Quote:
Originally Posted by Cryomaniac
My guess is that the reasoning behind this is that the AI wouldn't handle it well if all it's pitchers could be used as starters.
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I think you've hit the nail on the head. If the vast majority of pitchers in OOTP had starter-type stamina, the AI would probably have a lot of problems.
Part of the divide between OOTP and reality is that in reality, it's not stamina that keeps a reliever from being a starter. It's the lack of a third pitch or their stuff just isn't good enough to face hitters multiple times (especially a third time) in a single game. But, their abilities are good enough for short appearances where they can maximize what they have in a short spurt. They can max out their fastball velocity for an inning (like someone mentioned above) or throw that wicked breaking pitch 8-10 times in a 15-pitch appearance because that's their job, get a couple outs and hand the ball over. The greatest reliever of all time made nearly 70 percent of his minor league appearances as a starter, but the Yankees organization wisely realized that Mariano Rivera's fastball-cutter combination was unhittable in short appearances. The rest is history.
Yes, those guys eventually lose stamina to throw a lot of pitches because they simply don't do it. But if a coaching staff or organization decides the guy is good enough to start after having been a reliever, they just slowly build his pitch count until he's ready. It's not a common occurrence these days, but it happens. The reason it isn't a common occurrence now is for the reason that was mentioned by someone above (and the Rivera example illustrates): teams let guys start until they prove that they either aren't good enough or they're more valuable in the bullpen.
But because of the constraints of how OOTP works, we have to live with a few funky examples that don't quite translate to what we see in real life.