I don't have 17 hitters anymore 'cos Hal is too stupid.

[MARCPELLETIER]

...and it's not worth it so far!! :evil:

After 6 games:
[list:cd786bcd34]
-0 pinch-hit
-Thrice, opposing teams brought a rhp to replace a lhp when facing Ben Molina, 7L, set at "avoid lhp".
[list:cd786bcd34]-2K
-and a gb into double-play with bases loaded 3rd-catcher-1st[/list:u:cd786bcd34]
-Hal used my worst possible player to replace an injured F.Thomas vs a lhp (hal brought in Branyan).0/3, 3K[/list:u:cd786bcd34]

[MARCPELLETIER]

[url=http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=14685]The All-Platoon Team[/url]

[cummings2]

I've always had a hard time playing matchups, in order to get my feet wet in the area earlier this year I had this team:

[url=http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/baseball/stratomatic/2006/team/team_other.html?user_id=8853]Matchup Kids[/url]

There were a few changes, not many I made during the season, for example at the beginning of the season I had both Castillo and Hudson (Obviously waiting for a trade -which I did) and the idea of the team was to experiment with matchups vs Opp SPs

Anyhoo as I remember I ran mostly with avoids, for the most part I think HAL did OKey DOkey in running the bench...I got some bad rolls at bad times and ended 1 game out of the post.

Anyhoo...

[MARCPELLETIER]

I brought in a left-handed hitting catcher, so Hal has no excuse to let Molina hit a rhp.

edit: 12 games, ONE pinch-hit. Molina faced lefty relievers despite Fick being in the roster. :cry: :cry:

[Coffeeholic]

Lucky,

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I've always had the feeling that because you're only allowed to list 1 pinch hitter vs. RHP/LHP in the managerial settings, having more than one platoon was iffy since you couldn't tell HAL what to do. I actually posted about this way back when, but was assured by numerous reputable sources :wink: that HAl could handle more than one platoon.

Do you have any pinch hitters listed under these settings?

One conclusion that I have reached is that the "avoid" setting should actually be labelled "close your eyes and pray" (for pitchers as well as hitters)... it'd be nice to know exactly what the programming is for these (and all) settings?

[MARCPELLETIER]

Coffee,

To be absolutely certain that Hal had no excuse from not using my bench, I put in the pinch-hitters settings players that are not starting the games neither vs lhp or vs rhp. They are DeRosa vs lhp, and McPherson vs rhp. Therefore, unless they replace injured players, they are always available (DeRosa is available on the bench even if a lefty starter begins the game).

Yet, neither DeRosa nor McPherson have a single pinch-hit, after 15 games!!!

In the first pinch-hit, Hal replaced Spivey with Fick, top of the 9th, no one on, losing 9-5. To be fair, this was a good decision from Hal, because Fick has more on-base than McPherson. It makes sense to use Fick, and keep McPherson later for a possible tying homerun.

The second pinch-hitter was Mientkiewicz, again replacing Spivey, with 2 men on, 2 outs, facing Todd Jones, my team losing 2-1. McPherson was already in the game though (he started 3rd base). Mientkiewicz has a clutch of -10. Fick, who was on the bench, has a clutch of +7, has more hits, but less power. Disappointing choice here. Apparantly, Hal was looking for the 3-run homerun here, instead of the tying single.

So 2 pinch-hits after 15 games, 8 of them losses, despite the fact that my roster has 17 players (except when injured). Very disappointing.

To be honest, I don't expect this team to perform well. I don't have enough relief, and the bench is simply too crowded. But I was hoping to see more action in the dugout, for cris'sake!!

[MARCPELLETIER]

My team had its third pinch-hit, this time again, it's spivey who was pinch-hit. Again replaced by Fick, with my team needed on-base in a 10-3 loss.

[worrierking]

Thanks for keeping us updated on this experiment Lucky.

Some general thoughts on platooning in TSN SOM.

1. Hal is incapable of making rational decisions on pinch-hitting, as Marcus is documenting. This is something I also believed, but without the solid evidence being produced and displayed here. That means, platooning does not always increase your economic efficiency (which is one of it's goals, of course). It also means that the makeup of your divisonal and league opponents can have an impact on whether or not it is a good idea to platoon heavily. If the division and league are heavily balanced toward strong starting pitching, platooning becomes a better idea. If your opponents all have good starters and weaker bullpens, that means there will be fewer pitching changes and fewer opportunities for Hal to make bad pinch-hitting decisions (or none at all). Your platoons simply stay in place for the whole game.

