Hi Paul. As a long time Strat player and 3 or so years with the computer game,
I offer the following insight:

1. We don't use the closer rule in our face-to-face league either, but if we
play games on the computer you still have to deal with it. What I have done,
rather then just turn the closer rule off [which does not seem to work], I
change the players (go in players tab, update player) and change several of the
relief pitchers from whatever closer rating they have to closer 6 so the
computer will treat all the best relief pitchers on a team as closers and none
of them will fatigue early if they come into a closer situation. I only do this
with the pitchers the two teams are using, I don't try to change everybody. If
I am doing a replay, to test the strength of the teams before the season, I will
change maybe the 4 best relief pitchers and make them all closer 6.

1a. Also, remember Strat's definition of "closer situation" is much different
from MLB's. It only comes into play when a team has a 1 run lead to start the
9th inning [or an extra inning] or the tying run comes to the plate in the 9th.
In MLB its 3 or fewer runs, in Strat it is only 1. So if you bring in a closer
with a 2 or more run lead, it is not a closer situation according to Strat and
his Relief "1" applies for the entire inning in which case 3 hits and/or walks
can cause him to fatigue immediately. The closer situation is determined when
the pitcher is brought in. So if he is a R(1)C(5) and he comes in the game with
a 2 run lead, the R(1) is controlling even if a runner reaches base and it
becomes a closer situation. He cannot create his own closer situation (like
real life). He will not become fatigued, however unless he lets up 2 more
baserunners.

2. This is a glitch in the system. Even when I use the setting, limit AB and
IP to real life, the computer will still way overuse some players and totally
ignore others. I don't know why. There was one year I had Gary Sheffield on a
NL team and the computer refused to play him more than 50 ABs. I don't know
why. Again, with your catchers, I would change their at bats under the update
player tab so they proportionally reach 600 AB instead of 400. Whoever had the
most should have the most added and so forth. This will keep the internet of
the game and the Colorado team that year without adding non-historic Colorado
players.

3. The Kim Conundrum. We all face have faced it with many pitchers with many
names. Your baseball instincts are right. It is totally abusive to allow Kim
to pitch compete 9 inning games, because in real life it just does not happen.
I have a 5 inning rule (guideline), where I will allow a starter to get hammered
for 5 innings, and then take him out. I figure that is close to realistic.
Usually the MLB manager will wait to 4+ innings and then take him out in the 5th
if he is still ineffective. In one of my leagues you have to take the starter
out after he allows 10 runs regardless of the inning, but I still try to wait
until the end of the 5th, just because you have to give some concession to
saving valuable bullpen innings in a lost game. Even if you have a "mop-up man"
in the bullpen, you still don't want to use up his innings either. The other
issue is what if its Schilling or Maddox or Johan Santana, who are better
fatigued (in their best years) then most guys are unfatigued, even if they are
getting rocked. Use your judgment. Clearly we are not going to take them out
as fast as they would in real life in order to save them for their next start,
but we can't go too extreme either and keep them in forever, even though for
Strat-O-Matic the "war game," that would make the most sense. Almost all of us
who are avid Strat Baseball players are also avid real Baseball fans and do not
want to do total violence to the real game. Although, the lefty righty
manipulations come close, but that is a different issue.

Hope my insight has helped. If not, feel free to ignore it.

Peace. John Christie




----- Original Message -----
From: Paul
To: stratmat@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 8:34 PM
Subject: [Stratmat] Questions


Hey, I just completed managing the Colorado Rockies for the 2006
season on the computer, using the most advanced settings (except the
closer and weather/ball park stuff). I got the team to finish
above .500, but just barely. I got burned by a poor season from
Matt Holiday, who hit just .269. Anyway, some questions/comments:

1. I used the pitch count fatigue system. My closer occasionally
couldn't complete even a single inning before tiring, and I had to
remove him several times in the 9th...still in the save situation!
I think that creates a tough and unrealistic scenario. If I had
used the closer rules, maybe this would be avoided?

2. What do you do when the team's lineup forces you to use certain
players far more than they should? Colorado's catchers, Torrealba,
Closser and Ianetta combined had about 400 at bats. Does the game
penalize players for playing more than they should even when there
really is no other option? (For the record, adding Ardoin from the
multi-team roster helps somewhat but doesn't quite fix this problem.)

3. I had to admit, several times during the season I was tempted to
just use Byun Hyung-Kim as a starter and just make him eat a
complete game every time he pitched. He was awful, and the team has
little chance to win when he starts...and he usually ends up
pitching say 4 innings and giving up about 8 runs...and then, to
make matters worse, he's well rested and ready to go again soon! He
finished 4-17 for me, and I wonder if making him pitch nothing but
complete games no matter how exhausted he gets would net me more
wins in the long run. This seems unethical, but golly...

Thanks!

Paul





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]