Platoon Strategies?
 

I'm sure a lot of posters have had successful platoons in the classic veins of a Casey Stengel/Earl Weaver method. So I'm curious what your success stories are. Anybody have a duo who are mediocre on their own but when teamed put up insane numbers e.g. 30-40 HRs as a tandem?

I was looking at my Silver All-Star 74 Miguel Tejada on my newly created PT (FTP, waiting to find a viable platoon partner for him) and I noticed how much better he is as a lefty killer. He's solid enough against RHP but looks like All-Star (no pun intended) material against lefties.

Overall: 69 CON/43 GAP/71 HR/28 Eye/60 Avoid K
Against LHP: 77 CON/47 GAP/84 HR(!)/33 Eye/66 Avoid K

On the pitching side, has anybody tried doing this with 'Specialist' pitchers? I have a 56 Unsung Heroes Roger Mason with more favorable ratings against RHB. Granted, it's only an Entry league but I've experimented with him and he's put up a 1.21 ERA (398 ERA+) in 22 IP with 17 K against 4 BB overall with a .167 BA/.453 OPS allowed against righties.

Part of the issue with the latter is that the Computer AI sometimes struggles to focus on specific usage against mostly RHB or LHB based on the 'Specialist' designation.

I think Specialist is very commonly used. I always have a Lefty Specialist if possible. You can't go wrong with a platoon either. If there's enough roster spots, I am platooning every position. I usually force an absolute lineup for LHP by having none of the subs have "if starter is tired" or "every X game". I figured they can always rest the next game which is likely to be against RHP anyway. I want the platoon to platoon in all LHP games.

I have also used Stopper effectively but that one has limited usage. I used it a lot cuz I have a lot of pack only teams and I use it when I have some relief pitchers that simply outclassed my other RPs and that's when I put him on Stopper(if not Closer). The one I am still skeptical about as of now is Opener/Follower. I don't think the advantage they provide is big enough to warrant the utilization. I think regular SP into RP is still better, especially considering that some of the better pitcher achievements need a SP starting the game to get.

I have had the most pronounced general success with platooning catchers, especially if one of them (preferably the righty) is high defense and can come in to sub late for the weaker lefty who plays more often. I personally believe this helps mitigate catcher fatigue, which is a serious factor here.

However, I do not trust the specialist role for pitchers. From previous anecdotal experience, it seems to result in that pitcher being used less. This helps contribute to bullpen fatigue, which is huge in this version. Additionally, when specialists are used, it seems like they do not face strictly their specialty, making them less effective than they should be.

I have one team with seven relievers. One of them is lefty specialist and hardly gets used this taxing the other guys in the bullpen. The only reason I have him is because I am having trouble finding decent affordable righties.

I platoon every position when it makes sense. I want to top ratings in every situation.

I usually have the pitcher's secondary role set as specialist. At least that way he can still do normal relief duty while I just hope the AI at least try to put him against whatever he's specialist to when they see an opportunity to do so. Does the AI actually achieve that? I am not sure, did not really go that deep into analyzing that. Maybe I should check my teams later to analyze this.

The splits ratings for a lot of batters are dramatically different vL or vR. On my teams, I generally run 14 batters and 11 pitchers --- and have all of the batters in a platoon situation. Keep in mind that if you run 11 pitchers with only 6 relievers, make sure that at least one of them is a Long Reliever (preferably an SP in a relief role), or your bullpen will get quite tired.

For example, on one of my teams, I platoon Pesky (84) and Cronin (89) at Shortstop. This costs about 23k total for the two players, and is almost equivalent to running Ozzie Smith (90) full-time, but at only about 15% of the cost of Smith.

I don't platoon and try to find balanced hitters since I want a full season of stats for all-star and end of season awards/milestone PP

My absolute favorite platoon guy is 91 Buddy Bell, Murders lefties and has DEF ratings of 89 to100+ at all IF positions. And you can get him for 10k.

Buddy Bell, he's one of these players that I know the name well, and almost feel like I know the player but know nothing of him if you asked me, well maybe he played for the Pirates? but if that's true I don't even know how I know that. Thanks I've been thinking about these little details...sometimes I like to keep it a little simple but when you go against a team with all 100s AND they do all the little things well, it really shows you how far it goes to winning games.

Of course I also feel like that could somehow take the fun out of managing, if I were to end up with something like a truly perfect team...personally, I guess.