Cherokee Sunday II: ~Modern Draft League AIM Manager – Version 5 (2016 edition)
Best with BFs faced but not required. Note: This version is greatly revised over any previous editions. For draft league rosters only; not designed for replays.
CHEROKEE SUNDAY II OVERVIEW
CHEROKEE SUNDAY II is designed to handle mostly modern draft league replays. He is not designed to manage season replays of any type. Although created to guide modern seasons, he may be adequate in handling pre-contemporary (e.g, ca. 1990) replays depending on your team’s roster. Because of his aggressive relief strategies, it’s smart to use Sunday only with deep bullpens.
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.
As note above – and emphasized here – Sunday II will use any pitcher available for a game. If you wish not to use a pitcher or pitchers in relief, you must have them benched before the game begins.
SELECTING RELIEVERS
Sunday II 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 II will, obviously, aggressively use the superclosers more than the “normal” closers (depending on the starter’s grade, QS et cetera).
Note: Sunday and Sunday II give additional grade points to Z, ZZ, H and G pitchers above the normal boost. Similarly, W, L, and M pitchers are penalized above the “normal” boost (MG adjustments).
1) Critical point: Sunday II, 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 II, like the Miller draft managers, hates to see relievers hit unless they have a good “card”. 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 II has alll 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 pinchrun 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 II 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 Sunday II has an aggressive sub strategy in replacing star players in lopsided games. This includes PHing, PRing and subbing defensively for them.
Note: Sunday II 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).