SUPERHAL SETTINGS & DIRECTIONS

Pitching Template

Batting Template

    First of all, it takes practice & a little experimentation to get your SuperHAL settings correct.  Below is an explanation of how to do it & some pictures of what I'm talking about.

This first screen shows you the format.  The ID area is where you choose a letter to indicate what you want to do.  More about that later.  The Pitchers screen show all of the pitchers who are either dedicated relievers or Swingmen.  If you notice, Brad Lidge & Brandon League are both "blue".  That's the minor leaguers who aren't eligible.  You locate them to the bottom to the list.  If you have any starters that you don't want to use for relief, put them below those minor leaguers.

A.  This is the ID section & it goes along with the little box where the letter B is above the pitchers.  Normally, you would use IDs for Blowout, Middle Relief vs. LH, Middle Relief vs. RH, Closer vs. LH, Closer vs. RH.  They would be letters A-E (A Blowout, B Middle vs. LH, etc).  When you select one of the IDs, the list of pitchers comes up.

B.  The list of pitchers.  We'll use Blowout as an example.  Normally, you'd want a guy who has a lot of innings who could come in when you're getting blown out.  I'll use Correia as an example.  I'd take & put Correia at the top of the list regardless of how he does against one side or another.  I'd then list pitchers below him who would have higher innings & aren't closers.  HAL chooses these pitchers in order according to the settings you use.  More on that next.

C.  This list with the numbers is where you designate where you want the order to be.  For Blowouts, I'd choose the 1st slot.  For middle relief, I'd use 2 & 3, for closers I'd use 4 & 5.  This sets you up for the next section.

D.  Score & Outs:  The SCORE is the section where you tell HAL to use your order.  If you're getting blown out, for instance, you'd want to list your score as something like -3 in the first box & -5 in the 2nd.  That means the range is 3 down to 5 down.  For Closers you should list it as 1 in the 1st box & something like 2 or 3 in the 2nd box.  The middle relief will vary from a negative number to a positive number.  For the OUTS section, you list the low # in the 1st box & the high number in the 2nd.  As everyone knows, there are 27 regulation outs in baseball.  If you want your closer to come into the 9th, you're first number would be 25.  Closers are a little different.  Most managers use 99 as the 2nd number.  For middle relief, you'd use something like 15 first number to something like 24 for the 2nd number.  Blowouts are what you make it.

E.  If you're designating sides to face like middle vs. LH, middle vs. RH, you'd select which side you want to have these pitchers face.  For LH batters, you'd select L & l, & S.  For RH, you'd select R & r.  Most managers won't use the S for RH batters.  The same goes for closers vs. each side.

That's all there is to it, really, though it can take a bit of adjusting.  If you send a pitcher to the minors, you have to make sure you tell me the order you want to put your pitchers, especially if they're getting chewed up too fast.