What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

For me, it's not the total amount, or frequency of HR's that seems off, but it's who is hitting them. When I constantly see 38, and 40, power guys hitting multiple bombs a game, then that seems very unrealistic. But I'm not one that is opposed to changing sliders a bit. Just need to find that happy median, where occasionally you can get a surprise from a lower power guy. Just not for 2, and 3 homers a game. I remember the excitement I had last year, when I homered with Jarod Dyson. I never saw it again the rest of the year.That's what I'm after. Any adjustments, or recommendations, would be appreciated.

What matters is how many do they end the season with after 162 games? You simply cannot draw conclusions unless you see the final statistical result after a full season. A gut can get off to a hot start then fade away as the season wears on.

And for the most part there is a reversion to the mean with those kind of guys. I have seen it every year without fail. Hot starts, hot finishes.....but for the most part the big sticks will do what they are supposed to and the 40 power guys will not....will there be career years and outliers? Heck yeah and that is what makes baseball so awesome. And also what can make a franchise exciting when it happens.

[emiles76]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

I'll give some background info on MLB 2018 versus MLB 2019 single-player.

MLB patched baseball in 2019. No not the game, I mean real life:
2019 total HRs: 3298 (NL) + 3478 (AL) = 6776
2018 total HRs: 2685 (NL) + 2900 (AL) = 5585

This is a 21% increase in HRs, and it isn't a fluke.

Remember that Homeruns aren't truly hit by leagues are teams, they are hit by individual batters. Some batters hit a lot, some hit few, some like pitchers might hit zero year after year.

So with that in mind, I hope this analysis makes sense:
1) Was the 21% increase in HRs because individual hitters hit more HRs? Yes.
2) Should a batter who hits well in real life hit likewise in our game? Yes.
3) What will happen if in the game, the average batter got better at hitting home runs, like they did in real life? They will hit more home runs.

So you'll see that for many hitters, their power rating increased to reflect what they did in real life. Some batters got worse, as always happens. If you make a team of those hitters, it'll bring back memories of 2018.

No trickery, nothing artificial.

It is possible for MLB 2019 to simulate 2018 instead of 2019, but I don't normally hear that request for the game as a whole. Personally I like the lower offense of 2018 more but it would be odd and problematic if 2019 players played like 2018. So instead we give sliders to suit personal preference.

The power slider is one way (for just HRs), so is difficulty (for offense in general). You might try both - it's always possible that you also got better since 2018. While these methods do in fact work, in baseball you aren't going to know either way until about 5-10 games in. It's an odds thing so 95% of people who play 5-10 games will get a clear picture of offense, but you can have streaks either way. Since the game matches real life in this respect, I can't help with streaks other than to say they happen naturally.

When MLB patches their game, they are patching our game too. Even if we changed nothing else, as long as the players track their real life counter-parts this will happen. We could put in specific exemptions, at some cost, but I think it creates more problems than it solves. Providing sliders and difficulty is a better way, since each person has a different idea of what they want anyways.

Source:

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2019/YT_2019.htm

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2018/YT_2018.htm

This! Exactly this!! I was having fun with hitting this year. I was being rewarded for good timing and balls were flying out of the park If I squared them up with a power hitter. Now they’ve patched back to last years hitting and I’m back to the frustration of lazy fly balls on good/squared up feedback on changeups grooved right down the middle

[Unlucky 13]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

It really seems that the patch has done the same thing to my game that you guys were already experiencing. My own hitting is now back to what I expected it to be, out of the box. Meanwhile, the CPU has gone on a power surge, hitting three to five homers a game vs me. I'll probably eventually see if I can correct this with the sliders.

[tessl]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

I use exclusively manage mode on default sliders and I play every inning - sim nothing. When I have accumulated a large enough sample size of around 50 games I'll post the numbers in this thread.

So far in a carry over franchise from mlbts 19 with those power ratings I'm seeing a combination of low scoring games and slug fests and I am seeing a significant percentage of runs via the home run. When I get to around 50 games I'll post results.

I repeat this is not with the current rosters from mlbts 20. This is with the previous power attributes.

[405Cowboy]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

Well lately I've had some great close games with less homers and good defense. Last game I played started out that way then became homerun derby 12-6 and 7 homers. Justin Upton took Justin Verlander deep twice.

