A few days ago, we discussed pitching fatigue modifications in the basic game. That prompted John H to write in about a slightly different topic relating to pitchers’ use.
Here are his thoughts:
Perhaps this might be a subject to explore; Starters, unrated as relievers, being used in relief.
Guys like Koufax Ford and Spahn and even some modern stars have been asked to help out in a pinch. I suggest that a starter can be used in relief .. but:
- He drops a grade immediately upon entering the game and drops a grade each inning of use.
- If there is less then two days between his last start and his relief appearance his grade drops two grades (not one) immediately upon taking the mound in relief.
- If he faces more then 3 batters he cannot start the next day
- If he faces more then 9 batters he cannot start for two days.
John brings up a good topic for discussion. With APBA, there’s no right way to do it. However, there are most certainly ways each of us hasn’t thought of.
First, let’s start off with the official APBA rules. What does the game allow? According to the APBA Baseball basic game, there aren’t a lot of restrictions as far as pitcher use in the bullpen. The only restriction to speak of is the asterisk which restricts that pitcher from being used as a starter (unless he is a split grade pitcher). But nothing in the official rules says you can’t use a Chris Carpenter as a reliever even though in real life he pitched 34 games and started all of them.
However, rules are rules and the beauty of the APBA basic game doesn’t prevent anyone from enhancing it (or mucking it up depending on your perspective) with modifications and extra rules. If you think regulating pitching use in the pen is warranted, then there’s nothing stopping you or your league.
What are the objectives here (and in most scenarios when implementing modifications)? Essentially, realism, accuracy plus ease of play. You may want to add the potential for starters to relieve for a variety of reasons but you don’t want a Koufax or Carl Mays to be the default go-to guy because of his nifty grade. John’s system does alleviate that to a point. It does penalize that Grade A starter should you make that call to the pen.
In my league, we use strict limits. Pitchers can only appear in the number of games started and games relieved throughout the season. No starter may relieve unless they did so in real life.
The only exceptions:
- All D pitchers are eligible to relieve (an added bonus: their games and innings limits are doubled)
- In the postseason, any pitcher who is not designated as a starting pitcher may appear as a reliever even if they didn’t have any relief appearances in real life.
Coincidentally, we implement a rule similar to John’s 3rd and 4th point in the postseason for ALL relievers. No relief pitcher may pitch more than three innings in a span of two games. If he goes down one grade. The purpose of that is to prohibit overuse of highly graded relievers.
Thoughts anyone? It’s a highly specialized area but worth talking about.
John H by the way, is the one who came up with the Great Defensive Catchers vs the Stolen Base Chart I posted about a while back. That one is still being talked about so keep ‘em coming, John.