Hal - Are you serious?

[Siberian Knights]

Game 7 of the semi-finals. My relief staff (not overworked from previous game) looks like this: Soria, Moylan, Seay, Shields, Grilli.

Wang pitches 6 innings of 3 hit ball and 1 walk. (He isn't set to avoid and hitters nor set to limit the numbers of innings pitched.) My team is leading 2-0 and he is pulled for a reliever (odd situational move #1).

Moylan pitches to 1 batter, one batter. Did I mention one batter? He throws one pitch and gets that batter out. Moylan is pulled after that one out (odd move #2) for Seay.

Seay throws 9 pitches and retires both batters he faces and is pulled (odd move #3) for Shields.

Shields gives up 2 hits and one run while getting 2 batters out. It is now the end of the 8th inning and the score is tied 2-2. Who is the next logical person that should pitch? Soria. He might have even been needed prior to Seay but we won't argue that here.

Instead, Hal puts in Jason Grilli! Are you kidding me? (Odd move #4). Grilli pitches 2 1/3 inning and loses the game. Not once during the most important game of the playoffs (game 7 at my ballpark) does Soria even get to pitch. What a joke!

[Ninersphan]

[quote:330d8a55ec="Siberian Knights"]Game 7 of the semi-finals. My relief staff (not overworked from previous game) looks like this: Soria, Moylan, Seay, Shields, Grilli.

Wang pitches 6 innings of 3 hit ball and 1 walk. (He isn't set to avoid and hitters nor set to limit the numbers of innings pitched.) My team is leading 2-0 and he is pulled for a reliever (odd situational move #1).

Moylan pitches to 1 batter, one batter. Did I mention one batter? He throws one pitch and gets that batter out. Moylan is pulled after that one out (odd move #2) for Seay.

Seay throws 9 pitches and retires both batters he faces and is pulled (odd move #3) for Shields.

Shields gives up 2 hits and one run while getting 2 batters out. It is now the end of the 8th inning and the score is tied 2-2. Who is the next logical person that should pitch? Soria. He might have even been needed prior to Seay but we won't argue that here.

Instead, Hal puts in Jason Grilli! Are you kidding me? (Odd move #4). Grilli pitches 2 1/3 inning and loses the game. Not once during the most important game of the playoffs (game 7 at my ballpark) does Soria even get to pitch. What a joke![/quote:330d8a55ec]

I certianly agree that most of the pulls are odd choices, but the move to not go to Soria, makes a weird kind of sense if he is set to be your closer and you are set to maximaze your closer. Inn that situation he wouldn't come in unless it was a save oppurtunity and/or all your other relievers had been used.

[KEITHLAMONT]

I guess that is a misunderstanding I have of the game as well. To me maximize your closer means, get his arse in there as much as possible. Heck in real life, the closer is brought in, in the top of the 9th all the time in tie games. So if the setting is regular instead of maximize, what would have probably happened in SK's game?

[Ninersphan]

[quote:9496c7d3fb="klx22"]I guess that is a misunderstanding I have of the game as well. To me maximize your closer means, get his arse in there as much as possible. Heck in real life, the closer is brought in, in the top of the 9th all the time in tie games. So if the setting is regular instead of maximize, what would have probably happened in SK's game?[/quote:9496c7d3fb]

Maximize your closer means that you want ALL save oppurtunities going to the RP's you've chosen as your primary closer vs LHP and RHP. It also means that the closer won't come into a game unless it is a save situation or there is NO other RP available.

If you set it to normal, you will spread the saves around to other RP's who might not get pulled for your closer in the 9th, which may not be the best thing either.

If he hadn't set Maximize, there's no guarantee that the closer would have been brought in either.

The key is [b:9496c7d3fb]SAVE[/b:9496c7d3fb] Oppurtunities. If it's not a save situation then the closer isn't used if the MAX setting is selected. So he won't come into the game if the game is tied in the 9th.

If you have a truly dominate closer, better to list him as set-up and closer that way he'll come into the game in no save situations earlier than the 9th inning. Of course you then runn the risk of him pitching fatigued so unfortuately until we have controls for every possible situation there is no way to replicate what a human would do in HAL's place.

[durantjerry]

WQhat does "not over worked" actually mean?

[Siberian Knights]

It means Lincecum pitched 7 innings and Moylan pitched 2 innings in game 6 and Smoltz going the distance in game 5.