Converting an MR to an SP

[Curve Ball Dave]

Originally Posted by le receveur

i didn't find a way to see the rating Before he was on my roster, so i couldn't check prior to the draft. did i miss something?

There are two ways. First, when you're viewing the draft pool, change the filter to view potential pitching ratings and see all players. You'll see the scouted potentials of position players who also pitch. Second, as I said, change the player's position to MR and his pitching ratings will be displayed.

[Fyrestorm3]

Originally Posted by Curve Ball Dave

There are two ways. First, when you're viewing the draft pool, change the filter to view potential pitching ratings and see all players. You'll see the scouted potentials of position players who also pitch. Second, as I said, change the player's position to MR and his pitching ratings will be displayed.

You don't even have to change his position. Just go under the "Ratings" tab of the player's profile, and all his ratings (as a hitter and a pitcher) will be displayed.

Changing his position only causes those ratings to show up on the front page of his profile.

[Rex Dart]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

As soon as you change a starter to a reliever, or reliever to starter, his stuff will get a slight change.

From the manual:

Stuff

Stuff is a measure of the quality of a pitcher's pitch repertoire. Think of it as essentially how a pitcher "puts it all together." Stuff directly affects the number of strikeouts a pitcher throws. Stuff is calculated based on a combination of his individual pitch ratings and the velocity with which he throws.

Relief pitchers receive a small bonus to stuff, to reflect the fact that batters get fewer looks at their pitches and have less of a chance to adjust to them. OOTP displays that bonus in the form of increased Stuff ratings. This bonus is heavily tied into the strength of a reliever's top two pitches, since relievers have much less incentive to mix in their weaker offerings. This means that a pitcher with a strong fastball, a strong slider, and a weak changeup might make for an average starting pitcher but a great reliever. You get to decide how he provides the most useful fit for your team. You can see the change in a pitcher's Stuff rating if you change the player's position from SP to MR and back.

Thanks for this.

One thing it makes me wonder is... does this "stuff bonus" lead the scouts to systematically overrate relievers? I just played a season where I had 3 MRs or CLs in the 4.5-5 star range, with glowing "best closer in the league" type reports... and they were terrible.

Looking back, I wonder if they were just literally overrated. They all had extremely high stuff (19 or 20), but Movement and Control in the 9-11 range. I'm wondering if the star ratings are worse at identifying who will be a great closer in practice, compared to other positions?

BTW, does it make much difference whether a particular reliever is designated CL or MR? For instance, if my CL-designated guy is injured for 3 months, and I have his MR-designated Setup guy being in the Closer game role, should I change his designation temporarily to CL, then back to MR after the injured guy returns? Does it matter? Would jerking around the designations be messing with the SEtup guy's head or something?