The Super Reliever Fiasco

Just checked the ATG wiki. The record is 44 wins by Babe Adams, who also had 31 saves that season.

"Final tally for Mr. Murray. 43 wins - 368 IP"

Beyond ridiculous.

How can anyone rationalize this???

Final tally for Mr. Murray. 43 wins - 368 IP

Nuff said.

Curious to know what that teams overall record was for the season.

Final tally for Mr. Murray. 43 wins - 368 IP

Nuff said.

Curious to know what that teams overall record was for the season.

Here you go:

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1449263

(Full disclosure: I am the "offending" team here, chiming in again)

Let's keep in mind that this set encompasses all eras, including a card for Old Hoss Radbourn for a season in which he pitched 678 innings in real life. As inconceivable as some of the these results would be in the modern game, having the flexibility to mix eras and to structure teams and players in such a way as to get unusual or unconventional results is interesting to me and one of the joys of this game. "Realistic" in this context does not have very much meaning. Realistic to whom, to which era? Although deadball-era managers did not use the super-reliever strategy we see in stratomatic, it is conceivable that they could have, and this game is an opportunity to experiment with "what if" management scenarios like that and many others.

And this particular example of Murray winning 43 games is the 2nd highest win total ever across the many thousands of seasons that have been played- as extreme an outlier as they come- and so not necessarily the best example for what is wrong with the game.

That said, despite the outlying nature of this particular Murray season, this is the 3rd time I've had him win 30+ games in recent history. The card is not only undervalued - it is a mistake. The Last Druid makes the good point above that it should just be cut from the deck, because pricing it appropriately would bring its own problems, and imply that the real life Murray had an impact analogous to Babe Adams, which he did not.

I don't think additional reliever restrictions are the answer. Allowing maximum managerial freedom is what keeps this game interesting. I don't think Sutter- and Wilhelm-abuse are nearly as much of a problem, because they were great pitchers, they are priced more appropriately, and I can conceive of an alternate reality where they would be used for 250+ innings out of the pen. But I'm beginning to realize that having Murray is is essentially like getting an extra $3m for your team. Sutter and Wilhelm (and especially Adams) aren't as much like getting 2 players for the price of one, and so require more of a trade-off if you want to put that $ in your pen.

To sum up: I think it's fine to do crazy things with crazy cards, but if this one crazy card in particular is out of hand, it should just be burned, as opposed to lead to an overhaul of the rules. What is ATG for if not insane cross-generational chaos? The single season sets are for the realists; ATG is for the misfits!

Minute Maid ’05 is a very effective antidote against this strategy.

Can someone tell me how to unlock the secret of the super reliever? HAL refuses to put in Schupp and Adams. My rotation is blank and I have those two for most of the setup, closer and tied settings. Still HAL brings in the RP only.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1453868

You need to pick one - either Schupp or Adams to be primarily relief pitcher and be willing to skip starts. Put the other starting pitchers into the rotation. Let us presume you exclude Adams from the rotation, and include him in the relief roles, you can leave Schupp in the relief roles but HAL will not use him much. Use Farmer against a righty team and pull early and after Schupp has pitched say game 1 of rotation and game 6 of rotation with BABE ADAMS available as reliever watch to see what BABE does, then play games 7-9 with Adams still as reliever and SCHUPP resting. Now for game 10 look to see how much Adams pitched and if he missed game 9 start him in game 10, replace SCHUPP in starting rotation with ADAMS and pitch ADAMS in game 10 and then game 15 with SCHUPP as your super reliever. If Adams pitched in game 9 you are going to have to wait to game 11 to pitch ADAMS and then pitch SCHUPP in game 13 and put SCHUPP back into rotation and ADAMS as reliever only. Keep repeating this general pattern you can both start Adams and Schupp but it requires using a 6th starter.

Please. let's not teach gamers how to use cards in an unrealistic way and exploit the game.

It's bad enough some are doing it on their own. Let's not invite others to that "party".

You need to pick one - either Schupp or Adams to be primarily relief pitcher and be willing to skip starts. Put the other starting pitchers into the rotation. Let us presume you exclude Adams from the rotation, and include him in the relief roles, you can leave Schupp in the relief roles but HAL will not use him much. Use Farmer against a righty team and pull early and after Schupp has pitched say game 1 of rotation and game 6 of rotation with BABE ADAMS available as reliever watch to see what BABE does, then play games 7-9 with Adams still as reliever and SCHUPP resting. Now for game 10 look to see how much Adams pitched and if he missed game 9 start him in game 10, replace SCHUPP in starting rotation with ADAMS and pitch ADAMS in game 10 and then game 15 with SCHUPP as your super reliever. If Adams pitched in game 9 you are going to have to wait to game 11 to pitch ADAMS and then pitch SCHUPP in game 13 and put SCHUPP back into rotation and ADAMS as reliever only. Keep repeating this general pattern you can both start Adams and Schupp but it requires using a 6th starter.

Thanks, too much work for me.Think I'll just downgrade SP and upgrade bullpen.