Condition, Fatigue, Injuries, and Recovery

The Practical Route

• Read the condition icon, workload, injury state, and form separately.
• Check usage, recovery context, severity, schedule, and role.
• A weaker-condition starter may still be the best available option.
• Start, rotate, rest, use an item, or replace the role.
• Redistribute workload and reintroduce the player when the full context supports it.

Fatigue and Recovery

Manage workload using the documented recovery system and its modifiers.

The Workload Decision Loop

• Check recent innings, appearances, starts, and accumulated workload.
• Consider pitching aptitude, schedule, venue, seasonal modifiers, and available rest.
• Rest, rotate, shorten a role, or redistribute innings before availability collapses.
• Do not solve one tired player by overloading every backup.
• Return the player gradually when the roster can absorb it.

Fatigue and Recovery Model

Why It Matters

Recovery does not directly raise visible baseball ratings, but it determines how often those ratings are available. Across a long season, durability creates more appearances, more stable rotations, and fewer emergency roster moves.

Pitching Aptitude

Recovery is affected by how well a pitcher's role matches his aptitude. Repeatedly using a pitcher outside a suitable role can make workload harder to recover from. When fatigue keeps returning, check role fit before treating the problem as a lack of stamina alone.

Injury Threshold

Heavy fatigue raises injury risk. The exact point matters less than the management signal: once recovery no longer keeps pace with use, another appearance can cost far more than one rested game. Reduce workload before several pitchers reach the danger area together.

Long-Term Management

Unlike batting averages or ERA, fatigue accumulates gradually. Organizations therefore face a continuous balancing act. Resting players reduces fatigue but may weaken the current lineup. Playing tired athletes improves short-term competitiveness while increasing long-term risk. This tension forms one of Pennant Mode's defining management decisions.

Venue Recovery Multipliers

A visual comparison of the venue modifier used by the fatigue recovery formula.

• Multiplier: 0.9, 0.8, 1.1

The chart uses multipliers, not percentages.

Fatigue Recovery Formula

Fatigue recovery = ((Recovery rating + 100) ÷ 7 × pitching-aptitude multiplier + seasonal recovery modifier) × venue modifier. Pitchers use the highest applicable role aptitude; fielders use a fixed aptitude multiplier of 1.

Pitching-Aptitude Multiplier

Seasonal Recovery Modifier

Venue Modifier

Player Condition Faces: Start, Rest, or Use an Item?

Learn what the blue sad face actually means, why a strong team can still have players in poor condition, and when to start, rest, rotate, or use an item.

From Face Icon to Lineup Decision

• Read the current condition signal correctly.
• Do not confuse condition with fatigue, injury, Slump, or Team Chemistry.
• A weaker-condition starter may still be the best available player.
• Start, rotate, rest, or use an item only when the complete comparison supports it.

A Blue Face Does Not Mean a Bad Player

The face is the player's current Condition—not a grade for the player, the roster, or the team's results. A star can enter a poor-condition period while a reserve is in good form. That is why a winning team can still show several blue faces at the same time. Condition is temporary, but it matters because the game uses it as one part of the player's performance state. Read it beside the player's role, ratings, fatigue, health, matchup, and available replacement instead of treating the icon as an automatic bench command.

Do Not Mix Up the Four Systems

Start, Rest, Rotate, or Use an Item?

The Sixty-Second Condition Check

• Identify the current Condition state; do not translate it into player quality.
• Poor condition with heavy workload is more urgent than poor condition alone.
• Judge role ratings, position fit, handedness, special abilities, defense, and current condition.
• Use off days, easier matchups, and rotation depth before a congested stretch becomes a crisis.
• Keep starting, make one rotation change, or use an item—do not rebuild the whole lineup without evidence.

When Many Players Show Blue Faces

• Check whether a busy schedule or repeated use has raised fatigue across the roster.
• Review Team Chemistry; very low values can restrict the highest condition a player can reach.
• Look for players who meet the wider Slump pattern instead of assuming every face is an ordinary fluctuation.
• Use selective rotation. Replacing nine players at once removes lineup quality and makes it harder to see which intervention helped.
• Save limited items for important games, scarce positions, or players whose replacements create a larger weakness.

Injuries and Recovery

Distinguish injury severity and recovery from ordinary fatigue management.

The Injury Response Path

• Separate discomfort, playable limitation, and unavailable injury states.
• Do not treat the earliest possible return as automatic full readiness.
• Cover the lost innings, position, lineup job, or bench function.
• Prevent one replacement from absorbing the entire absence.
• Reintroduce the player when recovery and roster context support it.

Injuries and Recovery: Overview

Injuries remove players from competition or reduce their effectiveness for longer than an ordinary Condition change. One absence can affect the lineup, development opportunities, pitching workload, transactions, and the budget at the same time. This makes availability a roster-building concern, not merely bad luck during a game.

Relationship with Fatigue

Fatigue and injuries are separate systems, but heavy workload connects them. As fatigue rises, injury risk becomes more dangerous and healthy teammates may receive even more work after an absence. Protect depth before this feedback loop reaches several players at once.

What One Injury Changes

Injury Frequency

Injury frequency can be configured for the save. Choose a setting that matches the amount of roster disruption you want to manage; lowering the frequency reduces emergencies but also reduces the value of organizational depth.

Depth Checklist

• At least one usable reserve for every position group
• Farm players who can cover short absences
• Prospects who can receive emergency playing time without derailing the roster
• Enough pitching depth to avoid overworking the remaining staff

Design Philosophy

Unlike arcade baseball games, Pennant Mode attempts to simulate the uncertainty of a professional season. The Injury System introduces long-term risk into franchise planning. Managers are therefore encouraged to think beyond the current game and instead construct organizations capable of surviving inevitable player absences.

Injury Severity

Actions That Can Trigger an Injury

Practical Roster Rule

Do not treat Discomfort as harmless simply because the player remains selectable. Reduced ability and the chance of aggravation usually make rest, a farm assignment, or a temporary lineup change the safer option.

The Repeatable Plan

• A face icon is a signal, not the complete diagnosis.
• Rest before the crisis removes every alternative.
• Replace the injured player’s baseball role—not only the roster slot.