Player Lock

[mdgoalie37]

I'll never get through a season if I play every inning, so I'm playing Player Lock and I'm able to bang out games pretty quickly. However I noticed that my bench is not being used all that much, including my backup catcher, who had 0 starts. I'm up to today (4/16/25) in my season, so there are a number of off days early on obviously but still think my catcher (Realmuto) should have had a few days off.
Is anyone playing this way and see that the CPU will sub guys in the starting lineups? Or do I just need to adjust the lineups every so often to get guys in?

[bcruise]

Re: Player Lock

I'll never get through a season if I play every inning, so I'm playing Player Lock and I'm able to bang out games pretty quickly. However I noticed that my bench is not being used all that much, including my backup catcher, who had 0 starts. I'm up to today (4/16/25) in my season, so there are a number of off days early on obviously but still think my catcher (Realmuto) should have had a few days off.
Is anyone playing this way and see that the CPU will sub guys in the starting lineups? Or do I just need to adjust the lineups every so often to get guys in?

Adjusting them yourself in the main lineup screen is one way (because yes, the player lock lineup doesn't adjust based on energy or performance, and you don't get any of the game time decisions that can shake the lineup up sometimes), but there's one other little trick you can do. If you start a game with the "play full game" option, - going through the pregame lineups/starting pitcher screens - you can switch to player lock for a specific player in the substitution screen once you're into the game. Just highlight a player in the lineup and press R2, or if you want to player lock the pitcher press L2. When you back out of the pause screen you'll either jump to your player lock player's next appearance, or see the sim screen depending on which one you have selected in the options.

Going through the pregame lineup screens will take player energy into account when determining the lineup, and it will prompt you to rest players if they're tired. Of course, this is an issue for catchers more than most other positions as they will need a day of rest more frequently.

[mdgoalie37]

Re: Player Lock

Adjusting them yourself in the main lineup screen is one way (because yes, the player lock lineup doesn't adjust based on energy or performance, and you don't get any of the game time decisions that can shake the lineup up sometimes), but there's one other little trick you can do. If you start a game with the "play full game" option, - going through the pregame lineups/starting pitcher screens - you can switch to player lock for a specific player in the substitution screen once you're into the game. Just highlight a player in the lineup and press R2, or if you want to player lock the pitcher press L2. When you back out of the pause screen you'll either jump to your player lock player's next appearance, or see the sim screen depending on which one you have selected in the options.

Going through the pregame lineup screens will take player energy into account when determining the lineup, and it will prompt you to rest players if they're tired. Of course, this is an issue for catchers more than most other positions as they will need a day of rest more frequently.

That's great, I was looking last night to see if I could turn on player lock after selecting 'Play Full Game' and didn't see it. I'll try your suggestion. Thanks.

[Fiddy]

Re: Player Lock

Adjusting them yourself in the main lineup screen is one way (because yes, the player lock lineup doesn't adjust based on energy or performance, and you don't get any of the game time decisions that can shake the lineup up sometimes), but there's one other little trick you can do. If you start a game with the "play full game" option, - going through the pregame lineups/starting pitcher screens - you can switch to player lock for a specific player in the substitution screen once you're into the game. Just highlight a player in the lineup and press R2, or if you want to player lock the pitcher press L2. When you back out of the pause screen you'll either jump to your player lock player's next appearance, or see the sim screen depending on which one you have selected in the options.

Going through the pregame lineup screens will take player energy into account when determining the lineup, and it will prompt you to rest players if they're tired. Of course, this is an issue for catchers more than most other positions as they will need a day of rest more frequently.

Great tip, I don't think I knew you could do that. Drives me nuts the player lock lineup don't just act like the every day energy lineup. Thanks for sharing that!

[mdgoalie37]

Re: Player Lock

Agree, this works great! There's no mention on the screen that you can switch to player lock in the Substitution screen so you never would know, unless you know.