The Super Reliever

Why is Dale Murray so much better than any of the others who can be used as a super reliever? Is it because of his nice card plus his R4 rating? There are others who are R3s and have better cards.. How many extra innings can you get out of a R4 as compared with a R3.

No knock on Murray, but I prefer Sutter. Worth his weight in gold!

Steve, I agree! That's part of the reason I asked the question!

In short, yeah I think its that R4. Plus have you looked at his card? His price? -5 hold?

Sutter's the man though. I always wanna work up the courage to use one of Billy Wagner's cards.

Radagast,

I started my first non-theme ATG league last week, and I played a few theme (franchise) league. A major difference between ATG and 20XX is that you can't have any pitcher throwing on F6 and lower, they're getting hammered. I had Sutter's R2 (the 5M card) and Eckersley's (both R1 and R2), and more than 50% of the homeruns they allowed were when their F-status was getting under F8 (admittedly, my teams played in high-homerun stadiums).

Maybe I was just unlucky, but I rather think that it's about how the fatigue system is implemented. When a pitcher gets below F9, there is an increasing pourcentage of readings on the offensive cards, and the offensive cards in ATG are so much more loaded than in the 20XX, so the resulting effect is that the impact of letting a fatigued pitcher is much more hurtful in the ATG game.

So bottom-line, you don't want to have a fatigued reliever on the mound, so there's definitively greater value associated with higher endurance.

I can't tell though, from my experience if R3 is sufficient or if the positive value associated with R4 is worth the difference, but consider this: if you go with an aggressive approch with the bullpen, and put the quick hook sign on your cheap pitchers, they will be removed as soon as they allow something starting the 5th inning, unless you have a big lead. That leaves you with 4+ inning to cover in most tight games. So either you go with Sutter's R3 and have another reliever to back him up, or you go with a R4. Another option is that you don't go with the quick hook, but select the 6 innings max for all your cheapie starters, in which case, Hal will be more likely to wait until the 6th inning to remove them, which will leave you with 3 innings to cover in most games.

Sutter's the man though. I always wanna work up the courage to use one of Billy Wagner's cards.

I have used and continue to use Wagner cards a lot. Both versions. Funny thing is though looking back I have not had great results out of either card. Cards look great. And I am stubborn. Probably will take a few more teams before I give up trying to get a big year out of one of them.

Funny that the three players mentioned here are all on my team.... never done this before but trying super reliver by committee in an 80mil league....

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/1417423

Would love some feedback on how to program the settings. So far the settings are:

Closer: Regular
Reflier: Agresssive
LHSpecialist: Hassler (Avoid RHB, QuickHook)
RHSpecialist: Sherry (Avoid LHB, QuickHook)

Sutter, Wagner, and Murray all have no settings designated.

I may be off, but with all 3 of Sutter, Murray, and Wagner. I would not want Hassler nor Sherry ever to pitch.
So...I would drop them (and Fisher) and get a cheap SP only pair ... such asConroy amd Ruthven plus another pinch hitter to fill out the roster.

Then use the few cents saved to upgrade something.

Personally, with that 3 man bullpen, I'm not concerned about roles, because whoever pitches will be stellar out of the pen

I would keep Hassler and Sherry, even with the 3 big relievers. If you dropped both you would still need to pick up something to fulfill the 9 pitcher requirement. Looks like your league uses NL rules which means the super relievers may get pulled for pinch hitters. Combine that with fatigue and you may occasionally get bad usage decisions by HAL with only 3 relievers. So as long as HAL is not using the cheapo specialists too much I would keep them as specialists. Might as well get something for you money as long as you have to spend it on a roster spot anyway. Plus looking at your first 3 games appears they are being used for single batter specialist just like you would want. With only 3 relievers to choose from Hal might be more inclined to be.... well Hal.

Having three relievers is pointless at 80m. Of course, this might be sour grapes , as all of my three reliever set ups have been lame.

Two relievers will take 85% of the relief innings. >1m specialists will be fine with the rest. (the sub 1m will be about .500 in w/l and 67% in saves).