HAL and the bullpen...

[JEFFREYSCHNAKENBERG]

I know that this has probably been discussed before, but how do I avoid HAL screwing up all my best laid plans? Take this case. With Cicotte pitching a 3 hit shutout he pinch hits for him with 2-out, nobody on in the top of the ninth. To protect my 1-0 lead, he then bypasses a rested Konstanty (as well as four other relievers) and grabs my #10 pitcher Stigman who, predictably, gives up the game losing homerun.

I have my closer usage set to convervative. I have Dreiseword and Borbon as my middle guys and Konstanty filling the closer role, both left and right.

HAL does this to me all the time, costing me several games. My only hope is that I win some when he screws ups somebody else's bullpen.

Any suggestions?

[Horntsnest1]

The only thing you can do to avoid that is to "hide" him in your starting rotation...

[GREGDALY]

The only way to guarantee HAL not screwing your RP settings is to not play this game.

Aside from that, you could set closer to maximize, put the guy you want in the closer role and HAL more than likely will pitch him in save situations. Be careful, cuz I think he'll only use that guy in those situations so you could end up with a RP getting 10 IP's if you're team sucks...

[memphisjohn]

The most frustrating thing is when Hal pinch hits way to early in the game when your ace is down by a run. THe only way to avoid that is to be in a DH league. I have no .500+ seasons in non-DH leagues.

[GREGKOESTER]

There is a little more than what Hornet says but that is a great start. If you want him to log some innings you can set him for mop up. As long as you aren't getting blown out OR you aren't going into extra innings HAL won't use him.
Now to fix the other problem. If you want Konstanty to finish those games you need to put Closer to Max. Otherwise HAL spreads it around. Also I would put Konstanty in both setup roles along with both closer roles. Then, on Konstanty's card, check do not use until the 7th. IF you have a good pitching staff DON'T expect Konstanty to get a lot of innings. He SHOULD get a lot of games though. To further limit the rest of your pen, if you have good enough starters, you can set relief to conservative. I've had a guy like Beggs get 40+ saves and only 70 innings under these circumstances. It also helps if guys like Cicotte have slow hook checked on his card.