Stupid HAL move helps lose a wildcard spot

[gorshar]

Last week of the season, very tight wildcard race.

I'm playing one of the other contenders.

Due to an injury I have only one catcher.

Top of the ninth, tie game, HAL pulls my only catcher for a pinch-hitter and inserts a sub infielder (C-5e25 +5 arm) to catch in the bottom of the ninth. Survives the ninth, but opens the bottom of the tenth with a Catch-X : single, a passed ball and then another single and the run scores. Game lost and quite possibly a wildcard position.

Really, pulling your only catcher (a 1 by the way) in the top of an inning for a PH who has barely a better OBP? Drugs, man, drugs.

What drug is HAL consuming to make such an idiotic move and isn't it time that managers can appeal HAL decisions like this, get the stupid move reversed and replay the game from that point?

Perhaps mangers can be allowed, say, three reversals a season or something?

[RICHARDMILTER]

I feel your pain. But a 162 game season is not won or lost by one game, or one bad coaching decision. Besides that,..we all have to live we the same computer manager(Hal). How many bad decisions over the course of the season, did Hal make for your opponents? Champions do not make excuses, or blame others, they build a better team and put themselves back in position to win again. That is all you can do. Even in real baseball bad calls, and mistakes happen. Better luck next time.

[gorshar]

Yes, I realize a season is not won or lost in a single game, but the fact remains this was a critical end-of-season game. Bad calls, bad moves, yes, a fact of life, but really - pulling you're only catcher isn't a bad move, it's an utterly nonsensical move that transcends normal stupidity and poor judgment and you'd think HAL would have been given at least enough brains not to pull something so thoroughly moronic. The catcher in question is Tom Pagnozzi and who was the PH who was then inserted in his place? Pete Ward! Pete who? Right, Pete Ward. Not exactly Mr. Pete the Homerun's Complete. He's barely any better than Pagnozzi at the plate and whole lot worse as a backstop.

Really... is it necessary to check the don't pinch hit for box in this case? Don't you think HAL should have his own "Don't pull your only catcher for a PH who equally sucks standing at the plate and will totally suck squatting behind the plate????" box inserted in his microchip?

When did Pete Ward become an ace catcher????

Sorry... just venting.

Yes, I feel better. Now where do I get a HAL effigy so I can douse it in kerosene and burn it at the stake????

[gorshar]

[quote:09417aeda3]Champions do not make excuses, or blame others, they build a better team and put themselves back in position to win again.[/quote:09417aeda3]

Of course... but I'm no champion, I got bounced out of the wildcard race with this one :lol: :lol:

[LANCEBOUSLEY]

for personal edification, do they both bat from the same side? if not, what was the balance rating on the pitcher on the mound?

[keyzick]

I'm with Gorshar...no way that move makes any sense, or would even come remotely close to being duplicated in real life, when no one else on the team is available to catch.

[thisisray]

[quote:b16381da0f="rmilter"]I feel your pain. But a 162 game season is not won or lost by one game, or one bad coaching decision. Besides that,..we all have to live we the same computer manager(Hal). How many bad decisions over the course of the season, did Hal make for your opponents? Champions do not make excuses, or blame others, they build a better team and put themselves back in position to win again. That is all you can do. Even in real baseball bad calls, and mistakes happen. Better luck next time.[/quote:b16381da0f]

very well said. the game isnt perfect and if you cant handle that then dont play it.

[gorshar]

[quote:e3dfbc24e4]for personal edification, do they both bat from the same side? if not, what was the balance rating on the pitcher on the mound?[/quote:e3dfbc24e4]

Pitcher was Wilcy Moore, throws right and is rated a 2R.

Pagnozzi bats R and is a 1R
Ward bats L and is also a 1R

So there was a minor advantage to placing Ward at the plate, but given that it was the top of the 9th inning in a tie game, no matter what the result of the at bat (Ward struck out, BTW), the team was going to have to take the field. The disadvantage to placing a C5(+5)e25 over a C1(-2)e0 I think far outweighs any advantage that might be found in the PH switch and this seems so basic you'd think this would be programmed into HAL.

[quote:e3dfbc24e4]very well said. the game isnt perfect and if you cant handle that then dont play it.[/quote:e3dfbc24e4]
Yes, and it's my ball and I'm going home.

As someone else seconded, this was not simply a bad decision, it was a utterly incomprehensible decision that would never have occurred in the real world. *That* is my complaint.

[RICHARDMILTER]

Who would have thought that ,"Bartman Incident" would have happened to the Cubs. Sometimes life is stranger than fiction. Nobody, and I do mean nobody,... thought the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey Team would beat the former Soviet Union(not even the team themselves) but it happened. Do not focus on the mistake, focus on how to back to where you were.