Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

[HeavySaucer]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

You just have to pitch with Niekro the right way. I posted in another thread the way I do it and I have never given up more than 2 runs with him in a head to head Diamond Dynasty game. In fact, I usually get my opponent to quit by the 5th inning when I have Niekro going for me. He is my number 5 starter in my rotation, but I have the best record with him.

The only problem I have pitching with Niekro is that I have a hard time scoring runs for my team. I'm usually laughing so hard from people flailing at his knuckler that when it's my turn to hit, I have no focus!

I don't really see how it's so hard for people to hit against him though. I faced him three times and made my opponent quit before the 5th inning every time because I was crushing the knuckler.

[Biizz713]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Seriously if your complaining about a knuckle baller....then just quit. That is exactly why they can be brutal. Thats all they really throw. Then you mix in a few other pitches to throw a hitter off.

Cheesy is if someone uses 3 in a rotation. But having one KBaller in your rotation is fine. And throwing 90% plus knuckle balls is exactly how you should utilize them if your trying to win.

If it's high let it fly.

If it's low let it go.

I tagged Neikro for 4 early runs ripping high knuckle balls. He pulled him by the 5th.

Learn to hit them.

I'm really not complaining about the knuckle ball, I understand it's a legitimate pitch in baseball. i'm complaining about people abusing how glitchy it is in the game. I haven't played against Dickey or Neikro so I couldn't tell you how their pitches look, but Gamboa's knuckle literally takes 2-3 full seconds to make it to the plate.

I'm sitting there like 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi... SWING! IMO there is no way the knuckle he's throwing is actually going 60 mph. I feel like it's artificially slowed down to about half of that.

Maybe i'm wrong, maybe it's a perfect recreation of how knuckle balls look. but when I go look at video of RA Dickey I don't see pitches that look ANYTHING like what I saw from Gamboa.

[esham313]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

I think it's bs when your opponent bunts and steals at every pitch. That my friend is Busch League BS

[PSimp21]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

So it was bush league last year in the playoffs for Dyson to steal almost everytime he was on base?

I get what you're saying about bunting, but stealing is a part of the game. I've learned to control the running game and contain the bunting game. Is it over powered? Yes. But it can be stopped and ruin someone's day. It's just not fun when you can't Stop it, which causes people to come on here and complain about cheese or bush league. It's a fantasy baseball game. It's not real life. 70-80% of the people we play on here don't watch baseball, didn't play baseball, and have No idea what They are doing.

[55]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Patience is the key. No power swings. And I cheese him to death on the bases.

Go for singles. No power swings. Let some go by even if you know it's a strike. The occasional HR will come even with regular swings. If you catch the fastball, it's an automatic double or HR.

I have more trouble with Dickey. The movement seems more random with him. Niekros KB moves a lot, but the amount of break is pretty consistent except for the occasional crazy one that goes from behind your head to the strike zone last second.

That's the thing... people that know how to use Niekro are never going to throw you a fastball in the zone. Ever.

[Gambit1193]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Idk where to post this BUT some kid just quit on me and complained in a message that I need to stop throwing so many sinkers......... I was pitching with Corey Kluber...a sinker ball pitcher He quit after the first inning smh.

[Dag_BoomStick]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Finally faced gamboa for the first time. Crushed a 3 run home run on him to dead center 445ft. Ended up winning 5-3 he pulled gamboa in the 5th. Also faced niekro too last night and won 6-2. With everyone's talk about the kball still being effective I might put niekro back in one last time and give him another shot. Maybe change up how I pitch with him. I normally pitch about 85-90% kball with him and try and sneak a fastball by to give them something new to look at. Maybe I'm just catching to much of the plate with my fastballs with him but it honestly feels like the kball is the one that gets smoked and im doing all I can to pitch low and to the corners but every now and then it will float high and its right down the middle and gone. To me his other two pitches (screw and cb) are next to useless paired with the knuckball. Ppl will expect each pitch to dance around and if you throw either of those two pitches its like a knuckleball that won't be breaking left or right and they are already timed up for a slow pitch and it sometimes ends up trouble.

[ManiacMatt1782]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Killed a Gamboa 8-1 today. There was also a reliever he used that had a knuckler.

[HeavySaucer]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Finally faced gamboa for the first time. Crushed a 3 run home run on him to dead center 445ft. Ended up winning 5-3 he pulled gamboa in the 5th. Also faced niekro too last night and won 6-2. With everyone's talk about the kball still being effective I might put niekro back in one last time and give him another shot. Maybe change up how I pitch with him. I normally pitch about 85-90% kball with him and try and sneak a fastball by to give them something new to look at. Maybe I'm just catching to much of the plate with my fastballs with him but it honestly feels like the kball is the one that gets smoked and im doing all I can to pitch low and to the corners but every now and then it will float high and its right down the middle and gone. To me his other two pitches (screw and cb) are next to useless paired with the knuckball. Ppl will expect each pitch to dance around and if you throw either of those two pitches its like a knuckleball that won't be breaking left or right and they are already timed up for a slow pitch and it sometimes ends up trouble.

