Playing time limits

You may choose to put limits on playing time for one or all of the players on your team. These limits are enforced only when other league options and manager profile settings are set a certain way, and we'll point out those dependencies below.

You can also put limits on the ability of the computer manager to remove certain players for pinch hitters. These limits are not dependent on any other settings -- they always apply when the computer manager is handling a team.

Pitching limits

You can limit the number of games started and relief appearances each pitcher will make. These limits apply only if you choose a usage mode of Time for the pitching portion of your manager profile.

In Time mode, the computer manager ignores your rotation. Instead, it looks at how many starts each pitcher is limited to 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.

After the starting pitcher has been selected, the computer manager will mark as ineligible any relief pitchers who are on a pace to exceed their limit for relief appearances.

Atbat limits

For batters, you can indicate how many atbats they are allowed to get against left- and right-handed pitching. These limits are enforced only if you play games using the Limit Bench Playing Time option, which is described in the Leagues: Rules and Options topic.

When this option is in effect, DMB will not use players as substitutes if it would put them on a pace to exceed their limits, unless injuries or ejections make it necessary to use the player.

These limits have no effect on starting lineups. DMB assumes that if you want to limit playing time with this option, you will take care to ensure that these players are not put in any of the saved lineups and are not assigned spot start percentages that would cause them to get too many starts.

The purpose of the playing time limits is to control the use of players with extremely good statistics that were compiled in a limited number of real-life atbats.

A good example is a player who batted .350 in 25 atbats. Without these limits, DMB's computer manager would be inclined to use him very frequently as a pinch-hitter or as a replacement during a game, and he might get 100 atbats in the DMB-league season. If this player is not used in either saved lineup, the Limit Bench Playing Time option would limit his atbats to about 25 unless injuries forced him into more games.

You may want to set limits just for the players with extremely strong batting statistics. There are many other players who played sparingly in real life because they were in injured, on the farm team, or because there were better players ahead of them. These players are not likely to be overused by the computer manager, so you may want to set very high limits for them so they are available whenever they are needed.