Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

I know it's very early, but after just 2 nights and 6 game, I'm already frustrated by HAL with this team ...

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1425098

I have two right specialists and two lefty specials to go with a mopup 5 inning guy and then Sutter and Murray.

My complaint is that the only specialist used thus far through 6 games is Steve Crawford and he's my second specialist against righties. So the whole idea was to give HAL plenty of lefty righty matchup options and he's not doing it anyways. In fact Crawford has faced something like 13 lefties and 8 righties.

Thoughts???

egvrich wrote:I know it's very early, but after just 2 nights and 6 game, I'm already frustrated by HAL with this team ...

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1425098

I have two right specialists and two lefty specials to go with a mopup 5 inning guy and then Sutter and Murray.

My complaint is that the only specialist used thus far through 6 games is Steve Crawford and he's my second specialist against righties. So the whole idea was to give HAL plenty of lefty righty matchup options and he's not doing it anyways. In fact Crawford has faced something like 13 lefties and 8 righties.

Thoughts???

Don't blame HAL, he is using Murray and Sutter to the max, but put Crawford and Schultz when those 2 got fatigued from extensive use. Doesn't look like Crawford was used as a specialist. The Specialists have specific rules
LH Specialist: Inning: 7+; Leading or trailing by 1-3 runs or tied; LH batters
RH Specialist: Inning: 7+; Leading or trailing by 1-3 runs or tied; RH batters

Others probably know better, but it doesn't seem like you need all those specialists with both Sutter and Murray.

If I have Sutter and Murray, my Specialists aren't going to get a lot of innings, at least I HOPE not. The only spot they MAY get used is early, between my lousy Starter and Sutter or Murray's entrance. I certainly don't want some LOOGY to replace Murray or Sutter.

The only reasons to like LOOGYs or their right-handed equivalents are:
1-they wont pitch much if assigned that role
2-they are cheap, enabling me to spend more $$ on other things (Offense, Murrays, Sutters, etc)

What do you want your team to do? In order to use specialists as you would like you need to set bullpen usage to aggressive, but then Sutter and Murray’s innings would be quite a lot lower. What you have going on, using Sutter and Murray for all possible innings seems pretty good use of your resources to me, the others will start getting more innings as Sutter and Murray get overused.

Your team is built on getting as many innings from Sutter and Murray as possible, regardless of the leverage situation of those innings. You cannot "save" Sutter and Murray for high leverage situations and expect to get your dollars worth out of them.

Before I read the rest of the thread and realized you had Sutter and Murray , I was going to respond to the original question with "you can't". You have to study HAL and then adjust your team according to HAL's predictable behavior. Otherwise you're just trying to cram a square peg into a round hole, a source of frustration to many.

So do I dump Crawford and Campbell? I guess my hope was that HAL would use all of the specialists in a sensible fashion in situations when Sutter and Murray were not available or simply didn't make sense.

And yes, I definitely want the BIG 2 getting as many innings as possible.

Just kinda surprised that he has allowed Crawford to face 13 lefty batters with Sambito and Campbell sitting there totally unused.

Is Crawford set for quick hook, avoid lefties, and max 1-2 IP?

As far as dumping , if I were gonna get rid of anyone it would be Shultz. In his case "even" balance means "sucks both ways". You need some cheap guys to fill out the staff and one way guys are the way to go.

Take a closer look at Crawford's games. Remember if his outings are short it could be that Hal is pinch hitting when he comes in. If that is the case, crawford comes in and Hal sends up a LH bat the rules of baseball say he has to face that batter.

Nice thread.