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HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 10:30 pm
by ScumbyJr
Having played enough 20xx, ATG, and less mystery leagues there are certain things that are HAL truisms.Here's 3 of them.

1) The designated injury player. The same player( s) will get injured multiple times during the season regardless of their injury rating.

2) The bonehead, makes no sense in anyway, attempts to steal. Example 9th inning down by 1, runner on 2nd, no outs. -how many times is he thrown out trying to steal 3rd regardless of the steal settings and bunting ability of the hitter.

3) Walk-off Homeruns. Has to be way more than real life. (other 9th inning rallies too).

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 1:03 am
by coyote303
I really relate to #1!

4) If when drafting a team you overlook having an adequate injury replacement for a position, guess who gets injured first?

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:32 am
by milleram
I can relate to the injuries too, especially the 1 guys that aren't limited---in 2012 set I carried Ortiz and Span on a lot of teams---Span got a 15 game injury every league, sometimes two, with 10 and 8 gamers thrown in---but I got over 500 AB out of Ortiz (4 injury) most every team, and 600 on one team.

It got so bad with Span it was just a joke, worst thing was several times Span and my backup were hurt. Ciriaco (my favorite bench guy last year, but a 5 CF) ended up in CF several games in a row.

The biggest thing I dislike about online is I have a no-DH preference--but HAL just can't manage the teams I like to put together--platoons and double switching, moving the pitcher into different batting slots HAL just doesn't handle well.

I have better success with dumbed down teams were HAL has little to do---(boring teams if I were played cards & dice)setting my teams for do not PH for and do not PR for, and do not steal even with 15-13 type guys.

9 obvious low injury starters on a DH team with a bunch of cheap almost unusable subs seems my best teams--I've tried several high injury teams, but all my high injury teams lose--with the exception of 2 high injury catchers.

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 12:17 pm
by l.strether
ScumbyJr wrote:Having played enough 20xx, ATG, and less mystery leagues there are certain things that are HAL truisms.Here's 3 of them.

1) The designated injury player. The same player( s) will get injured multiple times during the season regardless of their injury rating.

2) The bonehead, makes no sense in anyway, attempts to steal. Example 9th inning down by 1, runner on 2nd, no outs. -how many times is he thrown out trying to steal 3rd regardless of the steal settings and bunting ability of the hitter.

3) Walk-off Homeruns. Has to be way more than real life. (other 9th inning rallies too).

Firstly, like everybody, I have suffered these injustices and sometimes left the computer seething. However, most often, we fail to notice all the times our injury-prone players go un-injured, our players successfully steal third (or even home), and every time our relievers--including bad ones--successfully close games. It's just natural to notice the anomalies not in our favor, not those in it.

However, sometimes Scumby's "big three" do happen to certain players in inordinate amounts. This is a perfect example of when luck--in this case, bad luck--actually occurs in SOM...and it happens in games of different score differentials. Some players do get more bad luck in some areas than other players, and more good luck in some areas than other players. That's just the nature of luck, and luck is an inherent part of any probability game like SOM/SOM online.

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:49 pm
by nchavez
4). Hal brings in your LH specialist to face a lefty, gets the guy out and keeps him in for 3 RH's who pummel him.

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 4:09 pm
by l.strether
nchavez wrote:4). Hal brings in your LH specialist to face a lefty, gets the guy out and keeps him in for 3 RH's who pummel him.

This is why I, and others, argued for an option allowing managers to better limit the batters specialists face:
l.strether wrote:That's why it would be an "option." Many SOM managers use 5-6, and sometimes even 7, relievers on their team. Many of those managers do not want their loogys or roogys pitching beyond their assigned "targets," and they certainly don't want them pitching extended innings. So, the option would be perfect for them.

Some argued against this option. But like NChavez, most of us have faced this aggravating situation and would love for SOM to work to amend it.

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 6:02 pm
by blue turtle
ScumbyJr wrote:Having played enough 20xx, ATG, and less mystery leagues there are certain things that are HAL truisms.Here's 3 of them.

1) The designated injury player. The same player( s) will get injured multiple times during the season regardless of their injury rating.

2) The bonehead, makes no sense in anyway, attempts to steal. Example 9th inning down by 1, runner on 2nd, no outs. -how many times is he thrown out trying to steal 3rd regardless of the steal settings and bunting ability of the hitter.

3) Walk-off Homeruns. Has to be way more than real life. (other 9th inning rallies too).


1--Does seem to work that way, so I swallow hard and hope it isn't Jayson Werth and Hanley Ramirez, and instead the designated injury guy is Jon Jay or Brendan Ryan.

2. Yeah, why???? I am okay with skipping the sac bunt, but what's with the steals in that situation?!

3. I just figured walk offs were my just desserts for having a $1M closer....

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 8:50 pm
by JohnnyBlazers
There's a lot of walk off's in the game, but I notice that almost always in extra innings, a team will score 3 runs in the top of frame and the home team will score 4 or 5, etc etc. They can go 16 innings and no one scores except in the last inning where the game is decided - the visiting team can score 4 05, and the home team will ALWAYS come back, never a scoreless frame

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 9:22 pm
by l.strether
As I said earlier, there probably seems to be more walk-offs against our teams than there actually are. Because of their impact, they draw more of our interest than most other plays. It also seems unlikely HAL has a taste for walk-offs and purposely produces them to vex us.

However, it would be interesting if someone could analyze whether or not bullpen settings and managers' typical usage of them actually leads to more walk-offs than in MLB. I still believe it is an exaggerated phenomenon, but I would be willing to be convinced by a sound study.

I'm a pure Humanities guy, so I hope someone with mathematical/statistical/sabrmetrical skills would step in.

Re: HAL Truisms

PostPosted: Thu Jan 22, 2015 9:47 pm
by STEVE F
It is human nature to remember when those "low probability" chances occur than to remember when they don't.