Improvements to Quick Manage

[Red_Ted_is_back_PSN]

I'd like to preface this by recommending Quick Manage mode to those new players who enjoy the 'sim' aspect of the game whilst still maintaining a little control. It's reminiscent of the old text-based sports management games; I've never played OOTP but I don't think you can manage games in that one.

I've quick managed quite a few games now, and whilst it's a great and important addition to the game, the mode needs significant work. The great thing about this mode is that improvements would be relatively easy to code and test (as in relative to improvements in other modes).

There are a couple of dealbreaking issues and several must-haves. Here's a list that I came up with whilst playing a game yesterday.

Dealbreakers:

1. No way to double switch, or at least no apparent way. This is unforgiveable. Pitcher next in the lineup next inning, and you need to pull him in the 7th with two outs, bases loaded, Judge at the plate. Let me double switch my pitcher out.
2. No option to take pitches. With my pitcher at bat, loaded bases, one out - I don’t care if he strikes out looking, I don’t want to hit and risk a double play. Let me take pitches.
3. When pinch hitting in the minors, there's no way to see bench player stats at all, as the player card doesn't show minor league stats.

Must haves:

4. No way of seeing your pitcher's energy or pitch count when your pitcher is batting (to decide pinch hit or not). If it's the 5th inning in a bases loaded no outs tied game, I need the info to make the call.
5. When managing minor league teams, there's no way mid-game to view player stats other than AB, HR, RBI, Average and Steals (batters) or W/L, innings, SO, ERA, or WHIP (pitchers). I need to see more stats to make judgments, eg lefty righty stats, BB, slugging, K:AB.
6. The present process of each AB being a single action should be mapped to quick counts on, and quick counts off should mean each pitch is user controlled. Bump up the time estimate in the menu to 5-10 minutes to reflect this probable increase in time.
7. Show a milestone watch box for ABs when relevant (when pitching and batting) also acknowledge when a player achieves something like a milestone (eg hits for a cycle, career or season high Ks, 100 RBIs in the season, breaks rookie home run record).
8. No way to pitch out. I guess this falls into the category of 'pitch'? But if I anticipate a steal, I want to be able to counter it when quick counts is off.

Miscellaneous improvements:

9. Need to show current game stats in batter and pitcher side panels on game screen, instead of having to go to box score each time we want to check.
10. Show the number of pitches thrown by the current pitcher in the side panel.
11. Bug: Mid-game the box score text gets cut off after only 20 or so characters when subbing or when 2Bs, 3Bs or HRs are listed. The box score from the menu appears ok after the game though.
12. At the end of each half-inning, don’t automatically clear the inning summary, pop up a ‘press x to continue’
13. Bug: can choose multiple pinch hitters within single plate appearance. Eg I sub in a batter and without any pitches thrown I sub in a different player instead without the previous batter facing a pitch (no pitcher change).
14. Auto-save after each game (just like the other franchise modes).

Thinking of creating my own version just for fun now.

Also, not related to quick manage, but switching between quick manage, full manage and full control should be possible. Presently you can't switch from full manage to the others and vice-versa.