Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

Does anyone have insight into how HAL chooses which relief pitcher to use when it is not a set up or closer situation? Does who is used reveal which year a player may be in? I have Tom Henke in the 80's game and HAL seems reluctant to use him. I had Tom Foucault in the 70's game and HAL never used him, I dropped him and someone else picked him up and he has been great. Any insights?

Other than HAL being a blockhead, I have no insight

TSN SOM managers cannot escape the following bad things in their lives:

1. Death
2. Taxes
2. HAL

No that wasn't a typo; taxes and HAL are tied for second. In fact, HAL's handling of bullpens prior to v2, which still exists in the 70s game, almost pushed HAL all the way into undisputed first place.

[quote:62b59e02e8="YountFan"]Other than HAL being a blockhead, I have no insight[/quote:62b59e02e8]

Well said YF. HAL is in the same realm as Girardi as a manager if you ask me! (and yes, that is NOT A GOOD THING!)

Considering everything that's said, remember that HAL is a computer and can not "think".
There IS some sort of formula he must use to decide which pitchers to use and when, we just haven't figured out any specific patterns, probably because nobody has really paid much attention.

Well another night goes by and after I set Henke as closer.... HAL still does not want to use him. Although I did not put him on maximize, and I put Burke in as set up man, Burke got 2 saves, tying run got on base in 9th in both games, and Burke stays in to pick up the save. I'm not complaining, I got 2 wins, but I'm really puzzled why HAL is so reluctant to put Henke in especially when I have him set as the closer.

How is Burke doing stat wise? You may have his best season.

If you want to force Henke into games, put him in as set up man both ways. Get some innings out of him and see what he does.

If you set people a closers then AL saves him for save situations. Better to use no manager settings and only individual player settings.

Thanks for the responses. Burke is doing fairly well. It could be a good year for him. When I had no settings, Henke never went in. It is early in the season, we'll see what happens, but I thought maybe someone would know how HAL makes decisions.