Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I'm having trouble getting HAL to pinch hit for platoon players in the lineup - in fact I've been totally unsuccessful recently, not sure why (but I know its something that I'm doing).

An example is a platoon of Palmiero (v.RHSP) and Galarraga (v.LHSP).

I have each of them marked "avoid" on their weak side, the "don't PH for" and "don't PR for" boxes are UNchecked. I have Palmiero inserted on the Team page as the PH v. RHP and Galarraga v. LHP. Neither is slated in any other role except that they are in the lineup depth spaces as the backup for each other in case of injury.

HAL never seems to PH for either of them, even with the game on the line, and I can't figure why.

Probably something simple and completely obvious to somebody else.
:? :?

I would remove them from the pinch hitter roles on the team page. Most likely that is causing HAL to only consider them in a narrow range of circumstances. For example a RHer starts so Raffy starts. 4th inning opposing team brings in a lefty. But HAl does not swap in Galarraga because he is considered your pinch hitter so HAL saves him until whatever the general rules for pinch hitting are. Sometimes you can give HAL too many conditions and the computer logic eliminates everything.

[quote:dad123648c="emart"]...I have each of them marked "avoid" on their weak side"...[/quote:dad123648c]

I believe this setting only applies when pinch-hitting and has no effect on a player already in a game.

A couple of things. Where do you put them in your batting order? I find HAL is very reluctant to pinch hit for anyone who is batting in the one through six spots in the order. I think he considers those spots to be your best hitters, so he rarely thinks to pinch hit there.

HAL also is very reluctant to pinch hit anyone who is very negative clutch, so you are better off creating your platoons with positive clutch.

I also like to have the guy you want to face right handers to be the better defender. That way you can list him as the defensive replacement as well since most relief pitchers tend to be right handed.

I think, however, that typically your starter will stay in the game, so I would make sure the the platoon is truly optimal.

Or we could ask Bernie to fix it so it works correctly

[quote:75a29a201c="nevdully's"]Or we could ask Bernie to fix it so it works correctly[/quote:75a29a201c]

What's "correctly"? It's a real tough one, because there are so many factors involved. What inning does the pitching change take place? How many left/right handers are left in the pen and are they likely to change later in the game? How will defense be effected? What is the score? I think whatever SOM (and it's them, not Bernie who programs the strategy) does, most people would say it's not being done correctly. :)

IMO, an "optimal" non-catcher, low injury platoon looks something like this. Say it's a middle infielder:

lefty, 4R or more, 2e25 or better, +clutch, 70% of your cash
righty, 6L or more 3e15 or worse, 30% of your cash

Bats either 8th or 9th. BOTH guys optimally tuned for your park. Cash distribution and L/R slant optimized for your opponents as well.

[quote:97aa1b76cf]I think whatever SOM (and it's them, not Bernie who programs the strategy) does, most people would say it's not being done correctly[/quote:97aa1b76cf]

This is absolutely the case. I play in CD-ROM leagues all the time and the computer manager (Hal) does not pinch hit often. It has to be late in the game with other factors lining up as well for Hal to pinch hit.

There is not much you can do to change this, that is why many people prefer to play the actual games themselves.

I've also noticed that HAL isn't very good when it comes to pinch hitters.

I don't program any pinch hitters, but do use the avoid lefty pitchers/avoid righty pitchers toggle boxes along with the don't pinch hit for v. lefties/don't pinch hit for v. righties toggle boxes as well.

I've seen HAL use PHers other than a player's platoon partner, then put the platoon partner in the game on D, essentially wasting a player, when he just could have used the platoon partner to PH in the first place.

I don't like platoons in the computer game because they give away too many ABs when they don't get pinch hit for after a pitching change. I wish we had a "platoon pair" option where the manager could designate platoon players who would pinch hit for each other when there was a change to a pitcher who throws with a different hand than the one previously in the game.