MLB 08: The Show (#2)
I've unfortunately run across a seriously annoying issue in Road to the Show, although I don't think it rises to the level of game killer.Here's the situation: I'm playing as a Closer. If I'm designated as the Closer in the pitching rotation, then I should be coming in to pitch late in games, and almost always in a save situation or (rarely) a tie game.
In spring training, I got put into a game in the ninth inning, it went into extra innings, and I wound up pitching four innings. Closers just don't do that--even middle relievers almost never do that--but I chalked it up to spring training. I thought maybe they had just run out of pitchers.
In my second season in AA, I'm the Closer in the pitching rotation, and everything's going well for the first five weeks of the season. I pitch an inning on May 14 and get the save. Then, on May 15, I'm called into a game in the tenth inning, it's tied, and I proceed to pitch SIX innings.
I checked the box score after the game. All relievers had been used except for me, so I was the last non-starter available. However, "all" the relievers only included four other pitchers--in other words, it was a 10-man rotation, at least one (probably two) pitchers short, particularly since it was a stretch of the season where we were playing every day.
The next day, May 16, I'm brought into the game again, and I pitch two innings. This is day three in what turns out to be an epic (and incredibly incorrect) TEN consecutive days of pitching. Ten days, twenty innings.
As the streak builds, I start coming into games mostly in the seventh inning, because (it appears) the other relievers are so fatigued that they can only pitch to a couple of batters each day. I'm in a stretch where the starters just suck, so the bullpen is called early, they run through all the other pitchers, and I have to come in.
I started poking around, and I found a starting pitcher on the disabled list. I also noticed that a pitcher that's usually a reliever replaced him in the starting lineup, which then meant the bullpen was one pitcher short.
What's supposed to happen is that either a pitcher would come down for a few days from AAA, or a free agent would get signed. What isn't supposed to happen is destroying your pitching staff because the relievers are pitching day after day after day.
Finally, after ten days in a row, I got a day off, and the starting pitcher is coming back in 1-3 days, so this may all go away. It concerns me, though, particularly if the Franchise mode uses similar logic for bullpen management.
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