Kinda surprised I searched and found no other posts on this. Everyone I know that has the game absolutely hates this "variable" strikezone. There is nothing variable about it, it just randomly decides to take strike after strike for anyone with enough skill to pitch to corners. It doesnt take away the outside corner but give you a little extra room inside or something. All it does is shrink the zone(mostly at the end of games) and this type of zone being forced on us for online games and DD is a bit of a joke.
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Re: Variable Strikezone
Id have to disagree as i feel the corners are 50/50 as they are in real life. I notice some umps squeeze the zone while others are loose and let it fly. I dont use a strike zone though as i play -
Re: Variable Strikezone
Id disagree too. Ive seen balls called strikes and in the same game strikes called balls.
I only play offline so cant comment on online games.Comment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
I agree this feature is not working properly. However, I am willing to bet that the Devs do, in fact, have the umpires set to make mistakes a realistic amount of the time. This article here says umpires get it wrong 14% of the time. I am willing to bet The Show is aligned with those stats.
However, it shouldn't be so random. Check out the below OS posts from 3 years ago. A certain percentage of the blown calls should be more consistent. Most of that 14%, in fact.
I would also like to see the catcher set up inside or outside during the windup, which would heavily influence the umpire into making the wrong call. Set up outside, and frame the ball perfectly, just off the black of the plate, and it will likely be called a strike. Or, set up outside, and catch a ball on the inside edge of the plate and it will be a ball.
I realize there has to be a limit on how realistic you make a video game. And this is definitely one of those things that would be scrapped in lieu of increasing graphics. (Everyone that is praising this year's game for having better shadows; this is what we get instead of better gameplay. Stop encouraging thm
) Check out the graphics from MLB 12 The Show. I would love to go back to this if it meant addressing even more gameplay issues.
Okay, back on topic! Perhaps you can make this a feature you can toggle on/off. You can give every catcher a "pitch framing" attribute. This is a real metric that MLB teams take a very good look at. I remember reading some article about an MLB team signing some 15 year minor leaguer to a multi million dollar contract solely on his pitch framing ability. The Molina brothers are also known for their "soft hands".
syf, kinda hit on the idea I had for umps and the strike zone.
In the image posted below, let the black box represent the "official MLB" strike zone, it is the one you would see in the game, if you turned strike zone on, or what you would see after each pitch. The red box is the "umps" strike zone. It is coded to be what will "actually" be called balls and strikes most importantly FOR THE WHOLE GAME, us as users would not "see" it but as we pitched we could get a feel for what it would be. That in a nut shell is my dream for "variable umps". I apologize in advance for my simplistic drawing, I suppose when I'm done being lazy I could make it look better.
Okay, that was easier than I thought, here is an in-game screen shot of how it would work. Again, the red is the umps strike zone, you never "see" it, but it is running I guess invisibly and as you pitch you would start to notice that he was calling pitches inside (not over the plate) strikes and pitches on the outside (over the plate) balls. The strike zones for each up could be different. Giving high strikes vs low, outside vs inside etc. and the degree could be as minescule as an inch or as great as a foot, it is all on the umps. It would make variable umps actually variable.
Originally posted by banned memberComment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
The following umpires will make you grey at an early age.
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Woody Keller
Jerry Hillsdale
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Re: Variable Strikezone
Amen to "stop encoraging them". Yes, I realize that this is facetious but also partially true. I'd so much rather have a fantasy draft/lineups/rotations work as well as they did three years ago rather than hear the "squeeeeee" at Encarnacion's green/blue Franklins.
High Heat 2002 had the shifted strike zone. Outside might not get called but you got another inch or two inside in trade. Count me along with those that wish for a more consistent variability.Last edited by BeatArmy; 04-21-2015, 03:19 AM.Comment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
I have played ever mlb the show game from 08-15 and I have never ever seen really any difference between the different umps in this game. The are all like the same to me. I fell like this years game is worse when it comes to this. In the past you could get some strikes on pitches outside the plate and would get squeezed some times. This year how ever you never get pitches in less the whole ball is over the plate where years past you could get strikes on pitches a good like 3 inches off the plate and you get squeezed a lot more then years past. I kind of fell like it is broken this year.Comment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
The old High Heat series had pretty much exactly what you are describing. To be honest, I just wish instead of having an exact box like that adjusted, they just had umpire ratings based similar to potential with letter grades for inside/outside/low/high tendencies for strikesI agree this feature is not working properly. However, I am willing to bet that the Devs do, in fact, have the umpires set to make mistakes a realistic amount of the time. This article here says umpires get it wrong 14% of the time. I am willing to bet The Show is aligned with those stats.
However, it shouldn't be so random. Check out the below OS posts from 3 years ago. A certain percentage of the blown calls should be more consistent. Most of that 14%, in fact.
I would also like to see the catcher set up inside or outside during the windup, which would heavily influence the umpire into making the wrong call. Set up outside, and frame the ball perfectly, just off the black of the plate, and it will likely be called a strike. Or, set up outside, and catch a ball on the inside edge of the plate and it will be a ball.
I realize there has to be a limit on how realistic you make a video game. And this is definitely one of those things that would be scrapped in lieu of increasing graphics. (Everyone that is praising this year's game for having better shadows; this is what we get instead of better gameplay. Stop encouraging thm) Check out the graphics from MLB 12 The Show. I would love to go back to this if it meant addressing even more gameplay issues.
Okay, back on topic! Perhaps you can make this a feature you can toggle on/off. You can give every catcher a "pitch framing" attribute. This is a real metric that MLB teams take a very good look at. I remember reading some article about an MLB team signing some 15 year minor leaguer to a multi million dollar contract solely on his pitch framing ability. The Molina brothers are also known for their "soft hands".Yankees, Manchester United, Chicago Bears, New York RangersComment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
personally i love how random it is. even the most consistent umpires routinely make bad calls in real life. staying focused and consistent for over 200 plus pitches a game is not easy. its easy to lose your focus as a hitter for one pitch imagine how easy it is for an umpire. we have monkey-minds, we constantly get sidetracked by random thoughts
some balls and strikes are more personal to the batter and situationComment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
Glad to see some people agreeing with me now.
My biggest problem is it only effects "good" pitchers. What i mean is I can locate the ball pretty well in this game, a whole bunch of people I play dont. Guess who is most effected by variable strikezone? Me, because the corners are random as heck. The kid who throws the ball all over the place and down the middle isnt effected by the zone at all.(Please no one say well you should hit him then, that isnt the point).
Most umps have a zone and tend to call the game accordingly, it isnt as completely random as this game makes it seem. If ump A isnt going to call the outside corner this game, I can deal with that, but there needs to be some consistency.Comment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
I love the variable strike zone. It would be nice if they got rid of the solid lines on the strike zone and just left them blurred or fuzzy.Comment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
Does it seem like the strike zone is much tighter with all umpires?Almost all pitches that are on the black or near the black of the strike zone are being call balls. This is the first game of MLB the show that I see that has that(playing since 07). Very unusual. many real life pitchers live on the corners. Also real life umpires have a variable strike zone.
Btw- I am playing with variable strike zoneComment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
This topic seems to be a perfect example of "If you don't like it, turn it off". Problem solved.
If you are talking about online....I think the majority will agree that it should remain on by default online.Comment
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Re: Variable Strikezone
Agreed. I have became very good at spotting my pitched with pure analog on HOF online and the umpires routinely call it a ball when the entire pitch was in the strike zone. In real baseball umpires generally give 2-4 inches off the black and call them strikes. Usually, they dont call pitches that caught the entire plate a ball.
Its whatever...doesnt really feel variable though moreso than it just feels tight.Comment
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