Terry Francona's Bullpen Management

[tcsox11]

After watching the way Francona manages his pen this postseason, it made me curious to wonder if this strategy would succeed in The Show? For example I play as the Red Sox, so my equivalent would be bringing Kimbrel in high leverage situations at any point in the game. Obviously this is a bit unrealistic since Farrell is too lax to manage this way himself. But I do think this will start being implemented more throughout the league and that traditional closer roles will not be as significant. Let me know if anyone has tried using this strategy in game. Obviously it helps when you have some other good pieces in the pen too

[Sip_16]

Quote: Originally Posted by tcsox11

After watching the way Francona manages his pen this postseason, it made me curious to wonder if this strategy would succeed in The Show? For example I play as the Red Sox, so my equivalent would be bringing Kimbrel in high leverage situations at any point in the game. Obviously this is a bit unrealistic since Farrell is too lax to manage this way himself. But I do think this will start being implemented more throughout the league and that traditional closer roles will not be as significant. Let me know if anyone has tried using this strategy in game. Obviously it helps when you have some other good pieces in the pen too

Your last line is what makes sense to implement this style of bullpen. I wonder if Francona didn't have Miller, Allen and to a lesser extent Shaw he would do the same. I think you may see a change in how the bullpen is used when you can get a high leverage reliever like Miller and still have an above average guy for the 9th. I just started a fantasy franchise and I got Miller and Herrera and I use Miller for the 7th 8th or if I need a K, and Herrera is my "closer".

[redsoxfan31]

Quote: Originally Posted by tcsox11

After watching the way Francona manages his pen this postseason, it made me curious to wonder if this strategy would succeed in The Show? For example I play as the Red Sox, so my equivalent would be bringing Kimbrel in high leverage situations at any point in the game. Obviously this is a bit unrealistic since Farrell is too lax to manage this way himself. But I do think this will start being implemented more throughout the league and that traditional closer roles will not be as significant. Let me know if anyone has tried using this strategy in game. Obviously it helps when you have some other good pieces in the pen too

Thankfully real life and the Show are two different things because if you're a Sox fan then you remember that this year Kimbrel was awful in non-save situations, his mentality is that he can only succeed in a close situation. However, in the Show this doesn't exist so I think you could do this especially with the Red Sox if you are using their real roster. You could use Barnes, Kelly, & Kimbrel as late inning/high leverage relievers who could be used interchangeably. I mentioned those three specifically because they're the three guys who throw the hardest in that pen.

[catswithbats]

I use this bullpen strategy in MLB the Show before, though I haven't brought my best reliever into a game in the sixth.

It'll be interesting to see how MLB the Show utilizes this strategy if more managers turn to it, because when you sim games the "closer" hardly pitches in non-save situations if ever.

[kbusch22]

I would love to see this lead to the elimination of the closer position in The Show altogether. I've done this in my franchise - I converted every CP to a RP. However the depth chart still requires teams to designate an official closer so it hasn't really helped much in terms of AI bullpen usage.

[guitar_davey]

In my Jays franchise, I'll use Osuna or Cecil in the eighth or ninth to get favourable lefty/righty matchups.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by tcsox11

After watching the way Francona manages his pen this postseason, it made me curious to wonder if this strategy would succeed in The Show? For example I play as the Red Sox, so my equivalent would be bringing Kimbrel in high leverage situations at any point in the game. Obviously this is a bit unrealistic since Farrell is too lax to manage this way himself. But I do think this will start being implemented more throughout the league and that traditional closer roles will not be as significant. Let me know if anyone has tried using this strategy in game. Obviously it helps when you have some other good pieces in the pen too

I like to pay extra for a deep pen and skimp on other positions, and I like to bring the closer in to face the heart of the order the last time through before the game is likely to end if it's close. I'll bring in the closer in the 8th to get through the 3-5 guys and then let my next best reliever polish off the bottom third of the order in the 9th. I may do that in the 7th if I'm facing a particularly dangerous hitter who I just don't know if I can get out otherwise.

If you do this, it helps to have more than one reliever with good clutch ratings.

[KBLover]

I did close to this in my Year 1 fantasy Red Sox. I brought Chapman in for the 7th regularly if needed and if he was on and had gas left, he'd pitch the 8th.

Tazawa is no Miller (or Chapman) but he gets it done a lot of times.

Now that I have Capps and Knebel, the load on Chapman is less, but I'm always looking out for bringing Chap in for the 7th+ through 8th and even 9th. Herrera is the official closer, so to speak, but in that 2016 season, Chapman had 11 saves I think it was out of the set-up role and 94 innings.

On a per 200 IP basis, Chapman was as valuable, if you like using WAR and FIP, as Chris Sale was for me that year and the 2nd most valuable in terms of actual WAR (only to Sale).

I always use bullpens like this, even in OOTP. My best reliever in one of my teams is a 6th-8th inning reliever (MR/SU combo in that game). Racks up over 100 innings (has max stamina rating, so basically a starter's stamina with a reliever's arsenal of two big time pitches).

It's funny that mentality was mentioned. It doesn't exist in The Show, but I had Familia and he's rated like a closer, but was awful. It's how Herrera "stole" the job. It was like Familia couldn't do it lol.