In my final game of the season I had Buck O'Brien starting but wanted Joe Wood to come in to the game to finish it should the starter get into trouble. I set Wood as a Set Up A with a pitch count of 80-100 and a pull setting of 1. Obrien my starter I had set to a pull of 5. The rest of my bull pen I changed to set up B. 

Obrien got into trouble early, sparky pulls him and puts in set up B, then uses Wood for only 39 pitches then pulls him to put in another set up B then finishes the game with a starter.

I obviously don't know what the frig I am doing and would appreciate any input to help me understand. 

https://www.whatifsports.com/slb/Boxscore.aspx?gid=25233339&pid=1&pbp=0&tf=10

What inning did you have Wood available in?

Yes, inning availability is a big thing:

1. If you wanted Wood to come in as soon as O'Brien got into trouble and to remain in the game for his entire PC, you could have set his INN AVAIL at 2, and all the other pitchers at 9.

2. If you wanted O'Brien to use up his PC, you could have set Wood to be available in the 8th, and all other pitchers the 9th.  Unless O'Brien pitched into the 9th, without question Wood would have come in first.

wood was available "any".I hoped he would have been called in the 2nd or 3rd. I thought of using him as Long A but I didn't because I thought if my starter got to the 6th or 7th maybe sparky would have been looking for a set up man instead of Long A...Wood was my best pitcher all year and I wanted him. I suppose I could have shut everybody else down and put them in "rest" mode but that seemed extreme.

Oops, forgot "any" was an option.  Make that "any" instead of "2" in my 1st scenario for Wood's INN AVAIL.

Crazy, that's a good suggestion. I could have fiddled around with the other pitcher's inning availability to prevent them from coming in before Wood. I just thought a set up A would be used before a set up B. I am wrong about that.

When there's no tomorrow, so to speak, setting people you don't want to pitch to "Rest" (and unchecking the Relief checkbox in Advance Settings) is good practice.

It is definitely not the case that a Set Up A (or Long A) is always used before Set Up B (or Long B).  Different situations lead to different usage patterns.  crazystengel's suggestions are the best way to go.  ozomatli's suggestions are also good.

In your particular game, O'Brien got pulled with the score 3-0 in the top of the second.  It is likely that Sparky thinks that's not a good time to burn a Set Up A...whom he will regard as one of your best pitchers...in this case, you gave him lots of other options.

Note that, as far as I know, Sparky does NOT consider the importance of the game to the overall standings.  This would be very difficult to program, I am sure.  So if you really want him to make certain decisions, you have to basically give him as few other options as possible.

Other things to consider....
-- Uncheck the PH box for the pitcher in the advanced sittings.  Even if you set call bullpen = 1, if there is a situation where Sparky thinks a PH is warranted, and he has other pitchers available who can come into the game, you may get PH for.  This is risky and can backfire...notice that in your game, the reason Wood got pulled is you were trailing in the bottom of the 8th and Sparky sent up a pinch hitter....who promptly singled in the tying run with 2 outs.
-- Increase Wood's TPC and MPC to max levels.  Yes, there is a small likelihood that the game goes deep into extra innings and he ends up pitching fatigued....but I would rather take that chance than risk having pulled while he has ANYTHING left in the tank

Contrarian thanks for your input. Good ideas. I should have had Wood unchecked PH box all year being that he hit .291 with 4 HR. The guy that came in to pinch hit for him, Henrikson batted only .222 all season. In real life I would have left Wood in to hit...going forward though I will look at the PH settings as well. 

If set up A does not necessarily get called before set up B what are the designations used for? I have always used my better relievers in the set up A and the not so good guys in the B. 

Joe Wood is a good hitter too Winnetka. You don't even really need to pinch hit for him. Another route you might have taken would have been to set O'Brien and Wood up as a Tandem. I don't know how the rest of your rotation was set up so perhaps that wasn't an option. Which brings up something I find foolish in this game and that should be changed...the fact you cant set up tandems anyplace within your rotation.

96 games into a progressive and I have one pitcher as a left handed specialist and one as a right handed specialist, they've been there since game 1, their settings are to use from the 6th inning on both set at 5-10 pitches. Sparky has put these two players into a game not at all. I'm going to keep them there for the rest of the season which ends 10/25/15 to see what happens.

I always use this thread the figure out bullpen stuff:

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=452075&page=1

 

what i wanted from specialists was poor man's closers, 25 and 40 inning guys used situationally when things get tight mid-game

long to setup quality, but in to induce the double play or get out of a jam, especially when their spot is due to come up

alas sparky has no such sophistication