Explain Hal's Reliever Methodology to Me!

Take a look at this team:

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1708887

Why did Mike Garman get the most innings of my Righty Specialists? He's the least expensive and has a lower Fatigue rating than Linzy, yet HAL went to him the most.

My question is why???

I have no roles set. All 3 are set to Quick Hook, Avoid Lefties. Nothing else.

I can't explain it, but at least it didn't hurt you. Linzy has the most saves and save attempts, suggested that he pitched in the most critical situations, and Garman has a decent ERA and went 2-0. But why HAL does what he does with the bullpen remains something of a mystery, even to veteran managers.

I have a little story of my own. In a current 175M league, where I could afford four good RPs, I have a five man starting rotation including two LHP (Schaup and Snell). My team was headed, luckily for me, to top seed in the playoffs. And all three of the teams I was mostly likely to meet in the playoffs had all RHB lineups that kill LHP. And the league had a only a 5% drop penalty through game 142. So I decided to cash in a couple of 2M+ backup hitters to get a RH starter to pitch during the semis in place of Snell, who has tended to be shelled by RH dominated lineups. Len Barker, a 3.99M SP5/R3, seemed like the best available option. So I picked him up before game 142, and immediately HAL fell in love with him and started using him as an RP, ahead of my other RH RPs including Putz, Soria and Romo. Sort of surprising. Barker didn't do badly at all, posting a 2.45 ERA with one win and one save, while pitching 18 innings. But why HAL would feature him over my other guys was hard to figure. Barker is now pegged to start in game 5 of the semis against that all RHB lineup. We'll see how he does.

BTW, although I don't usually set roles for RPs, I decided to feature Romo, a 6R who gives up zip vs RHB, in the semis. I hoped to get a lot of innings out of him by giving him the Middle Man and Setup roles vs my all-RHB opponent. My team won games 1 & 2 and Romo pitched in both, covering 5.2 innings and notching a win (as middle man) and save (as setup). Games 3 & 4 play tonight. We'll see how that goes--for one thing, will HAL see Romo as fatigued and not pitch him in game 3? Still, it does seem that in specific situations, such as a RHB or LHB lineup, setting roles for RPs might be a good idea.
Here's the team:
https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1709221

FYI--I did a little experiement.
I almost always do a similar thing--no roles except mopup.
But I found on some teams HAL was bringing in my mopup guy for the R-L situations first, and then the other R-L guys were a riddle to figure out.

Recently I assigned the extreme R/L types as R/L specialists and put them ahead of the mopup.
So,
R specialist #1
L specialist #1
R specialist #2
L specialist #2
Mopup

Since I switched--HAL uses them in exactly this order almost regardless of the situation.

Let me ask about a new wrinkle.

I like to use the NeL pitchers - one bonus is that most of them qualify as relievers.

I have found I can set guys like rogan and Brown and Mathis in a couple of ways:
1. I always set them for extra innings or "tied and late"
2. They can often double as "closer v R/L" or even as a specialist

The pitchers don't seem to get used in a way that affects their starting roles.

Interesting discussion. I do shy away from assigning roles moreso these days, but I will definitely set preferences for the specialists. So, like this for like an 80M or 100M team:

Over $1M relievers:
Baumgartner, a lefty, (no preferences)
Charlie Hall, a righty (no preferences)
Under $1M relievers:
Sherry, a right (set to avoid lefties, quick hook, 1-2 innings max)
Dave Roberts, a lefty, (set to avoid righties, quick hook, 1-2 innings max)
Chad Bradford, a righty (set to avoid lefties, quick hook, 1-2 innings max)

For a 4-Ace team with *9 innings starter capabilities, I use a bullpen of four or even five specialists like above, under $1M, with those settings. Usually Hal will wheel thru them for the best match-up. With *9 starters, this usually happens in extra innings or other infrequent situations, and I think it's a decent outcome despite the risk when he runs out of match-up favorability, or just does something "Hal notorious."

I never spend too much on a bullpen, except, of course, in high cap leagues when it's feasible.

All this is probably not new or much different than what the veteran owners routinely do.