Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Howdy,

70s game question. Does HAL know what card a new/unused relief pitcher is having, even if he hasn't thrown a pitch? Given HAL's handling of relief pitchers with unspecified bullpen roles..it would appear so. He'll use a 75 cent pitcher, while leaving say, Vicente Romo in the bullpen (Romo costs over $2 mil). Anyone?

Larryrickenbacker wrote:Howdy,

70s game question. Does HAL know what card a new/unused relief pitcher is having, even if he hasn't thrown a pitch? Given HAL's handling of relief pitchers with unspecified bullpen roles..it would appear so. He'll use a 75 cent pitcher, while leaving say, Vicente Romo in the bullpen (Romo costs over $2 mil). Anyone?

Absolutely, I agree that HAL knows which mystery card an unused/new relief pitcher has, based on similar experience to what you have described.

He definitely knows. He doesn't necessarily always make good decisions. It is hard to read anything into any one or two particular moves by HAL.

If he is consistently putting in the same guy when you are down 6 runs, he is probably your worst pitcher. But sometimes he will put your best pitcher in that situation (particularly if your best pitchers have not pitched any innings in several games or because HAL feels like it).

Similarly, if he is consistently putting the same guy in save situations, that guy is probably on a good card ( but not necessarily your best pitcher). But sometimes he will put an utterly awful pitcher in a save situation if (a) your good pitchers are tired and/or (b) the awful pitcher is, for example, a 5R lefty and the hitter is a 5R righty even thought the awful pitcher is still terrible against righties (just less terrible than he is against lefties).

In my experience you can tell more about pitchers he puts in blowout situations than you can about pitchers he puts in save situations.

I've noticed he will leave some starting pitchers in a lot longer even if they have given up a lot of runs. I think this may mean the starting pitcher is on a good card even if he is having a bad game.