Pitching strategy question for short week

[Sp_Da_Man]

H2H League & all the MLB teams have 3-4 games next week.

I can start seven total pitchers with wins & saves counting for the same amount of points (10 pts).

Here's the question:

Do I load up on all seven starting spots with SP's since I know I'll have at least one opportunity from each of them for points? Mix some closers in?

I have some good closers (Izzy, Wickman, Turnbow, Brazoban) but I worry that they could go those 3-4 games & not get a single save opportunity.

Any input out there?

[so0perspam]

Isringhausen- 4 saves this season so far vs. HOU ... START

Wickman- 3 IP, 5 ER vs. CHW .... BENCH

Turnbow- Milwaukee plays well at home, Atlanta plays bad on the road ... START

Brazoban- Out of 8 games LA and SF have played each other this season, only 4 have had a closer get the save ... BENCH

[Irish]

Isringhausen- 4 saves this season so far vs. HOU ... START

Wickman- 3 IP, 5 ER vs. CHW .... BENCH

Turnbow- Milwaukee plays well at home, Atlanta plays bad on the road ... START

Brazoban- Out of 8 games LA and SF have played each other this season, only 4 have had a closer get the save ... BENCH

Good analysis, but it's always random. Start ALL closers cause any one of them could give you multiple saves. None of your startes can guve multiple wins.

[DGroundhog]

Gotta agree with Irish on this one. I guess if you had a real deep staff I might reconsider if a RP has 3 games opposed to 4. Since you said your RP was strong, I think that's probably not exactly the case.

I'd start my top 3 SP's and my relievers in a points league.

[kimchi_chigae]

can you post the whole scoring system in your league?

it really depends on what you can get points for...say you get points for IP...then it might be better to forget about the closers and go with 7 starters.

[mamorris]

Well since most teams are playing 4 games instead of the average of 6, you probably figure that a closer (on average) will get about two-thirds the points they'd get in a normal week. In a sense, that makes starting pitchers worth more, since anyone who actually gets a start this week will get the same points they normally would in a one-start week. Who you start and bench will still depend on who your starting pitchers are, but this week they are definitely worth more relative to relievers.

[Sp_Da_Man]

Not really asking specifics on who to start but just getting idea which way to go..starters or closers. Mamorris makes alot of sense though.


Scoring for Pitching Categories
BBI - Walks Issued (Pitchers) -.5 points
ER - Earned Runs -1 point
HA - Hits Allowed -.5 points
IBBI - Intentional Walks .5 points
INN - Innings 2 points
K - Strikeouts (Pitcher) 1 point
S - Saves 10 points
W - Wins 10 points

[Half Massed]

hmm it seems pretty balanced to me. your starters are going to get more innings and ks, but lose you more points in hits and walks allowed, and most likely earned runs. with saves and wins being worth the same thing, i'd probably follow soop's advice and start two of the closers and the best of the starters.

[biju]

Not really asking specifics on who to start but just getting idea which way to go..starters or closers. Mamorris makes alot of sense though.


Scoring for Pitching Categories
BBI - Walks Issued (Pitchers) -.5 points
ER - Earned Runs -1 point
HA - Hits Allowed -.5 points
IBBI - Intentional Walks .5 points
INN - Innings 2 points
K - Strikeouts (Pitcher) 1 point
S - Saves 10 points
W - Wins 10 points

This is the exact same scoring we have had in our league for the last 4 years (actually, we recently changed the S to be 8 pts).

I would highly recommend you have starting pitchers in all of your slots instead of starting a closer unless you absolutely must. A "must" being that you are required to start a certain amount of RP, you don't have enough SP to fill all of the slots, or you have weak bottom tier pitching that doesn't have a good chance of getting a W.

The chances are you're going to get each closer in about two games where their team is winning and, depending on the team, you'll have 1 - 2 save opps so starting two closers will likely yield about 2 - 3 saves.

In your scoring system each save is going to probably net you somewhere between 11 and 13 pts. Following this you're going to get about 24 - 36 pts (max pts for a single one inning S is 15).

Your starting pitchers however can range greatly, anywhere from about 8 pts all the way to 30 pts or so (the max is actually like 60 pts, but I've only seen two pitchers hit 40 pts). If you replace those two closing spots with SP your range increases to about 16 - (let's be reasonable and say an avg. of 24 pts per W) 48.

In other words your mean for each is 30 for RP vs. 32 for SP. In these short weeks the extra points usually make the difference and that's what you're looking for.

I'm 4 - 0 on the short week, but then again maybe I'm just lucky.

[jjigglers]

I say you need your closers in there.

I entered your scoring for my team in the last 5 weeks, and Chad Cordero has had more points each week than any pitcher (even the 2 start pitchers) except for one week, and that was where Lidge had the most and Cordero with the second most.

If you have decent closers you need them in there.