Chappy Ross I - 1900 to 40's Era, AIM, DH capable Chappy Ross I is an AIM, draft league manager designed to handle pre-war (circa 1945) season contests. The Chappy Ross managers follow up on the Buck Miller draft managers which are designed to handle modern or (roughly) post-war draft replays. So generally speaking, if your draft league is playing seasons 1900 to ~1945, use one of the Ross programs, for seasons 1946 to current, use one of the Miller managers. Ross I is programmed with a view that the team being managed is "complete" or nearly complete. That is, the 25/26 man roster includes all of the *key* available players for the season. The farm club/roster (if there is one) is assumed to include very marginal players with low PR/RUse or MBFs. Because of this, Ross will manager more conservatively to prevent player overuse and AIM exhaustion. To get a sense of how Ross manages your team,
it's a good idea to run a quick test or "spring training" set of games through
League Manager. Try about 40-50 games with your regular season roster (of 25-26) as a run. Ross I is programmed to consider a 4 or 5 man starting rotation (see below for details) and will only use these starting pitchers in relief conservatively (+/- 2 runs) and late (eighth inning+). Otherwise, these rotation SPs will not be used out of the bullpen (injury or pitcher ejection depending). "Rotation" defined - Ross I defines as a "potential starting pitcher" any pitcher with more starts than relief appearances and 20 or more starts OR any pitcher with 25 or more starts OR if no pitcher (for some reason) on a team meet that criteria the first five pitchers ranked by game starts. Once that group or list is created, Ross I than determines whether he considers a 4 or 5 man rotation by ranking all pitchers in that group by ERA (lowest to highest). If the fourth rated pitcher has less than 35 starts, Ross I will use a 5 man rotation. If the fourth pitcher has 35 or more starts, he'll use a 4 man rotation. Again, as mentioned above, these starting pitchers may be spot used in relief late; otherwise they'll stay on the bench. Additionally, Ross tries to limit the relief outings of these starters. BULLPEN Ross I will adjust his hook based on the "type" of bullpen he is given. Broadly speaking, he defines bullpens as "strong", "average" and "weak". These categories are determined by the grades and innings of the top relievers (as well as game availability) as well as overall bullpen innings. Teams with "weak pens" will, as should be obvious, see Ross I staying with starting pitchers longer and a more conservative use of relievers. Similarly, teams with "strong" pens will see a quicker hook and more aggressive bullpen usage. Note: These categories of "weak" or "strong" pens are AIM dependent. That is, the relievers must be rested and available for usage for a pen to be considered "strong", et cetera. Ross I selects closers (and most other relievers) by adjusted grades (this is grade plus control ratings plus bonuses for innings and readiness rating number). Ross I will use closers for multiple innings (i.e., he isn't locked into the LaRussa one inning closer approach). While he considers left/right matchups, Ross I is more conservative using this approach and generally will only bring in a one-batter (or few batters) relievers for high platoon rated and top offensive batters late in close games (this contrasts with the Miller managers). OFFENSIVE STRATEGIES Because of the wide disparities in offenses over the pre-war period (think of any Deadball season versus the 1930 season for example), the Ross managers are programmed to use both small ball when needed as well as playing for big, multiple run innings when that is a wiser approach. Generally, this is dependent on opposing pitcher grade (Ross assumes a WAG of 9) and "strength" of the heart of a team's order (that is the effective PROs (obp+slugging) for the team's top four hitters in a lineup). Other factors such as batter Sac totals, steal rating/attempts for a runner, score, inning et cetera will influence things. This means that teams with better lineups against below/average/slightly above average pitchers will generally employ a big inning approach while teams with poorer lineups facing average to better pitchers will play more smal ball. SMALL BALL Base stealing is based on 100% steals (because many CS numbers are missing for a number of deadball era players, total steal attempts are calculated internally) with steal ratings being heavily important (low steal sucess rated players will not reach historic numbers). Similarly, hit and run plays are influenced by steal rating, hit and run rating and hit and run average (defined as: Effective.BA+HitRunAbility*0.015-0.2*(SO.perAB-0.05+WalkAverage). Other factors such as score, inning, outs, opponent pitcher grade, et cetera are also considered. Bunting is affected greatly by actual SH totals for a batter (effective BA and effective slugging are also critical). Again, as noted above strong offenses will see less small ball, including stealing, while weaker offenses will (likely) see more. Note: Players with poor steal success ratings will seldom steal; so historic totals will not be matched. Ross I is similar in aggressiveness to the Duke Robinson managers with PHing. He'll be more aggressive, however, with runners on base, especially late when down or even ahead. The Ross programs will PR late to steal a base to pad leads. OTHER APPROACHES/NOTES Ross I will PH and sub defensively for star players in blowouts. He'll also PR with better/faster defensive players. Pitchers will be removed early in safe games but "weak" (or not fully rested) pens will usually see a starter go nine innings (Ross I-IV is conservative with this strategy). Itchy players, including pitchers, are favored in lopsided games. Ross will aggressively (but "responsibly) use pitchers as both pinchhitters and pinchrunners. All of the Ross managers will take advantage of dual-use players or those who both pitched and played in the field. As pitcher who played in the field may be switched to the outfield/infield and a new pitcher brought in (think of a Ruth going from the mound to right after getting hit hard). Similarly, a player who can pitch who is in the field may move to the mound. In both cases, Ross I-IV will employ this conservatively and "responsibly" (e.g, a regular who had 2 relief appearances won't be having 20+ appearances). |