Thanks alot HAL!!!

Game six of the finals, HAL makes the genius decision to bring in Eric Gagne to relieve, he has pitched the previous 3 games and enters the game in the 9th inning with my team leading 9-6 as an F0 fatigue rating.

Walter Johnson and Dutch Leonard sitting on the bench along with Atley Donald who has not pitched a single inning in the entire 6 game series.

What does HAL do? He decides to bring in my totally spent closer instead (yes, he is set as my closer).

He promptly give up 6 runs with all 11 batters rolling on their cards BTW ... Series over ... Thanks HAL!!!

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/game/426509/992

Game six of the finals, HAL makes the genius decision to bring in Eric Gagne to relieve, he has pitched the previous 3 games and enters the game in the 9th inning with my team leading 9-6 as an F0 fatigue rating.

Walter Johnson and Dutch Leonard sitting on the bench along with Atley Donald who has not pitched a single inning in the entire 6 game series.

What does HAL do? He decides to bring in my totally spent closer instead (yes, he is set as my closer).

He promptly give up 6 runs with all 11 batters rolling on their cards BTW ... Series over ... Thanks HAL!!!

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/game/426509/992

I understand your frustration - but Atley Donald did start Game 4 and Walter Johnson did start Game 5 - that may be why HAL would not use them yet. In addition, Dutch Leonard is not carded as a relief pitcher, just S8*. I do not think HAL will use a player carded only as a starter until all relievers have been in the game??

I am not sure how Bennett and Littell are set in your pitcher settings, but those settings may have led to McCool facing only one batter and being pulled for Littell to face a right-hander (Cuyler) and Littell getting pulled later on for Bennett to face a left-hander (Carew) - so you do not get that much out of those three relievers.

Not sure if you were really looking for a possible explanation for HAL - But - you would think that Gagne deserves better than to face 11 straight hitter card rolls in Game 6 of the Finals even if this is his fourth straight game and is at F0!!

My bad on Donald, I thought he had not pitched. Still frustrating that HAL couldn't come up with a better solution than bringing in a guy who is wiped out ...

And then 11 straight rolls on hitters cards to add insult to injury.

Oh well, my team was actually lucky to have been there since I snuck into the playoffs on the final night of the season. LOL

I don't think Hal typically brings in starters until extra innings unless they are S/R, have not started recently, and are assigned a relevant super Hal bullpen role.

There is no it's the World Series, there is no tomorrow, all hands on deck mode in the game engine.
Maybe should be but .....

HAL was listening to his manager who would have the opportunity to not bring in Gagne if he did not want him brought in by taking him out of the role of closer, but apparently wanted him in anyway.

That could be a good point. By game 6 you are playing one game a day.

Of course that opens a new can of worms. Is it possible to know say between games 5 and 6 what the fatigue status of our various relief pitchers are? Could one have known in advance of that game Gagne would enter at F0? It also speaks to the argument in favor of having a travel day between games 5 and 6. In real life Gagne would have got to rest a day and probably not been gassed on the first hitter.

While on that subject can we hit rewind. If he had thought ahead and removed Gagne from closer role after game 4 so he was not used in game 5, would that possibly have got him at full F9 strength for games 6 AND 7?

I sent an email to online strat calling this thread to their attention and asking them if John could address in his blog whether doing something prior to game 5 to keep Gagne out would have had sufficient benefit for last 2 games to make it a useful strategy. Be very interested in reading his input on this one. It could change how I handle some of my finals assuming I get back there some day.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could see the exact fatigue level our pitchers in REAL TIME before cutoff time to prepare settings for the evenings games ? I know it's going to change after the first game, but wouldn't it be one more tool we could use to counter the (lack of) HAL Intelligence ?

HAL was listening to his manager who would have the opportunity to not bring in Gagne if he did not want him brought in by taking him out of the role of closer, but apparently wanted him in anyway.

Clearly his manager is an idiot ... But, shouldn't there be some kind of logic to override such things?

Should we really have to check every team and every pitchers settings, consecutive games pitched, etc. every night???

Wouldn't it be nice if we could see the exact fatigue level our pitchers in REAL TIME before cutoff time to prepare settings for the evenings games ? I know it's going to change after the first game, but wouldn't it be one more tool we could use to counter the (lack of) HAL Intelligence ?

That would be a wonderful thing MM. A manager should know the status of his staff before a game, right?