[countryboy]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

This is a game I just finished against the Rockies in Coors Field.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TyxA6KrivJ8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

There were a combined 28 hits, but only 2 homeruns. The wind was blowing from left to right at 4 mph.

There were 8 triples and 4 doubles.

This is on default Legend using zone hitting and meter pitching.

This is a one game sample I understand, but most of my games are like this where homeruns are not out of control and runs are balanced between the long ball and moving runners.

This is a carryover save started on MLB '16 if that may have anything to do with the disparity between what I'm seeing versus others.

[tabarnes19_SDS]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

I'm playing Legend zone hitting and HOF plus classic pitching. The legend hitting has brought home run totals down some for me, but I average 3 a game. I was giving up 3-5 to the CPU. I lowered cpu power 3 clicks. Last 10 games I'm seeing 6 total homers per game average.

[Jr.]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

This is a game I just finished against the Rockies in Coors Field.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TyxA6KrivJ8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

There were a combined 28 hits, but only 2 homeruns. The wind was blowing from left to right at 4 mph.

There were 8 triples and 4 doubles.

This is on default Legend using zone hitting and meter pitching.

This is a one game sample I understand, but most of my games are like this where homeruns are not out of control and runs are balanced between the long ball and moving runners.

This is a carryover save started on MLB '16 if that may have anything to do with the disparity between what I'm seeing versus others.

8 triples is pretty outrageous

Sent from my SM-G970U using Operation Sports mobile app

[Ed21]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

If you’re seeing too many HR’s from the CPU, I can’t emphasise this enough, but PITCH MORE CAREFULLY TO POWER HITTERS.

Don’t be afraid to walk J.D Martinez. Keep pitches to Pete Alonso down and away and avoid coming up in the zone. Nibble on the corners when pitching to Bellinger, Yelich or Trout. There’s a reason these guys walk 80+ times a season.

If you’re struggling to locate your pitches, adjust your pitching consistency and practice.

As for hitting too many HR’s, that might be a case of reducing User timing and power. I’ve got mine both on 4 on directional HOF and I’m averaging 1.2 HR’s a game. Up your pitch speed for more of a challenge as well.

[countryboy]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

8 triples is pretty outrageous

Sent from my SM-G970U using Operation Sports mobile app

5 of those were by guys with significant speed (Bader twice, Wong, Fabregas, and Adell) where the ball is hit into the right centerfield gap that rolled to the wall. Rendon hit his down the right field line and I got lucky because I thought the right fielder would try to nail DeJong going first to home but he threw to 3rd base and Rendon beat a bad throw.

[Jeffrey Smith]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

I’m playing with the Jays and my experience so far is all or nothing. Not too far from the real Jays. Through 14 games my team average is .233 or so but I lead the league in HRs.

The first 5/6 games I was seeing a lot of HR but the past few games have seen a drop. Only 1-3 per game. Even had one game with 0 HRs.

I don’t really compare to real MLB numbers but I’m happy with the numbers so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[monk31]

What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

I appreciate what Brian has said about the game changing and he is right. The game is changing and truthfully, it’s not the sluggers, it’s all the 20-something homer guys. That said, I played ALL 162 of my franchise last year on legend hitting using zone and default sliders. My team leader hit 67 homers (Matt Carpenter). Ozuna hit 42 after him. I wish I could pull my team season totals but that info is gone once you enter the off-season. But I knew my numbers in MLB 19 were already a bit too high (even by actual MLB standards last year). But I accepted it as its a video game and that’s still a pretty dern good job to program something even remotely close to real life given all the factors they have to consider.

However, when I booted up MLB 20, I knew something was off almost immediately. I played 6 games in my carryover franchise my team hit 24 homers and scored 62 runs. I knew that was too much even for a “ hot streak”. I honestly couldn’t bear any more for the sake of sample size.

I’ve had to reset my franchise and am testing Mike Lowe’s Slider set (intended for HOF) on Legend.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[bigwill33]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

The CPU refuses to work low to me as a batter! I feel that this is a huge culprit as to why it seems 75-90% of my total offense is a result of the long ball.

