Your Real Opponent is HAL!

[bleacher_creature]

You think you are competing against another person and team don't you? Think again friends.

Exhibit A:

I had Neal Cotts (LHP who is a 6R) set as -

*avoid lefties*max 1-2 IP*quick hook*

Time and time again, HAL would let him face LHBs. He/she would give Neal the quick hook all right...right after a 3-run "big fly". Now, I think Cotts can be useful against say a 4R RHB or 4R S-hitter, so I won't dump him. But, I have now added mop up to his settings.

The point is, that you MUST have insight into the MIND OF HAL in order to win. He/she is your true opponent more so than the other person's cards.

I would love to hear more examples, which may help iluminate the group in this forum along these lines.

[1crazycanuk]

I have him on mop up and HAL has been doing the same thing. ERA of over 8.00! WHIP of 2.00!

[goredsox33]

well i had hal pinch hit for ABREU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
in a tie game!!! in the 7th inning!@!!!!

when i 1st saw it i was like "shit, abreu got hurt"
but he just pinch hit for him!

[bleacher_creature]

There are plenty of threads on HAL's dumb moves. This one is not intended to be that thread.

What I am talking about I guess is trying to know HAL's tendencies, and try to beat him/her on that basis. Do you know what I mean?

[1crazycanuk]

bleacher creature, I know what you mean. But you did say you wanted examples. :?

[1crazycanuk]

I agree with you. But HAL doesn't always do what I want. I have Cotts to "avoid lefty hitters" and how many times has HAL had him get shelled by lefties? I need a calculator...

[rgimbel]

I think i understand the mind of hal (0MG) anyway, when he subs for injuries he takes the most expensive guy available he doesnt care if he is a 5e33 just dollar value. so to avoid hal killing you guys like sheffield are a no no unless you want him playing some third base.
as far as relievers go i tried an experiment i had 7 relievers in pen all hard alll checked quick hook and avoid the other way i had no closers or set up. what hal did was amazing he always brought the right guy in but pulled him after one batter even if he was a hard righty and there was only a hard righty left in the pen and switch hitters were a real mind f**k for hal. he would always pull the pitcher not realizing that the new pitcher would also be at a disadvantage. in the end 6 pitchers would pitch a 1/3 of an inning each and than bradford or cerda would be left to take a pounding in the ninth. but i do agree u must understand hal and figure out the best way to compete with his logic. after all it is a level playing field and the mgr who controls hal the best wins.

[bomp helium]

I'm not sure that HAL subs by price...he has his own twisted ideas...

Recently, when the ever-limping Larry Walker went down for the fifth time in 19 games, HAL overlooked Juan (1.09) Gonzalez and Kevin (1.32) Youkilis (with Quinlan moving to right), and went with ole Joe (.50) McEwing. HAL continually favored McEwing, and even batted him leadoff at every opportunity...it got to the point where I wondered if McEwing has relatives at TSN...finally, in desperation, I had to spend good money to jettison McEwing...

On another team, when Quinlan goes down I would have liked HAL to install Youkilis (1.32), but instead HAL usually chooses Bobby (.61) Hill...the only way to get Youkilis in (even against a lefty) was to type him into the starting lineup...this seemed to piss HAL off, and Youkilis was last seen hitting .179, while of course Hill is 2-2 as a pinch hitter...

so I'm not sure what HAL's thinking, but he seems to be using some variable other than price to sub for injured players...

The point is that we go to great lengths to build a team with a particular sub pattern, only to have HAL screw everything up with his truly strange decisions...

It would be nice if we could rank our subs (and RPs) with some kind of order or preference that we would like them to appear in...our teams (esp. injury teams) are designed with certain substitution patterns in mind, and it would be nice if there were a way to communicate this via settings to HAL...

helium

[1crazycanuk]

LOL that's awful man. Damn HAL.

I'm wondering if he subs in a way to keep stats approximately close to real life? Or does that even matter? Like a sub in real life...HAL would keep from being a sub in 85 games and try to keep it closer to reality. I don't know...I was just thinking this...probably wrong though.