Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

This is the team I am going to be referring to in this question...

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1407184

I want to look at 3 players on this team; Konstanty, Candini, and Lerch who make up the dregs of the bullpen.

As I write this, Lerch has been horrific, with 11 games, 5IP, an era of 21.64 and a WHIP of 4.01!!

Candini is not far behind/ahead (depending on your view) with 21 games, 25 IP, an era just shy of 12, and a 2.60 WHIP. Cy Young material compared to Lerch.

Meanwhile, Konstanty is not good, but comparatively he is the ace of the group. However, he has garnered only 9 games, with 9.2 IP, a 6.52 era and a WHIP of 1.66.

None of these 3 has any set roles in the 'pen, so they are all HAL choices when they appear. I have Lerch set to not appear before 8th, quick hook, and avoid righties. Looking at real life stats, Lerch threw 168 innings, which is why I suspect HAL goes to him often, but Konstanty had 97 and Candini had 30. Konstanty's card is notably better than either of them.

So why does HAL have such a thing for these two guys compared to Konstanty? And more generically, can anyone explain how HAL chooses relief pitchers when not using prescribed roles?

I don't play ATG but if settings are similar to 20XX--you need to assign most of your bullpen rolls (you can leave of the l/r ones if you want)--middleman comes in mostly 5th and 6th, setup 7th and 8th closers 9th but you can set them regular instead of maximize if you have a great setup that will cruise through the 9th.

Mopup man will be the ones hal avoids if possible (they will play if the other assigned relievers are tired), unless you have a 5 run deficit or lead--since they do come in with a large lead I like to assign a fairly decent guy to the 1st mopup and the worst on the team the second.

Hal still will make moves you don't like sometimes, but this will cut them down to fewer instances.

I appreciate your dedication to the Phillies.

Duren, (and to a lesser extent, Candini-R3) is getting the lion's share of the IP of the group because he is a R4. If you want him to get less, mark him MAX 1-2 IP and Quick hook.

Lerch just shouldn't be pitching. EVER. Make him your 5th starter so he will not be called upon. Besides, he's busy answering the door for the Addams family.

My suggestion: you have only one 15 game IJ risk besides your catchers---Manny Trillo. A cheaper 2b backup like Lunte or Jackie Hayes would have saved you .22. Trillo is a defensive specialist anyway. Why have an injury sub for him who can't field?
More importantly, I don't see a reason to be wasting 1.29 on Rojas. You could save another .79 by downgrading Rojas, who, in addition to his inability to really help defensively anywhere, he also doesn't allow Lopata or Boone to become bulletproof when the other one is injured.
That's 1m you could have used to upgrade Konstanty or Duren...........

andycummings65 wrote:I appreciate your dedication to the Phillies.

Lerch just shouldn't be pitching. EVER. Make him your 5th starter so he will not be called upon. Besides, he's busy answering the door for the Addams family.

He is the 5th starter. I don't understand why HAL calls on my 5th starter before exhausting the bullpen. If only I could get him to just answer the door to the bullpen.

andycummings65 wrote: My suggestion: you have only one 15 game IJ risk besides your catchers---Manny Trillo. A cheaper 2b backup like Lunte or Jackie Hayes would have saved you .22. Trillo is a defensive specialist anyway. Why have an injury sub for him who can't field?
More importantly, I don't see a reason to be wasting 1.29 on Rojas. You could save another .79 by downgrading Rojas, who, in addition to his inability to really help defensively anywhere, he also doesn't allow Lopata or Boone to become bulletproof when the other one is injured.
That's 1m you could have used to upgrade Konstanty or Duren...........

These are good points, and you are absolutely right. My logic at the time was 1) Rojas is my super sub who would play everywhere when anyone got injured. This may have been motivated in part by my previous experience, which was a franchise team with the Negro League players, who suffered through 232 games lost to injury. I went with emotion rather than logic on that one. 2) Samuel is really not a backup 2nd baseman as much as a pinch hitter since this is a non-DH league.

Not saying any of my reasons were right, and clearly with how it is working out, they were not.

For now, I am trying to fix the problem by dropping Candini and replacing him with a .5 bench player who will hopefully never see the field. Those innings will go to Konstanty, I hope, rather than Lerch. Otherwise I will sick Cousin Itt on him.

chris.sied@yahoo.com wrote:He is the 5th starter. I don't understand why HAL calls on my 5th starter before exhausting the bullpen. If only I could get him to just answer the door to the bullpen.

Make sure Lerch is listed in the Default Rotation in spot #5. If listed there, he should hardly, if ever, appear again.

andycummings65 wrote:

chris.sied@yahoo.com wrote:He is the 5th starter. I don't understand why HAL calls on my 5th starter before exhausting the bullpen. If only I could get him to just answer the door to the bullpen.

Make sure Lerch is listed in the Default Rotation in spot #5. If listed there, he should hardly, if ever, appear again.

Thanks! Hope that means he spends the rest of the season delivering water to the real bullpen guys.