2. People who platoon quite often end up losing dollar efficiency by platooning players who have value against the pitchers they don't face. Look at Francoer, for instance. It makes little sense to platoon him against his strong side (vs Lefties), because he has value against RH that you won't use. If, for instance his card against lefties was identical to his card vs. righties, what would his salary be? 2-3 million? I don't know, I'm guessing here. But regardless of what that value is, you are not using it against RH, so it is sitting there inert on the bench when a RH is pitching. If you do this two or three times in the same lineup, you dollar efficiency can suffer greatly. This is true for defense too. Part of Francoer's value is the fact that he is a 2 defender with a strong arm. That factors into his value and it sits on the bench against RH. That means a platoon is generally more efficient at DH or at a less important defensive position.

3. You can regain some of the lost efficiency in platooning by the fact that you won't have other bench players. If you have 14 hitters on your roster and no platoons, you have nine guys playing and five sitting the bench at all times, the dollar value of each of them is not being used. Even if they are all .50 players, that's 2.5 million of lost efficiency. If, on the other hand, you have all five of your bench players (which you have to have anyway) playing in platoons, against the pitchers they perform the best against, you can recoup the efficiency (provided they don't have too much value against the pitchers they aren't facing).

4. I believe, although I haven't tested this, that it is better and easier to platoon when there are a high percentage of LH pitchers in your division and league. I think there are guys who you can get a tremendous performance from without paying much in $s who only hit lefties. Guys like Lecroy, Easley and Spivey come to mind. I've been trying to find a team in which to use Easley all year and it hasn't worked out. I'd also like to use Lecroy (but I'm afraid Hal would keep sticking him at catcher at all the wrong times). I used Spivey once in the same platoon Lucky has going (with Castillo). Spivey was great, but Castillo reeked. I've noticed that most managers shy away from a platoon in which the player facing LH pitchers costs more than the guy who faces righties. Some of my best platoons have been the opposite, paying higher $ for the guy who hits LH, like the spivey/castillo attempt.

5. I've tried another type of platooning with inconclusive results: Ballpark platooning. I recently played a season in US Cell, but many of my opponents were in pitchers parks, so I played Marcus Thames in LF at home and against the Minute Maid teams on the road. I played Bubba Crosby at the pitcher's parks. The team was below .500 and neither player had an inspiring performance. One of the advantages to a platoon like this, is that Hal can't muck it up by his odd PH choices. The park stays the same the whole game. I don't think you could ever make this work as a grand strategy. It only appears to be useful at all at the margins, with very inexpensive players. If you tried it with more expensive players you would have too much money on the bench at all times. This might be more viable in 60 mil leagues.

[MARCPELLETIER]

Thanks for your ideas, worrierking.

21 games so far, and I got my 4th and 5th pinch-hit.

Spivey pinch-hit for Branyan, and A.Boone pinch-hit for MacPherson, both facing a lhp (Marte), with nobody on. DeRosa, my premier pinch-hitter vs lhp, was left on the bench.

So far:
all 5 pinch-hits happened after the 8th;
happened only when my team was losing;
my best pinch-hitters are kept on the bench unless they represent the tying run.

[MARCPELLETIER]

Coming back to your points:

4. It is absolutely certain that, if they are in a division loaded of lefty pitching, you should get more heavy vs lhp. That might seem obvious, yet I am always appalled to see so many teams not reacting when their divisional counterparts are going nuts with lefty pitching in PNC or Ameriquest teams. So, yes, guys like Lecroy, Spivey are pearls to have in such situations.

But I think that platoons can also be profitable in more neutral situations. The think I like with Spivey/Castillo is that both are injury-prone, both can hit homeruns, and Castillo (who will start more games and is less injury-prone) is good enough to replace Spivey vs lhp. That said, I fully expect to see Castillo perform less well than Spivey: Spivey costs more, for only 25% of the playing time, so his benefits must overweight Castillo's benefits by a good margin in order to be comparable (assuming that Spivey plays 25% of the games, if Spivey hits for an OPS of .900, Castillo only needs to hit for an OPS of .700 to be of equivalent value, running not considered). Therefore, the only fair comparison is to take their combine stats, and compare it with a 4M def-2 second baseman (eg. Taguichi).

That said, the best way to invest your money is probably to platoon Spivey with a cheap duo like Blum and Burke, (or Harris and Caroll), where Blum and Burke occupy the 13th and 14th spot of the rosters, and then play the percentages on a day-to-day monitoring (for example, start Blum when facing Carpenter, Zambrano...), and of course spend the money dedicated to Castillo to other positions.