Pitcher Player Usage

[Wrathchild]

For relief pitchers there a few primary roles you can assign: long relief, mop up, and setup. I have some questions on these roles.

1) What exactly are these roles, as far as what they represent?

2) In what game situation would you use that particular role?

3) What qualities make a pitcher suited for the various roles?

[HotCornerDave]

I'll take a shot at this.
 
A long reliever is used to effectively eat innings. He can be used in situations where the starter is knocked out early, or the starter suffers an injury early in the game. Or as KG mentioned in another thread, he can also fill in as a starter when all other rotation starters are tired. He can also be used for two or three innings of middle relief work. The qualities of a long reliever would be endurace comparable to a starter and ratings/stats comparable to a number 4 or 5 starter. A long reliever is generally the guy that didn't make the cut for the starting rotation. But, if a starter goes down with injury, he could move into the starting rotation.
 
A mop up reliever is the guy that comes into the game when it is a blowout. As a manager, if you decide that the game is out of reach for either you or your opponent, then you don't want to waste the best arms in your bullpen on a game that is all but decided. You want to save your best arms for close games. A mop up reliever is usually the worst pitcher in your bullpen. So, you use him when it doesn't matter if he gives up 3, 4, or 5 runs in relief.
 
A setup reliever is the guy you use to get to your closer - an 8th inning guy. In modern MLB, if the game is close in your favor, you bring in your setup reliever to shutdown your opponent in the 8th inning, then turnover the ball to your closer in the 9th inning. If the game is close in your opponent's favor, then I guess your setup reliever could go both the 8th and 9th innings, depending on his endurance. A setup reliever should not have large platoon splits, just as a closer shouldn't. You want your setup reliever and closer to be effective against both right-handed and left-handed batters.
 
I hope this helps.
 
-Dave

[Wrathchild]

Thank you very much, Dave! That is exactly the kind of information that I was looking for. I keep finding that there is more and more to learn about baseball. Of course, it puts more questions in my head.

1) Are Spot Spotter and Long Relief the same thing? Aren't most relief pitchers in Puresim listed as Spot Starter/Middle Relief?

2) What is meant by this sentence: 'A setup reliever should not have large platoon splits, just as a closer shouldn't.' What are platoon splits?

[KG Erwin]

This article might help in explaining how pitchers' roles evolved: http://www.livewild.org/bb/pitchingstaff/index.html

I stumbled upon the article during a Google search. Wrathchild, I know you enjoy statistical analyses, so you should enjoy reading it. [;)]

As for "platoon splits", this simply defines performance against lefties and righties. In puresim, the vs left and vs right stats aren't strictly defined, so this factor really doesn't have much of an impact. It seems somewhat random, however, it COULD be one of those "hidden" PS ratings I've read about over the years.

[HotCornerDave]

Yes, spot starter and long reliever would be the same.
 
Platoon splits are the difference in a batter's statistics versus pitchers of the same or opposite handedness, or a pitcher's statistics versus batters of the same or opposite handedness. In other words, generally a right-handed batter will perform better against a left-handed pitcher than he would against a right-handed pitcher, and so on for all the combinations. The platoon split is the difference between his statistics. That said, I don't know if/how PureSim uses platoon splits. I know the game doesn't have ratings splits. But, a player's statistics do show BA vs LHP, BA vs RHP, etc.
 

[KG Erwin]

Aha! Shaun popped in. OK, Mr. Sullivan, how does lefty vs righty work in PS? Is there a hidden player rating involved?

[HotCornerDave]

KG, there is a table in the .psa that appears to define left-right splits. The table is named SplitControlStats. The table contains two entries for each player (batters and pitchers) - vs. left, vs. right, or vice versa. I don't know exactly how the table is used in the game. I tried to include a capture of the data in the table for further analysis, but the formatting didn't carry over. I'll see if I can get a capture formatted for display. Maybe Shaun will chime in on this subject...we'll see.