[Charlie Hough]

It's been a long time since I've run a historical simulation in the deadball era, but I just noticed something strange involving AI lineups and certain pitchers who can hit well. I'm playing a game in 1916, and the Red Sox have two pitchers with excellent and decent batting ratings, respectively: Babe Ruth and Carl Mays.

The AI bats Ruth 9th, much like Red Sox manager Bill Carrigan did in real life. This is fine because managers in the deadball era generally batted the pitcher 9th, regardless of how well he could hit. This was the case with Ruth as well as other pitchers who could hit better than some of their teammates, such as Walter Johnson.

However, here's where it gets strange. Carl Mays, who is also on the Red Sox and is a decent hitter, was just placed 8th in the starting lineup rather than 9th. But his batting ratings are nowhere near as good as Ruth's.

Normally, the AI bats Mays 9th, but apparently it batted him 8th because the backup CF was playing, and he is a considerably weaker hitter than Mays. Thus, the AI placed the CF in the 9th spot. But if it's going to base lineup decisions on batting ratings, then why wouldn't the AI place Ruth 8th or higher in the same situation? He's always better than every other hitter in the lineup, including the player who bats 8th. But the AI always bats Ruth 9th in the lineup, usually behind a hitter who is only half as good as he is.

This might be to protect against a subsequent relief pitcher batting higher in the lineup, but the AI could do a double-switch to prevent this. It just seems strange that the AI would do this in one case but not the other.

Has anyone else seen the AI do something like this with pitchers who can hit well? This is a minor anomaly, so it probably doesn't warrant a fix, but it still seems oddly inconsistent.