Gagne

If you have used him (either card) I'm curious as to how you use him.
Do you use him as a 9th inning closer only? Or do you try to get him to pitch the 8th and 9th?

I used expensive Gagne in a 100m Franchise League. Had him set as Closer, Maximize, don't enter before 8th. He made 57 appearances, with 44 saves. Made 12 appearances of 2 IP. The rest were less than 2IP.
I had Steve Howe as Setup.

i've used him several times. regardless of what i checked HAL will use him in the 8th if its a close situation. there is no 9th inning only setting. don't know if this matters but i always check maximize closer to get the most out of his card but this backfires when he's being pitched frequently and HAL brings him in for the 8th. he fatigues rather quickly and tends to lose. so his season stats will be 40-5 to 10 in saves but with a losing W/L record. best i've had is 40-2 in forbes 80mil with the worst a 35-10 in royals 100mil. seems like nathan, papelbon and some of the cheaper 1 inning closer have done just as well.

i just noticed that when Gagne gets fatigued, he seems to go from F9 to F0 in one batter? no F7, F4, etc. in between. then again, i looked a little further Gagne pitched in game 128, then wasn't used until games 140/141 back to back(team went on a 2-9 losing streak). he faced 4 batters in game 140, then 7 batters in game 141, coming into both games in the 8th in close situations. he closed both games whilst maintaining an F9 rating thoughout both games. so the bottom line, is i don't have a clue how strat determines F ratings. i do know in the first game he threw only 12 pitches then followed up with 22. maybe 25 pitches is the limit or 40 pitches back to back. anyone know? and if you did, you still couldn't manage differently. seems for that we'd need pitch count option boxes to check?

I like Gagne's 5.53 card. Used him most recently in the 60m Barnstormers to help offset a 14m starting rotation. Used Max closer and slotted him for most if not all of the late inning roles. Stat line was 78 appearances, 37 saves only 4 blown saves and a 1.01 whip, also was 2nd on my team in K's. Surprisingly 33 of his appearances were 2+ innings. Paired him with one of the cheap Lee Smith cards and Cecil Upshaw as bridges from that starting staff.