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Old 10-25-2012, 11:08 AM   #8
soxfan34
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 471
Quote:
Originally Posted by JMDurron View Post
Ok, I'm just going to post sectional Strategy/Tips that I happen to use in individual areas, so people who use/avoid the same areas/tactics can just pick out what posts they find interesting.

I only play MLB Quickstart and MLB Historical, so keep that context in mind. I generally focus on the Quickstart unless otherwise specified.

Playing The Games

I play out my games.

Settings

For the sake of expediency, I set the PbP text to instant/fastest (I forget the setting names, but it's quick-clicking and I never read all of the text. The last line is generally what matters, I scroll up as needed). I also go with single-pitch mode, no reliever warmups, and I can't recall any other meaningful setting changes.

On offense


I enforce strict plate discipline on my teams, as I have described elsewhere in threads relating to "Take Pitch." One man's strategy is another man's exploit, but I suspect the game may not handle my particular method very well. I'm playing to win, not necessarily to be realistic, so keep that in mind when considering my tactics. I'm here to sweep the leg, not enjoy losing a realistic number of games. If I wanted to savor losing, I'd watch replays of the real Red Sox.

I click "Take Pitch" until I have two strikes on my hitters. Every PA, haven't come across any exceptions yet. After that, it's "Swing Away" time.

For baserunning, obviously things get more complex. If I have a solid stealing thread (SPD and STE of 70+), I will generally select "steal 2nd" on every pitch until I have two strikes on the hitter, IF AND ONLY IF

1) The pitcher has a hold rating of 50 or worse
2) The catcher has an arm rating of 30 or worse
3) The game is playing out to be a low-scoring affair, requiring aggressiveness on the basepaths, the catcher has a sub-30% caught stealing percentage so far on the season, and the pitcher hold/catcher arm ratings are both below 60.

If I get good stealing runners on both 1st and 2nd, I am quite aggressive with "double steal", as for some reason I seem to perceive a higher success rate than I would otherwise expect in these situations.

I won't double steal with 2 outs in general, I will go for 2nd regardless of the number of outs if I get the right pitcher hold/catcher arm conditions.

Hitting and Running - If I have a good basestealer and the catcher arm rating is sub-80, I will execute "Run and Hit" with less than 2 outs if the count is 2-2 or 3-2 on my hitter. My experience has led to too many 1-2 pitches that lead to thrown out runners to be as aggressive then, unless the catcher arm is sub-30.

Advancing bases against throws - I am as conservative here as I am aggressive with stealing. Since my Take Pitch approach leads to a relatively high team OBP, runs scored, and tired opposing pitching staffs, I generally avoid running into outs when the ball is put in play. The ball has to be shallow or deeper, with an average or worse arm for me to try to advance with any of my non-elite baserunners. I will be more aggressive in late inning/low scoring game situations.

Starting Pitching

Much more straightforward than my offensive approach. Pitch away, take my chances.

Once the starter is tired, unless it is the 5th inning or earlier AND I have a huge lead/deficit, he's out of the game ASAP.

Once the starter hits 100 pitches, he is out with his next non-error baserunner, UNLESS it is late in the game and he has been dominant. I will stretch things to get shutouts, because I like getting individual performance e-mails.

Once the starter gives up 5 ERs, unless I am in a long stretch of games without a day off and/or have a tired bullpen, he's gone. This is highly dependent on whether or not my bullpen carriers a long reliever.

Once a starter gives up consecutive baserunners in an inning, I always visit the mound. Not sure if it helps or not, but it doesn't seem to hurt.

Relief Pitching

For normal bullpen situations (at least 3-4 pitchers available, 6th inning or later), I have some general rules that I follow.

Once the reliever gives up two baserunners, I visit the mound. Once the reliever gives up 3 baserunners, he's gone.

I don't heavily consider handedness in my reliever selection, I tend to try to go for dominance over specialty guys, and the AI's roster decisions make this feasible in general (waiver wire = WIN!).

Once the reliever has thrown 20+ pitches, he's gone with the next baserunner. I don't take the reliever out based on an arbitrary number of outs, I care about effectiveness.

Once the reliever is tired, he's gone, I don't care if he's faced 7 batters and struck them all out on 21 pitches. Scram!

I make sure that G/B% is displayed in my default pitching view. If the first reliever or starter has left the bases loaded with nobody out late in the game, you'd better believe that I'm picking the reliever with the 70% G/B rate to come try to clean up that mess.

I do reliever selection somewhat crudely, based on ERA+ once I have 10+ IP by all of my relievers. April choices are driven by IP, outside of key late situations, where I'm going with the guys I expect to be my relief aces. After that, it's in-season results.

For blowouts, the worst relievers by ERA+ come in, unless my top guys haven't pitched in 4+ days. In close games, the top ERA+ reliever comes in first, regardless of innings. Saves are not a focus for me, outs and wins are.

In every game, I focus on 100% rested relievers first. This helps to spread out the workload despite my ERA+ rules. It's more important to not torch the entire bullpen for a week than it is to win any single game if I can help it. I also generally have 7-8 relievers, particularly early in the season, in order to see what I have.

Controlling The Running Game

If a baserunner reaches against me with any kind of SPD/STE rating that indicates a potential attempt, I pitch out on the first pitch. The AI seems inclined to steal early in the count, and for the sake of an example, I went through an entire season with a catcher with an Arm rating of 43 throwing out 50% of opposing baserunners.

I also make a pickoff attempt to every base available at the start of every plate appearance by the opponent. I generate some extra errors this way, but I think I come out ahead overall. I find that I catch the lousy baserunners way more often than the good ones, but an out is an out.

Blowouts

I define a blowout as:

- A 10-run lead at any point in the game
- A lead of 7-9 runs after the 7th inning or later

I implement blowouts by:

- Picking relievers based on rest level, then worst ERA+ available
- Deploying all bench players
- Shifting remaining starters to potential future or backup positions.

As an example, my current RF is in the last year of his deal, the CF has a low rating in LF due to lack of experience, and my LF hasn't quite maxed out his potential capability in RF. So, in a blowout, my backup OF replaces the RF, and plays CF. The CF moves to LF, and the LF moves to RF, because I will promote a prospect from AAA to take over CF next season, and I want the future LF and RF to have as much experience as possible before that happens.

In the event that position ratings are maxed out or irrelevant, besides C, I generally use my backup IF/OF to rest whichever player has the highest OPS among the starters, to try to keep that player as fresh as possible. If I win/lose enough blowouts, that might be the difference of a full extra game before that player needs to rest. The 10 run threshold is key to this effort, I love nothing more than getting a 10-run lead in the 3rd, or at least have an upside to being down by 10 that early in the game.
Extremely detailed, I am going to implement some of these! Thanks!
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