When the bullpen warmup rule is being used, why do pitchers sit down every time a defensive half-inning ends?
This is consistent with a principle that we consider to be fundamental to good game design — every strategy should give you good reasons for doing it and good reasons for not doing it, so your decisions aren’t automatic. If the game didn’t sit your relievers down at the end of every defensive inning, you’d just get one or two relievers up in the first inning and leave them up until you need them. That’s not realistic, because real-life relievers aren’t used this way, and it doesn’t provide you with a challenge. So, in Diamond Mind Baseball, you have to decide when and how often you want to warm up a reliever. If you warm him up too many times in one game, you can tire him out. If you don’t warm him up when you need him, you may have to leave the current pitcher in longer than you want. This may take a little getting used to, but we’re convinced that it’s realistic and makes for a more interesting game.
