Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I keep reading in posts about letting HAL set line-ups or leaving slots blank early in the season to see what HAL does.
What I'd really like to know is if anyone has any proof or thoughts that this tells you anything.
Frankly, I no longer do it because I have never had a case where HAL's line-up told me anything.
The last time I tried it, it used Tartabull, a 4, in RF and DHed George Hendrick. It sat Magee and used Jerry Browne in CF. In other words, it totally disregards defensive ratings.
Previously, I had a team where it sat Ogilvie for six straight games. I let him go and then watched while he had a monster year for the guy who picked him up.
I'm almost of the opinion that HAL sets your line-up randomly if you leave slots blank.
And that does make a certain amount of sense.
After all, what is the point of playing the game if HAL does a better job of setting your line-up? And would Strat design a game engine which had HAL doing a better job of setting line-ups? And would we want to play this game? Those of us who keep playing the '80s stopped playing other strat games because there was no challenge picking a team and then just letting it play. I tried three of the others games and finished in first each time and won a championsip. In '80s, I'm on my 11th team with three playoff appearance, one title and a sunb-500 winning percentage, but I keep coming back.
Would I want to keep playing if I learned the mystery behind HAL's line-ups and then simply started to run upperforming players through my team until HAL found someone it liked?
The idea is that setting your line-up is one area where you can exert control because once the game begins, you have no control.
Enlighten me if I am wrong, but I think the line-ups of the players that HAL selects if you leave spots blank is an indication of nothing.

I would love it if for this product we could designate positions for particular players we wish to start, but not at the same time have to set up batting lineups for those guys. Then, HAL would place them in what appeared to HAL to be appropriate positions against RHP and LHP, but not at the risk of experiencing the ridiculous disregard of defensive ability.

The point of having HAL make that initial indication of batting orders is most players present an array of hitting balances, so it isn't immediately apparent if so-and-so will be strong against lefties or righties, etc...HAL does ignore defensive issues, but by and large his hitting lineup decisions are pretty accurate, at least from a slugging perspective - HAL does the lineups the same way he chooses defensive or injury replacements, apparently by which batter who is available has the best slugging against the pitcher then on the mound. HAL's decisions can therefore help you to immediately begin to whittle down the possible card years you've drawn with particular players. A player put in the 4 hole against LHP, and at 6 or 7 against RHP will not be playing a card with a 3R balance...

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/80s/league/boxscore.html?group_id=13083&g_id=193

Singleton, who bats third, was injured in a prior game. So, in the next game, HAL bats UL Washington third. Now, I already knew I have ULs 3L or 6L years. but he still should not be hiiting third.

I think HAL looks at how sever a players balance is without paying attention necessarilly to how good that player is to begin with. This seems to occur pretty often with pinch hitting; HAL will replace a 1R guy with a 5L guy even though the 1R guy is still better against lefties than the 5L guy.

Then again, UL did have a great game, so, maybe HAL is a genius.

This is probably one of those arguments that can go on forever. Many people will have examples of horrible moves HAL made which point to the fact that he gives you no usefull information.

On the other hand, it seems clear to me that Panzer Ace lets HAL make decisions and then adjusts from there, and since it seems Panzer Ace has about as many championships as leagues played, maybe there is something to that theory.

Obviously you can win either way. I just let HAL talk me into dropping George Hendrick after only 20 AB's, because I left the DH slot open both ways, and HAL refused to use him against Righties or Lefties, instead prefering Ron Jackson. (Even preferring Van Slyke and Kemp vs Lefties, can that be right?)

I sure hope someone picks him up so I can find out what card it was.

I've got the same concern about Bob Boone. Even after setting my lineups for every position but catcher, HAL kept starting Berryhill against both righties and lefties. I'm therefore tempted to dump Boone once it is clearer what Berryhill's balance is, and pick up someone who will hopefully complement him. That 1(-3)e8 looked nice, but if he can't hit I'm not going to waste 2.64m on him...

:x

But how long do you want to wait?
Perhaps Panzer Ace can shed some light on his experiences.