Armor & Sword & Marino's MLB The Show 17 Timed/Classic Simulation All-Star Sliders

[kpeercy]

Quote: Originally Posted by The Chef

Happy to hear that any part of my ramblings helped someone lol. I too had a great game last night. I'm in September and it's going to make or break my season as Texas, Houston and myself are all fighting for the division with the Angels 5 games back after struggling recently. I was hosting Houston after dropping the first game of the series when my offense proved to be gutless. Game 2 they had Keuchel on the mound so I knew it would be tough, I had Iwakuma who has been miserable since returning from the DL (thanks in large part to regression mixed with morale). Iwakuma was cruising having only given up a solo HR to Correa when the wheels came off in the 5th and I found myself down 4-0 suddenly. I was able to chip away and score off of a 2-run double from Valencia in the 6th. I then got Heredia on after a double and they pulled Keuchel for Chris Devenski. I had Carlos Ruiz coming up so quickly sent Justin Morneau out there to pinch hit and he turned a down and in slider into a 2-run HR and tied the game. I added a run in the 8th and was feeling comfortable heading into the 9th up 5-4. Then my defense let me down when Valencia would field a weakly hit grounder to first and instead of flipping it to the pitcher covering he dove to try and tag the runner out and missed. Houston would score off me in the 9th sending it to extras. In the 11th with the bases loaded and 1 out (after intentionally walking Kyle Seager to get to Heredia) I pinch hit with Haniger who proceeded to line out to the 3B. Up came Ben Gamel with 2 outs, tie game, bottom 11th, and he proceeded to drive one back up the middle for the walk off single and potentially saving my season in the process. To think I almost traded Gamel away at the deadline as he was back in AAA and I figured he had no place on the roster with 2 "A" prospects in the OF as well as Haniger, boy am I happy I didn't deal him away now. In a twist of fate, after my early season injury woes I haven't had any real injuries meanwhile Houston just lost Correa for 2 monts and Aoki for 2 weeks which could cripple them down the stretch. I've got 1 more with Houston at home before I go on the road for 4 at Texas (who is currently the division leader). When I was on AS I had the same issue with never walking the CPU, mostly because there wasn't a great fear of the CPU batters for me at least. I ended up with a house rule that I would intentionally walk a guy whenever I got a 3 ball count which helped with generating more walks for the CPU. It's obviously not the most realistic but before doing that I never really walked anyone. I'm on HOF and enjoying it, walking guys at a realistic clip, and that's mostly because I tend to pitch to the extreme edges when someone with legit power is up at the plate.

Yeah, I won't be intentionally walking batters.

[Councilmann_Jamm]

I've been using this slider set for my Orioles franchise. I'm 10-16.

The game plays fantastic until I hit the 8th inning then it all falls down. Ive lost 8 games after leading at the top of the 8th. Ive gotten to the point where if I'm leading I've already accepted the lose. The CPU starts to play like God's and my pitchers can hit their spots.

But innings 1-7 are fantastic playing experience and I really enjoy the game.

[No.27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Councilmann_Jamm

I've been using this slider set for my Orioles franchise. I'm 10-16. The game plays fantastic until I hit the 8th inning then it all falls down. Ive lost 8 games after leading at the top of the 8th. Ive gotten to the point where if I'm leading I've already accepted the lose. The CPU starts to play like God's and my pitchers can hit their spots. But innings 1-7 are fantastic playing experience and I really enjoy the game.

After suffering much in the same way you have I've had to change my thinking in those late innings. I'm not sure how you approach bullpen management but I am happy to share mine.

I'm now looking to get my starter out before they get tired. I will have predicted who the bullpen guys will be pitching to and have the best 2 for the situation ready and waiting. I have a closer by committee approach and my best pitcher will come in to pitch to the heart of the order even if it's the 8th. If possible I will have a lefty ready and waiting and will bring them in even if it's for one lefty batter. I also try to limit each bullpen guy to one inning so again they are not pitching tired. I also check the tendencies and contact/power ratings of each batter coming in especially in the late innings and for example will pitch away from a pull hitter or even walk a guy who is a big threat.

Stick with it this game is amazing in the way it will reward you if you play smart baseball.

[The Chef]

Just thought I'd report back and give a little status update since changing my approach and calling my own game. It has been night and day, just wish I had switched to this ages ago instead of being overly stubborn and sticking with what clearly wasn't working. There are times I almost think I need to juice the CPU offense up but it's been exciting to see that throwing all my pitches and mixing things up has really helped turn around what was previously an abysmal pitching experience. In August and September combined I've managed to go a combined 24-12 giving up 145 runs in 36 games for a raw average of 4.03 runs per game. The CPU has went 309/1251 for a 0.247 average which is a far cry from the months prior when they hit 996/3710 hitting 0.269 combined. The only issue I've seen so far is the CPU power seems down a touch as they've only hit 32 HR's in the last 36 games after hitting 124 in the previous 107 games but even that is probably offset by the fact that I've played some bottom feeder teams like Oakland, Tampa Bay and Atlanta in that 36 game stretch so that effects those numbers.

Overall I'm sitting with a 81-62 record and 0.5 GB of Texas for the division and 3 ahead in the wild card. I start a 4 game series at Texas though next which will obviously be a big one. Houston was starting to run away with the division for a bit there then Carlos Correa went down for the season and they hit a rough patch now finding themselves 1.5 GB for the division but holding down the second wild card spot at 80-63.

