For those of you who have not peered into my thread about Elton Chamberlain, I have discovered something in the way that the Double Switch setting may or may not work in the Team Center. Some of you may know this or think it was obvious. For those who often wonder what those settings actually make Sparky do, here is what I think I have found.

First of all, this is a very small sample. I have detected a pattern. Since my team is in 1st place and I hope to win the division, I am shutting the function down as it does not serve me the way I want it.

MY GOAL: The league is a draft league. Although the Cap is 160mil, you don't get the pick of the litter in the bullpen. The goal was to use 1888 Elton Chamberlain (partial) as a Multi Inning Closer. with his 135 IP/162 I figured I could get 60-80 appearances out of him in the bullpen.

My Bench: Since my bullpen is not stacked and I had money to burn, I drafted a deep bench with has mostly Defense with Range and Batting Average:

Mike Redmond: B/A/A+ RL BA: .331
Freddy Sanchez: 2B: A+/D- 3B: A/A- SS: B/A- RL BA: .344
Taylor Douthit: B/A RL BA: .331
Mike Davis: C/A+ RL BA: .400
Champ Summers: B-/D- RL BA: .313
Daryl Boston: D-/D+ RL BA: .169(he is last resort PH, only for SB)

My strategy: The hope was that Sparky Double Switch Elton in the 7th or 8th Inning thus maximizing his batters faced and minimizing his PA's. This is how a National League Manager would do it in real life.

My assumption:Defensive Replacements and Double Switches were independent of each other. Since they are listed separately, they should be separate.

Settings: I set all my hierarchies for defense and Pinch Hitters. I clicked allowing everyone in my line-up to be lifted for a Defesive Replacement. I set my Double Switch Setting to 4. I had my Defensive Replacement at 5 runs after 8 innings. After no Double switches I raised the Double Switch setting to 5. Still no Double switches. I lowered the Defensive to 7th Inning with a 2 run lead. this is when the Double Switches began.

My conclusion: It seems to only work to leave in a PH in the Pitchers slot and keep them in the field when the Defensive Replacement Setting is triggered.. The logic is not based in what is the best "baseball move" but a cookie cutter formula.

ie:Hitter(A) Pinch hits then Hitter(A) stays in the Game and Pitcher(B) goes in to the line-up to replace whichever position Hitter (A) is in the Defensive Hierarchy Tree to replace.

I assume that if the PH were in another slot other than pitcher and the PH Hierarchy Player was not that same Defensive Hierarchy Player that the Double Switch would leave the PH where he is and placing him in the field and entering another Defensive Replacement for the original player who was lifted for a PH.

For what I am trying to do: singular Double Switch with just a pitcher entering the game without a pinch hit happened in the previous inning.

I hope all that makes sense. If it doesn't, I will refine it.

I've been following it, and I'm glad you're doing it. While I tend to micromanage, I just don't worry too much about this setting because I don't usually carry a strong pitcher who can give me 2-3 innings at a time. I use the 74 IP Maddux for that purpose pretty regularly now, but he's not exactly elite. So I just throw the setting to Average and don't think too much about it.

Your recaps seem to me to show that the double switch setting is either:

1. An extremely weak influence in the decision tree

or

2. Broken

PS - Hey, the other day I was a Veteran. Cool.

I. too, have been following your thread, and cannot thank you enough for it. It has changed they way i manage. I guess that in most instances, we draft who we want, and live with the consequences. I haven't ever tried to manipulate player usage to the extent that you have in this instance, and it really is fascinating to watch it unfold. Ultimately, I suppose someone will posit that this is a simulation...etc. But, like you, I would like to see it work properly. I have 8 teams going now, and since you started your thread, I have paid attention to the double switch moves. mine is set at the default, I never changed it, ever, and no double switches have occured.

It's broken -- and not just in the opinion of this forum newbie. I submitted a ticket about this issue a couple of months ago when Sparky decided to use my last setup man (who had a target pitch count of 20) for 3 pitches to get out of a jam in the top of the 8th, pinch-hit for my Setup A in the bottom of the 8th, and put in my mop-up to blow the the game for me in the top of the 9th:

My question:

My double-switch setting is at 3 (average). When Sparky ultimately brought in Pedro in the top of the 8th, he didn't utilize a double-switch. Would a 4 or 5 setting cause Sparky to double-switch in this situation?

Admin response:

Not yet. With regards to double-switches, we have them in for some situations but not the situation where a reliever enters while in the field along with a position player. It's on our short list of improvements to the engine.

Well there you have it. Thanks, noob.

Well that is good to know they acknowledged it. I feel like the pieces are in place for the logic tree. I am sure that Double Switches are tied to Defensive Replacements and the absolutely should be separate.

Quote: Originally Posted By Bilfert on 5/20/2010I am sure that Double Switches are tied to Defensive Replacements and the absolutely should be separate.

Ahhh, we have now ventured near my pet peeve.
My CF is a C/A and my LF is a D+/D RF is a B/C (it's a progressive obviously)
My defensive OF'er is a A/A and my replacement setting is 8th inning ahead by 1.
The 8th comes around and the defensive Of'er slides into LF, naturally.

I would love the option of my CF sliding to LF and the A/A player goes into CF, and my D+/D heads to the bench.

Ok, I feel better now.

Hey cdpoet. I think if you set your defensive replacement hierarchy so that the CF slides to LF and bench player goes to LF Sparky may give you what you are looking for.

I just received this very similar response:

"There are two reasons to double-switch (at plate and in the field). We only have one of the two in the engine. It's high on our list of engine improvements and is something we hope to add very soon.

Thanks"

Quote: Originally Posted By Bilfert on 5/22/2010Hey cdpoet. I think if you set your defensive replacement hierarchy so that the CF slides to LF and bench player goes to LF Sparky may give you what you are looking for

Tried it this way.....
Set CF'er at "no" for defensive replacement.
In the defensive replacement settings in the Player Hierarchies window:
I set the CF'er in the top spot in LF.
I set the the A/A guy in the top CF'er spot.

Tried it that way for @50 games. Got mixed results based on PH hierarchies and the other outfield slots. Did not get the results expected....

Expectations (essentially 2/3 games (that matched the defensive replacement parameters) the CF would go to LF and the A/A guy goes in at CF) only happened @3-4 times. Most of the time, the replacements were other of's and the double switch NEVER happened.

Is there a better way? Or is the sim engine a tad bit behind. Thanx for your replies.....