Here's a scenario for you coaches to comment on:
Background - You have midweek and Friday league games. Both are against strong teams that you've lost to once already. If you lose both games your chances of making the playoffs are not gone but they are slim. You have a strong midweek starter and a strong Friday starter. Your Saturday starter has come on strong lately but is inexperienced in league. Your relievers have not done that well the last couple games. They both rely on breaking balls as their go to pitches and the Wednesday team has shown the ability to jump on breaking balls. The Friday team jumps all over fastballs. Your Saturday starter did do well against the team you are playing on Friday after the Friday starter was blown out, but it was not a pressure situation at all. Your Saturday game is pool play in a tournament and you've already got your seeding in the tournament playoffs locked up.
Your Friday starter has had some recent discipline issues and although there's some grey areas involved he typically wouldn't be allowed to play in the midweek game. He's just "signed" D1 and has felt mistreated in the past and may be acting up as a result. Unfortunately, you typically use him as your midweek closer in addition to being your Friday starter.
1. Do you sit the Friday starter for the midweek game or go to the grey area defense and use him if you need him to close? Your chances of winning this game are better than on Friday and you have a chance of passing this team in the playoff race and no real chance of catching Friday's team.
2. Do you go with the Saturday starter on Friday?
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