Nixey O'Brien - Deadball Era Manager

Although designed predominantly for the earlier part of the century - roughly 1900-1910 - O'Brien has also been programmed to handle replays up through the 1919 season, or the end of the dead ball era. He can, then, be used as competition for the other dead ball managers currently available, either Ned Jennings or Nap Clarke. As opposed to those two managers, O'Brien is a little more aggressive with steals and sacrifices, less so with the hit and run; is a little more conservative (if possible) in subbing offensively and has a slightly quicker hook for starters in replays from 1911 onward. Otherwise, he follows - like Jennings and Clarke - the very conservative style that was dominant during the era.

            Like Nap Clarke, O'Brien has been designed to manage pitchings staffs while the replayers employ 19th century recovery rates, i.e., pitchers can pitch consecutive games and never tire. In order to prevent, however, the misuse of pitchers since they can pitch every day, O'Brien uses a method that is quite similar to that used by Nap Clarke. To wit, relievers are selected based on a "weighted randomization" measure that is determined by: pitching grade, score, inning, opponent (strong or weak), and part of the batting order faced (e.g., heavy or weak parts of the lineup). For example, when playing good opponents in a tie game with the top 3-4 hitters coming up, O'Brien will select his best reliever as determined both by grade and relief appearances (e.g., if two potential relievers have similar grades, the one with the most relief appearances will be selected over the other). If, however, the opponent was a weak one (under .450 winning percentage) with the other conditions identical, O'Brien will likely choose the second best reliever.  The major differences between O'Brien and Clarke in this process is that the former tends to select the "better" reliever in more circumstances than Clarke. So, relievers with very few relief appearances are likely not to having any appearances during your replay since O'Brien favors high innings pitched pitchers over seldom-used ones.

 By using this approach, then, you should be able to more accurately duplicate actual pitching patterns employed in the 1900's such as star pitchers pitching in relief one or two days after having started.

 Some other strategies/qualities to note include: O'Brien does not have any type of substitution strategies in lopsided games; sacrifices are adjusted downward roughly 25% since SF were included in the SH category; steals are calculated based on the players steal rating since for many seasons CS numbers are missing; O'Brien does have a one-out semi "bunt for hit" strategy but he is NOT capable of either using the bunt for hit option or the corners in strategy.