Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

HAL never ceases to amaze me. I would love for someone to help me noodle through a problem that occurs once in awhile. Here is the situation:

I have Alou playing Left field, it is a Wrigley team. Alou pickes up a one game injury, the first game of a three game set. I would like to keep Alou's bat in the line-up for games two and three but don't want the replacement for game one in a prominent spot in the order, so I have him batting seventh. I leave him in the line-up knowing HAL will choose a replacement.

Carlos Silva is pitching a RH (I think he may be a 4R). I am supposing that HAL will look at my bench and choose a LH hitter - Kerry Robinson, who is a 6R, who I have for these kinds of situations. Robinson is also a 2 fielder, a plus. What does HAL do?

HAL changes my batting order around and uses Merloni instead. He drops Merloni to ninth which is okay I guess but I cannot figure out what HAL is assessing here. He can get a 6R hitter versus a 4L, a 2 versus a 4 fielder, and someone who could hit where I had Alou. Merloni goes 0-2, HAL has to use Closser to pinch hit for him, who gets nailed by a picth and he goes down. We lose 4-0. WE probably would have lost anyhow but I am trying to figure what "hunch" HAL was playing.

I guess it is better to give up Alou for two games and do the subsitution I wanted, but that didn;t seem like the best choice. What do you wiley vets do in this situation? ( Oh boy I am leaving it wide open for some great jokes here like "I take a Xanax and go to bed," or "it makes more sense after a six-pack") Anyone care to comment, please??

pure and simple, HAL is really a chick, and we all know chicks dig the long ball!

Merloni has 2 chances for a HR, Robinson has 0.

Thanks geekor. I hear you, that is an explanation. If so, it seems like bad coding to me. Silva is great against RH hitters, Merloni is not good against RH pitchers. While he may have 2 chances for a HR, Robinson has between 30-37 hit chances (depending on BP and clutch hitting) against a RH pitcher. That's a lot. In addition Robinson is a good base-stealer and is a good run manufacturer. I mean if it is bottom of the eight or ninth, sure pinch hit Merloni, but it seems to me a better play for defense a 2 versus a 4 in LF, baserunning and OBP the smart play is Robinson. Otherwise hell gimme Munson (and the ghost of Rob Deer or Gorman Thomas).

Because different managers might want HAL to pursue different substitution patterns, I think it would be great if TSN gave us a page where we could list 2 or even 3 players at each position - positional depth charts - that HAL would be encouraged to follow (if possible) if an injury substitution or a defensive adjustment following a pinch hit was necessary. The ideal substitution might seem clear to us, but HAL may follow a different, clumsier force. I have had Alex Escobar as my OF replacement on a couple teams, but depending on who else may be on the bench HAL has made strange moves. Perhaps the explanation is as simple as how many HR chances the replacement has. But why should we all have to suffer from that focus? Particularly if it means putting a 4 range guy in the outfield with no arm?

hecho, a depth chart would be great, but alas maybe next year...

SY, I understand. Trust me I don't like it anmyore than you do. Hell I prefer Def, then overall obp, then slugging. But time and time again I have seen HAl take the guy with the most HR chances, pretty much always. It sucks, but it's how it is.

The home computer SOM game already has positional depth charts included. The issue is when or if that feature will be added to the TSN online version.

By the way, the home computer SOM game also allows ranking relievers for different situations so you are more likely to get HAL to pick the reliever you want.

Charlie, that's good to hear. These would be great changes IMO. I understand Geekor's point, he is probably correct, but it is aggravating to have to play the game the way HAL wants it played. My initial point was just what the heck :) [u:ba341ab3a1][i:ba341ab3a1][b:ba341ab3a1]is [/b:ba341ab3a1][/i:ba341ab3a1][/u:ba341ab3a1]HAL thinking soI can try and avoid straining his thought process. If I could set priorities, def first for example, then OBP that would be fabulous, would make the game a lot more interesting :)

HAL will choose what ever player will hurt you no matter what, plain and simple, so watch out for Shefield being used at thirdbase. :P

Shef at third?? I had him and did play him there a couple of games. He should be rated a 6. I have seen stone dwarfs with better range.

[quote:b19f98f7a1="Sacramento Yankees"]Charlie, that's good to hear. These would be great changes IMO. I understand Geekor's point, he is probably correct, but it is aggravating to have to play the game the way HAL wants it played. My initial point was just what the heck :) [u:b19f98f7a1][i:b19f98f7a1][b:b19f98f7a1]is [/b:b19f98f7a1][/i:b19f98f7a1][/u:b19f98f7a1]HAL thinking soI can try and avoid straining his thought process. If I could set priorities, def first for example, then OBP that would be fabulous, would make the game a lot more interesting :)[/quote:b19f98f7a1]

The SOM method doesn't work quite that way, but the result should be the same. It allows you to list players in order of priority who you want to come in to replace a player at each position. So if you wanted your best defender to be the first choice to replace your injured CF, you can list all your CF backups, putting those with the best defense first. HAL will then choose the highest priority player on that list who is available.