In my AtHoL RD Save, I have moved an age-30 Randy Johnson into the Closer role. At this point in his career, the stuff is getting up there but the control is still way down. My rationale was two-pronged:
- In short spurts the good stuff should, more often than not, trump the iffy control.
- As a smaller-market team, this may allow us to afford him when he has that unbelievable late spurt because he'll be on RP money rather than SP when we try to lock him down for a L/T deal.
He did better than what DW describes above. 40-odd saves, ERA+ of 130 in 76 IP.
It's that latter figure that is key here. I've had discussions elsewhere and there's no doubt the game's usage of Closers needs some tweaking. Looking at RJ, he pitched in 74 games this season - just 49 of them save opportunities.
Kelvim Escobar, my RH Setup guy all year, pitched just 17 IP.
I think the key to getting more innings for your setup guys (or any relievers, really) is to add HIGH LEVERAGE as their secondary role. USE MORE OFTEN doesn't, for the moment at least, seem to do this effectively enough on its own. Barry Zito, an early-season acquisition used as my LH Setup guy from about mid-season, pitched double the innings to Escobar in 35 games v 15, with that HIGH LEVERAGE designation applied.
Obviously, in saves like DW's where he's not controlling a team, it is up to the AI to correctly deploy their BPs - something it just seems incapable of doing 100% properly right now. Word from the devs is that this area is under consideration for some work in v24.