What does "Avoid" actually mean?

[Wade77]

Wondering what happens under Manager Setting when you say "Avoid Left-handed Batter" for a pitcher. How literal is this?

Does the pitcher intentionally walk a guy? Does the computer take the guy out automatically? Kind of hard to know what to do but my bullpen is split between 3 guys good vs righties and 3 vs lefties, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks guys.

[Mean Dean]

"Avoid" means just what it sounds like; it will try to avoid the pitcher facing that batter, especially as the first batter he faces in a game. But it's not at all realistic for a pitcher to literally never pitch to a batter who hits the opposite way. Unless you had 90 pitchers or something.

Sadly, you're not allowed to carry 90 pitchers, but the more relievers you have available, the better the computer manager will be able to use each one in a very specialized role. Six specialists should surely be plenty (it may even be overkill). Add a closer and/or setup man who can go against anyone to that mix, and you should have few problems.

[ROBERTVOZZA]

What it means, but I don't think that HAL will take a pitcher out if he has to face a hitter on the side you have chosen to avoid. The only reason I say this is because I use that setting often and those pitchers face batters on the side I have chosen often.

My interpretation - but I may be totally incorrect, is that your pitcher will be yanked for someone else if he is either A. Fatigued B. in a clutch situation(Runners in scoring position - with a batter from the avoid side coming up) or C. If HAL just randomly makes that decision. I believe that if you add "Quick Hook" to the equation, you stand a better chance of getting another pitcher that is more favorable brought in to the equation.

This is founded in nothing related to any rules I know of, but I find that HAL does more of what I want if I use "Avoid" and "Quick Hook" in those situations.

[rgimbel]

if you have a deep pen than hal will take into consideration the "avoid" however if you only have 3 or 4 relievers available to choose from he tends to ignore it