Closers

[Surfer Joe]

Who needs them? I'd rather have Nathan pitching more innings in relief than saving him for a close situation that may never come. Do you think they'll put an option in next year where you won't "have" to have a closer? I'm a bit tired of the whole "have to have a closer" mentality.

[CHARLESBELL]

You don't have to set a closer now. Just leave the settings blank.

[Surfer Joe]

Yeah I know that, but doesn't HAL still choose a closer?

[CHARLESBELL]

yes, HAL will use your C rated relievers as closers. This is consistent with what every major league manager in baseball does.

In closer situations the game engine penalizes players who can't close or have exceeded their closer rating. This is also consistent with the vast majority of baseball thinking - that you need a closer, and that pitchers without a closer mentality are not as effective in those situations.

You pay extra for that closer rating, so you can save some money by picking equivalent pitchers who don't have that rating if you really want to have no "closers" on your squad. But every one of them will become less effective in closer situations.

Even in the computer game, I don't think there's a way to totally turn off and ignore closer situations (ie, treat them as non-closer situations).

[Surfer Joe]

Ok thanks for your help. It's just that my bullpen is rather weak except for Zumaya and I also think the whole closer thinking is wrong. Yes, I said it: I disagree with major league manager's conventional thinking of the day. Yet, I'm not a manager. lol

PS besides, HAL was putting in Riske (my mop up guy) in close games and save situations when Zoom and Nathan weren't even tired. They hadn't been used in the game before. I'll go back and count how many times HAL has done that. I've lost a few games already because of that.

[Mean Dean]

You can turn off the closer rule in the computer game, but it is on here. I am not a fan of modern bullpen management either, but it is what it is and if you do want to replicate how baseball is currently played, then it should be on.

It probably doesn't make sense to use Nathan as a setup man, but you can go with cheapo closers and expensive setup men like Zumaya, D. Reyes, etc. That's certainly a plausible strategy.

[CHARLESBELL]

If you really, really want to maximize the number of innings nathan gets and ignore his closer rating, you can somewhat trick HAL by setting some other pitcher as your closer in manager settings and some other pitcher(s) in the set up role and not to come in before the 6th or 7th. Set nathan to slow hook. Relief set to conservative and closer to normal. That will give you the highest liklihood that nathan will get into games and will pitch until tired, maximizing his total innings. Might be an interesting experiment to try.

Wouldn't recommend it, though.

[Surfer Joe]

LOL I was all set to try that til I read "wouldn't recommend it though".

[CHARLESBELL]

[quote:e226b39d79="DeanTSC"]You can turn off the closer rule in the computer game, [/quote:e226b39d79]

Ah, didn't realize that, but it makes sense for earlier decade seasons before the "closer" became prevalent.

[Surfer Joe]

[quote:2df453402a="DeanTSC"]You can turn off the closer rule in the computer game, but it is on here. I am not a fan of modern bullpen management either, but it is what it is and if you do want to replicate how baseball is currently played, then it should be on.

It probably doesn't make sense to use Nathan as a setup man, but you can go with cheapo closers and expensive setup men like Zumaya, D. Reyes, etc. That's certainly a plausible strategy.[/quote:2df453402a]

Yes, I guess you are right. It should be on.

That is a good strategy too. I don't know if I'll do it with this team but may try it some other time.