Control issues with Classic Pitching

[Aviator87AC]

I'm having some pretty errant lobs to homeplate from high rated, starting pitchers. I understand that RNG is going to see meatballs being thrown down the middle occasionally, but the control issues are happening in early innings, with high confidence and seemly way too often.

Just today I aimed a 2SFB to land off the top edge of the plate and instead I got a dead center, homerun blast out of it.

I've tried tapping, pressing and releasing, and holding (until vibration) on Classic Pitching. Nothing seems to change it. Am I missing something or is pitch location just really random this year?

All-star everything, classic pitching/directional hitting.

[nomo17k]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

What are your gameplay settings (i.e., difficulty level, sliders, etc., if changed from default)?

[squashbuggie]

I am classic on HOF now, with control and consistency @ 4 each. what are your settings and sliders, like Nomo asked ?

[No.27]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

I'm actually pretty happy that on directional mistake pitches happen just like IRL. Some things you can do to stop homeruns being scored off them is to check each batters hitting tendency, contact/power/vision ratings and average. I wouldn't be pitching up to anyone that I think might hit a home run. If you have to try aiming further outside the zone and away from their natural hitting tendency. Also don't be afraid of walking guys.

[Greencollarbaseball]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

Easy answer, turn up control and consistency. I have mine at 8 for both and still get pitches missing their target. The only difference is that I don't have as many pitches leaking back over the middle of the plate, most of my off target pitches miss outside the zone.


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[Aviator87AC]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

Using the Armor and Swords slider set. I've just noticed that they released a new version for patch 1.07, but missing pitch location was already a problem before that patch dropped.

[BegBy]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

Classic, imo, is the best representation of pitching. The best pitchers on the planet miss their spots. They miss them a lot more than most people here would like to admit.

I use pulse because I like to have input, and I really like that input method, but it's way too accurate. I think they should add speed to pulse next year. Just like classic. You hold the button down for more speed and a bit less accuracy, or you tap it to take something off and hit your spots a bit easier. It's realistic and also helps with varying speeds a bit.

[No.27]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

I'm actually pretty happy that on directional mistake pitches happen just like IRL. Some things you can do to stop homeruns being scored off them is to check each batters hitting tendency, contact/power/vision ratings and average. I wouldn't be pitching up to anyone that I think might hit a home run. If you have to try aiming further outside the zone and away from their natural hitting tendency. Also don't be afraid of walking guys.

OK forget what I said. 2nd inning last night with an inform John Lester on the mound who's timing I know well. First batter got an easy single due to a silly fielding error. My something is up radar went off. I was really cautious followed all the steps above and aimed a curveball in the dirt. It hung high in the zone and was smashed for an opposite field home run. I felt your pain. Back to the drawing board!

[bcruise]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

Classic, imo, is the best representation of pitching. The best pitchers on the planet miss their spots. They miss them a lot more than most people here would like to admit.

I use pulse because I like to have input, and I really like that input method, but it's way too accurate. I think they should add speed to pulse next year. Just like classic. You hold the button down for more speed and a bit less accuracy, or you tap it to take something off and hit your spots a bit easier. It's realistic and also helps with varying speeds a bit.

Quoted the bold because I wanted to address that topic and not the poster - this is for anyone who's interested about how classic and AI pitching works.

I wanted to make a point about a pitcher's natural inaccuracy in this game. The setup for this is a bit complicated so I'll spare you the details, except to say I'm using a player-locked catcher. It looks like this, if you guys have never seen it before:



That means I'm basically letting an AI pitcher pitch to me, with no control over the outcome other than specifying a location. I told it to throw fastballs down the middle for every pitch of an inning.



This is, essentially, the same degree of control that you get when classic pitching. For Meter, Pulse, or Analog, I could not come close to duplicating this when playing on my normal settings - they're just too precise. Only on Classic (and probably using a high amount on effort on each pitch) would I even have a chance of dirtballing a pitch I aimed straight down the middle with Jon Lester.

It should be pretty obvious that the AI's pitching (and by extension, classic), has a rather large margin for error. And I agree that it's pretty true to real life. Even Greg Maddux missed his spots sometimes

This was on All-Star pitching default sliders btw - not that the difficulty makes any difference since the AI is doing the actual pitching. Even on rookie the AI will still miss that badly sometimes.

[squashbuggie]

very good post and ty

[Aviator87AC]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

bcruise, thanks for the informative post! Good stuff

[rjackson]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

Most of those pitches are in line with the arm angle as well, sort of like this /. So, you can see how they were aimed middle but the release point is what is not precise. Something I need to keep in mind more often when playing. Lester going down and in or up and away could end up middle middle with a badrelease point.

[Aviator87AC]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

I've played a handful more games and experimented with pressing and holding vs. pressing and releasing with Classic pitching.

I'm not sure if it's just my imagination or not but pressing and holding definitely seems to make the ball break harder, be thrown faster (if FB), and end up further away from your aim point. The pitcher also seems to tire faster.

So far I agree, Classic pitching seems to be the most realistic (close to sim) version of pitching in the game.

[The Chef]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

Using the Armor and Swords slider set. I've just noticed that they released a new version for patch 1.07, but missing pitch location was already a problem before that patch dropped.

I was having insane issues on 4/4, talking guys with 90+ control in a particular pitch, full confidence and they would miss by extremely wide margins. I've since moved it up to 5/5 and am enjoying the results much more now. I just started a 2 game series at home against Philadelphia, first game had Drew Smyly on the hill and won the game 8-3 but Philly scored all 3 of those runs in the 8th and 9th innings when Smyly was on fumes but I was hell bent on finally throwing a complete game. Next game Cody Martin, who doesn't have nearly the control that Smyly has, went out and gave up 7 runs in 3 IP in route to an 8-4 loss to those same Phillies.

The one thing I will say is if someone is considered "hot" they definitely play above their ratings at times and overall CPU batters seem to play a bit better then their ratings would make you think they would. I gave up a moon shot to a guy last night with 48 power on a pitch up and in but all I can do is grin and bear it for the overall gameplay challenge.

[bcruise]

Re: Control issues with Classic Pitching

I've played a handful more games and experimented with pressing and holding vs. pressing and releasing with Classic pitching.

I'm not sure if it's just my imagination or not but pressing and holding definitely seems to make the ball break harder, be thrown faster (if FB), and end up further away from your aim point. The pitcher also seems to tire faster.

So far I agree, Classic pitching seems to be the most realistic (close to sim) version of pitching in the game.

That's not your imagination - that's what I meant when I mentioned throwing pitches with more "effort". In classic pitching, that means holding the button for a certain length of time during the windup. If you hold it long enough, you'll trigger a small controller vibration that represents the maximum effort you can put into a pitch. With more effort (up to that vibration point) pitches will be more effective, but at the expense of control. Fastballs will have more velocity (often 2 or 3 MPH above a pitchers stated average MPH), and offspeed pitches will break more. But you risk throwing them where you don't want to.

It's the same kind of mechanic as going into the red on Meter, or making a very hard forward motion with the stick on Analog (this one's tough to do consistently and not all that responsive). Only pulse lacks a mechanic for determining how much effort you put on a pitch.