• I see a large number of comments – both in these forums and in the league owner’s forums – expressing frustration or confusion about why Sparky made (or did not make) a particular move. I believe in virtually all circumstances Sparky is following a specific logical algorithm and not making “errors.” I would like to have this eventually serve as an FAQ of sorts.
• I do not claim to know everything about this – far from it – and would like to collect the wisdom of others on this topic. 
• The knowledge base is very thorough on this topic, but not exhaustive. There are gray areas that are either not covered explicitly, or covered ambiguously.

• There is some ambiguity around whether a pitcher who has reached his TPC (but not yet his MPC) will stay in the game if no other rested pitchers are available. Article 41 in the Knowledge Base lists three situations in which a pitcher will stay in past his TPC. This is not one of them. But the knowledge base does not explicitly say what will happen in this situation. I believe – though I can not point to a specific game example right now to support this – that the pitcher will stay in the game in this situation until he reaches his MPC.
• I have never seen a good specific description of how the pull setting works. We all know that generally speaking “1” means “keep this guy in regardless of how bad he’s pitching until he hits his TPC.” It’s obvious that the higher the pull setting, the faster Sparky will pull him as he starts to get into trouble. But I have no concrete info on exactly how this works. For example – starting pitcher allows first 5 batters to reach base. Four runs in, one on, no outs. I am reasonably confident that a pitcher with a “5” pull setting will be removed and that a pitcher with a “2” would not. But what about a “3” or “4” setting? I am not sure what the thresholds are.
• I believe that Q1.2 is an area that throws off a lot of newbies. Whenever I see a “why did Sparky leave my pitcher in to absorb a beating, blow a lead, etc” I almost always assume that Q1.2 applied, and the answer was “no.” I am virtually 100% confident in the belief that Sparky will NOT take out your pitcher unless there is another pitcher who meets all of the criteria to come in. As an example, let’s assume your Set Up A is pitching with a lead in the 8^th, and he’s getting shelled. You have closer set to “inning available” = 9. No other pitchers are rested. That Set Up is going to stay in until he reaches his TPC (and maybe his MPC), no matter how badly he’s pitching – even if he blows the lead. Worse, once he does reach his TPC (or possibly MPC), then your closer WILL come in, because he’s the only rested pitcher left. So you get screwed both ways. If you set your closer to 9^th inning only, Sparky is NOT going to override that setting, no matter how badly the guy on the mound is doing, unless he has no other options available to him. If you don’t want this to happen, set your closer to be available earlier (but recognize that if you do, Sparky will occasionally use him – and exhaust him – before the 9^th inning).

• His “relief” box is checked in the advanced settings
• His fatigue is at or above his autorest
• The game is at or later than his “inning available” setting
• If he’s a mop-up, and you have checked “use mop-up only when losing” then your team must be behind
• If he’s a closer and you have checked “use closer in save situations only” then it must be a save situation.

• Save situation means your closer is coming in. 
• Late close game means Set Up A if you’re ahead or tied, and either Set Up A or B if you’re behind.  Sparky may possibly use your closer here even if it's not a save situation, provided you have not checked the "save situation only" box.
• Early innings or a late game that’s not that close, you’re going to see Long A or Long B. 
• If the game is reasonably close and none of the above pitchers are available, but you have starters who are allowed to come in as relievers, Sparky will likely use one of them.
• Game out of hand, you’re going to see the mop up.
• If there is no pitcher who correctly matches the game situation, then I believe that roughly speaking Sparky will move down this list until he finds an available pitcher.  So if it's late and close, but your closer and setup guys are not available, Sparky will next look at your Long A, then Long B, then starters, then mop up.

Algorithm 2(c): How Sparky Chooses a Relief Pitcher - When No One is Technically Available

This is one of the least well understood facets of the game in my opinion.  Everything here should interpreted as just my best guess.  The critical issue is that no pitcher on your team meets all of the "available" criteria I listed in the post above.

So Sparky has a problem.  According to Algorithm 1, your current pitcher must come out.  But you have given him no options.  So - and this is important - he has to decide which of your restrictions he is going to override.  I believe that many newbie questions about why Sparky made a particular decision are a result of not understanding this point. 

He has to do one (or more) of the following:

• Use a pitcher who is fatigued below his auto-rest setting
• Use a pitcher you have set to "rest"
• Use a pitcher earlier than you have set him to be available for
• Use someone in relief for whom you have not checked the "available in relief" box
• Use your closer in a non-save situation (if you have checked the "save situation only" box)
• Use your mop-up even if the game situation does not warrant it

I can not prove this, but I believe that Sparky's order of preference is as follows:

-- Use a rested, non-mopup pitcher earlier than your instructions dictate (if no one else is available, this will include your closer, even if you have checked the "only save situations" box).  UPDATE: See just4me's comment several posts below, which would seem to apply to this specific situation.
-- Use a rested mop-up, even if the game situation does not warrant it
-- Use a rested starting pitcher in relief, even if his "relief" box is not checked
-- Use a fatigued pitcher (probably starting with the "least fatigued" pitcher)
-- Use a pitcher who has been set to "rest"

If you get to one of these last 2 choices, then I am very uncertain exactly how Sparky chooses among the possible pitchers - but I am confident that these are his last resort choices and will only go to them if he has no other options.

This is another source of common SIM complaint: "my closer was available but Sparky put my mop-up in to blow the game in the 9th inning."  I am highly skeptical of any such claim.  After the game is over, you can't see what the closer's fatigue rating was before the game.  My guess whenever I see this is that in fact the closer was fatigued below his autorest setting.  If you've got a 94 closer with an autorest of 95, that guy is not coming in unless Sparky has no other choices available to him, regardless of the game situation.

Quote: Originally Posted By crazystengel on 3/05/2010







But in one game my starter was pitching well, and heading into the 5th inning was leading 2-0, with plenty of pitches to his MPC. Starting off the 5th he got an out, then gave up a walk and home run, and was pulled. This set off a chain of events that resulted in me not only losing the game, but tiring out my entire pen.

I was unhappy about my starter being pulled so quickly and contacted Admin. The response I got that was that, because the score was 2-2, the SIM felt it had to make a change in a close game (the implication being if my team had had a 10-2 lead, no change would have been made).

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This scenario makes no sense. How many actual games have you seen where the starter gets pulled in the 5th inning after only allowing the game tying HR? Most major league managers would at least allow the starter to stay in to see how he responds. That's just awful logic and you had every right to be ******.