What a closer is for

[Dyzalot]

Originally Posted by Sweed

I've already acknowledged everyone should be fresh.

You said "No one would be in here just saying "sample size"." My quote "I didn't say it was "just" sample size." was in response to this comment from you. This will be the second time I've said it.

Another possible explanation is the one I already proposed. Handedness and the manager's tendencies on how he handles matchups. To jump up and say the original poster's game could never happen is an overreaction.

We don't know the skills of his closer. What if he's a RHP and Ohtani and Freeman are the first two batters up in the bottom of the ninth. Now add in there is a quality LHP also in the pen? Never starts going out the window. The trouble is there isn't enough information in the original post to make a determination. All we have is... it's opening day and my closer wasn't used.

And yes, sometimes OOTP makes dumb decisions and this could be one. I already said "I get the rant, I'd be wondering what happened too.". I can admit it may be an issue. You can't seem to allow there may be circumstances where it may have been the correct call.

The OP asked the question "What I do NOT understand is why my closer was not summoned here?". He then went on to say he had totally changed his pitcher's assignments for his entire bullpen due to this one game. This could lead to unintended consequences and bigger problems than this one game. We can only speculate on what the consequences might be, but overuse and perhaps injury to his closer due to the changes he made comes to my mind. And that's just one, I can think of a lot of others.

So, I thought I'd try to be a nice guy and offer an answer to his question. An answer that didn't include "it should almost never happen" even if I believe it shouldn't. He already believes that so I'm not seeing how me saying it too is of any help? Instead I believe I have given him something to look at, though I have no idea if it will pan out or not. But it is something.

Just because someone answers a user's question about how or why an unlikely occurrence happened in their game doesn't mean they are blindly defending OOTP or the developers. It doesn't mean they aren't thinking "this probably shouldn't have happened". Sometimes they are just answering a question that was asked.

I agree there isn't enough information. How many responses asked for more information? How many just dismissed the OP's concern because the sample size wasn't enough or because MLB managers do dumb things too? That's my problem. No one tried to help the OP or understand where he was coming from. Everyone just dismissed his concerns as "overblown".

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by Dyzalot

I agree there isn't enough information. How many responses asked for more information? How many just dismissed the OP's concern because the sample size wasn't enough or because MLB managers do dumb things too? That's my problem. No one tried to help the OP or understand where he was coming from. Everyone just dismissed his concerns as "overblown".

If you read my response as dismissive I'm not sure what to say.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Dyzalot

Listen, I agree. But how many responses in this thread asked about days off or fatigue? How many just said "sample size" or "MLB managers do dumb things too"? It just seems like the responses didn't care about asking relevant questions about the OP's setup and why that might affect what happened. Instead it just seems like everyone was trying to "gaslight" the OP into thinking this is normal MLB bullpen use or at least not anything to be upset about.

I really think you're reading *way* too much into the comments. I saw the OP's post pretty early on and I simply thought to myself, "I don't know, it could be so many things. I'll let others ask some questions". And people did ask questions. Maybe not the questions I would have asked, but questions were asked. And so far the OP hasn't replied with anything. We can only guess as to why they haven't. Thinking they might have been bullied into not, I re-read the thread, including the edited versions, and I really don't see any gaslighting going on. Just because people offer some possible reasons as to why something is happening doesn't mean they're gaslighting people.

Originally Posted by Dyzalot

Also if you are playing with a default modern MLB setup, you get several days off before Opening Day. Again, maybe the OP isn't using a default setup. Maybe the OP has some strange setting in the global settings for bullpen usage. But no one even offered these as possible explanations. Instead it was the flippant responses that I see some commenters make all the time about how this happens in real life too or your sample size isn't enough to make a judgement.

Also I'm not "overplaying it with several". If you start a standard MLB game you start on March 21st with opening day on March 25th. In my current sim, which uses the default schedules generated by OOTP, I am in 2027. My last ST game was on March 26th with Opening Day being March 30th and my team's first game on March 31st. So yes "several".

I looked up the definition of "several" and to my dismay *some* dictionaries say it's "more than two" (the ridiculously bad m-w says it can even simply be more than 1, LOL!). But to me, several has always meant at least seven. So maybe you and I have different definitions of the word.

That aside, did you read the part that he mentions "starter from 1939"? He also mentions "modern" baseball, so is he playing a league set today but with historical players, or is he playing something else, like a league set in 1939? If it is the former, not alone how does it work in OOTP, but how should that work in OOTP? Without more info, your talk of modern leagues may have next to no relevance to the matter at hand.

And if OP doesn't want to provide that info, I really don't see much point in getting so upset over it. Unless you want to test the schedules of some historical leagues and say, "hey, this isn't what happened IRL!" (I doubt the break between ST and OD is a high priority for OOTP to get historically accurate) or to test how often OOTP doesn't use a closer in a situation you think it should and to also detail the settings used for that league. But even if you did those tests, it could be another issue entirely from the OP's and have no reason for being in the OP's thread.

[Dyzalot]

Originally Posted by Sweed

If you read my response as dismissive I'm not sure what to say.

If you read my response as accusing anyone specific of being dismissive then I don't know what to say. I only asked "how many". And yes I did also say "everyone" but that's obvious hyperbole unless you think that I think I was also being dismissive.

[Dyzalot]

Well my apologies to anyone I offended in this thread. I just get triggered whenever anyone says "but sample size", especially in a spot where you'd have to sim decades worth of opening days to get a statistically relevant sample size.

[Hrycaj]

I could be way off but I think the real problem here is that the ai is acting like a modern day manager in a historical environment. In 1939 the starter would have stayed in the game unless they were injured. Since that didn’t happen, the reliever the ai was going to use would not be the closer in the 7th inning. Maybe if they were labeled as a stopper that would have happened. However, the OP said closer, that distinction would eliminate that choice for the ai being that it was too early in the game to use him, which made it choose a different reliever. To fix this shenanigans you could go to the stats and ai screen and set pitching usage league wide to better ensure this doesn’t happen.

[md40022]

This will be an apples and oranges comparison, but I bring it up on the point of whoever said managers do dumb stuff "all the time"...... There are scenarios where a teams #1 starter and true ace doesn't always get the opening day start. I've seen it before where maybe a team opens on the road and the ace is either some fan favorite that everyone loves, or the ace is some big off season acquisition that has the fans psyched and they decide to hold his start off until the home opener to appease the fans. I've also seen managers go with the "gritty veteran" who has been with the club for 10 years over the young phenom on opening day because the veteran had "paid his dues" or whatever, despite everyone knowing the kid was their ace for that season.......

Again, total apples and oranges to the original topic..... butttttttt with the assumption being that the "smart" move is to have your best players on the field as often as possible, withholding your best guy and using a lesser player all over some sentimental opening day baseball feelings would probably qualify as managers doing dumb stuff all the time.

But obviously that's not going to be coded into the game haha so it would play no part here..... Dumb opening day decisions are part of baseball tradition though lol.