Does this pinpoint a specific card...

[yak1407]

I tend to think it is more the WHIP.
Recently, I've let HAL run my bullpen, generally $750 guys, for a good part of the season and then started to depend on the guys it was using.
Looking back at one season where HAL kept going to Kipper early and not Dawley, I see that Dawley's ERA is a full run better than Kipper but Kipper has the better WHIP.
I'd watch it on my upcoming season, but I have broken with tradition and gone for a big stopper, Henke, and don't want to waste him.
However, anyone going with a cheap bullpen might want to let HAL manage it for the first part of the season, save the stats at that point. Then at the end of the season see how which card the player was impacted on his usage up to the end of the test period.
Should answer the question once and for all.
On the original point, about pinch-hitting, I see no rhyme or reason for HAL's decision. I dumped Van Slyke after four games because in two of them, HAL pinch-hit for him against righties.

[honestiago1]

I'm letting HAL pick my setup men, but I have Henke as a closer maximized, and bullpen usage normal, rather than conservative. I'm getting a lot of complete games, and HAL has thus far used my shortened up pen well.

In the long run, though, I don't make any decisions about personnel based on what HAL does. After all, HAL can't even figure out that Phil Bradley is a better CF than Rudy Law (I've had Dwayne Murphy go down twice, for a total of about 4 games, and HAL only moved Bradley to CF ONCE).

Just don't believe you can truly trust HAL. Well, not too much.

[Paul5757]

I am 99% convinced that:

(1) HAL knows the years of the cards.

(2) HAL analyzes the particular matchup to determine whether to substitute and who to substitute. Basically, I believe the game calculates the exact probabilities of a walk, hit, hr, etc. [b:a4687ec3bf]based on the cards and the game situation (clutch, pitcher fatigue)[/b:a4687ec3bf], not real life stats. (If I were to program a computer for SOM, that's how I'd do it. And if a lowly liberal arts knucklehead like me can figure that out, I'm sure the SOM programmers figured out the same thing.)

(3) HAL gets ripped a lot, but he's really not that bad. His bp management is actually fairly good. His blind spot is defense, and the inability to look ahead and factor in countermoves when substituting. I pretty much let HAL run the bp all the time. A random sample:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=44637

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=46443

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=48765 (Lavelle, Gleaton, and Brusstar all made leaderboard for save pct., yet none had their best card. Lowest whip was Lavelle's, at 1.20.)

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=50567

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/team/team_other.html?user_id=50261

Even let HAL run the bp once in '05. HAL got me to the playoffs:

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2005/team/team_other.html?user_id=13067


I'd still love to now the "trigger points" of a HAL move, though. And it'd be great if we could adjust those. (Can't do that even with "Super HAL" in CD-Rom game.)