Sunday II is nearly identical to Cherokee Sunday with the exception that this version does not consider a starting rotation. All pitchers no benched or available may be used in relief. In order to prevent their usage in relief, users much bench those pitchers before the game begin.

Several important points to make:

1) Sunday sets aside either a 4 or 5 man starting rotation. He determines this by selecting all pitchers with starts equal or greater than relief appearances and 10+ starts. Then, the 5 best starters as ranked by ERA (low to hig) are considered as the primary rotation.

If a team doesn’t have 5 starters that fit the above requirements, Sunday will then use the top 5 starters ranked by games started (high to low). If a team doesn’t have 5 starters, Sunday will then default to the top 4 pitchers ranked by games started.

All other pitchers who fall outside of the above criteria will be used in relief. He will and does use any pitcher not specifically benched in League Manager or in your lineup/rotation setup that does NOT fall into the category/categories as defined above.

                                                STARTERS IN RELIEF

Sunday will however *selectively* use one of the above starters in a key out late. This will ONLY be done in a save situation in the 9th inning (or in extra innings). If the starter blows the save, he’ll immediately be pulled at the start of the next inning. To absolutely prevent use of starters, either bench the ones you don’t want to use late or use Cherokee Sunday II and bench your rotation with your franchise files.

                                                SELECTING RELIEVERS

Sunday selects closer by grades and not saves. So, relievers with few save totals but high grades will be used over pitchers having the opposite stats.  A “regular” closer will have grades of roughly 13+ while a  “supercloser” will have a grade of 17+. Note: these are adjusted grades that consider control adjustments (homer and/or control grades or ratings). Sunday will, obviously, aggressively use the superclosers more than the “normal” closers (depending on the starter’s grade, QS et cetera).

Sunday (and Sunday II) give extra grade points for Z,ZZ, G and H pitchers. Similarly, W, L, and M pitchers are reduced grade points. These points are approximately double the points given using the Master Game rules (e.g., a Z gets 4 points while in the Master Game he (usually, base situations notwithstanding) gets a +2).

1) Key point: Sunday, unlike (generally) the Miller manages, is a different modern draft manager in that he goes against the usual modern style – both in terms of historical and draft styles. That is he doesn’t use setup guys and closers a la a Tony LaRussa (i.e. one inning outings). Instead, he tries to use a “hot” reliever – i.e., one that has an adjusted grade of 18+ in the situation – in critical save or close situations. Adjusted grades are the relieving grade (or starting if he doesn’t have one) plus control adjustments (HR ratings, Zs, Ws) plus first batter effectiveness (if applicable) and any platoon ratings of the batter (again, if applicable).

So, what he tries to do against heavy hitters (e.g., EFFECTIVE PROs of .800+) and multiple runners on base late (7th onward) in close games (-2/+3) is have an 18+ adjusted grade guy come in. Now, he does try and save you highest grade reliever for later situation (8th onward) and use the other relievers earlier.

2) Sunday, like the Miller draft managers, hates to see relievers hit. You’ll see a very aggressive use of  double switches and “rearrangement” of the batting order to try and limit the times a reliever hits. Generally, unless the reliever is a “stud” pitcher or the game is lopsided or a team’s bullpen is thin due to overwork, you’ll likely never see a relief pitcher hit.

Sunday has all of the “bells and whistles” programmed into him, some of which may or may not be applicable to your team. For example, he has a couple of pinch run to steal strategies (second or third) that may not apply to your team if you don’t have a good base stealer on your bench (e.g., steal rating of 28 or higher).

Additionally, Sunday has a pinch hit to bunt strategy that requires a “good bunter” be available; a pinch hit for a hit and run situation (that also requires a bench hitter with a good H&R ability that includes a low SO/AB ratio).

Cherokee has an aggressive sub strategy in replacing star players in lopsided games. This includes PHing, PRing and subbing defensively for them.

Note: Sunday will let high average pitchers bat if there isn’t a higher hitting player available on the bench. So, for example, a pitcher with a good hitting “card”, even with few plate appearances, will almost always bat (except in lopsided games where no advantage is needed).