Re: Legend Hitting too easy this year?
I started on HOF with no slider adjustments.
I found that the computer peppered the strike zone too much, and among those strikes, a high percentage were meatballs. Simply too many pitches that were eminently mashable - to the extent that it felt like an unrealistic advantage in my favor.
(I was hitting home runs left and right, and felt that if I'd have been more focused and practicing discipline, I'd have hit even more.)
Pitching on HOF felt much more challenging. But I definitely had to paint corners and nibble to some extent, otherwise get rocked.
I moved both offense and pitching up to Legend -- which in past iterations of The Show was too much for me.
My first 'Legend' at-bat came against Alex Reyes (fantasy drafted by the Pirates). The pitch speed boost was immediately noticeable. He was struck out Acuna with a 99mph heater upstars and I had no chance. Then, somewhat cheating to catch the fastball, he made me look foolish with offspeed stuff. On Legend, pitchers want to destroy you. On HOF, it felt like 40% of the time they were saying "here's a meatball for you, slugger! crush it - it'll feel good!"
Pitching on Legend is tough. HOF seemed realistic and I'm not sure it was necessary to move up - I suppose I just wanted to keep things in sync with my hitting difficulty.
You can't lose focus for one pitch. I had a lapse in focus for one pitch - a first pitch cutter from Desclafani to Miguel Sano - which I left pretty much dead center. He promptly deposited a 2-run homer and tied the game at 4. And it was by far the least focused I'd been for any pitch to that point.
The next game I faced Marco Gonzales and it was worlds different than my (failed) experience against Alex Reyes. Marco kept me off balance with changeup low and away, occasionally mixing a cutter up and in to keep me honest. His velo wasn't an issue, but he took advantage of impatience and peppered the lower corners. It was a neat (and apt) change from facing a fireballer. I certainly don't look forward to facing a deGrom or Cole type on Legend. I think I'll be lucky to muster 1-2 runs. Which I suppose is probably how real MLB teams feel against those guys.
In summary, I don't think legend is necessarily too easy. I'll be sticking with it for now, and I'm not ready to venture into the world of Vault sliders. I do find myself wondering if HOF hitting would be solid, with a (needed) bump to pitch speed and a reduction of cpu pitcher strike frequency. Frankly, the default fastball speed on HOF isn't quick enough to force you to (somewhat) cheat fastball, the way real MLB hitters probably do to some extent. And because of that, it makes the HOF off-speed pitches play down, because you don't have to be geared up to catch up to fastballs. That, combined with too many meatballs, makes HOF feel more like an advanced "All-Star" level of years past.
Legend, for now, feels like the best emulation of real MLB baseball.
I started on HOF with no slider adjustments.
I found that the computer peppered the strike zone too much, and among those strikes, a high percentage were meatballs. Simply too many pitches that were eminently mashable - to the extent that it felt like an unrealistic advantage in my favor.
(I was hitting home runs left and right, and felt that if I'd have been more focused and practicing discipline, I'd have hit even more.)
Pitching on HOF felt much more challenging. But I definitely had to paint corners and nibble to some extent, otherwise get rocked.
I moved both offense and pitching up to Legend -- which in past iterations of The Show was too much for me.
My first 'Legend' at-bat came against Alex Reyes (fantasy drafted by the Pirates). The pitch speed boost was immediately noticeable. He was struck out Acuna with a 99mph heater upstars and I had no chance. Then, somewhat cheating to catch the fastball, he made me look foolish with offspeed stuff. On Legend, pitchers want to destroy you. On HOF, it felt like 40% of the time they were saying "here's a meatball for you, slugger! crush it - it'll feel good!"
Pitching on Legend is tough. HOF seemed realistic and I'm not sure it was necessary to move up - I suppose I just wanted to keep things in sync with my hitting difficulty.
You can't lose focus for one pitch. I had a lapse in focus for one pitch - a first pitch cutter from Desclafani to Miguel Sano - which I left pretty much dead center. He promptly deposited a 2-run homer and tied the game at 4. And it was by far the least focused I'd been for any pitch to that point.
The next game I faced Marco Gonzales and it was worlds different than my (failed) experience against Alex Reyes. Marco kept me off balance with changeup low and away, occasionally mixing a cutter up and in to keep me honest. His velo wasn't an issue, but he took advantage of impatience and peppered the lower corners. It was a neat (and apt) change from facing a fireballer. I certainly don't look forward to facing a deGrom or Cole type on Legend. I think I'll be lucky to muster 1-2 runs. Which I suppose is probably how real MLB teams feel against those guys.
In summary, I don't think legend is necessarily too easy. I'll be sticking with it for now, and I'm not ready to venture into the world of Vault sliders. I do find myself wondering if HOF hitting would be solid, with a (needed) bump to pitch speed and a reduction of cpu pitcher strike frequency. Frankly, the default fastball speed on HOF isn't quick enough to force you to (somewhat) cheat fastball, the way real MLB hitters probably do to some extent. And because of that, it makes the HOF off-speed pitches play down, because you don't have to be geared up to catch up to fastballs. That, combined with too many meatballs, makes HOF feel more like an advanced "All-Star" level of years past.
Legend, for now, feels like the best emulation of real MLB baseball.
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