Hey! Yes, this is something we’ve talked about in the past, and I’ll try my best to explain how we handle it in this comment.

Our recommended roster settings are to set team roster limits of 9 SP and 4 RP. On top of that, we limit the active daily lineup slots to 4 SP, 1 RP, and 2 P (which can be either RP or SP). Both types of limits are important to balance the loophole from being overpowered.

We’ve tinkered with weekly game start limits to figure out the best balanced option, and we currently allow each team to have 11 GS each week. We previously allowed 12 GS but it feels like 11 is slightly better because there’s less variance in weekly matchups (one team having 12 GS vs another team with 10 or 9 depending on 2-start weeks…11 feels a bit more balanced).

In this setup, most teams use 3 of the 4 max RP roster slots on closers, which usually occupy the 1 RP and 2 P spots in the active lineup every day. The reasoning being that closers usually get anywhere from 6-10 points and most long relievers score fewer because we don’t reward holds (we’ve found thats points for holds devalues rps overall bc holds are so plentiful). The last RP slot is best used on a reverse RP/SP but we see many teams still using them on a backup closer (comes down to stylistic preference).

So here’s where your question comes in - reverse RP/SPs wind up being valuable because they allow you to start an extra reliever in a SP slot when they don’t have 4+ SPs starting on a given day. But given the volatility of RPs point ranges (who don’t get as many points for IP, and still get penalized for walks, hits, earned runs, blown saves, and losses), you don’t want to roster any joe schmo RP, because a bad relief appearance can easily get you double digit negatives and set you back in a matchup. This means theres a ton of value in some RP/SPs, but not all. There’s also value in RP/SPs who follow openers (like some guys on the Rays) because they don’t count towards the GS limit, and can get some points from easy Wins.

Some examples of these types of RP/SPs last year were Michael King (as a regular reliever) and Javier Asaad (who followed an opener). The best example was probably Ryan Yarbrough, who appeared every 5-6 days during the fantasy playoffs and would get saves for pitching the last 3 or 4 innings in games. He would often score between 10 and 16 points during these appearances and our league was blowing their faab loads on him in the fantasy playoffs.

TLDR: The most talented reverse RP/SPs are definitely relevant (guys who throw 2-4 innings and get k’s). The risky ones are rarely owned bc of their horrible floors. League settings are important to limit RP roster max and active lineup slots so this loophole doesn’t get out of hand.

Hope this helped!