Odd AI roster moves

[motnahp]

Started a new assn with just All-Star players from 69-08. Apparently the AI does not see the purpose for this. I have a 20-team assn and 9 of the 20 teams have only one catcher on the 25-man roster, with two or three catchers in AAA. I also have two teams with zero catchers on the 25-man roster. Rafael Furcal is catching, with three catchers in AAA. On the other team, Dave Concepcion is sent behind the plate, although two catchers are in AAA. This is a problem I thought was squashed long ago.

Out of the 20 teams, only three have everyone playing proper positions. There aren't huge problems, but in each case two or more guys are in the minors, while the AI puts someone completely out of position and in the lineup. I'm soooooo glad I spent the time to ensure that all 20 teams had plenty of players at every position! One of the extreme cases has catcher Victor Martinez at shortstop, while Ozzie Guillen and Mark Belanger sit in AAA. I guess that team's AI staff doesn't care about infield defense.[;)]

I may also have an import problem, as almost ALL of my 200+ outfielders show with right field as their primary positions, and almost all of those imported as RF/CF. I guess no one wants to play left field, as only Ryan Braun and Ron Fairly show up there when I check under Graphical rosters.

Has anyone else experienced anything weird like this? I can deal with the players out of position. In a strange way, it's gonna be fun to see how Victor Martinez does at SS and how well Don Mincher patrols CF. What I am distressed to see is the problem with catchers crop up again 2-3 years after Shaun fixed it. Leave it to me to come up with some oddball configuration to muddy the waters.[8|]

[KG Erwin]

You gotta consider the year of import, as many players transitioned into different positions over their careers. Let me take Pete Reiser as an example. In 1940 he played a few games with the Dodgers as a 3B. On my team, he is a full-time player (at 3B). I already have a good CF, so I don't plan on training Pete to become an OF. For all I know, it could perhaps prolong his career.

For you, motnahp, a bit of manual player editing may be in order. I've never played sandlot-style, so I'm speculating. Yours is a big-time "what if" set-up, so stepping this far out of the historical timeline will probably require some human tweaking.

[DonBraswell]

I'm afraid that is not it KG. I have had the same problems with my regular MLB based associations all along. I had to adjust rosters so many times, I just got tired of it. You adjust rosters and line ups, then the AI trades and readjust. I've had teams trade off all of their good catchers ( or another position ) and use anybody and everybody to fill that position. I get upset and start then stop playing lately.
Don

[KG Erwin]

Don, honestly, I don't see the AI being THAT stupid with lineups. If anything, it tends to play tired players too often, so they get more injuries. Even at that, with 40-man rosters in 1940, the injury ratio isn't extraordinarily high. Heck, even with my conservative player use, I still get injuries happening on MY team.

What's more, I DON'T see the AI using players out of position. For the 40s, I'm using 40-man rosters. 35 might be too few. If the AI runs short, it will sign up a FA to fill the gap.

[motnahp]

What may be a big issue is the initial setup. For this assn, it's Multiplayer, with all teams under human control. This human just happens to want the AI to decide rosters and lineups. When I first had the "catcher problem" a couple or three years ago, Shaun actually went in and made some changes, "requiring" the AI to carry at least two catchers.

I'm either experiencing a time warp here, or another change has re-introduced this problem.

Also, for the first time ever, I said yes to the option of ratings changes during a season. I saved a copy of the assn before the season started, so I may be able to change that option with the PS_CONFIG add-in, then run a test for a couple months. I'll give that a shot tonight and (if nothing else) eliminate that as the issue.

Update: Ratings changes have nothing to do with it. I did as stated above. A team suffered an injury to their only catcher and instead of promoting a C from AAA, Tom Brunansky grabbed a cup and gear.

[motnahp]

I set this assn up with 40-man rosters, ensuring (I thought) adequate staffing at all positions.  The only area I left a little sparse was relief pitching.  There just weren't that many relief pitchers appearing in All-Star games over the years and the ones who did appear were almost always closers.
 
I went back and changed this assn to NOT use the modern closer.  Most teams ended up with 5-man rotations, 4 relievers, and one starter working out of the bullpen.  This result does leave some quality starters at AAA, but at least it gives a more realistic feel to things.
 
I'll still have fun with it.  It's so far off the beaten path, who can say what should and shouldn't be happening?  Right now, I'm at near the end of May and (ironically) Lee May is the leading hitter at around .360.  Lee's highest BA in a full season was .290.
 
When I randomly assigned the players to their teams, I ended up with both Randy and Todd Hundley on the same squad.  The Griffeys are in different leagues.  I have three Alomars, two Bondses (sp?) and two Alous, but none of those relatives are on the same team, either.
 
I haven't decided if I will continue this assn past one year.  If I do, I'll either need to replenish the player pool with All-Stars from earlier than 1968 or, perhaps, use only players who appeared in postseason from 69-08.