AI manager suddenly can't pick a good lineup

[dawurm9]

I've been using my AI manager to select the lineup for the first 3+ seasons of my career without any substantial complaints. But near the end of the 4th year the AI went way out of whack, leaving out of my lineup a 4.5 star C that was hitting middle of the lineup, and a 4 star LF who was a 4 time all star at the age of 27.

I have a good second option at catcher, another 4.5 star guy, but he is also eligible at 3B where he normally plays. So my 3B moved to catcher to make room for one of my utility infielders in at third, a 1.5 star player? In the outfield my 4th outfielder, who is a 2.5 star player, took over for the 4 star player? I've messed around with the manager strategies to try to get the AI to get back to its normal solid choices, but nothing seems to work.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas how to fix it short of taking over the lineup choices from the AI?

[johnnybourbon]

for sure, I'd set your backup catcher's position to 3B. He still retains his C fielding ratings, and the AI will still probably use him as your backup C as well.
Not sure about your LF issue, is he rated at any different positions? Is the 4th outfielder rated higher for fielding in LF?
I have the AI set my minor league lineups so I've seen quirks just like that already...I'm in my 3rd season.

[dawurm9]

Yeah, I switched the 2nd catcher's position to 3B a few seasons ago to get him into the lineup.

The OF problem I honestly have no clue about. The guy who was inserted is slightly better defensively, but vastly inferior offensively. The guy he is replacing has a .330 career average and puts up around 25 hr and 100 rbi per season, also snagged a Gold Glove one year. I tried pushing the manager strategy all the way to offense over defense to see if that would do the trick with no luck.

Oh well, I guess glitches happen. Almost time to trade away these guys to work my small market magic anyways.

[ctorg]

I find a lot of glitches in the AI lineups when it comes to position assignment. It's one of the better reasonings for using a DH rule, which I don't normally do - basically, it helps lower the chance of a four star guy sitting on the bench because the AI is inexplicably playing a one star guy instead.

In my latest league, I had a player whose fielding was 5/8 at 3B and 3/8 at SS, and another player who was a 7/8 at both positions. The AI insisted on putting the first guy at SS and the second guy at 3B, which made no sense.

[conception]

The AI likely doesn't account for the success of more than one position when it chooses who starts at a position. For example, it probably thinks that catcher 2 is better for the catching position, ignoring the fact that he can play 3B as well, filling two holes.

[Who Killed Kenny?]

I've seen this before. Especially in Free Agent signings. I saw a team sign all-star catchers 3 years in a row, thus leaving 1 of those guys in the minors, 1 as backup, and one starter. I think the AI evaluation probably starts a Catcher when constructing a lineup. Your 3B was a better catcher and was placed there even though a better lineup would have him at 3rd and the other guy at Catcher.

The most accurate algorithm would be to evaluate every guy at each position and build the best lineup around him. However this wouldn't be very feasible to compute since there are 43,609,104,000 different possibilities (if my math is correct.. its been a while) for a 25 man roster. So some simplier algorithm where you evaluate by some order of positions is better. Starting with Catcher is good since it is considered the "hardest" position.

Maybe getting your 9 best hitters out on the field is a better way? Then there are only 362,880 possibilities to consider.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Who Killed Kenny?

Maybe getting your 9 best hitters out on the field is a better way? Then there are only 362,880 possibilities to consider.

The above is quite true. The AI is very poor at setting lineups. There was a thread a couple of days back showing that the AI did too much shuffling of lineups, especially when switching from facing LHP to RHP and vice-versa. Generated players, especially infielders have good ratings at too many defensive positions. Too many middle infielders have 1B ratings at 80+.

It is most annoying when you get your SS vs RHP playing 2B vs LHP, or the AI takes your 9 time MVP SS and plays him at 1B. Similar stuff happens in the OF.

Some suggestions;

Generated players should have one primary position. I'm not saying they can't have ratings or play other positions but there should be one, maybe in their ID.

The AI (on AI teams) should recognize a players chosen (primary?) position. I realize that may be difficult.

Human managers should be able to lock in a primary position (this should already occur via the depth chart), or be able to say "don't play this player at X".

This is a broken feature IMO.

[Charley575]

Your best fix is to manually set your depth charts, then select "Generate Linup vs. __", from the actions tab. This is what I do when I don't like who my AI manager starts and where they play them.