Starters becoming defense subs help

[Mike Lowe]

http://screencast.com/t/WJ5gtuVDHzO

In the image above, you can see that Jose Pena is my starting CF. He's a GREAT defensive OF, but is best in LF. Braun, now in 2014, is mediocre in LF at best. Logan Schafer is also a great defensive CF, but has little to no experience at the COF positions.

What'd I'd like to see happen is, come the 9th inning, Pena shift to LF, Schafer comes in for Braun but plays CF.

Is there a way to do this? If so, is it setup properly?

Thanks!

[Leo_The_Lip]

I have yet to find a way to do this despite trying many strategies and clicking on every thing I can find. You can check a box to never pinch-hit for a guy, but you can't prevent a pinch runner or defensive replacement from taking him out off the field.

Even worse is the situation I find in my current game. My starting third baseman is coming off a gold glove and triple crown year and continuing to hit. Most of my outfielders have gone down to injury, so I put him in LF where he is slightly below average, and use a defensively adequate decent bat at third.

So what does the AI do in late innings? It sends in a great defender to play LF, but instead of moving the emergency LFer back to third where he is the best glove on the team and would improve the defense, it takes out the best hitter in baseball and sends him to an early shower. The next inning the ordinary fielder is replaced at third with a better, but not as good as the triple crown winner, fielder.

As I have pointed out in the past, OOTP needs an algorithm to compute the overall defensive impacts before it assigns positions. Currently the AI makes very sub-optimal decisions, often leaving players where they are poor defenders when simply swapping them would greatly improve the defense.

[ThePretender]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

I have yet to find a way to do this despite trying many strategies and clicking on every thing I can find. You can check a box to never pinch-hit for a guy, but you can't prevent a pinch runner or defensive replacement from taking him out off the field.

Even worse is the situation I find in my current game. My starting third baseman is coming off a gold glove and triple crown year and continuing to hit. Most of my outfielders have gone down to injury, so I put him in LF where he is slightly below average, and use a defensively adequate decent bat at third.

So what does the AI do in late innings? It sends in a great defender to play LF, but instead of moving the emergency LFer back to third where he is the best glove on the team and would improve the defense, it takes out the best hitter in baseball and sends him to an early shower. The next inning the ordinary fielder is replaced at third with a better, but not as good as the triple crown winner, fielder.

As I have pointed out in the past, OOTP needs an algorithm to compute the overall defensive impacts before it assigns positions. Currently the AI makes very sub-optimal decisions, often leaving players where they are poor defenders when simply swapping them would greatly improve the defense.

I've posted a few times about this issue, and basically what needs to happen is there should be a "late game lineup" for defensive purposes. This way you would be able to shift your LF to 3B where he's a GG defender, and have the computer replace the player originally playing 3B and immediately move him to LF.

It's not that difficult to create. You can make it like a RP option where the defensive players come in for the 7th, 8th or 9th inning, and you can use the strategy defensive sliders to determine what situations this occurs in (as some would want this for 1 or 2 run spots but maybe not 3 run leads). The set up would be like the current lineup position so the code is basically there.

It would make multi positional guys like Ben Zobrist useful, as you'd be able to start him in RF and move him to 2B late in the game.

[Leo_The_Lip]

I'm not sure the Late Game Lineup would work as well as you described it due to the other substitution routines in the AI. For example, the AI will often pinch-hit righty for lefty in games where I am well ahead. Will it still pinch hit AFTER the defensive subs have come in? Without changing that part of the code, I think it would.

Further, there will be times when your bullpen blows the game after the defensive subs are on the field. Assuming decent bats remain on the bench, the AI now has to scrap the Late Game Lineup and go back to pinch hit mode. Sounds easy, but is it?

[ThePretender]

Originally Posted by Leo_The_Lip

I'm not sure the Late Game Lineup would work as well as you described it due to the other substitution routines in the AI. For example, the AI will often pinch-hit righty for lefty in games where I am well ahead. Will it still pinch hit AFTER the defensive subs have come in? Without changing that part of the code, I think it would.

If you use the strategy slider you can reduce pinch hitting when you have a lead so I don't see it as an issue.

Further, there will be times when your bullpen blows the game after the defensive subs are on the field. Assuming decent bats remain on the bench, the AI now has to scrap the Late Game Lineup and go back to pinch hit mode. Sounds easy, but is it?

That's not necessarily a problem though, as if you've blown a lead you would want your other bats to pinch hit. It would have to check your strategy as if you're losing, you would likely have increased pinch hitting.

If your issue is that your bench players can't play the position they're replacing (1B pinch hitting for a guy in CF who was the defensive replacement) then that's not an issue - it's one of the risks associated with bringing in a defensive replacement. So again, that's not an issue.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Your suggestion addresses the specific issue of late game defensive subs, however it does not address the bigger issue of the AI not optimizing the defensive positions of the players already in the lineup. This problem will still exist even if your suggestion is implemented. Why? Because poor defensive choices are made when the team is behind or tied, or in early innings due to injury or ejection.

So let's get the real issue fixed first and then see what problems remain with late game defensive subs.

[RchW]

I agree Leo. The issue is moving players to different positions in the flow of the game.