Bullpen (Non) Management

This has been discussed for the last few years following bpv3, but another anecdote for the unconvinced.

Hypothesis remains unchanged: Setting more control limits on your bullpen has diminishing returns

Why--well, who knows but I think HAL has no way to weigh the business rules and makes choices we don't expect because he runs into conflicting decisions.

Anecdote of demonstration yet again: no one here is set to anything except A. Donald, who is mopup. All others are only on avoids and quick hook but no roles. Note LaRoche as an outlier was my fault--I set him wrong the first week because I wasn't really paying attention. He has since been aligned as the rest.

Donald, Atley (1940) (R, E)
vs. L 25 7 5 4 1 .350
vs. R 28 7 6 3 1 .333

DiPino, Frank (1986) (L, 7L)
vs. L 15 0 2 3 0 .000
vs. R 3 2 0 0 0 .667

Lasher, Fred (1968) (R, 5R)
vs. L 1 0 0 0 0 .000
vs. R 10 4 0 1 2 .400

Drago, Dick (1978) (R, 7R)
vs. L 1 1 0 0 0 1.000
vs. R 18 2 1 1 1 .118

Laroche, Dave (1980) (L, 6L)
vs. L 26 4 3 3 1 .174
vs. R 19 5 2 3 0 .313

I've recently made similar changes and it's (mostly) working better. I'll still name lefty/righty specialists and mopup. Seems to be working better than usual but still not as good as it could be.

That said, I'll concede that putting together an AI logic for bullpen simulation has got to be a ridiculously impossible task. It needs to do better, but it'll never be perfect, or even close to it.

HAL still gets my vote for managing the BP. Aside from strong left/right and quick hook. HAL must like small ball.

I agree with this -- I usually don't set any roles anymore, just the avoid, quick hook, minimum innings for the cheap specialist bullpen. On larger budget teams, basically the same. This works well in smaller cap scenarios for the Four Ace Starter (or Five Ace) strategy. On the larger budget teams, will check all those boxes and no roles, usually not use the Ace Starter strategy, but maybe a slow hook if it's a very good rotation. Bullpen then seems to work fine.

Confirmed. Less is more in bullpen settings.

thanks for chiming in guys!

One thing i forgot to mention--my use of the highest priced RP as a mopup is not ideal. Sometimes HAL views Donald as the best option against a R or L even though one of the specialists are available.

this starts to get toward rearranging deck chairs on the sinking ship, but it does sometimes matter.

I've tried the "Free Range" approach a few times, with mixed results. I still prefer setting defined roles for all of my relievers and it seems to work out pretty well most of the time.

Allowing a third role per reliever would be a nice compromise between the tougher bullpen restrictions in ATG9 and the super-reliever era of ATG8, in my opinion.

hmmm cheers Bill...worth mentioning YMMV depending on one's play style
still just hypothesizing after all

The good news is Dale Murray is rotting on the waiver wire.

Dale often rots on the waiver wire. The fact is, I've found ways to use Hal to make my bullpens the stars, recent team that had a BP carry a championship. Sp's were 56-55- BP went 30-18 for the difference in the victory. I set. one closer, setup & middle man x' 2, L special, r special, mop up x's 2 and close L close R. different from my one closer. Works often enough