Um wow

[chasenally]

My dad an I were watching Saturday baseball on ABC when my Mom walked into the room and Boog Powell was stepping up to the plate and they had his name and stats on the bottom of the screen. My Mom looked at the TV and said " That can't be his real name" Dad told her it was his real name. Mom replied " It can't be no Mother would name her son Boog" Man that was a great moment in my life and 40 years later I still remember the orange shag carpet and Zenith TV that looked like it came right out of Star Trek. Yes we had no remote. Good and Great times! :D

Thank you for that

Mike

[Ragnarokpc]

1-2 in tonight's series. Game 1, a ninth-inning collapse; game 2, an eighth-inning collapse. This is kind of usual for my team. Two error-free games, but three committed in the second game . . . one by Dihigo.

There are just a lot of questionable calls to me by HAL going on. Walter Johnson is an 8NR hitter, yet he is pulled for pinch hitter Whitey Herzog with two outs, no one on in the bottom of the eighth. The top of the ninth, the other team scores the tying and go-ahead runs. All results were off the pitcher's card, but still . . . is an 8N worse than a .639 position player? Is there a way I can avoid HAL pulling my best starter at a time like this? Same game, bottom of the sixth . . . with two outs, Dihigo bunts his was on, Rouch hits a single advancing Dihigo to third . . . then gets caught trying to steal 2nd. With Frank Robinson coming to bat. Who has a 1.060 OPS. This is exactly what the Cardinals were criticized for doing, having a guy running with Pujols up. What's the real advantage? Maybe one more run scoring on a hit . . . but instead, we lose the game by a run. We were caught stealing four times in the series. My team is set to normal, the only player set to 'Steal more' is my Pinch Runner Ned Hanlon. We have a .500 Stolen base percentage as a team. Speaking of Hanlon...

HAL seems to PH with Hanlon a lot, when I really only have him for running. He also used Billy Cox a lot, who is supposed to be a defensive sub. Both have an OPS in the mid-.600s. I have one or two guys that are decent bats coming off the bench, but mostly my bench guys are fielders or the one runner. I wish he'd stop using subs for PH.

I guess the last area that isn't making sense is his defensive substitutions. Sometimes they make sense, but they typically don't follow what I have laid out. Maybe I can make changes to make this work better, but generally . . . I want O'Leary to come in at SS, Dihigo to slide over to 2B; Cox to come in at 3B, and then ideally, Robinson to LF and Snyder coming in to RF. I'm going to try starting Robinson in LF and O'Doul/Johnson in RF and see if that helps. But the game has been pulling something like O'leary in at SS, Robinson to LF, Dihigo to RF...not even close. And I won't even go into the changes HAL made for the other team, sheesh.

Another disappointing night. Noodles didn't even get the win, it was Ed Head. Bleh.

[MtheB]

I see two challenges with your team.
You need to have a lights out reliever. end of story.
and you don't have enough effective LH bats to counter your RH heavy hitters.

[OakAth72]

Your team is a defensive nightmare, no range anywhere.....are you playing Rev at 2B? His 3 rating will kill you. Also, Bench at any level is overrated and especially in an 80 mil league where you have spent 1/10 of your salary on him.

[PotKettleBlack]

[quote:309c3abd5b="OakAth72"]Your team is a defensive nightmare, no range anywhere.....are you playing Rev at 2B? His 3 rating will kill you. Also, Bench at any level is overrated and especially in an 80 mil league where you have spent 1/10 of your salary on him.[/quote:309c3abd5b]

I was just about to say.
The sum of your infield range is 11. The middle infielders total 5. I like to see that at 2-3. Four on the outside.
The defense is going to kill you. Quietly. In ways that you just don't see. Pitchers not performing at their levels, that kind of thing.

Like OakAth72, I don't like Bench here, either. Or really anywhere.

Original thought:
The bench is kind of pricey. Small amounts of wasted money on Snyder, Herzog, Cox. I'd've gone with a cheaper catcher, a more defensive minded short or second baseman with a nickel scrub bench which would've freed up money to upgrade third base or field an actual left fielder.

[The Last Druid]

Your team is probably playing about where it should. Don't know the rest of the league but...Bench is overpriced by about 2 Million, I wouldn't consider using Dhigo at SS or playing a 3 at 2b with a 2 SS. Roush is not great for your park, you need a team that will pound out about 300 hrs. to be competitive, given your park. Hughson is a horrible choice in your park, 4# is just nuts in Crosley '66. Foster is nothing special and I'd be surprised if his era doesn't stay about where it currently is. I'm guessing you are relatively new to ATG and either play the 2000x games or the Back to the ... games. This one will be a learning experience, I'm afraid.

[Valen]

[quote:f57e5acf8c]Walter Johnson is an 8NR hitter, yet he is pulled for pinch hitter Whitey Herzog with two outs, no one on in the bottom of the eighth.[/quote:f57e5acf8c]
I don't think hitting rating is a top factor HAL uses in his pinch hitting decision.

Only thing you might do is choose conservative team relief settings. But then you may not want that on your other pitchers.

[Valen]

[quote:b1eacf89fc]Will Foster, Nahn, and Hughson start to pitch better, or at least more respectably?[/quote:b1eacf89fc]
For a hitters park given my strat experience Foster and Hahn are doing well. Would not expect improvement. Would keep them because I would be happy with those numbers in a hitters park.

Hughson's numbers are high but not unexpected in a HR haven with those #s. If there are options you can afford might suggest changing him out. Almost anyone with no #s would be better than Hughson. Perhaps Vuckovich or someone cheaper. Use the small amount of freed money to upgrade a bullpen guy.

Agree with others about Dihigo's errors. They should improve and you are getting good offensive numbers. No change suggested here.