question about HAL

[PAULMINICUCCI]

I have a question for the pros out there. Recently in a game I had Brad Radke pitching in a tight game. His line was 4 IP, 0 ERs, 3 Hits, 0 walks and 5 Sos. He had on unearned run in the first. HAL yanks him before the fifth starts and my tired bullpen gets lit up. I asked the commish about why HAL would do this and the answer they gave me twice was "the game was close." I asked for clarification on what the hell that means. Don't you want your best player in a close game? ANYONE have this happen to them? Does anyone know why? Is there a way to prevent this in the future?

[CHARLESBELL]

The short answer is that you can't always explain what HAL does, and it happens sometimes to all of us. A lot depends on your settings, though. Was Radke on quick hook? Is your bullpen set to aggressive? Are you sure your relief pitcher was tired (ie, was this the third straight game he has pitched in)?

You can't prevent it, all you can do is set up your settings to "guide" HAL. Ultimately the manager on the field makes the final call - and that's HAL.

[bkoron]

And HAL's a frigging idiot in this department.

What you describe has happened to me more times than I care to remember, with bullpen set on Conservative and starter Randy Johnson. There's nothing you can do about it.

:roll:

[PAULMINICUCCI]

No, the bullpen was on conservative use and Radke on slow hook. I have 10 pitchers, 5SPs and the bullpen was a little over-extended. What happened is I lost the game badly. But thanks for the views. I guess if it happens to the best I can't complain.

[JOELKING]

My two cents.

1) radke Isnt the best pitcher either, why would you want him on slow hook?

2) i've seen Radke get lit up many times, and trust me on this one, i know used him many times.

3) I dont buy into the setttings anymore, HAL doesnt do what the settings are suppose to do, for example, I tried something out to see if the setting where actaully working, I Put all my starters to avoid "left and Right batters" and put mop up, now you will except a closer will come into the game to start one, didnt happen. I didnt even have a rotation set. so what hal does, is brings in my worse pitcher. and of course leaves him in there, the bottom line of the settings regardless pitchers or hitters, " take a guess and hope for rain when your losing"

[tersignf]

There's only one way that I know of to attempt to get a reliever in to start, besides an injury, and that isn't the way. It's not sure-fire, but then again people shouldn't try to do that anyhow in my opinion.

I agree with everyone on HAL, but one thing you have to realize: the more settings you make static (i.e., choosing a tendency), the less options you give the AI. Sometimes that's good, but sometimes there can be very unintended consequences because of the limitations you've set. A primitive AI should be given flexibility in some cases, and in others as little as possible.

For instance, when we use the avoid lefty/right preference, many times we're expecting way too much of the AI--especially in the case of reverse pitchers. The only way to maximize success with this, and some have done it a few times with very successful bullpens, is to have a boatload of relievers for HAL to choose from. On some teams I had, he would go through 5 relievers in 3 innings for great matchups and then give it to the closer. I've had some great...and some terrible, splits. So in a nutshell--have plenty of relievers available for avoid lefty righty situations--likely won't work as expected with more expensive guys, including starters.

Further...think about how basic the check marks are and don't expect them to be cure-alls for one-sided types. If a team has 2 LH / 7 RH bats, and you have Beckett pitching in the 5th with a 1 run lead, with 2 LHs coming up in the 8 and 9 hole, do you want HAL to walk those 2 guys to get to Mora or Kendall or Freel at the top of the order?
My point here is the AI can be used to your advantage in some situations, but it's very limited. It still comes down to a balanced team--because if you have a weakness HAL and your opponents will find it.

Now this doesn't answer your question on Radke. It's stupid...and unfortunately, expected every now and then--but there was a reason for it...somewhere transparently buried in the roots of the AI's decision tree was a logic trail that led to it, but you'll never know.

All the more reason that if I can't see HAL's decision algorithms, I'm not going to depend on or expect much out of him. That dog won't hunt.

Cheers...don't get mad at HAL--just come to grips with the fact that it sucks and you won't be surprised when he does something stupid!

[PAULMINICUCCI]

I thank everyone for the answers. I had the same question: i.e.since HAL only does what he is programed to do given certain situations. I just do not know why SOM would do that. I saw a situation where he lifted Sheets after 5 innings against my team who was in a 1-0 game and with a line of 0 ER 1H. Makes no sense. I toyed with the tendancy stuff to try to ensure or predict HAL's reactions. No way to know for sure. By the way I have also seen HAL do some great managing so I guess it evens out. I am just into math and its frustrating to get into this kind of game and no trust the algorithms and logic trees.

[bkoron]

HAL is programmed to take starting pitchers out when the team is behind. It doesn't matter if it's one run or ten. It's as simple, and stupid, as that. It doesn't even matter if it's a DH league or not.

:roll:

[teepack]

This one has been an ongoing source of frustration for me. And I have posted many threads about this topic.

In my last team, I went for the unbalanced approach and a six-man bullpen. I had three lefty specialists (Walker, Shouse and Marte), a righty specialist (Speier) and two balanced guys (Otsuka and Field).

I set all the lefties to quick hook, avoid righties, max 1-2 innings in an effort to get them out of the game as quickly as possible to force HAL to use matchups. I generally set Speier to avoid lefties, although occasionally I would unclick that. I remember one time about two-thirds of the way through the season checking in to see what the ratios were, and all of my lefthanded relievers had faced more righthanded batters, and Speier had faced more lefthanded batters. The exact opposite of what was intended, of course.