HAL

Received this e-mail from a frustrated user in one of my leagues this morning. Thought you guys ought to know.

To: All
From: Grim City Reapers (Jimbo123)
Date: Thursday, 10/03/2013 12:39am

How come:
(1) when I have runners on first and second with no one out, my team property hits into a double play?
(2) When I have two outs on my oponent I walk a runner, give up two past balls scoring a run, walk two more batters have another error or two and then give up a bomb?
(3) conversely, when I have the bases loaded and no one out, I score one run, and that's if I'm lucky?
(4)playing the percentages never work out?
(5) I select aggressive base stealing and no one ever tries to steal a base?
(6) I select very aggressive base stealing and my players try to steal second in unfavorable situations, as well as third and home when no one in their right mind would try it?
(7) Star relievers like Wagner and Rivera get clobbered?
(8) HAL rountinely calls in the wrong pitcher at the wrong time?
(9) HAL replaces one left handed specialist who has faced only one left handed batter with another left hand specialist to face the next batter who--you guessed it--is another left handed batter?

I used to enjoy playing the board game, but the computer game outright sucks!

Sorry, but my team is going to finish this season on auto pilot. I've wasted enough time on this game. Not a dime further to Strat and it gets erased tonight.

Good luck to the rest of you.

I was going to respond point-by-point to the manager's complaints, but seriously, what's the point? This game isn't for everyone. Here's a good check list to see if SOM is right for you. I'm not necessarily saying any given point applies to our unhappy manager:

1. Will a string of bad luck make you come unglued? (OK, I'm guilty of this one!)
2. Do you expect that every good move will be rewarded?
3. Do you insist that AI will come through and make every move you would have made?
4. Do you expect "realistic" results (where hitters hit their average and pitchers duplicate their ERAs and WHIP) in $80 million (and higher) leagues? (Sorry, it's mathematically impossible.)

Now our unhappy manager does have some points about base stealing settings. Not being able to shut down stealing of third (which is poorly executed in the game itself) is a weak point in the game.

Also, I've never had any luck trying to use lefty/righty specialists, though I believe some have. However, I have had very good results otherwise with Bullpen v2. The tools are there to get your bullpen to behave the way you like; you just need to learn how to use them.

Whoops, there I went with a point-by-point rebuttal, so I'll quit here. I'm sorry our manager had such a poor experience to the point of rage quitting. However, I can assure him the game, while not for him, is actually a lot of fun and has a lot more good going for it than bad.

i just dont understand why a base runner with a 8 rating is sent a extra base! of course they get thrown out! this happens a lot of the time!