Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

ok, so, no one is set to pinch hit. Don Larsen (a righty) is pitching and Ed Kirkpatrick is up. HAL does this:

SUBSTITUTION at PH: Jerry Adair (R)
SUBSTITUTION at P: Wes Stock (R)
SUBSTITUTION at PH: Bubba Morton (R)

what does this mean? Why would HAL do this?

First of all, I am no expert at analyzing HAL's "strategy", but this would be my guess..

I'm assuming this is a Superstar Sixties league, since all of the players mentioned are in the player set.

If Larsen, a RHP, is pitching against Kirkpatrick, a LHB who generally does better against RHP, then I would assume that Larsen's season is either 1964 or 1965, which are the two seasons where he is more effective against LHBs (-1 both seasons). I would then go on to assume that Kirkpatrick's season is the 1970 season, the only one where he is more effective against LHP than RHP. HAL would consider that to be a worst case scenario (+2 favoring the pitcher).

Another factor would be if there was a clutch situation, as I've seen a lot of bizarre movements by HAL (runner in scoring position, two outs). If that was the case, then Kirkpatrick may have had a season where he has a lot of "clutch outs".

I figured that HAL thought Adair would be better than Kirkpatrick against Larsen. As a side note, I cut Kirkpatrick after seeing this pinch hitting move. But The really weird move was HAL substituting Morton for Adair. They are both right-handed hitters and Larsen and Stock are both right-handed pitchers, so why might HAL make this move? If Morton is better against righties, why not use him in the first place instead of Adair?

franky35 wrote:As a side note, I cut Kirkpatrick after seeing this pinch hitting move.

I would be curious after you get the season reveal if Kirkpatrick's season was 1970.