Pitching Questions--location, velocity, break, and type

[offle]

Hey guys, I've got a couple questions I've been looking for answers to for a couple years now, so if you have an idea of an answer, please reply and let me (and probably many others) know!

1. My Player Training Drills
Is there any formula to ensure or help your chances of getting a +1 to pitch speed as a result of getting gold on the control & velocity drill? So far I've found no pattern to how the game decides to give you this bonus (as opposed to pitch control/movement)--it's probably just random, but I think pitch speed must have a lower percentage chance to be awarded.


2. Does anyone have any idea how batters react to different kinds of pitches, specifically changeups?
I've used both a regular changeup, circle change, palmball, and a split-change, but find that the computer batters don't make any distinction between each type. I'm referring specifically to the break of each pitch. For example, say I throw a split-change which will start in the zone, then break below the zone. Does the computer recognize this fact (that the pitch looks like it's coming right down the middle before it breaks) or does the computer just do a simple check as to the type of the pitch thrown (i.e., changeup (including all types), fastball, or curveball)? In other words, does the break of a changeup make any difference?

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, pick a pitcher with a regular changeup and experiment with location and see how often batters swing at the pitch. Then pick a pitcher with a split-change and do the same thing. I found that the break of the changeup doesn't make any difference, which can lead to some ridiculous results. For example, throw a regular changeup high and inside, then throw a split-change to break and end up high and inside at the same location as you threw the regular changeup. Result? No difference in how the batter reacts. In real life, a split-change breaking into the zone high and inside would be 15-24 inches ABOVE THE STRIKE ZONE (about the same level as the batter's head) as it came towards the plate, leading one to believe that a batter might see that and avoid swinging at it like the plague. But in MLB2K, the batter will swing at it as if you had thrown a regular changeup in the same location as where the split-change ended up. This makes me believe that the game doesn't take any of the break or deception of the pitch into account, it only takes the final location of the pitch into account. Since I seem to get marginally more whiffs with the split-change, I think the game may give a certain base value to each type of pitch (like -10% success rate for batters for a regular changeup and a -15% success rate for batters for a split-change), but that's it.

I hope the game does take the velocity, break, and location into account. Right now, though, it seems the game only looks at the type of pitch (fastball, curveball, or changeup), but not the actual speed or break of the pitch. So if I plan my player to have a 100 mph fastball, a 92 mph changeup, and an 84 mph curveball (each being 8 mph apart), I've done too much planning because the game doesn't seem to realize how you're mixing up speeds to throw off batters. In actuality, the game only cares whether the pitch is classified as a curveball, fastball, or changeup. I've tested this as well, and believe it or not, I get whiffs ahead of the pitch with a 94 mph split-change (it got this fast because of getting +1 speed bonuses from drills), but NEVER get a whiff ahead of the pitch for a 94 mph sinker/cutter (for example).


3. There's a hard cap of 5 pitches you can have on a single pitcher. Why?
Roy Halladay has a four-seam fastball that he doesn't always use (in fact, MLB2k12 doesn't even have the four-seamer available to Halladay by default), but he does throw one in real life. It's common sense that almost every pitcher knows how to throw and can throw a standard fastball. Most pitchers come into the MLB knowing how to throw a changeup, and over time that changeup evolves into a split-change or circle-change, etc.--but they can still throw a regular changeup. There are many pitchers who, over the course of a career, throw more than 5 types of pitches--so why isn't there an option to have more pitches, but maybe only be able to use 5 of them in a game?


4. Even if you change the settings from the main menu, in My Player you only see pitch and batting analyzers for bad gestures and bad swings.
Anyone know a way to turn these on for every pitch in my player?


Well that got a little long-winded, but for those still reading, thanks for any help!