the unrealistic playoff fatigue, it adds nothing to the gaming experience.

[Smallville102001]

Has any one tried to put starter pitcher stamina slider at 10 in the playoffs to see if that makes things better?

[N51_rob]

Quote: Originally Posted by Smallville102001

Has any one tried to put starter pitcher stamina slider at 10 in the playoffs to see if that makes things better?

This is a very temp fix. It will make them able to go deeper into games, with their pitch count, but it will do nothing to address the glaring issues which is how quickly they regain stamina after days off.

[Fours]

Quote: Originally Posted by N51_rob

This is a very temp fix. It will make them able to go deeper into games, with their pitch count, but it will do nothing to address the glaring issues which is how quickly they regain stamina after days off.

Wouldn't it allow you to throw 90+ pitches and keep a lot more of your stamina bar? As long as you didn't "use" the extra stamina and throw 130 pitches, it might help a lot.

[ktd1976]

Quote: Originally Posted by N51_rob

This is a very temp fix. It will make them able to go deeper into games, with their pitch count, but it will do nothing to address the glaring issues which is how quickly they regain stamina after days off.

But, if you look at it from the other way, it would work, temp or not. If you move the slider to 10 at the start of the playoffs, and still stick to a strict pitch count for your starters (IE 100-110 pitches) then they would still have somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 stamina left after their first start, and would probably be around 3/4ths by the time their next start rolls around.

It makes it manageable at least.

This needs to be fixed in a patch though. I mean, I understand it was "intentional, and not a bug" but it is backwards. Teams use 4 man rotations in the playoffs, and sometimes 3 man rotations (I believe the Yankees used a 3 man rotation in 2009 when they won the WS.) The way it is, with default sliders, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do so.