9 man pitching staffs

[teak88]

I have the AI set to manage my minors (lineups, pitching staffs, etc), with me in control of roster moves.

Every so often I'll hit the "Let AI manage minors roster" button (or whatever it's called) on the Transaction screen. When I do, the AI sets up 8 or 9 man pitching staffs on all teams.

Rosters are set at 25, rotation at 5, there are plenty of Ps in the organization, so I end up w/ 20-30 in my lowest level team (which has no roster limit)

I can't find any Setup option that causes this.

any ideas?

[Kelric]

Go in and fix the pitching staffs afterwards. Not much else you can do aside from not letting the AI anywhere near your minor leaguers.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Kelric

aside from not letting the AI anywhere near your minor leaguers.

Good advice. Not that the AI is bad, just that you are better.

[SMFXR01]

Not sure if this will work (haven't tested it fully in all circumstances).

First of all I would strongly suggest setting an "active roster size" for your lowest minor league ( all minor leagues really, it seems to help the AI )
to say 50 (35 or 40 maybe for other minors).
Not sure if it worth mentioning at this stage but I would only change things in my leagues in the Offseason.
Especially settings that could mess with rosters or schedules.Other players will possibly say it's OK anytime...
and it possibly is....
it's just I prefer not to cause too much chaos at the same time.

With the rosters set:
Go into the Game Setup - League Setup - Strategy
for your lowest league.
Set the "Use of Relievers" and "Use of Closers" to "Very Rarely" or "Rarely"
Also if you will be playing this league over many years, I would also go into
the "Options" tab for that league setup and uncheck the "Automatically adjust league strategy" option as this would reset the strategy at the start of the next calendar year.

Once again this may only work logically (in human terms) if all the minors have roster size set.
Otherwise the AI instead of releasing surplus pitchers it will just push some up the ladder....which is not always what we are trying to acheive.

Hope this helps and also hope it works.

One more thing to note...
I never use Ghost or Hidden players.So unsure how the above approach would be affected by these.

(think I've included everything)

[teak88]

Thx for your suggestions, I'll give them a try, but the logic eludes me...

- I've tried having a high limit (40) and no limit on the lowest minor leagu; no difference
- Wouldn't setting the use of MR/Cl s to "rarely" cause the AI to assign even fewer Ps to a team, since fewer would be needed per game
- I also don't use ghost players, but have no problem seeing marginal players promoted up; I'll get rid of them when necessary

Bottom line, I just wish there was some way to get realistic roster simulation going; I'll live, though

My bigger pet peeve in this area, however, is the AI moving minors players up AND down. No body moves down in minors (w/ a very few exceptions); up or out all the way. If this could be fixed (easy, I would think), it would solve this 9 man staff issue also, because once I had set a 10 man staff, in say AA and AAA, it couldn't reshuffle these 20 Ps into 16-17

[SMFXR01]

Confused myself.
Change the strategy setting to "often" or "very often" and have rotation setting to 5 man rotation.

I would also set Pitcher Endurance to Normal.

With these settings I can get the AI to sort the minors to have 12 pitchers on a staff.
(A lot better than 7 or 9)

[teak88]

Originally Posted by SMFXR01

Confused myself.
Change the strategy setting to "often" or "very often" and have rotation setting to 5 man rotation.

I would also set Pitcher Endurance to Normal.

With these settings I can get the AI to sort the minors to have 12 pitchers on a staff.
(A lot better than 7 or 9)

Makes more sense; thx; I'll try it

One question, does upping the use of MRs have much impact on the # innings the SP get?

[SMFXR01]

Originally Posted by teak88

Makes more sense; thx; I'll try it

One question, does upping the use of MRs have much impact on the # innings the SP get?

Have'nt tested it....
But it possibly will.
Might depend on an individual SP endurance rating.
Or even if an SP isn't tired, because we set to use MRs "often/ very often" the AI might hook him sooner rather than later anyway.

I'm going to have a look at my league.
Post back later.

[SMFXR01]

With the settings of
Use of MR and CL set to very often
Pitcher Endurance set to normal.
5 man rotation

I have taken a small sample and general results are

Pitchers rated in the 90s
IPs between 260 - 270

Pitchers rated in the 80s
IP between 220 - 230

Like i said a small sample and IPs are approximated.
Doesn't look disastrous...for a fictional league.

[teak88]

Tried what you suggested, ie increasing use of MRs & Cl's in Setup...and it worked like a charm; now 11 (even one 12) man staffs throughout!