Bullpen tips?

Can anybody give any tips on how to have a somewhat successful bullpen? Ive tried many different angles and nothing seems to stick, Im trying to learn this 365 game and so far my bullpen has been my weak link, Any insight would be greatly helpful seeing what Ive been doing and trying surely is not, Ive even tried setting my closer to setup and close, have 1 guy for righty's and 1 for lefty's and 1 for middle relief. I cant get them into the right time for a good outcome, Thanks in advance if anybody has any ideas for this 365 rookie,

Nothing? pitcher just had relief 1 inning 8 hits 13 runs? went into the 7th with a 4-2 lead starter gets pulled and poof, how does he stay pitching?

can you post a link to some of the teams? Its hard to say what to do when we dont know the pieces you are playing with.

Ok I have no clue on sharing any links but I can list a few of my teams bullpen's,
Jensen 2016. Kimbrel 2012. Rhodes 2001
Selma 1970. Hiller 1974. Farrell1958
Cecil. 2013. Jenks. 2005. Jenks 2005
Pina 1973, A.lopez 1984. Rodney 2013
Larsen 1962. Larsen 1962. Shirley 1986

what am I missing most of the teams that beat me their guys have less talent?

Never mind, I think Im moving on from 365 and just stick with C/D, This HAL isn't close to real odds so far Ive played and seeing the same numbers and way more for the other teams almost 65% plus the crazy moves favoring my opponent, I get ballpark 1-15 out they get 1-2 HR? and its over and over, Or guys with a 1-17 running are thrown out by a +1, Gehrig batting under .200? Have a shortstop has more HR's and his card has 10 in 650 ab's, thanks guys and good luck, just disappointed is all,

Sorry to see you get so frustrated Steve,

For the record - the way to point someone to one of your teams is just copy/paste the url from your teams roster page like so:

https://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1689021

This one may be a bit off for your questions since it's built on a funny budget of $114million.

But it can show you how I set generally try to set my bullpens. Sometimes it works well, sometimes not.

I'm also not one of those guys who usually sets their starters for deep pitching runs (if they are really a top starter [over 10mill in ATG games, gut call in annuals games] I may set them to do not pull before F8) so I do hope that my pen will pull some weight.

I generally try to get a High K / Low OBP guy to close for me. Yes they'll get hit around every now and then, but the hope is that they'll be able to come in and shut down a side if the rolls land on them.

I then try to find the cheapest strong L/L and R/R guys I can. I don't think I'm giving away the farm here saying that the $1.1m Kent Tekulve in ATG is one that almost everyone guns for for that R/R spot. I've missed out on him with his draft position as high as 8th before. Barely 3% OBP against righties with a 30% K chance on his card for barely a million. There are others available out there but for one of the the cheapest righty killers he is hard to pass up.

I set the above two in the appropriate RH Specialist / LH Specialist spots with quick pull and Avoid LHB/RHB as appropriate. Make sure you double check these settings as for some reason about 65% of the time I set it, the first save seems to cancel the "Avoid" checkbox.

I then try to fill in two more RPs to fill in the following positions - Set-up and Middle Man. For both I try to avoid someone who is overly balanced in one direction or the other usually hoping to stick to a 2r - 2l range. Not always possible depending on salary cap and who is available but I can usually find someone I like.

For Set-up, I generally look for a cheaper version of my closer for the set-up - High Ks / Low OBP, and if possible (depending on my park) an opposite arm. It won't guarantee a switch to a weaker hitter in late innings but sometimes you get lucky.

Middle Man can become tricky - I generally want this person to have R3 or higher, but a solid pitcher with an R2 may end up here based on salary / availability restrictions. I think an R1 pitcher here is wasted as this person will more than likley come in and HAL will want to pitch them for at least 2 innings.

Another thing is understanding how HAL generally uses these roles:

Closer: Inning: 9+; Leading by 1-3 runs
Setup: Inning: 7-8; Leading by 1-3 runs
LH Specialist: Inning: 7+; Leading or trailing by 1-3 runs or tied; LH batters
RH Specialist: Inning: 7+; Leading or trailing by 1-3 runs or tied; RH batters
Tied & 9th+: Inning: 9+; Tied
Tied & Late: Inning: 7-8; Tied
Behind & Late: Inning: 7+; Trailing by 1-4 runs
Middle Man: Inning: 1-6; Leading or trailing by 1-4 runs or tied
Mopup: Any inning; Leading or trailing by 7+ runs
Closer vs. L: Inning: 8+; Leading by 1-3 runs; LH batters
Closer vs. R: Inning: 8+; Leading by 1-3 runs; RH batters

There may be a perfect situation for him to use your LH Specialist in the 6th. You're facing the 2-3-4 or 3-4-5 batters and they are all lefties, but HAL will still just see that it's the 6th so if you're starter is in a situation where he may be pulled, HAL would look to you're Middle Man first.

