Bullpen management

[Johnny93g]

In a online league, this happened.

Up by 4 runs, the game decides to throw 4 relievers a total of 23 pitches. With one out in the 8th, still up by 4, the game decides now is the appropriate time to bring in the closer. Osuna, the closer, hurts himself after 5 pitches.

I now have noone else available in the bullpen. Lets not waste tomorrows starter, or any of the starters for 1.2 innings with a 4 run lead. Lets totally blow the game by throwing outfielders in there the rest of the way.

Now before everyone starts running to Marcus' defense, I am a vet in this world. I don't have any extremes set up for strategy. This is ridiculous behavior by the AI.

Keep working on Perfect team though.....that will help bullshlt like this get fixed.

[Drstrangelove]

My bullpen works fine. I've actually only seen a non pitcher used in one game over the last 3 seasons.

[daniwen]

I play out most my games and I think one of biggest things needs work is bullpen management. Love this game but it is perhaps biggest flaw in game (and perhaps most easy to exploit).

I get 10 to 20 wins a year just because AI does such a poor job handling bullpen.

I literally just got done with 4 games taking on my division rival this year the Blue Jays. As I do with every new team I face I check their bullpen. Not counting their closer every single person on their bullpen was 33% exhausted or more.

Without exploiting by intentionally wearing out their SP I was able to win the 4 game series 40+ runs to 9 which wouldn't have happened if they had any pitching. I found myself in 2 of 4 of the games taking on fielders with pitching of 2 stuff 1 movement 2 control by 7th inning. Not to mention their best relief pitcher got injured after throwing 50+ pitches when he was completely wore out by pitch number 15 and is on DL for at least 60 days (making problem even worse for them over all).

Like I said can count on at least 10 to 20 wins per season at least because of this without exploiting running up the pitch count. It just happens.

[Chomps]

There have been many Threads about this, and I totally agree. I hope the OOTP developers make re-working bullpen management a priority for the next version of OOTP.

[Dorfmann]

Yep, just scored 10+ runs in the 8th inning last night because the AI left their starter in for 150+ pitches. Their entire bullpen was exhausted.

[Harry Hibbs]

There's a couple of things you can do to somewhat improve things (assuming you play in commish mode):

1. go in and set max # of pitches for each team's starting pitcher to 120 or whatever max you feel is authentic. Maybe go in andf bump up after the all star break.

2. enable in the game settings / league settings / stats & AI section to have 8 (or even 9) relief pitchers on each 25-man roster instead of the default 7. Yes this makes bench options limited, but that also actually helps reduce reliever damage, in a way.

[ralphieboy]

Also, I find it important to make sure you have enough off days built into your schedule when playing a fictional or online league.

Usually these abnormal bullpen substitutions come up due to the bullpen being gassed. I think the bullpen management seems fine when all players are rested. They follow their roles. It's when energy levels start to dip that things can get wacky.

[4roberto]

I am somewhat new to OOTP19. Would adjusting the hook rating for starters and relievers to make it slower also help keep the AI from overusing relief pitchers?

[Johnny93g]

Kontos was the only reliever tired going into that game. There is also a DH in that league. Zero excuse for the AI to run out of pitchers.

It's actually the third time this season, which remember, is online, so my control is limited, that my team has run out of pitchers in a nine inning game.

My game strategy setting is set to two notches to the right of hook starting pitchers, and even hook for relievers.

So ya, just ridiculous that this happens in the 19th version. Lets have a 1.5 gig patch every week though for out big Money Maker!!!

[Drstrangelove]

In my league:

total games- 4,862
games a non pitcher pitched- 12 (or once out of every 405 games)

These 12 games were as such:

games a non pitcher pitched which was extra inning (4) [this included a 19 inning game in which my 2B appeared in the top of the 19th.]
games a non pitcher pitched which was a blow out (lost by 13 to 22 runs) (7) [included scores like 22-0, 20-4, 18-1, 14-1, etc.]
games with no information (1)

So, excluding the 11 blowouts or extra inning games, 1 out of 4,862 games had a non pitcher used as a pitcher. One out of 4,862 might not prove it's good bullpen management, but I'm not sure (other than in-game settings) why a non-pitcher should ever be in a game except for once every few seasons for any particular team.

[Drstrangelove]

Originally Posted by Johnny93g

My game strategy setting is set to two notches to the right of hook starting pitchers, and even hook for relievers.

1) There are 12 different scenarios for SP and RP hooks. Do you use the same setting for all 12?

2) Pitchers can be pulled for other reasons such as pitch count. E.g., Tanaka (on my team), is set to 110 pitches and my settings for SP is even (which is an earlier hook than 2 notches to the right.) But Tanaka for me would never come out with a lead after only 76 pitches. In fact, 76 was the fewest pitches he threw in a game all season (for me) when he was knocked out after giving up 6 runs in 4 innings. In three seasons he averaged 93, 94 and 96 PPG for me and would not have been pulled.

3) Similarly, my relievers are set to left of middle in all 12 scenarios. In close games, several clicks to the left. Starters are always left of the middle after the 6th inning. Yet, we aren't using position players.

4) Setting pitchers to specialty platoon functions ("Specialist) can reduce work loads to one batter or two.