Ver 1.37 — Pre-Match screen, career logs & amateur stats

Version 1.37 is out. Here is everything we have shipped since the last announcement (including the v1.36 patch).

The four pillars this time: the new PRE-MATCH screen, player career logs and amateur records, livelier roster moves between the first team and the farm, and match presentation / usability improvements. As always, most of these came straight from your feedback.

New screen: PRE-MATCH — size up both teams before first pitch

• Pressing "Start Game" now opens a pre-match screen showing both probable starters and lineups at a glance — starter stats, batter form, ballpark and wind, standings and recent results — before you commit to the game
• From here, "Adjust Lineup" lets you build a one-day batting order, defensive alignment and starting pitcher. These changes apply to today's game only and never touch your regular roster settings. Perfect for "they're starting a lefty today" tweaks

Substitution cut-ins

• When the opponent changes pitchers, a cut-in now announces it. No more suddenly realizing you have been batting against a new arm for two innings (requested on the Steam forums)
• Pinch hitters, pinch runners and defensive substitutions are announced the same way
• Choose the behavior in Settings under "Substitution cut-ins": Opponent only (default) / Both teams / Off. Pick "Both teams" if you want your own moves announced too

Every player now has a "History"

• A new "History" tab in the player detail view. Starting with which round and team drafted them, it records career firsts (first game, first hit, first home run, first appearance, first win), season and career milestones, major injuries, trades, awards — all the way to retirement, in chronological order
• Players drafted before this update get their draft entry backfilled automatically
• The story of the player you raised stays with them, even after they hang it up

Amateur-era yearly stats

• New draft prospects now come with year-by-year stats from high school, college, corporate league or the independent league. After they join, these rows appear at the top of the player's season-by-season table, right alongside their pro numbers
• Was he unstoppable in high school? A late bloomer in college? A corporate-league grinder? Different career paths — three high-school years, high school to college, college to corporate league — are all reflected. Some players even carry an injury-wrecked season
• The prospect summary on the draft screen now matches these yearly numbers exactly

All-time best orders & retired numbers

• The Records screen gains an "Order" view. Every team's end-of-season lineup, rotation, bullpen and bench is archived by year — "who batted cleanup on that championship team?" is one click away (recorded from seasons finished after this update)
• You can now retire jersey numbers. Once a number is retired for a franchise great, it is never assigned again. Manage it from the Records screen

Livelier first-team / farm shuttling

• CPU clubs now swap out slumping players, call up hot farm prospects, and deactivate tired regulars for rest. The number of players a CPU team uses in a season now reaches realistic pro levels (roughly 23-24 pitchers and about 30 position players)
• League-wide, the era of "the same nine guys all season" is over — farm players who perform get their shot
• Please note: the rule requiring a 10-game wait before re-registering a deactivated player was barely enforced before. It now works properly in manual play too, so deactivate with care

Better scouting & contract screens

• Across seven screens — free agents, trades, international scouting, the draft, contract renewals, retirement talks and more — hovering over a player row now shows a detailed ability preview. No more clicking through players one by one to compare
• The off-season "Trade Offers" screen now shares the same layout as the in-season trade screen: same controls, same ability bars, same stat displays

Match display improvements

• You can now check player stats (spring-training totals) during exhibition games
• The batting team's name on the LINESCORE is now highlighted in gold, so you always know who is up
• Play-log at-bat lines now include the batting-order slot ("No. 3 ..."), carried over to pinch hitters
• Walk-off wins now end at the winning run. No more strange "6-8x" finals when a long hit scored two in a tied ninth (walk-off home runs still count in full)

Usability improvements

• You can now cancel a bunt after selecting it. The bunt-type menu has a cancel button, and a misclick no longer locks you in (reported on the Steam forums — sorry about that run!)
• When choosing a replacement on the roster screen, clicking another candidate during comparison now simply switches the comparison instead of resetting your selection
• Roster sorting gains a "Position" key
• Player names in the Training Policy screen now open the player detail view
• Contract renewal lists show years of service, with sortable column headers
• The training list also shows years of service and a badge for development players
• Clicking an already-selected player in a roster list now opens their details
• You can now return to the title screen from new-game team selection

Recap of the v1.36 patch (already live — announced here)

• Runs are now charged to the right pitcher after a mid-inning change. A reliever who inherits runners no longer eats the previous pitcher's runs — bullpen ERAs finally reflect reality (reported on the Steam forums)
• Fixed farm pitchers appearing in the first-team middle-relief slots on the roster screen
• Fixed auto-roster counting injured pitchers as available and over-stuffing the staff
• Roster data cleanup: released or demoted players no longer linger in relief priority lists or exhibition lineups

Bug fixes

• Fixed retired players still appearing in the Training Policy list, payroll totals, other clubs' roster views and trade-offer roster counts (thank you for the reports!)
• Fixed first-round draft bidding allowing a team to exceed the 70-player registration limit. Existing saves over the limit are tidied up automatically on load

In Closing

This update is about every player carrying their own story — from draft day to first hit, injuries, moves, titles and retirement. The longer you play, the richer your league's history book becomes. Together with the PRE-MATCH screen, we hope each game and each player feels a little more meaningful.

Thank you, as always, for the feedback. Keep it coming — we read everything.