Why have specialists?

[jlt53]

No. He's marked as an RH specialist. That used to automatically mark the avoid LH, but I guess it doesn't any more.
But I am sorry. I still don't get it. Left-handed hitters coming up. A guy marked LH specialist and LH closer in the bullpen. He hasn't pitched for a week. But unless you mark Avoid LH on the guy you mark RH Specialist, the righty is the one who gets put into the game.
I don't think this works very well. To put it mildly.

[Valen]

You have a valid point on assuming a RH specialist should avoid lefty batters but as I tell people who call me for computer support at work, more gets accomplished by paying more attention to what is than what we think should be. And the game engine does not automatically make that designation for us. Sometimes in the land of computers I end up asking a customer if they want me to agree with them or do they want me to make their system work.

Perhaps in the game rewrite Bernie is doing that will get corrected. In the meantime go ahead and explicitly check the box for your righty specialist to avoid lefties and your lefty specialist to avoid righties. And go ahead and check max 1 or 2 innings.

If Koufax was the next scheduled hitter HAL should ignore whether Koufax hits right or left. If most of the available players on opponents bench were RH then logical move would be to bring the righty specialist. If after that HAL switches over and decides for the other team to send up a lefty bat the pitcher brought in still has to face that hitter. Baseball rules there, not game engine code.

And be careful about designating a person for multiple roles. HAL is nothing more than a set of if...then decisions and the more complicated you make it by setting a guy for multiple roles the more you increase the odds that decision tree will lead somewhere other than where you think it should.

The only time I would give a pitcher multiple roles is if I were trying to force the super reliever strategy and wanted to steer HAL toward using one and only one reliever.

[jlt53]

If this were truly a game situation, the offensive team would have to make the first move. You wouldn't pull your pitcher, with the pitcher coming up, before the other team sends a pinch-hitter up to the plate.
Since Whitman seems to be this team's primary pinch-hitter, that is just another argument for either bringing in the LH or leaving the starter in there.
By the way, my team also managed to blow the 7th game tonight and were eliminated.

[childsmwc]

Just so you understand, Strat doesn't define a save for reliever usage until the 9th inning. Therefore, if you want your closer used more often and in the traditional sense, you need to use the maximize closer role.

That being said, I don't have the best luck with relief roles, but some of the most successful managers in this game have figured them out. There probably was some "logic" that the game when through to arrive at that decision and probably with the right boxes and ordering you can get a better result.

That is one of the reasons though that specialists are fairly cheaply priced because HAL seems to find a way to abuse them.

[FUDU]

In my limited, and currently still learning, experience I think once you dive into using the bullpen roles you HAVE to use them all the way and almost certainly correctly. Otherwise maybe not even use them.

I think once you set up a role for a RP you need to go overboard in ensuring he gets used when you want, especially if you have a weak pen or a small pen. If your going with strong SP and yet still have 1 very solid RP (moderate to long endurance) you have to consider putting that RP in all roles that you decide to open up to designation.

My two cents.

[nevdully's]

[quote:d1e554f5fd]Just so you understand, Strat doesn't define a save for reliever usage until the 9th inning.[/quote:d1e554f5fd]

Major Major flaw. Maybe for the 200X games but another example of why trying to meld ATG with 200X doesn't work.

[WeatherNut]

[quote:a3396c48e9]Just so you understand, Strat doesn't define a save for reliever usage until the 9th inning.


Major Major flaw. Maybe for the 200X games but another example of why trying to meld ATG with 200X doesn't work.[/quote:a3396c48e9]

Agree about this being a Major Major flaw.

WN

[jlt53]

I don't know if it is a settings issue or a game issue, but I wish I could figure out a way to get specialists into more games, have them used like they do in the majors.
Using a lefty specialist in 70-80 games, for a batter or two in most cases, would seem to maximize his value. But even when I (by some sort of miracle) come up with settings that produce better results than I had in this case, I'm never able to do that.

[Valen]

I agree it would be nice if the game did a better job of handling specialists.
It is a little frustrating being easier to push a guy an unrealistic 300+ innings but be unable to get him used as a specialist even when you have 8 relievers on a roster.

[gkhd11a]

Could somebody indicate to me who is a lefty specialist in the major league this game should be emulating? Jesse Orosco is a lefty specialist I know of. In 2002 he was in 65 games and faced 119 batters. 48 or almost 40% were right handed. Is that the level expected? A few examples of how simple this process to implement in the real world would help me understand the issue here, because I think the L/R and bullpen in general works pretty good.

[url]http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/o/oroscje01.shtml[/url]