AI stupidity

[Matt]

Was noticing a quite talented catcher on Michigan team. Jason Corbett. Noticed he didn't see an at bat in 2009. Wondered why. History does not show an injury. Went looking at the lineups.

Corbett set at starting catcher. But Mitchell set to start every 2nd game as the backup. And Taylor set to start every 2nd game as utility 2. So effectively, the AI shut out Corbett from ever starting even though he was the starter. DUH.

It effectively did the same thing at two other positions, where better starters were shut out of playing time do rosters being set the same way.

I am really wondering how this affects the development of those players. And also wondering if it might not be worth it to bring in someone or maybe a couple of someone's who might be interested in just setting the lineups of the college and high school teams in order to make sure the stupidity like this didn't happen. Food for thought.

[John]

While I would be fine with taking volunteers to set the feeder league lineups, I fear it wouldn't do much good. Without constant attention, the AI would just continue to put the players back in that it wanted. Someone would have to be setting 7-day lineups for feeder teams each sim.

[Matt]

That's what I was thinking too, it would have to be setting the 7 day lineups. I really don't know if that is feasible or not, or in what context it could be done. Having PEBA owners setting lineups down there might be a conflict of interest, especially since you would have to set them as human managers, which would seem to set up a whole other set of problems, especially time commitments, signing players, etc. Probably more of a hassle than it's worth to consider. Hopefully some of those issues get addressed in newer versions of the game. I think that's why I was thinking an independent party or two who would like to be involved with PEBA at some level. If I were on the outside looking in at PEBA, I would think it would be a great place to start, as you would get a real first hand look at the young talent all the time. But again, working out the details of how to do it and if it's feasible, that's where your the expert. Just wanted to toss the idea out there.

[Tyler]

The AI seemed to go berserk this past sim, playing at least two of my outfielders at infield positions, and two of my infielders in the outfield. We're talking starters here. They didn't start, but they have no business appearing anyway, not with completely full depth charts. I suffered no injuries. Did anyone else get this? I'm thinking maybe it's related to September callups somehow.

[Steel Dragons]

Does the AI release all star players mid season often?

I saw an instance last night where this happened and OOTP made a mockery of our world. The player was arguably the best at his position in his league, in the prime of his career, affordable to his team, healthy, and having a great season when all of a sudden they release him 1/3-1/2 way through the season. It makes absolutely no sense for the AI to be that stupid.

I'm not making any mention of the player or teams involved because a human owned team was able to capitalize on the AI and scoop up the player in the middle of a pennant race. I don't want anyone to think I'm accusing them of hacking the exports or anything. If that kind of player fell into my lap I would do the same thing.

[Matt]

Absolutely not the first time that has happened with a Japanese team. Last season Bernal signed in the Japanese league, then inexplicably got released mere weeks later. Later signed by Charleston. WAY too goofy when it happens.

[John]

Which player exactly are we talking about here? I feel like I'm missing something.

[James Bowman]

Does the AI release all star players mid season often?

I saw an instance last night where this happened and OOTP made a mockery of our world. The player was arguably the best at his position in his league, in the prime of his career, affordable to his team, healthy, and having a great season when all of a sudden they release him 1/3-1/2 way through the season. It makes absolutely no sense for the AI to be that stupid.

I'm not making any mention of the player or teams involved because a human owned team was able to capitalize on the AI and scoop up the player in the middle of a pennant race. I don't want anyone to think I'm accusing them of hacking the exports or anything. If that kind of player fell into my lap I would do the same thing.

Absolutely not the first time that has happened with a Japanese team. Last season Bernal signed in the Japanese league, then inexplicably got released mere weeks later. Later signed by Charleston. WAY too goofy when it happens.

I have a feeling that the Bernal situation is exactly what he's talking about. :)

I can assure that our signing was legit, even sanctioned by the commissioner himself.

When he became a free agent, there were only 3-4 PEBA teams that had enough money for free agents at the time to sign him, and he remained in free agency for 5-6 sims I believe. We jumped at the opportunity after trimming a bit of salary.

Don't worry, we know you aren't accusing anybody, and I can certainly understand how the events could raise suspicion. I just wanted you to understand what happened from our standpoint. :)

As for why the AI released Bernal, nobody knows, but I'm sure glad they did!

[John]

Ah, okay, I thought this was something that had happened in the last few sims. Yes, the AI releasing high-quality players is a known issue with OOTP and something I intend to beat the drum about during the upcoming beta cycle. We were all shocked when Niihama-Shi released Bernal. Once it happened, though, we made a choice to roll with it. A fictional reason was created for the release and he became available for any PEBA team to sign. Charleston just happened to be the team to snatch him up, but it could have been anyone.

Fortunately, the combination of altered financial settings for international league and human owners taking over LRS teams will insure this kind of thing will never happens again in the PEBA. Thank goodness; I really dislike messiness like that.

[Steel Dragons]

Actually it wasn't Bernal that I saw. I guess since it is a known issue there is no point in hiding it.

RP Juan Suárez got released by Hyakujuu on July 20th. He had a lifetime 1.76 era in 194+ innings, even pitched a 2 hit shutout a month before his release. He then jumped into the pennant race as Aurora's closer. With the first 2 games of the playoff series being decided by the bullpens, his impact may have helped make the difference there.

[klewis]

Yeah it is known the AI can be quite suspect. But I don't think any of us have a problem with these "Pennant Chase" free agents. It's been widely publicized around the league when the date of international free agents opens up.

There's actually been a couple of big name international free agents signed mid-season that have played well down the stretch(Matsusuke Nakayama and Yasushi Kobayashi). Although these were guys who were not in the '09 free agent class. They were already were sitting on the free agent for quite awhile now.

As it was mentioned before now with real human owners, it should be different. I'm curious how the bidding will work with LRS free agents. Is there a chance that PEBA teams will be able to outbid the lesser financed LRS teams?

[Steel Dragons]

true, but I have no problem with teams signing players who are available. My issue was that a team released a really good player in the middle of a season for no reason. All the others you mentioned became free agents when their contract was up.

[John]

The AI wonkiness with releasing free agents is beyond our scope to address. What we can do is try to bring it to Markus's attention so that it gets the attention it needs in the next version of the game. There is some hope that we'll see an improvement here. In this thread, Markus claims to have found the bug that would cause the "draft and release" behavior that currently plagues the game. One could hope this would prevent the kind of aberrant behavior we're discussing here as well.

Until we've got the new version in our hands, though, it's something we simply have to live with. But again, we're in better shape now with human owners taking over the LRS. Amongst the international leagues, only the LRS has the financial clout to be harboring these kind of star players in the first place (the other leagues would need to draft them, and for a variety of reasons that's not likely to happen too often). So this is yet another way that the LRS expansion will be good for the PEBA as a whole.

[klewis]

true, but I have no problem with teams signing players who are available. My issue was that a team released a really good player in the middle of a season for no reason. All the others you mentioned became free agents when their contract was up.

Yeah you are right. I missed your point about LRS teams releasing their star players during the season. My comment was more focused on free agents. Ha, that's what I get for skimming the forums while at work