I was about to manage a game when the Starting Lineups screen popped up as expected. Just before I made the swap for my tired starting first baseman, I happened to notice the brilliant red the AI's team catcher was colored. I looked through their bench and they have no backup catchers; not even a guy who has catcher as his 2nd position. Why wouldn't the AI plan their bench better and have at least 1 backup for the infield, outfield and catcher? See the Lineup Screen:
Maybe there were extreme circumstances. I'd be interested to see if this was a byproduct of injuries or a trading AI issue etc. Would you mind digging in a little and seeing if you see anything peculiar?
Thanks for the help -- AI is part of the code that is perpetually being improved and tweaked.
No problem! I'll look in to see what activity was going on with the team at the time-- it certainly is possible that unplanned injuries (which is a silly thing to say since they're ALL unplanned) could have taken out a catcher at the last minute. I'll get back to you on this one.
Fortunately, that was only 4 or 5 games ago, so I don't have to work very much to find something.
Looking through, I really don't see any explanation for what happened. They had Mike Piazza sitting in the minors, but he was traded to the Devil Rays 6 days later. He had no major league playing time with the Nationals. The only thing this reveals is that they had him as an "option", but didn't promote him so they couldn't use him.
Reading further, it doesn't look like they've had a backup catcher so far this year. I checked the Almanac (after rebuilding what had changed to be sure it was current) and from the looks of their Batting Register, it doesn't appear as if they had another catcher-- only Sheely. To determine this, I used the Batting Register. I'm assuming it shows all players that were with the team (at the major league level) that year, no matter how often they played, where they started the year or where they ended up. If this isn't the case, I may need to use a different tool to see what players were present on their roster througout the year. Do you know of one?
I am in the second season of a SandBox association with 24 teams. Using 35 man rosters and finances on. I did not run an amateur draft prior to the season but I did import plenty of new players prior to the FA period. Lots of talented players went unsigned and just about every team has 32 or fewer players. The AI isn't carrying enough players on the Major League roster while it has 5-6 guys in the minors. I wouldn't have probably realized it except after the FA period there were guys I withdrew my offer to because they were leaning to another team and it turned out that they were never signed at all. So I looked at the teams I was losing the bidding to and sure enough they were short players. After correcting a few manually the game sim hung with the old TeamX is thinking, evaluating loop and after killing and restarting I saw those teams were without rested players or 25 on the MLB roster. Could be a SandBox only issue but I don't know why the AI isn't valuing good players and making offers. Another note, doesn't seem to hold true for pitching... all pitchers worth a damn were signed. However, guys who entered the league in year two and have ratings of 80+ across the board are being offered in trade in exchange for scrubs.
