Bullpen settings

I seldom play any level above 100m so I rarely ever have any problems with usage (except of course HAL's usual screw-ups). I am not sure how to set my pen here in this 115m league.

Link- http://365.strat-o-matic.com/team/1433908

Right now my settings are:

Closer usage - Regular
Relief usage - Agressive

Closer-Gagne
Setup-Gagne
Setup-Sutter
LH Specialist-Dipino
RH Specialist-Clear
Tied & 9th-Gagne
Tied & Late-Sutter
Behind & Late-Sutter
Middle Man-Sutter
Middle Man-Narleski
Mopup-Narleski

Sutter is Slow Hook
Gagne is F8 <8
Narleski - nothing checked

Starting staff is pretty weak, I'm not interested in making changes to the staff, just how to set them.
Thanks in advance.

You play enough to know any and all advice given about bullpen settings is shrouded in mystery right?! LOL

I'd quick hook all the SP's, leave the fatigue level blank and cap them at 6 innings, maybe cap Hall at 7. I'd also change the Closer usage to Maximize and change Gagne's fatigue level to blank. I'd get rid of Gagne as a setup guy and put Sutter in the second closer role way down the list.

my two cents
R

I would second the comment that anything you do with bullpens is an enigma wrapped in a mystery, shrouded by more mystery, with a whole lot of crapshoot thrown in for good measure.

But, I would do it a bit differently, so I will throw in my 2 cents for what that is worth. 2 cents probably.

I would use aggressive relief, but not maximize closer. Against teams with predominantly lefty lineups, leave Hall as normal, but quick hook for everyone else, and I would strongly consider setting them all at 6 or 7 innings max depending on the matchup. I would then set bullpen as

Closer-Gagne
setup Gagne (check do not use before 8th, and then quick hook at F7 or F8)
Closer-Sutter (I personally would not set Sutter for slow hook, because I want him replaced by Gagne in 8th/9th)
Setup-sutter
middle man-sutter
middle man - narleski
tied and 9-gagne
tied and late-gagne
tied and 9-sutter
tied and late -sutter
behind and late -sutter
lh specialist-dipino
rh specialist - clear
behind and late - narleski
mopup-sutter
mopup - narleski

You want 200 innings minimum from Sutter, and 130 or so from Gagne. 250 from Sutter would be better. But you only have 2 from Gagne in 12 games, which means a whole lot of money holding down the bench in the bullpen. Not worth the investment so far.

the way you have it set, you could have gagne pulled for Dipino in 8th if the game is tied, which you dont want.

Thanks for the input guys, will try some of your suggestions and see if Gagne can get a few innings.

Mike

You play enough to know any and all advice given about bullpen settings is shrouded in mystery right?! LOLR

sage advice if there ever was


and maybe not to your point, but I would not use a $3m as a mopup, i thought that role was used when the game was out of reach one way or another. I usually use an sp/rp for my mandatory 5th starter and use him for mopup


of course you can't do that, but what I have done w/ 5 man rotations is use the starter scheduled for game 1 or 2 in the next series as mopup


i also don't use RH specialist too much since most hitters are rh, anyway, but even so, Clear puts his share of guys on - he ain't so bad if he gets the middle of the order out, but when he walks the bases full at the bottom... ya know?

i actually think your pen is doin' ok, its your starters who are gettin' lit up.


truth in advertising, I am also one of those who thinks once you start giving money away w/ cuts you keep fallin' farther back. point being, I would go a little further before changing.


I mean, your only RP getting lit-up is DiPino and there my first reaction is he is facing plenty of righty pinchhitters.

but i think your pen is doing pretty well, by your run differential, I would not get too twitchy yet (15 games in)

I totally agree on the money thing. It is extremely difficult to get your money's worth back when you start messing with drop/adds. I almost never do it except for late season injury or a need to improve starting pitching.

The reason I would advocate using a better pitcher in the mopup role is that there is a good offense there. The team is averaging 7 runs a game, so by using a good pitcher in those mopup situations, you keep an early 5-0 deficit from becoming 9 or 10 - nothing. With that offense, you have a reasonably good chance if you can hold them to under 6 or 7 runs. The other reason I believe in using a better pitcher in the mopup role is that I am a firm believer in getting your best pitchers innings. Thats why I rarely use the maximize closer rule, and why I use my closer as a setup guy in the 8th alot. There is some good stuff in that pen, get them the innings and let that offense score runs. Lots of come from behind games, but a win is a win.

I think I probably spouted off to the tune of 3 cents.

I'd simplify it.

Gagne closer. No F marked. Don't use before 7th or even 8th slow hook.
Sutter setup and middleman. No F. Slow hook. Don't use before 6th
LH and RH specs is fine just quick hook and avoids
Middleman Narleski slow hook no Fs
Tied stuff Sutter and Narleski.
Behind late narleski which if you don't use that box HAL will probably do anyways.

I don't worry a lot about innings with gagne. I want saves. If he comes in and pitches a third and saves, well that is why I have him. Narleski is your inning eater Sutter next. Set your relief to Max closer.

Thanks guys, I will play around with these to get the desired results of innings for the pen.

Mike

can't see anything really wrong with any of the suggestions,

where I am coming from:

I compare the significant digits of ERA to SLG (ignore where the decimal point is), if they are about even, you should be winning (and if you are not, maybe you are running yourself out of innings) if ERA is higher than SLG and you are winning, you may not be for long.

for example, I have a team now 11 games over ERA is 4.45 and SLG is .457, so, 457>445 and that tends to confirm my hypothesis

my other active team is 3.74 ERA and .430 SLG and is also over .500

I have been doing this for a few years now.

in your case, you are not far enough into the season to do anything (my opinion) and when you do, I would be looking as starters, not jiggering bullpen settings, since those are the guys who are getting lit-up.

as i said, the only RP who is getting hit is your LH Spesh and, I still guess that if you look, he is seeing a lot more RHBs,

(if your are looking at pbps and box scores and know that is not true, ignore me.) to me its your starters w/ the ERA's over 10 who are getting you behind...)

two other thoughts

1) to my SLG vs. ERA theory, seems to me your were ERA about 5,25 or worse and SLG about .430-.450. by my theory, you would be below .500.


2) I wonder if you are not scoring runs against mopup RPs after you are behind. if not, ignore me. if you are, then, if I were you, I would look to see who is pitching when the game gets out of hand. if I was gonna bet, I would bet it was w/ the starters in the game.

I would look to see who is pitching when the game gets out of hand. if I was gonna bet, I would bet it was w/ the starters in the game.

Not significantly worried about the starters getting lit up, I knew this was gonna happen going in. Most teams here are one sided and/or playing a more HR oriented game. My concern is more how to get the most out of my big 3 (if you will) of Gagne, Sutter and Narleski. I do want most of the innings to come from Sutter, but I also would rather maximize Gagne before seeing Narleski pitch as many innings as Sutter. I have tinkered with a couple of bullpen settings after all the suggestions and if the desired results don't occur will tinker some more. I just want to know if some of the guys who play more often than me and higher caps than me, have some ideas that will accomplish the relief innings to be distributed more along the lines of:
Sutter 50%+ (Middle, and significant late innings)
Gagne 20%+ (closes, and significant late innings)
Narleski 25% (hopefully less significant innings than Sutter and Gagne)
Specialists 2-5% (or less, just an out or two here and there)

Thanks for taking the time to give input