League Rules for Relief Pitcher Usage; When a Pitcher Gets Tired

The biggest factor in making simulation baseball games realistic is to determine how often relief pitchers can be used.

In our league, each reliever is categorized as a Short Reliever, Long Reliever or Starter/Reliever based on the table below, which also shows the maximum number of innings he can pitcher or batters he can face:

Categorize each pitcher	Type Pitcher	If Start Inning	If enter during inning
RR: 6 or less or ave 1 IP or less	Short Relief	pitch 1 inning	pitch 4 batters
RR: 7 or more or ave more 1 IP	Long Relief	pitch 2 innings	pitch 8 batters
Started at least 10 games	Starter or Reliever	pitch 3 innings	pitch 12 batters

If a pitcher stays in the game after reaching his limit, then his PB is lowered by one. If he pitches to a second batter after reaching his limit it is lowered by two etc. We play all 2 game series and each reliever can only pitch in one of the two games.

The exceptions are

1. If a pitcher does not enter the game until the 9th inning or extra innings we let him pitch at full strength until his RR hits 0 (see below).

2. If a team is losing and the pitcher in the game is the worst pitcher in the game (based on highest ERA and lowest PB) then we leave him at full strength until his RR hits 0.

If the RR hits 0 before the pitcher reaches his limit on the table below, then his PB is reduced based on the RR running out just as a Starter loses effectiveness once his SR runs out. Below is a summary of that process as always used in the Statis-Pro game.

• In Statis-Pro baseball a starting pitcher uses his SR rating and a relief pitcher uses his RR rating - which is his endurance for a game. Every time a pitcher allows a runner on base due to a walk, hit or hit by pitch, that number is lowered by one, and it also drops by one if a pitcher gives up an earned run and when an inning ends. So if a pitcher came into an inning with an RR of 6, and gave up a walk and a hit (minus 2 to leave him with 3) and then a 3-run homer (another runner allowed on base plus 3 earned runs scored) then he would be out of endurance by losing all 6 from his RR rating o 6).
• When a player's RR runs out, then lower his PB rating by 1 for every number below 1 he had dropped. So if the pitcher above had the best rating - a PB 2-9, then after losing all 6 of his RR he would drop to a PB 2-8. If he got through the rest of the inning then he would drop to a PB 2-7 for the next inning, and for every other RR he dropped he would go to PB 4-7, then PB 2-6, then PB 2-5, then PB 2-4, then PB 2-3 then PB 2, and then any lower the Random Number would simply go straight to the batter card.