Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

What are the disadvantages of using a C1 as your closer even though he has great stats?

The C rating tells you the number of outs your P can record before he reaches his POW. A closer rated C0, will reach his POW the moment he allows a hit or walk.

Now, essentially the short answer is that a C1 will have to have shorter games to be more effective or you could risk him going longer and being less effective.

Two other things to consider:

1 Is your C1 closer coming in to close games or is your C1 closer also being used to set up? If the pitcher is already pitching when the closer rule comes into play, as I recall the rules then the number of outs the pitcher has already recorded gets subtracted from the C rating. For example you have a C6 pitch the 8th inning (3 outs) then starts the 9th -you are leading by one- the first batter kicks the closer rule then C6 -3 outs previously recorded- makes him a C3 therefore he should be cool.

2 How dominant is your C1? I don't know which game you are playing but if, for example if its Juan Rincon of 05 or for Matt Wise (C0) of this set in Petco... I might be perfectly OK with letting him close it. The reliever becomes [i:8e16abffbf]less[/i:8e16abffbf] effective not completely ineffective. However you have to make sure you use the settings right or HAL might Yank him anyway.

Supposedly, as I recall, when a pitcher reaches his POW the @ simbols become hits. On the other hand the fatigue penalty is tougher in the OL game so I can not really tell you just how much more innefective a pitcher becomes. But it is my understanding that the penalty is there. Strong dominating pitchers often can function quite well even with the penalty.

Hope this made some sense.

All best of luck.

C2

Makes perfect sense, thanks.

Typically when you have your best reliever (who has any closer rating) set to setup with your closer spot left blank, Hal will use him as the closer until he gets tired. He will then find the next best non-fatigued closer on your team to close things out. My recommendation is to try that. Put your C1 guy as set-up, closer blank. Hal will do a decent job of making the closer decisions. He's much worse at deciding when to relieve a starter, for instance.