Keeping individual pitching performance chart can give you extensive feedback and adds volumes to what you get out of a replay
First off, you can get instant feedback of how an individual pitcher is performing. Are they on a winning or losing streak? Are they running up a streak of consecutive scoreless innings or getting bombed every time they appear? This information jumps off the page when you glance at the chart.
Second, you have a valuable means of tracking down record-keeping errors that may have occurred during the replay. For example, if your team’s won-lost record and the team’s total number of pitcher starts are not equal, you can dig into the pitching chart and find out where the error occurred. I recently completed a 1911 replay and ran into this challenge…and the pitching chart helped me to locate and fix the error in less than 20 minutes time. The alternative is poring through page after page of box scores to locate the error.
Finally, the chart adds to your overall enjoyment of a replay.
Not every team is a replay is going to perform great. With a chart, tracking how pitchers for some of the second-tier teams winds up being just as much fun as tracking the great performers.
For example, if a last-place team has a pitcher with a 10-game losing streak, that pitcher’s next start becomes vastly more interesting. But you wouldn’t know it without a chart to see what he is doing and seeing the streak unfold. The variety of info you can derive from the chart is entertaining and really adds to the personality of an individual pitcher’s performance.
Take the attached example of Ed Walsh from his 1906 season. That’s the kind of info the pitching chart can generate.
Next: Tracking fielding performances
I have never done this, but may start doing it after reading this!
ps–for my 1961 replay I kept the monthly totals for each player, so can still look back and see six stat lines for everyone, but this is much more inclusive.