I also like to run a 4 *SP rotation in ATG and I use that last cheapy starter spot for the mop-up spot. It helps save my regular bullpen for their appointed duties.

Once again this is only one guys opinion on how to do it, but I find it works more than not. Call it 65-70% if the time. Maybe a little more or I might have already been trying to work something new.

Another thing I have found is to NOT set my team preference for aggressive relief. Will almost always pull your starters earlier than you want. Unless you're running a super reliever team, I'd never set this.

I also almost always set for Maximize closer. I know it's hit or miss. but the few times I didn't I had too many situations where my closer was too tired to be brought in to close and they went with a crappy sub. Almost always costing me the game.

Thanks for your help, very grateful, I still have some crazy HAL moments, I dont get how the other team seems to hit the TR1-1 2-20 fly out center field ? and gets the triple but I have a 1-19 HR and its a fly out? and maybe can you tell me how to read the play by play? I get the 9 for the pitcher but this ground ball 3b the it shows 3-H 2-3 1-2 b-0 after and the other thing is the numbers on the left side next to the batters name like 0 123 ? again thanks things have improved

Steve,

Just a couple things for you. It ALWAYS feels like the other team gets the hit or key play and we never get it but if you jot down every instance that it goes their way and then every time it goes your way you will find it isnt far off. We just seem to remember the bad times over the good times for some reason.

The gb 3b 3-H 2-3 1-2 b-0 means the runner on third went home, the runner on second went to third, the runner on first went to second and batter was out on a groundball to 3rd. (probably a gb C on the card)

The 0123 numbers are how many outs in the inning.

Thanks again for sharing you're experience playing Im not sure If Ive asked this before but is there somewhere in the play by play that shows what split number was picked for that play? Im a stat guy totally, I just wondered if they display it, seeing I try and track rolls trying to catch the good numbers for players cards by switching up my lineup against certain teams that would be another thing I'd like to follow, seeing Ive had a few days where I moved guys out of there normal slots in the order and seems HAL lights up that column say my 3rd hitter is a beast in the 3 well I move him to 4th HAL will give 2-3 at bats in that column, I know it should all even out I just try and catch that wave or hot roll, Of late its been for the other guy getting 7-8 hitters cards in 1 inning all in a row and back to back same numbers at times, doesnt matter who's pitching even the best of the best get beat on, again thanks,,,

No -- the splits numbers aren't shown for some reason in play by play.

Not mentioned but may be related to bullpen woes...

The last number in play by play is the fatigue rating of the pitcher after the AB--(usually F9). As that number drops toward F0 the pitcher gets more and more fatigued. Any time that rating is less than F9 there is a chance that the roll will be altered to favor the hitter (unfortunately that is transparent to us also--we only see the roll that was used).

No one knows how this works in the AI exactly--but if the fatigue is F8 there is a small% chance it will be altered, going to a larger and larger % chance as the fatigue gets worse--even when F0 it can still get worse if a pitcher stays in for multiple hitters at F0.

Check and see if your RP tend to be fatigued--if an RP pitches 3 games in a row he will come into the game fatigued usually (it's actually based on pitch count)--Sometimes if you have two of those long extra-inning games in a row or SP getting knocked out early in a game--the whole bullpen can be tired for that 3rd game--nothing you can do really in that case--but if you see trends of your better RP being tired a lot--you may need an extra good RP at the expense of a hitter--also beware of too many cheap RH/LH specialists now that they have to face 3 batters minimum(in 20XX)

If playing ATG a lot--especially higher salaried leagues, the pitchers are just going to get wacked around often, basically pitching to a lineup of all-stars all the time.

I play very little ATG, it is a different animal with pitching settings and a lot of 9 inning SP--I do tend to see the better pitchers set with F ratings to keep them in the game longer--in 20XX you want to just leave those f settings blank most of the time.