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Originally Posted by Garlon
What I have noticed is that the game works best in terms of pitcher performance and being able to win games with Relievers set to Normal for all seasons. The LTM will control IP/GS for SP's and if you look at the results at the end of any season you will see that SP's will always be throwing more IP/GS than they should be. If you set Relievers to less than Normal the computer will simply be throwing away wins because they let that SP stay in even longer only to lose the game, and if you go above normal then apparently the computer will make additional pitching moves that are unnecessary and not use the best RP's to finish games. I suggest looking at the Winning Percentages of the best pitchers when you change these settings.
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Even though I may not always agree with you, I enjoy reading your posts, Garlon, because you've clearly given this topic a good deal of thought and your analyses are always thought-provoking. I don't think I've ever really considered the interplay between the reliever/closer settings and the way that the AI makes pitching moves, but I think you're right. I'm not quite prepared to change my thoughts on the use of relievers in the pre-reliever era (let's not get carried away here!) but you've definitely given me a lot to think about.
I'll add that, in my 1922 sims, I found that the top starters tended to throw too few innings in comparison to their real-life stats. In part, I think that's because they tended not to have as many relief appearances in the game as opposed to real life. The back-end starters, though, pitched too many innings because they ended up with more starts than in real life. I think much of that has to do with the way the game calculates fatigue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Garlon
As for Closers being set to Very Often, what this does is simply use the best RP as much as possible. So your relief ace will pitch more than the other relievers. As a note, if you set Relievers to Very Often and Closers to Very Often, the Closers will actually pitch less than if you set Relievers to the Normal setting.
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Well, historically, the best reliever available was usually a starter. I'm not sure if the AI recognizes that fact when it has a guy in the bullpen who does nothing but relieve. I'd have to go through the box scores in my 1922 sims to see who the AI used in critical save situations, but in my estimation it usually turned to the mediocre reliever in the bullpen rather than the superior and rested starter on the bench. Except in some unusual circumstances, though, that's not how managers used their staffs in the pre-reliever era.