Another placement I've had a lot of success with for the knuckler is belt high, either a couple of inches inside or outside the plate. Most of the time it will either look like a strike and break out of the zone, or look like a ball and fall in for a strike.

[Dag_BoomStick]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Killed a Gamboa 8-1 today. There was also a reliever he used that had a knuckler.

The guy I played that pitched niekro last also had a knuckballer in his pen. Some low level guy forget his name but I tagged him up for a run or two. This just goes to prove my point of once you get above 1700 compition you are gonna run into more ppl that can handle a knuckleballer. When I was sub 1600 i dominated with niekro. Anytime I have pulled him out against 1700+ players he will get tagged up for a few runs easy (I'm currently 1723)

[ManiacMatt1782]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Yeah, I am around 1710, I can deal with the knuckler, I just don't try to kill it. I stay back on it, hit it the other way for a single.

[55]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

So it was bush league last year in the playoffs for Dyson to steal almost everytime he was on base?

I get what you're saying about bunting, but stealing is a part of the game. I've learned to control the running game and contain the bunting game. Is it over powered? Yes. But it can be stopped and ruin someone's day. It's just not fun when you can't Stop it, which causes people to come on here and complain about cheese or bush league. It's a fantasy baseball game. It's not real life. 70-80% of the people we play on here don't watch baseball, didn't play baseball, and have No idea what They are doing.

There is a difference between stealing bases with the Hamiltons, Dysons and Gordons of the world and stealing 3rd base with Matt Carpenter with two outs just because you can.

[ChaseB]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

So it was bush league last year in the playoffs for Dyson to steal almost everytime he was on base?

I get what you're saying about bunting, but stealing is a part of the game. I've learned to control the running game and contain the bunting game. Is it over powered? Yes. But it can be stopped and ruin someone's day. It's just not fun when you can't Stop it, which causes people to come on here and complain about cheese or bush league. It's a fantasy baseball game. It's not real life. 70-80% of the people we play on here don't watch baseball, didn't play baseball, and have No idea what They are doing.

This is rather hostile, and really nobody is saying it's not "baseball" to steal or bunt. Plus, doing the "you never played the game or watched the game" argument is not a great way to go about things if you want to get a point across and not be "attacked" back so to speak.

I think the general point has been that "elite" speed doesn't have much meaning, and "elite" bunting skills don't have much meaning as of now. There's not really a high-level skill to stealing effectively. It's more or less you take the extra step, and just time the release of the steal remotely on time and you're good to go because as you said, these things are overpowered. Bunting is more or less the same deal with timing not being a huge factor -- it's a bit better after the patch (and I would argue it's the slowness of throwing animations online more than the bunting itself that's the issue).

I think it's awesome if you've been able to control the bunting and running game, good on you. I think the general issue is if it's possible to contain it, it's not immediately clear how to do that. If pitch outs, and fastballs, pick offs and slide steps are your weapons, those don't seem to have the desired effect when you sniff out steal attempts. Pitch outs don't really do much more than throwing fastballs -- the timing window actually seems weirder sometimes on catchers releasing the ball, plus guys just kill the steal and go back to base a lot of the time. What's even more of a bummer to me is that picking someone off still leads to many guys still getting to second base because the throw takes to long to get to second from the 1B, which goes back to throwing animations just being so overly slow online. Again, if you have figured out the way to quell this stuff. Awesome. But it does not mean it isn't an issue for the general populous playing the game. When something doesn't affect you, your personal experience does not overwrite those of many others, you know?

At the end of the day, guys like Hamilton and Dyson are beasts. They are exceptions to the rule and that's great. Their ability to get on base is the issue. I think Hamilton is 23/27 for steals -- Dee Gordon is 20/27 and Altuve is 16/21 -- but is only getting on base at a .260 clip. But if it's easier to get on base with speed with these guys through bunting etc. and then also easier to steal with them, there's the balancing issue.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

You don't have to time the steal. You just hit L2 and forget about it. Anyone with 80+ speed can steal bags at an extremely high rate on normal pitches just by hitting L2 and not taking the extra step. Even on pitchout+slidestep it is still a very high success rate.

This issue for most people is not that runners can steal bases or that they can lay down bunts. Of course this is part of baseball, no on is arguing this. What people are frustrated about is how successful the simple strategy of "bunt+steal+steal+bunt" is. It requires little to no skill and even when using all the tools the game gives you to combat it (bunt defense, pitchout, slide step, etc) it is still unrealistically successful.

To be frank no runner should be able to steal a base on a catcher with a 114 arm and 102 arm acc on a slide step and pitch out. If you know exactly what the other player is doing and use the tools to combat it as the game was designed you should be rewarded and it should cause players to have to weigh the risks of hitting L2 every time a runner is on base.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Do you think it's cheating to use the new DD pitcher?

Ultimate cheese move is when a runner stop's mid base line, stealing second on pitch outs and go back.

Horse **** move. Rarely if ever, happens in real life.

That is video game baseball cheese. Not simulation style.

It is what it is.

One thing I did do is when I get a guy who does it the first time.....the next time I throw right to first as he heads back.

Pisses them off every time LOL!.