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Amaroq -> RE: Everytime I start a game and play half-way and then quicksim the rest of the game... (6/8/2006 7:38:08 PM)
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Paul's post contains a lot of good info. In general I agree - player usage settings and GM tendencies settings are very important. I'll offer my opinions only on specific points I disagree with, or to clarify something Paul has said.
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ORIGINAL: Paul Vebber
A "crucial three-game series" takes about 15-20 minutes to manage that way...
In my 'manage every inning of every game' association, I have the game configured with 'animate ball flight' off, and set to 'fastest' text speed. I think I get through a three-game series in 10-15 minutes, and the AI doesn't have the chance to make a mistake. [;)]
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The other important ones in GM tendencies are to auto-rest when "tired or worse" and to set "Auto juggle lineup" at least to rarely if not average if you are simming a lot - if you leave on the "never" that I think it defaults to and "sim a week" or "sim a month" a lot it can wear guys out badly.
These are key settings to understand.
If you like to pick the lineup yourself for every game, you want both of these on 'Never' - you don't want the AI to 'change' what you've told it to do.
'Auto-rest when' is the key to 'it can wear guys out badly'. With this setting off, the AI will use the default lineup as set in the Roster Management screen. With it on, the AI will use everybody in the default lineup who isn't at least as tired as you have it set for. If one or more players are tired, it will come up with a replacement for them... but will then regenerate your lineup based on the new set of players. So, lets say it replaced your catcher with your backup catcher. It might *also* decide that the backup catcher should be batting #4, moving your preferred cleanup hitter to, say, the #6 slot. Not quite what you had in mind. (You might prevent this by giving your #4 hitter the 'Lock in batting order and position' instruction.) However, the next game, if everybody was rested again, your #4 hitter would be back in the cleanup slot.
'Auto juggle lineups' is unrelated to this: its the setting you'd want if you're really letting the AI 'manage' your team all the time. With this setting, the AI will actually modify the default lineup in the Roster Management screen. If your #4 hitter is slumping, it might decide to drop him to #7, or out of the lineup entirely... and he'll remain in that new spot until the next 'auto juggle lineups'. Even if you 'Sim a month' at a time, if you want to control what the default lineup is, you want this setting off. If you 'Sim season', letting the AI control most everything, you want this on.
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1 or 2 starters (85 average) particularly with 80+ endurance, they will usually "settle down" from a "statistical outlier" inning.
This is quite discernable if you're managing every game yourself. I've had my #1 starter get shelled for four in the first, and then go six shutout innings to complete a 4-runs-in-7-innings outing and pick up the win. I've similarly had guys get shelled in the fourth or fifth, and recover to pitch another strong inning or two.
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Now for the bullpen, I find it critical to assign roles to the bullpen.
I used to - but wasn't getting much value from the settings with PS'04, and haven't tried since.
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Always have "use in save situations only" checked for your closer.
Not necessary - the closer won't be used in non-save situations, even if you have this unchecked.
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I've been experimenting with setting it for my set-up man too, but have not seen a lot of difference.
That's good to hear - the last time I tried that, it guaranteed that the set-up man wasn't used at all, because it thought of 'save situation' as being the 9th inning only.. and at that point it would use the closer. So my 'set-up' guy was only getting used if my closer blew a save, AND another save situation occurred in extra innings. Glad that's fixed!
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Make sure your low endurance guys have "do not let this pitcher start" also.
Its pretty good about this, even without the setting explicitly set - but it can't hurt!
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I make sure to keep a "spot starter/long reliever (generally the younster I intend to add to teh roation next season and has "matured" in stats to where I want him) and set him to "use in long relief" in the usage tab... also take the "high ERA" guy and make him "mop-up man".
I typically just have them at the bottom of the reliever list, which worked pretty well for me.
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The other thing I'd say is, depending on your schedule, you might want to look at planned rotation juggling.
If your schedule includes lots of days off and double-headers, for example, because you are simming 1902 with the real schedule, you may want to manage by 'simming until' you get through the next off-day, or close to the next double-header.
Double-headers get tricky, because if you just 'sim through' them, you will wind up with *all* of your starters asked to go on one day less of rest. With a high-endurance staff, that can be fine - but I find its better to get close to them, and manually 'bump' my rotation.
Tricks you may need to use: use 'keep this guy on the bench' to ensure that your planned 'extra' starter doesn't get used in long relief the day before you were planning to use him. (You can also 'protect' a guy from usage by putting him in the starting rotation - and the 'Very Worn Out' guy who just started yesterday won't get used if you put him in the bullpen.) Bump up your 'patience' for both starters in the double-header, so the bullpen doesn't get creamed. Make sure to pull *out* the spot-starter, putting him back in the bullpen, immediately after the double-header.
You can also use those off days to count as a spot in the rotation; this is something the game isn't quite doing the way that I do. Let's say I have six straight games, then an off-day. My starters would be 1-2-3-4-5-1-X-2-3-4-... and then the game has to pick between 1 and 5. If I stop on the 'X' day, and manually juggle things so that I have "2-3-4-1-5" upcoming, and do that for every off day throughout the season, I get a lot more usage out of my 1 and 2 pitchers, and a lot less out of the 5. (The AI may be a lot better at this with recent builds; with '07 for the first time in many many builds my #1 isn't leading the league in games started every year.)
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