Pitching Chart

The pitching chart includes your starting rotation, rules for how your starters are to be used, a list of other pitchers who may start from time to time, and the assignment of relief pitchers to various roles.

Roles

You can assign up to five pitchers to each of the following roles:

• Starting rotation. You identify the pitchers that make up your starting rotation and the order in which they appear. You can use a rotation with three, four or five pitchers -- just leave spots empty if you don't want to use five pitchers. You also indicate whether starting pitchers should be used in strict rotation, in rotation but with the option to jump to the #1 starter if off-days make him available, or in proportion to the number of starts made in real life.

• Spot Starters. If you want a pitcher to make occasional starts, you can designate that player as a spot starter. The list of spot starters parallels the list of pitchers in the starting rotation. If you want someone to start 20% of the time in place of the number four starter, enter this player in the fourth spot in the spot starter list, and enter 20 when you are prompted for the percentage.

• Mopup situations. You can designate up to five pitchers for the mopup role. This role is used for the weaker pitchers on the team. They will normally be used only when your team is winning or losing by a large margin and the outcome of the game isn't really in doubt, though they may appear in close games if other pitchers are not available due to injury or fatigue.

• Long Relief. You can designate pitchers for the role of long relief. Long relievers are generally used when the starting pitcher is replaced prior to the seventh inning, but will also be used in other game situations when required, particularly when a team is losing by a large margin and wants to preserve its better pitchers for future games.

• Setup Men. There are two lists of setup men, one to face left-handed batters and one to face right-handed batters. Setup men are generally used in the seventh inning or later in close games, but will also be used in other situations when required.

• Closers. There are two lists of closers, one to face left-handed batters and one to face right-handed batters. Closers are generally used in the eighth or ninth inning when the team has a lead in a close game, but will also be used in other situations when required.

In most game situations, the computer manager uses the first available pitcher in the appropriate list whenever a reliever is called for (excluding players on the reserve roster). So it is important that you list your players in the order you wish them to be considered, with your first choice at the top of the list.

However, there are other situations where another choice will be made. If the bullpen has been used heavily, the computer manager may use the most rested pitcher. If either team has a big lead, it may choose to use a less talented pitcher to make sure your top pitchers are rested for future games. If a game goes into extra innings, everyone in the bullpen is a candidate to enter the game.

Enter a pitcher on more than one list if you want him to be considered for more than one role. For example, your top setup man may also be your number two closer. However, there is no need to fill up all of the lists, since the computer manager chooses from other lists if nobody in a particular role is available.

Usage Mode

The usage mode governs how starting pitchers are selected.

Select Time mode to have the computer manager do its best to make sure that every starting pitcher and reliever gets exactly as many starts and relief appearances as they had in real life. This mode is appropriate for teams that have their real-life rosters intact, and it should NOT be used when you are playing a season with newly-drafted rosters.

NOTE: In Time mode, the computer manager ignores your rotation. Instead, it looks at how many starts each pitcher is limited to in the playing time limits section of your profile (this is usually set to match his real-life starts) and spreads those starts evenly over the season. The pitcher with the most real-life starts will be selected on opening day even if he is not listed in the #1 slot in the rotation. The computer manager will choose starting pitchers who are not in the rotation if their games started limit is greater than zero.

Select Strict mode to have the computer manager use your pitchers in the order they appear in the starting rotation. The computer manager will choose another starting pitcher only if a rotation starter is injured when his turn comes up.

Select Skip to have the computer manager use your pitchers in the order they appear in the starting rotation but skip to the #1 starter when one or more off-days have left him rested enough to start before his turn. The computer manager will choose another starting pitcher only if a rotation starter is injured when his turn comes up.

The Strict option is usually best for DMB leagues that are using newly-drafted rosters.

Rotation Size

You can enter a number to tell the computer manager how big the starting rotation should be. Modern teams almost always use a five-man rotation. Four-man rotations were common until the 1970s, and smaller rotations were the norm a hundred years ago.

Although the saved starting rotation is ignored in the Usage mode of Time, it is still important to set your rotation size in order to get the most out of your starting pitchers. If a pitcher made 40 starts, the rotation size must be set no higher than 4 in order for him to reach his maximum number of starts. If you set the size at 5, he won't make more than 33 starts in a 162-game season.

The rotation size is also used to enforce a Strict or Skip rotation.

Next Starter

When you are using either the Strict or Skip rotation mode, this value tells the computer manager which rotation slot is due to start the next game. You can change this if you want to juggle your rotation during a season.

NOTE: When the computer manager selects a starting pitcher in Strict or Skip mode, it simply chooses the pitcher who is in the Next starter slot. It doesn't look at who was used in recent games, so it's up to you to make sure that the Next starter value is set appropriately if you are mixing human-managed games and computer-managed games for this team.