Bullpen strategy, again. Help?

[guidoz]

I'm playing 2006, this is my first strat team, so any advice you can give would be appreciated.

Here is my team:
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=1970

My specific question is in setting bullpen management options, both for the whole team and individual players. As you can see I spent heavily on a rotation of lefthanded aces, followed by Mariano, Wuertz, 2 right handed only guys (McClung, Putz) and 2 loogys (Stanton, Gryboski).

I had my starters set to slow hook, closer usage at maximize, relief usage at agressive. Also the LOOGY/ROOGY guys were set to quick hook and to avoid batters opposite their specialty.

Wuertz pitches innings 7&8 and I reach the bottom of the 9th in a tie ballgame. Wuertz is left in to face a lefty and gives up a hit. HAL then goes to two separate left-hand only to face two RIGHT handed batters (Guerrero & Glaus). Then the right-hand only guys are brought in for 1 batter apiece afterwards. The upshot of it is I used every single pitcher in my bullpen EXCEPT Rivera and, unsurprisingly, lost the game.

Here is a link to the offending box score:
http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/league/boxscore.html?group_id=381&g_id=11

So obviously my settings are wrong. What kind of management settings should I be using for my team? Any other kind of advice about my team would be welcome as well.

[worrierking]

I think the issue is with closer set to maximize. If you want Rivera to come in in tie games, use "regular." Basically closer set on maximize means he will only be used in save situations, which was not the case so Hal looked elsewhere.

[1crazycanuk]

You may not get much help. I asked for help this morning because I trust these guys. Almost 20 people looked at it with no comment. So I just deleted the post. I hope you have better luck.

[geekor]

Just as Worrier said.

Besides Rivera should be set to avoid beore 8th, slow hookand in both the set up AND closer roles. Closer should be set to regular. This should optimize his innings the best you can do, as you want him pitching as much as possible from your relievers.

I would set 1set (1 vs L and 1 vs R) of your specialist to not before 6th, and the other set to not before 7th. Leave Wuertz alone to pitch whenever HAL feel necessary. At least that's what I do.

btw, it's not necessarily your setting were wrong, HAL does NOT look at the batter up there when putting in a pitcher, hence the hard LHP comes in to face a RH batter. But that is why he was pulled afterwards.

[tersignf]

that's the spirit canuk!
only 2700 posts? slowing down?

[tersignf]

this is the most helpful gaming community around.

[1crazycanuk]

[quote:1a7d93b427="tersignf"]that's the spirit canuk!
only 2700 posts? slowing down?[/quote:1a7d93b427]

:lol: I wished him better luck than I had.

[guidoz]

Thanks for the advice. I entered the styles as described above, my last three games were slightly better. The only glaring error this time around was in allowing Seth McClung to face David Ortiz, who homered (who could have predicted that?)

[quote:d4e2393d37]btw, it's not necessarily your setting were wrong, HAL does NOT look at the batter up there when putting in a pitcher, hence the hard LHP comes in to face a RH batter. But that is why he was pulled afterwards.[/quote:d4e2393d37]Seriously?? Doesn't this make R/LOOGY types more or less completely useless?

[LANCEBOUSLEY]

they can work guidoz,

however you need a 6 or 7 man pen not counting your mopup guy to make it happen.

BTW is mclung checked as mopup?

also is rivera checked as setup/closer both ways?

[guidoz]

Yes McClung is mop-up, rivera is closer & setup.

If HAL doesn't consider who the batter is when picking a pitcher (which seems crazy to me), then there isn't a good way to ensure they're brought into a game just to face a particular kind of batter. Which is really what they are mainly useful for. So it was probably a bad idea on my part to stock up on that kind of pitcher...