For the little experience that i have, they just don't put you in the program for the whole 5 late games, if you are a rookie. They test you first, by subing 1 or 2 games at the most for several days, to see how the new player reacts. In my opinion if they make the guy play all of the games with a harder group, and he doesn't do good, he is going to loose his confidence,and the players manager does not want that. I'll give you an example, for what i was told Goiko was put in the late games in Orlando when he arrived,and he didn't do well, so he was moved to the early games to build his confidence. Then he responded and started playing better and improving up until now. And for the rest of the people subing, yes they see it as just another game like you say, but they care and they try hard because of the reasons that i mention before. [Question was do they care]. Sometimes it may not look like it, but you have to remember that by the time the sub has to play, he is been sitting down for 2 or 3 games and he has 2 minutes to practice and warm up so it's not easy. Can you imagine if Manning or Federer had 2 minutes to practice only, before his games?.
