Resolved that the best sim teams will not use the LH / RH Specialist option.

Owners of the best teams will not buy more innings than are absolutely needed and so they need to get the most out of the set up men they have. When you use a specialist, you often cut in to a superior set up man's pitch count, forcing you to require more talent depth and innings than would otherwise be necessary.

When I play, I usually have a couple very important, dominant set up guys on my team who can go two innings. If I'm using specialists, I will frequently encounter games where the dominant guy gets pulled after 2/3 (instead of perhaps 2 innings) leaving my opponent one step closer to reaching my Long B, which probably means disaster.

Perhaps I'm just not using the specialist as I should, but I wouldn't use it unless I had a team where I (unfortunately) had a surplus of necessary innings, and only where the specialists were significantly better than the set up men they're replacing.

Wouldn't you agree?

If not, what suggestions do you have about using the specialist option?

You can have a specialist, but it won't get used. In an OL, I put Bob Milacki at RH specialist. He wasn't put in a game all year. So I started him in game 1 of the division series. The LH and RH specialists are just the same as Rest spots except they might get used if everyone else has been used but before you get to the guys that need to be rested.

I've never used those roles on any of my teams, and based on the multiple threads I've read, Sparky does not like to use them if a Setup A/B is available. I think that the only way I would EVER use them is if they were the ONLY pitchers I had. In other words, no setup A, no setup B...only L/R specialists.

It might work with a bullpen full of RP who do not have 1 IP/G in real life, as they will come in for their 10 pitches and then be replaced by another pitcher who comes in for 10 pitches...

Narrow view point big T. I could have an important game where multiple relievers are fully rested, and im going with my top 2 relievers to complete the game, and I have a decent lhp who I am not using, perfect spot to make him a lh specialist rather than just resting him. Or say I have a 4 man rotation, I could make a lh starter a lh specialist during his 2nd day of rest, throw 5-10 pitches vs a lefty.

terrible flaw that the game cant do it, and more terrible that they leave it like that.

If you have a pitcher with <40 IP that you don't trust at closer, or <30 IP but is not a mop in general, it might be worth attempting at specialist, especially if you're short on Setup IP. You definitely don't want to draft to use one if you have a choice, but if you're in a progressive or a theme league where you take large blocks of players at once, and end up with a pitcher that can do it, it's an option. If you're finding he's drastically underused at the halfway point he might have enough IP saved up to then be moved to Setup B.

I've been running bullpens with entirely LH/RH specialist roles (with maybe a mop-up included) and I like the results. The idea is just that the pitcher more often has the platoon advantage for at least the first batter he comes in to face, and that might help his effectiveness over the course of a full season. Seems to work better for the LH specialist role overall, but my bullpens set up this way have been working well.

Cool skunk206. So no Long A, no Setup A or Closer, just everyone on LH and RH specialists, so that Sparky must use one of these and live with your pitch counts?

Exactly. I give the pitchers their normal pitch counts based on IP/G, but they're all in those specialist roles. If there's a RH batter up when the pitching change is made, an RH specialist should come in to face him. If the batter is LH, then an LH specialist should come in to face him. At least that initial matchup should favor my pitcher, but then they just throw a normal pitch count after. There's other settings to adjust to manipulate the order in which guys are chosen to appear, but it's been working so far.

Not every bullpen is ideally suited to work this way though. I'm still using more traditional Setup A/B bullpens as well.

I do the same thing skunk, almost...Every guy is a lefty or righty specialist...I set the inning available and the pitch count, so they usually come in in the order that I want...I do have a "mop up"and a "closer" set...The only time I use "set up"is If I have to take a starting pitcher out of the rotation and let him eat up a few innings because rest of the bullpen is fatigued(which in my case is all the time since I skimp on innings)..,

Because I tend to run a very LH-tilted pitching staff, I often wind up picking a reasonably cheap low IP, high K-rate RHP to get a tough out or two in the 6th or 7th. Works pretty well for me, unless Sparky goes off-script. If my starters are in innings difficulty, that RH- specialist gets a spot start.

LH specialist is useless if Sparky won't use it. He already considers L/R matchup when choosing who to bring in so if you have both a L and R with the same designation it's a factor. The only time I got any use out of a specialist is when I had a balanced bullpen team with mostly Long Relievers, the few Setup didn't come in until the 8th inning.

I've never seen any evidence at all that L/R matchups are taken into consideration when choosing between pitchers of the same role designation (that aren't LH or RH specialists already). The only determining factor I've ever seen used is OAV. Lowest OAV enters the game when all else is equal, regardless of which side of the plate the batter is standing on.