Relief Question

[OakAth72]

I have had limited success in trying to get my relievers to appear in their defined roles. Below I have attached the boxscore of one of my games from last night. Smoltz is my closer, Littell is my RH specialist and with a two run lead going into T9, HAL leaves Littell in to close the game. This is the exact situation in which I want my CLOSER pitching and it often seems to be a crapshoot whether HAL decides to honor the request or not. I have noticed the LH or RH specialists will stay in a game for up to two innings and right through ninth inning closing situations if they don't face a batter coming at them from the opposite side of the plate. The defined role for the closer is 9 inning + with a 1-3 run lead, what am I doing wrong?

http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/stratomatic/league/boxscore.html?group_id=143210&g_id=16

[rburgh]

Probably nothing - one reason I gave up my keeper leagues was the frustration of HAL's mismanaging. One of HAL's favorite nonsensical moves is to bring in a RH specialist type to face a LH batter if there's a RH batter up next.

[macnole]

Yes...these are the things Bernie should be working on. Even a prioritized Do Not Use Against... control or something. Not being able to play match ups as we would face to face is the biggest frustration day in and day out.

[emart]

There are no excuses for HAL. That said, had Smoltz pitched in the previous 3 games? Do you have closer set to maximize? Was the rest of your pen rested and available, assuming others were better choices than Littell?

[Valen]

Have to agree with emart. We are trying to guess in the dark. Would want to see your roster and boxscores from the last 2-4 games. Would want to know all the player settings for Littell/Smoltz as well as your team settings for relief and closer.

[OakAth72]

It was only the third game of the season, Smoltz had not thrown a pitch yet. Littell is RH Specialist only, quick hook, max 1-2 innings. Smoltz is the closer, the only closer.......my closer usage is set to "regular" but "regular" or "maximize" should have no bearing whether Smoltz makes it into the game in this particular situation. If anything Littell had been overused.......he pitched 2 1/3 innings in the first game of the series neglecting to recognize my 1-2 inning maximum.

[beavis]

[quote:8f483bb790]Do you have closer set to maximize?[/quote:8f483bb790]

I was given to understand that "maximizing" one's closer actually led to a minimization of their use.

[PotKettleBlack]

[quote:98ba69530b="elsenorbeavis"][quote:98ba69530b]Do you have closer set to maximize?[/quote:98ba69530b]

I was given to understand that "maximizing" one's closer actually led to a minimization of their use.[/quote:98ba69530b]

It leads to HAL reserving the closer for save situations, which leads to a modern utilization of the closer, say the Trevor Hoffman model.

I am not a fan of this since I think the Hoffman model of closer use is inefficient, preferring the pre-Eck closer use model.

[Palanion]

How do you have your relief roles ranked?

I've gotten in the habit now to have a bona fide R2+ stud in that end-of-game role (not closer-specific), such as Wilhelm, Moore, Sutter, Smith. And I set that pitcher for Closer, Setup, Tied 9th+, Tied & Late, Behind & Late with Regular on the closer situation. And he occupies the top five slots in the role rankings. Then I list everyone else with theior specific roles, be they setup, specialist, what have you. I feel I'm getting more of what I want out of my pen.

Unfortunately, as an R1, Smoltz has his own limitations. He's a modern closer - one inning max. So, I would put him as Closer and maximize the position. Then EVERY 9th inning save situation is Smoltz (unless he's tired to begin with). And put him at the top of your role rankings.

[emart]

With the additional information and looking closely at the box score I can see why HAL brought Littell into the game in the 8th. He got that out and then your team scored three runs in the bottom of the frame.

The only thing that I can imagine for why HAL concluded Littell was a better choice was that Littell has fewer hit points and XBH on his card v. RH batters than Smoltz. Perhaps those are included in the formula for relief decisions, and if so, perhaps not having the 'maximize' setting in play had an effect on the outcome.