Don't PH for the P with a P

[bbgeek]

This happened in Show 20 (I will almost certainly not go to 21 as I am mostly interested in Classic Rosters, and 20 has so many great ones!).


I was up 2-1 when the cpu team hit a weak gb toward 1B. My 1B was slow to charge it and then I think he overran it, and fielding auto-assist switched to the P (again I think). I don't think anyone ever picked up the ball, and as the cpu runner started toward 2B, the camera switched to a close up view of the stands (I think the upper deck between home and 3rd). HUH? I tried to throw the ball (to home by pressing X), but nothing worked. It became an "inside the infield" HR for the cpu. Argh!


I took a 2 run lead, but blew the save in the 9th. I'll take the blame for that.


I then battled inning by inning thru extra innings. I even managed to thwart an attempted suicide squeeze by the cpu when the batter missed a high fastball on his bunt attempt, and I easily tagged the runner out.


In the bottom of the 18th, I was planning to change pitchers in the top of the inning (I was the home team), and my pitcher was warm in the bullpen. I had no position players left, so I looked for the pitcher with the best remaining contact ratings. Hey, 15 isn't much, but at least it's better than 1. I was actually able to draw a walk with that PH Pitcher, but couldn't score.


In the top of the 19th, that PH Pitcher was on the mound COLD, and couldn't be removed until he faced 3 batters. WTF?! The game obviously considered that the P pinch-hitting as a pitching change. CRAP!!!


I ended up taking a tough loss that I admittedly could have won had I closed it out in the 9th or scored in extra innings, but I still feel screwed by the phantom HR and the snafu regarding the PH pitcher being forced to take the mound.

[SoCalAlexdelete]

Re: Don't PH for the P with a P

I remember making this mistake years ago on one of the PS4 games when I ran out of bench players in extra innings and was really annoyed that I had to pitch to one guy before I could take out the starter I pinch hit with. With the goofy new "pace of play" rules I would imagine this would even be more maddening with having to face 3 batters.


Thanks, Manfred.

[kehlis]

Re: Don't PH for the P with a P

I remember making this mistake years ago on one of the PS4 games when I ran out of bench players in extra innings and was really annoyed that I had to pitch to one guy before I could take out the starter I pinch hit with. With the goofy new "pace of play" rules I would imagine this would even be more maddening with having to face 3 batters.


Thanks, Manfred.

I'm no fan of Manfred or most of the new rules but this particular issue isn't about the rules at all. It's about how the game interprets a pinch hitter.

In real life, you don't declare their position until it's time to switch from offense to defense.

If you're pinch hitting a pitcher, he's just declared as a pinch hitter, not a pitcher.

This rule is NOT unique to pinch hitting for any position. If you were to pinch hit a SS for a CF the defensive position isn't known until the next half inning.

The game views it as a pitching change when it shouldn't.

[gamer052001]

Re: Don't PH for the P with a P

I think you can avoid this problem by selecting “schedule to pitch” in the bullpen for who you want to come in.

[SoCalAlexdelete]

Re: Don't PH for the P with a P

I'm no fan of Manfred or most of the new rules but this particular issue isn't about the rules at all. It's about how the game interprets a pinch hitter.

In real life, you don't declare their position until it's time to switch from offense to defense.

If you're pinch hitting a pitcher, he's just declared as a pinch hitter, not a pitcher.

This rule is NOT unique to pinch hitting for any position. If you were to pinch hit a SS for a CF the defensive position isn't known until the next half inning.

The game views it as a pitching change when it shouldn't.

I was referring to the 3-batter minimum rule, which has made an almost negligible difference on length of games while also mucking up strategy.


But yeah, I see how the game thinks you're making a pitching change when you pinch hit a pitcher for another pitcher. That feels like a bug that QA would have found years ago. I'd love to pick a developer's brain on this topic to see why that was marked "intended" or "will not fix". My best guess is that they would need to implement separate code just for pinch hitter pitchers to be identified so that players would get prompted whether they want to leave in the pinch hitter as the new pitcher or make a change and they decided it wasn't worth the effort for such a rare thing, but I wonder how much different this would be than the "You have a position player on the mound" prompt that's been in the game for years now.


Also, I'm pretty sure this was a major source of nuisance a few years back when Ohtani debuted because if you pinch hit him for the pitcher he would be stuck pitching afterward, too.

[baconbits11]

Re: Don't PH for the P with a P

The 3 batter minimum rule needs to be an option like runner at 2nd in extra innings is.