One thing that I didn't really discuss in the original posts is the use of the LH Specialist and RH specialist settings. For a long time I felt that these were useless, and that any relievers set to LHS/RHS weren't being used often enough.

I no longer believe that is the case, and after reading comments from skunk206 and other owners, I now believe the following is true:

-- LHS/RHS work best if ALL relievers, other than mopup and closer, are set that way
-- If you have a bullpen with LHS/RHS, Setup A/B, Long A/B, then the specialists will usually be the last ones used
-- Setting your entire bullpen to be LHS/RHS can, in fact, be a very effective way of using your pitching staff.

If you are reading this thread for the first time, the TL;DR is: the SIM algorithm never randomly decides to screw you over. If you find that a crappy reliever was used in a critical spot, it is because that is EXACTLY what the sum total of your manager settings led to.

Posted by skunk206 on 2/19/2013 12:08:00 AM (view original):

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#

bump

Posted by contrarian23 on 8/4/2015 10:35:00 AM (view original):
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.

I wish that new users in SLB would reread this entire thread - but especially this post - over and over.

Thanks

dannyjoe, I do not agree with your conclusion that the statement "In summary, Sparky will manage according to your instructions EXACTLY as you have provided them to him" is inaccurate. However, I do agree that the closer label needs some clarification. The closer label means "only use this pitcher in high leverage situations," as the customer support instructions clarify.

So unchecking the "use closer in save situations only" box does NOT mean "consider the closer to be available in any situation." Instead, unchecking that box means "use the closer in a close game in the late innings even if it's not technically a save situation."

I have tried to clarify this point in the information on page 1.

Thanks contrarian, your clarification on page 1 looks accurate.

Concerning Sparky's decision to remove a pitcher based on performance (before reaching a pitch count), my anecdotal experience is that earned runs seem to be an important factor. If a lot of runs score after there are two outs in an inning that was extended by an error, the pitcher is more likely to survive than if the same number of runs were scored without an error. A pitcher with Call Bullpen = 3 might give up 8 runs in a such a game, if few of them are earned runs, but would not be allowed to stay in a game long enough to give up 8 earned runs. I don't have any box scores handy to back that up, it is just the impression I've developed.