Setting Strategy

[TomasNL]

When i play a normal game i alway's leave the tactical side up to my manager. But in online leagues with coaches and scouting turned off, is it recommended that you set your strategy? Does it have a big affect (positive or negative) if you leave everything on standard values?

I feel i don't have the proper knowledge to make a winning strategy for every inning and game situation, so i alway's leave every bar in the middle. I understand this is probably not the best thing to do, so what should i do? Can i find like maybe an explanation on every part of the strategy page somewhere?

Any help on this would be appreciated...

Tomas

[Jaxxvain]

Most of the strategy decisions are based more on the players on your team rather than what is "normal", at least in my opinion.

If you have good relievers and bad starters, set your "hook" to quicker, if you have speedy guys with good contact you can "hit and run" more, etc.

I would probably focus more on setting strategy up for individual players than adjusting the team strategies.

Anyway you do it will still lead to some baffling decisions by the AI though. I guess with the settings you do your best to limit the mistakes the game will make.

A couple of pointers I think I can recommend:
1) Read through your box scores and game logs and check for trends like a certain bench player always coming in for a certain starter, and react accordingly. (Try to limit the move, or allow the AI to continue making that move, etc.)

2) Be wary of how far you set the sliders. I did notice when I set my team to attempt pick-offs (hold runner) frequently that my pitchers lost some of their effectiveness. I looked it up in the manual and it said that the pitchers performance could go down, because he is more focused on the runner than the batter.

[TomasNL]

Thanks for your quick reply! This is something i can work with

Hopefully more people come up with some useful input...

[TGH-Adfabre]

I set all my players strategies indiviually. Largley because I'm not spending the time to set every strategy for every possible inning and score situation.

The big ones I pay attention to are pitch count, hook quickness and sac. bunts for pitchers.
For starting hitters I always check the "Never lift for a pinch hitter" box on the bottom left. Just a side note, make sure you switch to "Override team strategy" for every player.
My set up is pretty staight forward.

[satchel]

Like these fellows said, your first step is setting your individual players' strategies, which is the tab on the right when you go to "Strategy."

Next, set your team strategies. This can take a while, so I'd start with the most basic, important things, like the circumstances under which you want your pitchers pinch-hit for. I usually pick one "category," like base-running aggressiveness, and go through all the situations and set them; it's easier to keep one particular thing in your mindset that way.

[TomasNL]

Thanks guy's!

Ok, i started setting individual player strategies. Some questions:

- What does ''Force start a position'' do? Does it mean a player will alway's be in the starting line up at that position, or does it mean, IF a player is in the starting line up he will play at that position?

- Which player's should i check to never be lifted for a pinch hitter? I can't see who's hitting 0 for 4 during a game right?

- Should i let a pitcher sacrifice bunt even if he has low ratings for that?

[Jaxxvain]

Originally Posted by TomasNL

Thanks guy's!

Ok, i started setting individual player strategies. Some questions:

- What does ''Force start a position'' do? Does it mean a player will alway's be in the starting line up at that position, or does it mean, IF a player is in the starting line up he will play at that position?

- Which player's should i check to never be lifted for a pinch hitter? I can't see who's hitting 0 for 4 during a game right?

- Should i let a pitcher sacrifice bunt even if he has low ratings for that?

- Force Start position will force the AI to insert the player at that position when you use the AI to create line-ups for you. Not sure what it does if you manually place a player at another position. I use this more in the minors to train a player at a different position, or to further develop a low rated player at a specific position.

- You can't tell the AI to pinch hit for an 0-4 hitter, or prevent it from pinch hitting for a 3-3 guy either (unless you set "do not pinch hit for this player" on his strategy setting page. Probably just use this setting on your best hitters

- If I was in this situation I would probably still bunt the pitcher at a pretty high rate, unless he had a really high contact rating. At least this would lower the chance of a double play (in theory).

[Afino]

Originally Posted by TomasNL

Thanks guy's!