I've started just playing basic play now games on HOF batting and switching to the offensive team for each half inning, so that I am always the one batting. And no matter who I am, and who I am playing against, it is just a steady abundance of mid zone to high pitches that result in a ton of fly balls and homers.

I have default sliders, except for fastball speed bumped up one or two notches. But even finesse pitchers will not use the low part of the zone or work in the dirt, ever.

I'm hitting dingers with every single person in the order. I barely strike out. I can usually foul pitches off to stay alive, and am usually still getting early timing on fast balls that I should have no business catching up to. I'm not sure what else to do. But this is pretty frustrating. Most games I go back-to-back or hit 3 in a row at some point.

I've been playing this series for a very long time, but I am not a Legend level player. I will not go up to that level, but I will adjust sliders. However, I feel that there are not any sliders that are going to force the pitchers to work down in the zone.

[Vercingetirex]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

The CPU refuses to work low to me as a batter! I feel that this is a huge culprit as to why it seems 75-90% of my total offense is a result of the long ball.

I've started just playing basic play now games on HOF batting and switching to the offensive team for each half inning, so that I am always the one batting. And no matter who I am, and who I am playing against, it is just a steady abundance of mid zone to high pitches that result in a ton of fly balls and homers.

I have default sliders, except for fastball speed bumped up one or two notches. But even finesse pitchers will not use the low part of the zone or work in the dirt, ever.

I'm hitting dingers with every single person in the order. I barely strike out. I can usually foul pitches off to stay alive, and am usually still getting early timing on fast balls that I should have no business catching up to. I'm not sure what else to do. But this is pretty frustrating. Most games I go back-to-back or hit 3 in a row at some point.

I've been playing this series for a very long time, but I am not a Legend level player. I will not go up to that level, but I will adjust sliders. However, I feel that there are not any sliders that are going to force the pitchers to work down in the zone.

I thought I was the only one experiencing this. I even questioned making a thread about the CPUs unrealistic pitching location. In situations calling for low pitching, like double play situations, they still pitch up in the zone far too often. This wasn't the case last year. Situational pitching from the AI is not what it should be. I swear the logic is broke this year.

[bronxbombers21325]

Re: What happened?! WAYYY to many HRs.

The CPU refuses to work low to me as a batter! I feel that this is a huge culprit as to why it seems 75-90% of my total offense is a result of the long ball.

I've started just playing basic play now games on HOF batting and switching to the offensive team for each half inning, so that I am always the one batting. And no matter who I am, and who I am playing against, it is just a steady abundance of mid zone to high pitches that result in a ton of fly balls and homers.

I have default sliders, except for fastball speed bumped up one or two notches. But even finesse pitchers will not use the low part of the zone or work in the dirt, ever.

I'm hitting dingers with every single person in the order. I barely strike out. I can usually foul pitches off to stay alive, and am usually still getting early timing on fast balls that I should have no business catching up to. I'm not sure what else to do. But this is pretty frustrating. Most games I go back-to-back or hit 3 in a row at some point.

I've been playing this series for a very long time, but I am not a Legend level player. I will not go up to that level, but I will adjust sliders. However, I feel that there are not any sliders that are going to force the pitchers to work down in the zone.

I’ve noticed that the opposing pitchers seem to basically leave the ball on a tee for you more times than not. I thought maybe I was overreacting after my series with the O’s, since, let’s face it they don’t have stellar pitching. So I did a play now against the Rangers with Klubar. Same thing, he’s lay them down the middle most of the time, same thing with Mad Bum. Good pitchers aren’t going to make mistakes like that but maybe once a game. But I’m in the same boat, every game I’ll go back to back at some point. Every game I’ll have at least one player with multiple HRs. I get the real game is very offense, and HR oriented these days, but this is a bit ridiculous. Everyone keeps saying raise the difficulty, simply put I don’t have time to learn a more difficult level. I’ve played on all star the entirety of this games existence, and have always had realistic games. As I said in another post though, at some point they will tinker with it, and attempt to fix it. But, when they do that, then it will be nearly impossible to get the ball out of the park. They can’t ever find a medium once they start tinkering with the game and releasing patches. It’s all or nothing. The game played great on day one, now I want to just throw it out the window.