BILLY MARTIN
Billy Martin – Modern Draft League Manager
Modeled from the Billy Ball era in Oakland and from his mutiple stops at the Bronx Zoo. If you want to add a little excitement to your APBA league THIS is the guy for you!
Billy Ball tactics of note:
1) He sets aside a 5 man rotation and does NOT use starters in relief roles unless he has no other options. Billy is prone to stick with his “stud” starters deep into games. He’ll label such as any 12+ rated starter with over 210 innings pitched. He will have a quicker hook when starters are of a lesser grade.
2) Billy is aggressive with the running game and against catchers with average or below average arms (+1 and lower). Displays a strong use of the double steal and will also utilize the hit and run extensively, even when behind if good speed is on the base paths. Billy is not afraid to try to steal home or use the suicide squeeze to steal a run. This is something he favors to pull the trigger on when facing a dominant starter or supercloser in a close contest, however, he’ll occasionally use such tactics early and against lesser quality arms as he loves surprising the opposition.
3) Martin selects closers by saves and not grades. A reliever, for example, with high save totals but low grade will be used over a relievers with high grades but few saves. A “normal” closer will have more than 12 saves. A “supercloser” will have saves of 20+. Martin will, obviously, more aggressively use the superclosers than the “normal” closers. Teams with multiple closers will see the closer with highest save totals being selected as the primary closer and the other closers likely used as setup relievers. However, Martin will have a quick hook with one “struggling” closer in favor of the secondary (or tertiary, et cetera) closers.
4) Martin hates to see relievers hit. You’ll see a very aggressive use of double switches and “realignment” of the batting order to attempt to prevent a relief pitcher from batting. Generally, unless the reliever is a “supercloser” or the game is lopsided or a team’s bullpen is thin due to overwork, you’ll likely never see a relief pitcher with a bat in his hands.
5) Martin will rest star players in lopsided games. He’ll also quickly pull starting pitchers when games are safely in hand, even his “stud” starters.
6) Martin “rates” two of the outfield positions, RF and CF. For a player to be considered a viable option as a CF, he must be rated as an outfielder and either have a defensive rating greater than one and speed greater than 15. Right fielders must be rated as outfielders and have arm rating greater than 29 and speed greater than 10. In situations where injury or ejection occurs and no rested CF or RF is available, these ratings essentially “go out the window” and any rated outfielder may be used. Generally, however, in the latter situations, Billy will still try to place speedier players in CF and betters arms in RF.
7) Billy doesn’t pinchhit for star players. He labels such as any player reaching one of the following numbers: .300 Ave, 30 HR’s 100 Runs scored or 95 RBI’s.
8) Martin uses defensive replacements with regularity. Always looks to upgrade at SS defensively. He is also wary of letting ANY 1 rated OF play late in a game with a narrow lead.