Ok, i started setting individual player strategies. Some questions:

- What does ''Force start a position'' do? Does it mean a player will alway's be in the starting line up at that position, or does it mean, IF a player is in the starting line up he will play at that position?

It means exactly what it says - if he's in the lineup, he'll be in that position

- Which player's should i check to never be lifted for a pinch hitter? I can't see who's hitting 0 for 4 during a game right?

Completely up to you

- Should i let a pitcher sacrifice bunt even if he has low ratings for that?

Personally, I don't sacrifice with a pitcher if he fits BOTH of these criteria.

- Sac Bunt rating less than 40/100
- Contact rating more than 30/100 (I make an exception for a pitcher on my team with contact of 28 and 21 sac bunt rating)

[TomasNL]

Ok, and should i be carefull with those sliders? For example: if a player has the maximum rating of 20 for Sacrifice Bunt, should is set the slider as far to the right (frequently) as possible? Or does this mean he will bunt every single time?

[Jaxxvain]

Originally Posted by TomasNL

Ok, and should i be carefull with those sliders? For example: if a player has the maximum rating of 20 for Sacrifice Bunt, should is set the slider as far to the right (frequently) as possible? Or does this mean he will bunt every single time?

not sure what would happen here to be honest, I only slide it all the way to the left to prevent sac bunts for my sluggers mostly.

I would think that the answer would be yes, he will bunt every single bunt situation, but again, I am not sure.

Does the game recognize each bunt situation? I know some major league managers would define these situations differently in general.

Bear in mind that the game can't be subjective and has to define each situation mathematically (thus objectively).

Maybe you could run a few thousand sims to test out the sliders?

[TomasNL]

Thanks.

And how about pitchers? How can you best set them up? Your better starters to hook slow?

But if he has a bad night will he be left out there to get destroyed, because i set him on hook slow?

And relievers?

[scotto313]

Originally Posted by Jaxxvain

if you have speedy guys with good contact you can "hit and run" more

A question on the hit and run strategy. Does moving the bar over to more often mean that the player will be sent from the base more often or does it pertain to the hitter at the plate? Is it a good idea to have a high contact/no speed guy set to hit and run very often?

[Jaxxvain]

Originally Posted by scotto313

A question on the hit and run strategy. Does moving the bar over to more often mean that the player will be sent from the base more often or does it pertain to the hitter at the plate? Is it a good idea to have a high contact/no speed guy set to hit and run very often?

Essentially it effects both the player(s) on the base(s) and the hitter. And as for your second question, I would say yes, to some degree. Basically you are risking a caught stealing vs. a double play. Although, if you are using hit and run, you are forcing your good contact hitter to swing at some bad pitches. You may want to use Run and Hit (not Hit and Run) more in this situation, but I think that can only be done as a team setting, not as a strategy on an individual player.

from the online manual...
Use Hit & Run Defines how frequently your team will use the hit & run play, in which one or more baserunners are put in motion before the ball is hit. The batter tries to make contact whether the pitch is a ball or strike. Hit & run plays can result in a runner going from first to third on a single, or even scoring from first on a double. This play is usually put on with a good contact hitter at the plate.

Use Run & Hit Defines how frequently your team will use the run & hit play. This play is similar to the hit & run, except it is usually attempted with a fast runner on first, or someone who is good at stealing. The batter is given the option of hitting, knowing that the runner will be moving with the pitch.

OOTP Baseball Manual - Overall Strategy



hope that helps.

[satchel]

Originally Posted by TomasNL

Ok, and should i be carefull with those sliders? For example: if a player has the maximum rating of 20 for Sacrifice Bunt, should is set the slider as far to the right (frequently) as possible? Or does this mean he will bunt every single time?

No, the slider will determine what the CPU does when it has already decided that the situation might (or probably does) call for the particular action.

So if you have someone's "sacrifice bunt" slider pushed to the maximum (all the way to the right), then the computer only checks for that setting when the player is in a situation where the computer thinks that a sacrifice bunt is called for. The player won't just sac bunt every time it's possible to do so.