The manual addresses this situation.. but I do think it needs to be a little bit clearer. It states the following.

To determine who the GAME robot will select to start in this situation, use the following guidelines.

1. If there are one or more starters (pitchers with max-bats of at least 30) who have 30 BFA and are READY, the Game Robot will select the pitcher with the highest PB pitching grade.

2. If there is no READY starter the ROBOT will select a long reliever (with max bats less than 30) with at least 10 BFA.

3. Failing the availability of pitchers designated in one and two above, the GAME ROBOT will select the highest PB rated reliever with either 10 BFA or full BFA.

Point one and three seem a bit confusing to me. Is it really grade? or PB value... and what does PB rated mean? is that grade again.. or is that PB value? I'm also not sure how the robot would handle rusty pitchers with max BFA. I think if those points were clearer it would be fairly simple to determine the pitcher.

I agree that this is a somewhat dirty tactic. I think that if the robot finds a pitcher who is not ready after lineups have been submitted.. it should scrap the lineups all together and re-start.. present a robot lineup for the away team and let the home manager re-do his lineup.

I see this as very similiar to the non-rated catcher problem, which has been officially addressed and is now considered cheating. This should be as well.