Dead or Mostly Dead? a super reliever experiment

I am running an experiment. I created an ATG-9 team where I strive to maximize innings and appearances by a single reliever, Ferdie Schupp. I ask you: Is the super-reliever totally dead? Or just mostly dead?

"Whoo-hoo-hoo, look who knows so much. It just so happens that your friend here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do."


Appearances
It used to be in ATG-8 that one's top reliever could pitch two out of every three games, and end up right around 108 appearances. A little less if you used 6 roles (no mop-up duty) instead of 7. And a little more if you used the max closer settings (which I do not recommend). But let's say 108 for simplicity sake.

Total Innings
And in terms of total innings pitched, the most in a ATG-8 DH league was 462. In a ATG-8 non-DH league, I don't recall--perhaps 300-350. I don't know what the maximums were in 20xx or single year leagues.

Settings
So what are the settings being used. I'm sure there is a better way to do this, but this is how I am setting it up.

Team Strategy Settings
1. Closer --> Regular (not Max)
2. Relief Usage --> Conservative

I think that "conservative" relief settings will help get some additional innings out of Schupp. I wonder if "conservative" delays in any way the point at which my crap starter is yanked. I hope not--I just don't know enough about these settings. Using this setting ("conservative") also assumes that Schupp, when used, will be the first reliever used. I certainly don't want any other reliever to come in prior to Schupp (ack!). Relatedly, I wonder if having two $3m relievers will lessen HAL's use of Schupp. Perhaps I should have used crappier relievers.

Pitcher Preferences
All pitchers who can start are set for Max 6 innings and quick hook.

Schupp is set for slow hook and do not relieve before F5. The two sub $1m relievers are set for quick hook and max 1-2 innings. The other relievers have nothing checked.

Roles
Only two roles are set. Schupp has middle and mop-up. No one else has a role assigned.

The team is designed to let up a lot of runs early, hence needing relief in the early innings. I hope that when Schupp is called upon that he will stay in through the late innings (to stay in past the mop-up and middle roles).


First Series, first results
Schupp came in in game #1 and pitched five inning. Ok--nothing has changed, right?! Wrong! He was not called upon in game two or three. This is good for Strat. The restrictions that they set up seem to be in effect. Of course it is early!

Predictions
Not sure. I wonder if 80 appearances and 300 innings is possible. But what I suspect, and predict, is 54 appearances and 225 innings. I hope others will offer predictions, too!

Control
One of the great advantages that the ATG-8 super reliever gave a managers was not just # of appearances and total innings, but precise control relating to managing starting pitchers. The manager would know *which* games the super-reliever would enter and would not. So in games 1 and 2 of a series, you could set your starting pitcher on quick hook and max 6 innings. And for game #3, you could ask a little more of your starting pitcher. This was a significant bonus.

Open questions
One of the questions I am most interested in is whether there will be any analogous control in ATG-9. So, for example, if Schupp pitches 4-5 innings in game #1, will it always be the case that he will require 2 games off? In other words, will he generally pitch the same game of every series? Or, is it going to be a crap shoot which games he will come in? Maybe it will be every time he pitches X or more he requires two full games off. And where he pitches less than X he only needs one game off. And what is X? Is X his R (duration) value?

I hope to learn that by this experiment whether there is any control to be had. If this was known, that would be a nice addition to the ATG-9 manager's tool kit. There are other open questions, of course.

Ok, if you want to follow the experiment: https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1578008

Will be interesting to watch. Gotta love the Kal Daniels 0 for 9 start to the season. LOL.

love the princess bride quote.

i would think the way to maximize would be to put him in no roles at all, put the other guys as lefty/righty specialists and at avoid using before the 8th inning.

I think one of the new rules is you can only have one rp designated avoid before 8th

Too complicated. Just get a couple guys in the R4 and R5 range in the 3-4M range, with slight righty lefty advantages for closer checks. Check them twice, and then get a cheap lefty short reliever and the same for a righty specialist. Have starters who can relieve in a pinch.

i'm getting different results. so far thru 81 games he's thrown 67 IPs. games 58-80 he made 12 appearances. my settings r regular/normal, don't use before 7, slow hook, middle man, and tied and late. others rps, 1 R and 1L specialist, and one mopup.

just double checked and i have another RP set on middle man but he's only logged 22 ips? every RP is an R3

I am presently in five ATG 9 leagues. Dale Murray is not on a roster in two of them. The average salary cap of the three using Murray is 150 M. In the leagues where he has been selected his teams have played an average of 29 games. He has averaged 6 appearances per league and nine and 2/3rds innings pitched. In these three leagues he is on pace to average FIFTY FIVE innings pitched for the entire season. I have him in one of these leagues. He has appeared in two of the past twenty three games. I cant get him into games. I change my settings every few days to try and get him to pitch with no luck.

Strat changed relievers salaries upwards then drastically reduced their usage with the new bullpen logic.

Here is an example in every day terms: You were paying $1 a gallon for gas( Murray) and getting 20 M.P.G. ( 200 innings out of Murray ) now your paying $1.5 per gallon and getting 5 M.P.G. Makes perfect sense dont it.

I cant believe they made these changes.

Most I have gotten was in a 20XX game (2019) where I had an R3 with behind and late and middle man roles go 190.

He had 9 back-to-back games;
Every appearance of 4 or more innings required 2 days rest;
11 of the 13 times 3 to 3 and 2/3 innings pitched 2 days rest required; one time one day, the other no rest but only 1 inning with the 1 day and 1/3 with no rest

So I think rest requirements make 5×54=270 innings the max(I guess if youre higher than R3 you could get even more innings). Then Strat decided to limit roles which knocked it under 200 innings

But instead of doing that...why not just mandate 3 days rest if you pitch 4 or more innings?That might by itself keep innings under 200 without the headache of having 2 roles. (5×41=205 plus whatever appearances over 5 innings)How many times can you get
more than 5 innings out of a reliever anyway?

It's early yet. But right now Schupp is on pace for about 270 IP. So I'd say, at least in $100M leagues, the super reliever is not dead, just slightly tethered.