This has easily been the best season of The Show I've played to date. I typically play with my Dodgers but after winning the World Series in last years game I wanted to switch it up and go with a different team and it certainly has paid off. I've got 19 games left and am right in the thick of things, I could win the division, lose the division but get the wild card or out and out miss the playoffs entirely. With so many teams in the race for the wild card these last 19 games will be extremely important. I've gotten off to a good start going 8-1 in the month of September having swept Oakland, taken 2 of 3 against Houston and sweeping LA but all games were at home. Now I start out on a road trip that takes me to Texas for 4 and Houston for 3 before returning home for Texas and Cleveland. It's gonna be a wild ride to the end.

[Burgess]

Quote: Originally Posted by The Chef

Just thought I'd report back and give a little status update since changing my approach and calling my own game. It has been night and day, just wish I had switched to this ages ago instead of being overly stubborn and sticking with what clearly wasn't working. There are times I almost think I need to juice the CPU offense up but it's been exciting to see that throwing all my pitches and mixing things up has really helped turn around what was previously an abysmal pitching experience. In August and September combined I've managed to go a combined 24-12 giving up 145 runs in 36 games for a raw average of 4.03 runs per game. The CPU has went 309/1251 for a 0.247 average which is a far cry from the months prior when they hit 996/3710 hitting 0.269 combined. The only issue I've seen so far is the CPU power seems down a touch as they've only hit 32 HR's in the last 36 games after hitting 124 in the previous 107 games but even that is probably offset by the fact that I've played some bottom feeder teams like Oakland, Tampa Bay and Atlanta in that 36 game stretch so that effects those numbers. Overall I'm sitting with a 81-62 record and 0.5 GB of Texas for the division and 3 ahead in the wild card. I start a 4 game series at Texas though next which will obviously be a big one. Houston was starting to run away with the division for a bit there then Carlos Correa went down for the season and they hit a rough patch now finding themselves 1.5 GB for the division but holding down the second wild card spot at 80-63. This has easily been the best season of The Show I've played to date. I typically play with my Dodgers but after winning the World Series in last years game I wanted to switch it up and go with a different team and it certainly has paid off. I've got 19 games left and am right in the thick of things, I could win the division, lose the division but get the wild card or out and out miss the playoffs entirely. With so many teams in the race for the wild card these last 19 games will be extremely important. I've gotten off to a good start going 8-1 in the month of September having swept Oakland, taken 2 of 3 against Houston and sweeping LA but all games were at home. Now I start out on a road trip that takes me to Texas for 4 and Houston for 3 before returning home for Texas and Cleveland. It's gonna be a wild ride to the end.

Interesting. I switched to turning off API and calling my own game 12 games ago. I'm on HOF pitching and using Armours exact sliders. I have played 6 games in my Yankees franchise and 6 games in my Mets franchise. And I'm 12-0. I had one close game winning 5-4. The rest weren't within 3 runs. I gave up 3 homers in those 12 games. I'm no expert, but when I call my own game I'm not giving up very many hits and getting lots of k's. I may have to go back to listening to the catcher 100% of the time to feel that "fear" I used to feel. I'm starting to wonder if the ratings are set up for listening to the catcher all the time. He calls some bad pitches in bad locations sometimes and I give up homers, but maybe he does so to make the ratings accurate? I'm pretty confused and frustrated right now as to what to do. I want to feel threatened when I am pitching and I haven't felt that in the last 12 games

[The Chef]

Quote: Originally Posted by Burgess

Interesting. I switched to turning off API and calling my own game 12 games ago. I'm on HOF pitching and using Armours exact sliders. I have played 6 games in my Yankees franchise and 6 games in my Mets franchise. And I'm 12-0. I had one close game winning 5-4. The rest weren't within 3 runs. I gave up 3 homers in those 12 games. I'm no expert, but when I call my own game I'm not giving up very many hits and getting lots of k's. I may have to go back to listening to the catcher 100% of the time to feel that "fear" I used to feel. I'm starting to wonder if the ratings are set up for listening to the catcher all the time. He calls some bad pitches in bad locations sometimes and I give up homers, but maybe he does so to make the ratings accurate? I'm pretty confused and frustrated right now as to what to do. I want to feel threatened when I am pitching and I haven't felt that in the last 12 games

I couldn't go back to following the catcher no matter what, imo he calls a terrible game, ignores half the pitchers pitches and calls for pitches in terrible spots. If you feel like you aren't giving up as many hits as you'd like just raise contact a click and see what happens as that's supposed to improve CPU batting averages. If they seem to make weak contact then raise solid hits one click. If I get to the point where I feel like I need to make the CPU offense better then I'll end up doing one of the above far before I start following the API. I don't think the API calls for bad pitches to make ratings matter, it's simply calling for bad pitches in bad spots, not mixing it up enough and thus becoming predictible at times leading to the CPU being able to sit on pitches and drive them. If you want to try following the API maybe follow his pitch selection but not location and see what kind of results you get, at least then you won't be throwing 2-seam fastballs up in the zone like the API likes to call for with extreme regularity.

As for having fear of the good hitters, I still have that. When I faced Mike Trout I tried to bury everything on the corners and walked him quite a few times, when I didn't hit my spots I got a lucky few outs and then watched as he hit 2 HR's in the same game going 3/4 at the plate. When I faced Houston I tried to desperately pitch around George Springer and he hit 2 HR's in the same game off me as well, so I'm not having the same issues you are.

[Armor and Sword]

On HOF I am now probably calling 70% of my own game now and love it.

I can’t on HOF just simply follow the catcher. I will get lit up more.

[Burgess]

Quote: Originally Posted by Armor and Sword

On HOF I am now probably calling 70% of my own game now and love it. I can’t on HOF just simply follow the catcher. I will get lit up more.

Armour, have you tried turning API off and calling 100% of you game? Curious as to why 70%.