FAQ: How Sparky Uses His Bullpen (2012 Update) Topic

This boxscore confirms that your "if no other options" list is pretty much correct:
http://www.whatifsports.com/slb/Boxscore.aspx?gid=17993183&pid=1&pbp=0&tf=10

(My bullpen situation for the game: Jackson SUA, Hoffman SUB, Shaw MOP, Devine CLA, Rivera SUA/AutoRest, Burns LA/AutoRest, Powell Rest, Sierra Rest)

(That said, why Powell at 41% was brought in over a 100% Sierra is odd, but meh. I probably lose there either way. This is what I get for not checking my SP's "relief" boxes. At least I won the series anyways.)
7/22/2012 11:52 AM
Not terribly crucial for most people, but I believe LHS/RHS are brought in before Setup B in most situations.  For example the situation you outline in Section 5.
7/23/2012 9:12 PM
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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 tended to agree with the above quoted post until after one of my AM games this morning.  It was a 1-1 tie in the 9th inning with 2 outs when Sparky lifted 88 Elton Chamberlain after he gave up a 2 out single.  While I would've obviously preferred that Elton stayed in for the final out, I was ok with him being lifted after giving up that hit because for one, he had reached his pc and two, I had several good relievers ready to go who were all available pursuant to their "inning available" settings and were at 100%. This included 1919 Ray Caldwell, 1904 Chick Robitaille, 1915 Chet Hoff, 2006 Brandon League, and 2005 Kyle Farnsworth.  But instead of bringing in one of them, what does Sparky do?  And for the life of me, I can't fathom a reason why.  He brings in my 85% mopup AAA pitcher who promptly threw 95 pitches and gave up 11 runs in two innings, and of course, cost me the game. Any explanations????????
10/1/2012 1:58 AM
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Contrarian, your explanations make a lot of sense, until something comes up that is completely unexplainable.  In my most reason league, my starting pitcher got ejected from the game in the second inning for arguing balls and stikes.  I have never seen that before.  SParky cycles through my relief staff until it gets to my second to last relief pitcher - a fatigued long reliever (85%) with a MPC of 10 pitches.  Sparky lets him pitch 2 innings, allow 16 runs and throw 75 pitches before bringing in another pitcher.  I do not understans this at all.
1/4/2013 8:26 AM

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.

2/16/2013 9:03 PM
Bump for:
(a) relevance
(b) an update as to how Sparky chooses between 2 pitchers with the same setting (appears to be based on OAV)
(c) to thank sincerely the kind soul who deemed it necessary to negative-rate all of my recent posts.  So clever of you.  Your generosity, maturity, and contributions to the site are an inspiration to all of us. 
3/7/2013 6:10 AM (edited)
Posted by contrarian23 on 2/16/2013 9:07:00 PM (view original):
Bump for:
(a) relevance
(b) an update as to how Sparky chooses between 2 pitchers with the same setting (appears to be based on OAV#)
(c) to thank sincerely the kind soul who deemed it necessary to negative-rate all of my recent posts.  So clever of you.  Your generosity, maturity, and contributions to the site are an inspiration to all of us. 
(b) has always appeared to me to be OAV, not OAV#
2/19/2013 12:08 AM
Corrected.
3/7/2013 6:10 AM
bump.... I've seen too many complaints recently about Sparky's use of the mop up.

If your mop up pitcher was brought into the game in a situation that you do not believe warranted it, it is ALWAYS because no other option was available to him at the time.

Specifically, it is very likely that one of the following was true:
-- Your other pitchers were fatigued below their autorest (this is most often the case...and when you look AFTER the game, the pitcher you think should have been used may now be at 100%, but before the game - which of course you can no longer see - he was at 94, and you set his autorest to 95)  
-- Your other rested pitchers were set to come in later in the game (if you set "inning available" = 7 and it's the 6th inning, then you have effectively told Sparky to use the mop up rather than this pitcher)
-- Your other rested pitchers were already used in the game (surprisingly common....user whines "why didn't Sparky use Eckersley" and what do you know, Eckersley was already used earlier in the game)
-- Your pitcher was ejected (yup, it happens)
-- Your pitcher was pinch hit for 
-- Your pitcher reached his pitch count
-- You just brought up the pitcher from AAA or from the waiver wire or via trade and forgot to check his relief box
-- Etc, etc, etc.

The point is, there is always a reason, based on YOUR settings.  It's not a glitch.

8/4/2015 10:35 AM
Thanks for the bump. I needed to read this.
9/12/2015 4:46 PM
For those who may be seeing this for the first time...these are the most important sentences in the original series of posts:

In summary, Sparky will manage according to your instructions EXACTLY as you have provided them to him. He is not going to override them, no matter how much you may want him to, or how much you think “common sense” should dictate otherwise, unless he has no other options.

This is the most important point in this entire thread: Sparky’s use of the bullpen is extremely logical. By “logical” I don’t necessarily mean that every decision Sparky makes is exactly the way I would make it, or you would make it, or a real manager would make it. By “logical” I mean that WIS has programmed him with very specific rules about which pitchers to use, in which order of priority, based on inning and score differential AND YOUR SETTINGS. There are – as far as I know – absolutely no documented glitches in this part of the algorithm.
There is no line of code that says “bring the mop up in the late innings of a tie game, even if other better (and fully rested) pitchers are available.” So, if you find that in fact Sparky did bring in a mop up in that situation, it’s always because he had no other options available based on the instructions you gave him.

I see this happen in almost every league I am in...someone at some point will complain "SIM brings in mop up in crucial situation instead of guy I think he should have used instead." I even see, surprisingly, very experienced owners ***** about this from time to time. When this happens, it is 100% due to your settings, not due to any glitch in the system, and certainly not due to WIS's algorithm randomly deciding to screw your team over.
3/14/2016 3:10 PM
I've complained about that before, then I realized that I had accidentally set all my pitchers to come in in the 9th inning.
3/14/2016 10:09 PM
Also on the 'team center' page, there is a tiny thing called 'edit user settings' Where you can construct your usage ratios. My experience here is that 90% of the people here have never ever adjusted this.
3/15/2016 1:11 AM
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FAQ: How Sparky Uses His Bullpen (2012 Update) Topic

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