what is this [damp] that i always see with my pitchers fatigue. i've been playing leagues for a while but can't really see what it is and how to best manage it since it is associated with fatigue, and thus a problem to be managed

early in the season, damping effects are used so your players don't seem unnecessarily tired.

remember that fatigue is prorated. so after game 1, the sim assumes your game 1 starter will pitch 7 innings x 162 games. and if you have a 6-PA game for your hitters it will assume that all your hitters will have 6PAx162 games. that would make them excessively tired, so damping is applied.

it's still possible to push someone so hard that you fatigue them through the damping effects. if you had a 100-PA hitter and played him 20 PA in the first 6 games, he'd still be below 100%. this prevents people from using guys like Ted Williams for their whole first 15 games.

I'm sure someone can explain it better, but basically it's a dampening effect that lessens the effect of fatigue for the first portion of the season. For instance, if your starting pitcher pitches a complete game on opening day, that puts him on pace for 1458 IP on the season, and would absolutely kill fatigue. [damp] is the sim's way of realizing that you're not trying to pitch the guy that many innings and allows you leeway on early season fatigue calculations until the sample size is large enough to get a reasonable estimate of his IP pace.

It also works the same way with hitters and PA.

Ah, someone beat me to it...

It describes the groupies panties when certain pitchers are on the mound.

its what happens to cubs fans eyes after another losing season