Posted by contrarian23 on 7/16/2012 6:38:00 AM (view original):
Thanks crazystengel.  I am 100% sure the deciding factor is not alphabetical order (though frankly, that wouldn't bother me - if you're putting multiple people in the same role, you are effectively telling Sparky "hey, I consider all of these guys to be roughly equivalent.")

I use Toney and Nehf as my Set Up As fairly commonly.  In every case, Toney appears in many more games than Nehf.  And in games when both are used, Toney is invariably brought in first.

Posted by soxdoc on 3/6/2012 3:23:00 PM (view original):
With regard to Setup A vs B ...

I typically set all of my relievers to Setup A, forgoing a closer and LH/RH specialists. I also use a mop-up. I chart every game and keep track of how many pitches are thrown by every pitcher so I don't go over the allotted maximum until near the very end of the season, if at all. So even if one of the pitchers is still at 100% rest, I try not to throw them more than 2 games in a row, especially if they can be used as a spot starter at the end of the season/playoffs.

So occasionally, I have games where I may only actually have 2 or 3 available relievers. In that situation, I will sometimes set one of the guys I would prefer to not pitch as Setup B, in the hopes that the game will be over before I use the starter and 3 relievers. Most of the time, this works like a charm, and my guy gets a second straight day off. But I have seen on some occasions that the Setup B comes in before the Setup A.

This usually occurs when my team is losing, or in the 8th or 9th inning when my starter has reached his MPC and I am winning by greater than 5 runs. I wish I had boxscores to confirm this, but I don't.

So for the most part, Setup A will come in before Setup B, but I think that Sparky looks at Setup A as a more elite pitcher, and chooses Setup B when the game is not as close and an easier victory is at hand.

I don't believe there is ever an "unexplainable" decision.  In every single case I am aware of in which (a) Sparky has made an "unusual" decision and (b) a support ticket has been sent inquiring as to why - it has always turned out that there is a very logical explanation.  The most common ones are (a) pitchers were fatigued and therefore not available (b) the settings were not what the owner thought they were (forgot to check a relief box, forgot to set a pitch count, etc).

If I could give newbies one piece of advice on the bullpen it would be this: if you find that your relievers are being used in unexpected ways, or counter to your instructions, there is always a logical reason for it.  There are absolutely no documented errors to the algorithm - no instances where Sparky says "I know the instructions say to use Pitcher X, but I'm going to use Pitcher Y anyway."

I say no "documented" errors deliberately.  If anyone has concrete evidence of an error in the algorithm - and has the support ticket response from admin to prove it - please post that here so that we can understand what the error is.