How to manage a pitching staff?

[Crazed98]

This will be my first year playing fantasy baseball are there any tips or strategy you guys use especially reguarding relief pitching. How many relief pitchers should be on a team (my league has 3sp 2rp and 2p) and should you always have all your relievers playing?

[MrNerd93]

It's pretty simple. Relief pitchers are always in so they can rack up saves and k's. You put them in because they can potentially play every night. I usually base my amount of relief pitchers on the average of the league because you want to be able to keep yourself in saves but you also want wins and k's and added more relievers takes away from your starters.

Your starters should be on the bench (if you have extras) except for the night that they are actually starting. (On Yahoo you can tell by seeing a ^ mark)

[Carnac]

Play all of your relievers on days when you don't have many starters going. Let's say you have 4 RP and only 2 starters going on a given day. Play all your RP. On days when you have more starters going subtract a reliever for each extra starter going. Exceptions, your worst starter going against a great offense, you may want to keep him on the bench to keep your ERA and WHIP down.

good luck

[Rance Mulliniks]

Definitey use your open P slots for RPs rather than SPs that aren't starting that night. RPs can vulture wins. Those with good ratios can bring down your ERA/WHIP. Those with high K/9 can add Ks.

Another helpful tip is to have RPs (especially closers) with SP eligibility. On days when you don't have as many SPs starting as you have SP slots, you can use that RP/SP in the SP slot. Great way to add even more saves. A current example is Morrow on Sea (assuming he closes).

[Big League Chew]

Yeah the idea of having an RP with SP eligibility is a great tip. When it comes to RP it depends on how many saves you need to compete (I have heard 120 is a good number, but 100 would probably be good). On how many RP it depends on how many saves they will get. If you have 4 "30" guys then you should be good to go. If you have good managers then there shouldn't be any closers free. This means that you should get the guy that will replace the closer, guys like Corpas and Nunez.