HAL Mismanagement

Just had to share this situation of HAL doing all he could to undermine my team's chances of winning a game.

Enter top of the 7th, up 5-0 with Kevin Brown still pitching. A couple hits off the hitters cards and then some shotty Curt Blefary defense force him from the game. The team I'm playing has primarily LH hitters so I had stacked my bullpen to have Kenny Rogers, Trevor Miller, and Fred Sherman pick up all the relief innings. I had put Bob Klinger in as RH specialist, quick hook avoid LH batters, and Harry Eells had no role with avoid LH batters checked.

So Miller comes in and HAL correctly pinch hits with Tony phillips to face him and he of course gets a hit, Earl Combs follows with a ball park single. HAL decides to pinch hit again, this time with RH hitting Mike Kreevich who is worthless against RH pitchers. Miller yields about 45% vs RH batters, Kreevich is about 45% vs LH pitchers, 22% vs RH....this screams RH specialist!!! HAL does nothing on my behalf, Kreevich doubles off Miller, Miller is gone.

So the next four batters are Stargell, Reggie Jackson, Vaughan, and Johnny Edwards. All LH hitters. HAL in his infinite wisdom goes with Harry Eells, the pitcher I have to avoid LH hitters. For some reason he decides to completely bypass Fred Sherman or just simply leave Miller in the game. Not that Fred Sherman is awesome, but I'd much rather a LH pitcher face those 4 guys than Eells who is basically useless and i carried just too eat up some mop up innings. Things of course unravel from there and the 5-0 lead is now an 8-5 deficit, thanks HAL.

In retrospect, I did mess up by not removing Kenny Rogers from his roles. He had pitched the previous 3 games and was not available. I probably should have slotted Sherman into some of the later inning roles. Still, very frustrating to see HAL bring in the guy that is supposed to avoid LH hitters for 4 straight lefties.

http://365.strat-o-matic.com/game/playbyplay/437091/982

0 A.Vaughan 3-7 Fly Out (CF) b-0 F9
1 J.Edwards 2-9 Double (CF) b-2 F9
1 2 T.Teufel 3-6 Single (LF) 2-3 b-1 F9
1 1 3 T.Sizemore 5-12 Single & Error - 1B 3-H 1-3 b-2 gb(1B)x F4
SUBSTITUTION at P: Trever Miller
SUBSTITUTION at PH: Tony Phillips
1 23 T.Phillips 4-8 Single (LF) 3-H 2-H b-1 F9
1 1 E.Combs 4-10 Single (CF) 1-2 b-1 bpSI 1-15 F9
SUBSTITUTION at PH: Mike Kreevich
1 12 M.Kreevich 5-9 Double (LF) 2-H 1-H b-2 F7
SUBSTITUTION at P: Harry Eells
1 2 W.Stargell 4-6 Walk b-1 F9
1 12 R.Jackson 3-9 Walk 2-3 1-2 b-1 F9
1 123 A.Vaughan 2-7 Single (LF) 3-H 2-3 1-2 b-1 F9
1 123 J.Edwards 4-5 Walk 3-H 2-3 1-2 b-1 F9
1 123 T.Teufel Passed Ball 3-H 2-3 1-2 catch-x F9
1 23 T.Teufel 1-10 Line Out (SS) b-0 F9
2 23 T.Sizemore Int Walk b-1 F9
2 123 T.Phillips 1-7 Strike Out b-0 F9

It seems that because Scherman is a starter/reliever instead of a pure reliever, HAL hates to use him in a high leverage relief situation. I'm thinking unless Scherman is assigned a role that fits the situation, he will be used in an unpredictable fashion by HAL.