How Does the Mop Up Feature Work with Pitchers?

[alf1001]

I am a newbie.

How does the "mop up" feature work with pitchers?

When is it best to use this feature and what types of pitchers?

Andy

[gbrookes]

Other gamers may have more sage advice than me, but...

In chatting with other gamers, I find that most gamers (including me) fill in most of the roles on the pitchers preference page.

The main debate is whether or not to fill in the lefty specialist or righty specialist roles. I think gamers are split down the middle on this (bad pun, definitely reaching). Some gamers use a battery of low priced relief pitchers who have extreme L or R ratings for these roles. I generally don't use these settings, and pick pitchers who I am comfortable in using for 1-3 innings at a time. I don't use the "closer vs. left" or "closer vs. right" for the same personal preference reasons.

What I do is use every other role setting. For the other roles (other than mop up) I pick my assessment of the best relief pitchers on my staff for those games that night. Be sure to fill in BOTH spots for each role, so that HAL (aka the computer) has a second pick he can make for that role, and doesn't try to over-work the one pitcher to exhaustion.

For the mop up role, I also fill in both pitcher spots. The first spot I give to a long inning reliever (R2 or preferably R3) that I AM comfortable with, although not necessaily the best pitcher on the staff. The second spot I give to the relief pitcher who, in my mind, wins the fickle finger of fate award for the WORST reliever I could possibly use that night in those games. That way, I am relatively assured of him NOT appearing except when the game is out of reach, either for good (winning big) or for bad (losing big). I find that this achieves this desired result for me. The second mop up spot could be an R1 (e.g. if he is REALLY bad for that game's matchups), since the point is to keep him out of any game EXCEPT a mop up game.

HAL does best when you have lots of relievers. The bare minimum is 4. I find HAL does a better job picking the right relievers when you have 5 or even 6 available. Some people like to have 7 or even 8 relief pitchers available, especially if they are using the lefty specialist or righty specialist roles (which I do not).

Hope this helps!/Geoff

[gbrookes]

I didn't say it in the previous post, but hopefully you inferred (and I will say it directly now) that "mop up" means a game that is either out of reach, or on its way to being out of reach. It means a game where one team is ahead by many runs. It could be a game where a starting pitcher got blown out (early in the game) or where a relief pitcher got blown out (later in the game).

Hopefully, it is mostly where your opponent's pitcher got blown out - not yours! But it could be either way, the way the role is defined.

Geoff

[durantjerry]

I usually reserve mop up for my last reliever or extra starter(let's you use an extra short inning specialist), usually a cheap .50 guy. However, it can be a somewhat important position. I have had my mop up man win as many as 14 games and it is kind of aggravating to look at your team and see your lousy extra starter at 1-4 in the mop up role. They will see work in blow outs or early exits by SP's, but they will pitch if the bullpen runs out of guys due to usage fatigue or in a long game, so if you really don't want him pitching except when absolutely needed, you should make sure you have enough relievers to cover the staff(See various Marcus Wilby posts for calculating bullpen innings needed). HAL will usually go to the mop up before a specified pitcher if that pitcher has pitched in two or three consecutive games. Also, HAL usually doesn't use the closer three games in a row, so beware of the mop up man as your only other guy with a closer rating coming in if the closer has pitched a couple in a row. As Geoff said, it is nice if they are an R2 or an R3 so they can eat up innings when needed, but I have had R1's be successful in that role.

[alf1001]

Thanks for all of your comments and assistance.

ALFF

[coyote303]

On teams where I have a 4-man rotation, I select a cheap but not-totally-awful starter-reliever as my mop-up man. I haven't had trouble with HAL using him in inappropriate games.

I did do a double-take once, though, when my mop-up man won the final playoff game. I thought what the heck is HAL doing using him in a close game. It turned out I was way behind in the game and my team made a miracle comeback, giving my mop-up guy the win.