I see it as wasted innings for your best pitchers. I’d rather get 1 2/3 out of a stud short reliever in the 7th and 8th innings than 1 inning in the 9th. You can lose a game in those innings just as easily as you can in the 9th. The 9th inning doesn’t carry extra weight.

Long story short, I like to maximize the innings I get out of my best pitchers.

You can set it where your closer comes in earlier if you need them to.

Well because I’ve have always had more success with a closer than not with a closer... pretty simple

I do something I know y'all think is nuts, I use my best RP as a SuA and a "flawed" guy as my Closer.

Think back to when Mariano Rivera pitched the 8th inning and John Wetteland pitched the 9th. Everyone knew Mariano was better.

As has been said, I want my SuA available for the most important innings. Often the 9th inning isn't it. Three outs starting with no men on base is technically a low leverage spot. So I go for the ugly save. Think Fernando Rodney.

I use a Closer because he's a guy I don't mind taking that extra low leverage inning off my best reliever's hands - so my best reliever isn't gassed for the next game. My Closers are usually pitchers with low DUR/STA, maybe lower splits, sometimes even lesser control if the splits are good. My best closer ever was a Lefty with one pitch - his P1 was 81 and his P2 was 60. I always had another RP on the roster who was "better" than him, that guy got the 7th and 8th innings.

Posted by jbugg08 on 2/13/2021 2:13:00 PM (view original):
You can set it where your closer comes in earlier if you need them to.

You are still not maximizing his innings, which means that you are wasting potential outs that your best reliever can get for you.

I always have 2-3 guys who could be closers so I use a closer and 2 SUA I set them for innings 7-8-9 and those teams have always been highly successful closing out games.

I never use a closer but what I’ve learned is if you set 3/4 guys to SUA, the sim ends up picking somewhat of an order for them to appear. So I’ve had SUA get 20+ saves because they tend to be the 3rd/4th guy the sim picks.

Having a closer is a waste of quality innings. Im ok with others using them. It just means I will win more games then them.

Yep. That’s about right.

My ideal closer is a really good pitcher with faily high stamina and low durability. I set my closer setting to only in closing situations. I like to play my best RP in the Set A spot to maximize innings. But, if my best RP is a guy with low durability then I will put him at closer. Here are some examples:

Detroit:
Set A (best reliever) - 75 innings in 77 appearances
Player Profile: Fausto Campos - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Closer - 52 innings in 54 appearances
Player Profile: Albert Guerrero - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports


New York - best reliever and my closer: 52 innings on 52 appearances (career highs for us)
Player Profile: Ordomar Lindor - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports

Just looking at profiles of responses to the thread shows that managers have won WS using both ways. The last two WS I won used a very low stamina(12) guy as closer. I made the WS last season(we lost in 7) using 3 guys as SUA. They pitched 150-111-66 innings with 18-11-20 saves respectively. Do things go as smoothly if I had one of them as closer....maybe. I don't know if I get as many innings out of them combined as I did using them as SUA. They pitched all but 1 inning in 18 playoff games last season. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen if one was a closer.