On handling starting pitchers

Having played three days of a calendar schedule, it seems a good idea for me to set down the guidelines and rules for pitcher usage.

No pitcher in this league had 40 starts or 300 innings, the arbitrary milestones that in the 40 Years Tourney allowed a pitcher to work on three days rest indefinitely. (The closest is Sam McDowell of Cleveland, with 38 starts and 285 innings.) And so nobody in the Losers League will work routinely on three days rest.

Fifteen pitchers have the asterisk on the Strat-O-Matic roster sheet. They will routinely work on four days rest and can, as the schedule dictates, work on three days rest. They are:

California: Jim McGlothlin, Andy Messersmith, Tom Murphy;  Chicago: Joel Horlen, Tommy John, Gary Peters; Cleveland: Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant; Kansas City: Wally Bunker; Montreal: Bill Stoneman; Philadelphia: Woodie Fryman, Grant Jackson, Rick Wise; San Diego: Clay Kirby, Joe Niekro; Seattle: none.

All other starters should have four days rest.

There will be spots in the schedule in which these rest patterns may not be followed; there are occasions in which a team or teams will play three doubleheaders in three days. If an asterisked pitcher starts on two days rest, or a non-asterisked starter on three days, I will deduct two innings from his point of weakness factor.