1990 Jose DeJesus DW 7 wins, 3.74 ERA,  22 starts, 130 IP

1979 Steve Busby DW 6 wins, 3.63 ERA, 22 games, 12 starts, 94.1 IP

1937 Spud Chandler D 7 wins, 2.84 ERA, 12 games, 10 starts, 82.1 IP

(by the way, this post and the research was inspired by a posting on APBA- Between the Lines.  Check it out for some good insight).

There are reasons why, in the past, APBA had downgraded pitchers. 

• limited appearances and innings
• to bring the team’s overall strength within the scope of its actual potential
• and to some degree, to compensate for control ratings

Mostly though, it appears that those pitchers in past seasons suffered the most when they pitched a very low amount of games and/or innings. If a starter such as Chandler was given a B grade, perhaps it was thought that he would be used as such throughout the season as a full timer, giving his team an unfair advantage.

But it seems there was a change in recent times.  Those Spud Chandlers of today would be given their due grade.

Why the change?

The APBA fans had more than likely made it known that the true grade was what they wanted.  Let’s face it, baseball fans are more savvy now when it comes to baseball replays.  They have better access to schedules, actual pitching rotations, and lineups and the like.  If I’m doing a 1979 replay, I can quickly go to sites like Baseball Reference and get a quick read on how KC used their pitching staff.

More importantly, APBA fans want to be in control of the replays.  It’s their business who they play and for how long.  In APBA’s formative years, perhaps they attempted to “guide” us by downgrading pitchers who pitched well in a small sample size.  By now, we’re ready to take command of our replays. 

As a side note, the downgrading of pitchers in past years really hurt those who were in leagues with these pitchers.  If I had Jose DeJesus on my team in 1991 (the year after his 1990 season), it would have been disappointing.  Most leagues already implement some sort of limit system to prevent any sort of over use.  So the idea, of downgrading a pitcher because of low actual innings was beyond the point. 

That’s not to say some pitchers don’t still get downgraded but APBA realized this and started giving more representative grades.  It’s a good change and one that most APBA replayers welcome.

By the way, if you can think of other egregious D pitchers wondering what they did to deserve their fate, pass them on.

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The Illowa APBA League, like many leagues, have a player limit system implemented.  In short, we need keep from over-using our players.  And I’ll be doing my best from doing that because there ARE consequences. 

Those consequences are a possible drop in next season’s draft order.  So you can see the incentive in dotting your ‘i’s and crossing your ‘t’s when it comes to players limits

Here’s the short version of our league’s player limits rules:  non-pitchers must not play more than their actual games and at-bats.  Pitchers must not pitch more than their actual games started, games relieved, and innings.  There are some further rules about secondary positions probably not worth mentioning but if you’re interested, check out the IAL Constitution.  One thing that IS worth mentioning… D pitchers have their games and innings limits doubled and straight D pitchers (not D*) can always start. 

So don’t think I’ve been playing my team all season without giving thought to my limits only to be faced with a multitude of limits issues this Saturday.  Our league members all (I hope) keep an eye on them all year.  It helps to calculate the AB/G of the games left in the season That way, I won’t get fooled if Albert Pujols has tons of games left but is low on at-bats.  The same goes for IP/G.

That said, the last series of the season is a bit of nail biter.  Unless we have been really good about resting our starters all season or REAL confident about our limits, it’s touch and go all series.  Not only are we trying to win games but we are trying to keep within our sacred limits.  Normally, we “do our limits” each month.  In our last series, many of us are calculating our limits left after each game especially for the guys on the fence.  And don’t get me started on the last game (“hold on I think this is Parra’s last out.  Let me check, ok?”)

So going into the Thunderchickens’ last series, we look pretty good… as far as our hitters our concerned.  Our pitching situation is tricky though.  I’ll get by ok but I’ll have to keep a close eye on it.

I won’t help our place in the standings but gosh darn it, I’m not losing that first pick in the draft.

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Why limit player usage at all?  What’s the point?

  I guess a couple reasons.  One is accuracy in stats.  While it is true that if your APBA leagues of  the 8-12 team variety and is drafting from the entire MLB pool, your stats will be skewed.  Batting averages will be down and ERAs will be high.  (that’s not to say that some leagues get around this.  Some may use stock teams.  Others may artificially keep the draft pool limited.  I’d love to hear how). 

Another reason is realism.  Closely related to accuracy but not quite the same thing.  While I would love to bring in Brad Lidge in the second and leave in him to finish the game, it just isn’t realistic. 

Finally, limiting player usage is just plain fair for everyone in the league.  Managers can’t just draft that nifty rookie with no potential but whatta card! and bat him cleanup 162 games.  You get the idea. 

The Illowa APBA League handles player usage this way:

Position Players are restricted to the number of games and at-bats

Pitchers are limited to games started, games relieved, and innings pitched

Sounds simple enough but we have a couple complimentary rules that go along with it.  Beginning with how we handle secondary defensive positions.

• If player has a position listed first on his card, he is unlimited at that position (up to his actual games).
• If a player played 40 games (inclusive) or more at a position, he is unlimited (again up to his actual games).
• If a player played 10 to 39 games (inclusive) at a position, he may play 40 games at that position.
• If a player played 1 to 9 games (inclusive) at a position, he may play 10 games at that position.
• If a player has a position on his card that he did not play, he may play 1 game at that position.

Maybe it sounds gratuitous but it gives us some leeway when draft time comes and we’re trying to fill our depth chart. 

Regarding pitching, we have instituted a rule that helps out managers to stretch out their limits.

“D” pitchers are limited to twice their games and innings. They may also be used in relief.

The D pitchers rule does indeed help us and one would think it lead to skewed stats and D pitchers leading the league in IP and maybe some other categories since they are allowed to pitch so much.  This usually is not the case (who wants to pitch a D anyway?) but I must confess that this year, my Thunderchickens’ Scott Olsen is getting his share of innings due to me going with a smaller bullpen than I would like.  Ugh!

Summary

Overall, our player usage limit system works pretty well.  It attempts to deal with the accuracy and fairness issues described above and does so fairly.  I admit, it does nothing about the realism issue.  There is nothing to prevent me from say, using my A* for the 2nd through 9th inning for every game till his innings ran out.  Managers in our league are pretty good about stay pretty true to the game and we don’t see much of that. Let’s face it, it’s not in our team’s best interest. 

If we’re good (and most of us are), we calculate our remaining limits for the players on our team after each month.  Actually, I just have Excel just calculate it for me.  If we happen to go over our limits at the end of the season (hey, it happens to the best of us), there is the chance our draft position will be penalized.  So we do our best to keep both eyes on our limits.

If anyone else out there in leagues has other methods of limiting players so that supercard pinchitter doesn’t play every day, I’d love to hear them.  Leave a comment! 

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