MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

I think if you get the pitch recognition down you'll find that you'll hit a lot better. I'm not good at it yet but am working hard at it. You definitely have to have a plan at the plate.

I don't have any sliders adjusted except the fouls slider, which I'm gonna fiddle with at +3 for a bit just to see what happens.

HOF will allow you not to have to handicap your pitching, and it will force you to maximize your talents to hit. I'm struggling right there with you man, but I love the challenge. Good luck!

Thanks. I definitely struggle with hitting strategy. I find I really have to try to pick up the ball out of the hand as soon as I can to help recognize them.

I take two approaches to the plate. The first one (and what I use most often) is to hack away. This leaves me with little to no walks, low amounts of hits, being fooled often by sliders and breaking pitches but lets me hammer mistake fastballs.

The second approach (used with two strikes or on rare occasions when I'm trying to resemble a MLB hitter) is to try and be patient and swing at only good pitches down the heart of the plate. I can usually work pitch counts better, draw walks and get singles this way. I'm not too early on the breaking stuff but the hard heat usually gets blown by me. Nothing worse than seeing a fastball down the heart of the plate that you either whiff on or push foul down the line.

[brunnoce]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

OMFG!
i just had the best game ever in my video game history! count that all games ive played my hole life!!!!

Game 2 of a 3 game series against the red sox on my A's season , the sox were 7-0 and i was 4-4 ....fisrt game they destroied me 9-2....

second game was S.Gallangher against Dice-K.
Game reaches the 9th inn with a 1-1 draw, with me only having 5 hits(1 solo HR by Buck) and the sox with 8 hits....
top of the 10th inn i put in the righty Wuerts to try to close the inng against J.Bay after Blevins got 2 outs...
first pitch, a slider up in the zone: GONE Hr sox... 1-2 the score
after that i put in Devine and he gets Lowe swinging....than comes the bottom of the 10th and with it comes Papelbon.
First batter was Nomar, but i pitch hit him for Holliday who was having a day off... 3 straight fast balls strikes out Matt... than comes Giambi and another strike out on fast balls, papelbon was literally blowing me away.
2 outs and here comes Jack Cust, i manage a walk after fighting off some tuff 2 strike sliders....
Now comes M.Ellis, who was having a terrible day, 0-4 with 2k and a really cold start of the season hitting only .210 on the first 8 games.... 2 pitches and 2 strikes for Jonatha... 3rd pitch i foul off a hard splitter, next pitch he trhows a fast ball outside the zone and i lay off....now 1-2 count im literally sweating my hands and my heart is like a hard core band drum... Papelbon throws a slider inside and MARK ELLIS turns on it like it was the last swing of his life, the ball flyes and hits the foul poll for a 2 run WALK OFF HR against arguably the best closer in the game!
i jumped out of my chair and started screaming!!! ahahaha my wife is like WTF!?
she cant understand the tension i went throught to get this W...best video game feeling i ever had! thank u SCEA thank u!

the box score in 10inn:
BOS-2-11-0
OAK-3-7-0

[Segagendude]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

^^^^^Haha, I remember in 08 the first time I hit a walk-off, game winning HR! Pretty much the same reaction!

Still trying to do it in 09.......

[brunnoce]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

^^^^^Haha, I remember in 08 the first time I hit a walk-off, game winning HR! Pretty much the same reaction!

Still trying to do it in 09.......

yeh man...let me tell u something:
hitting a Hr off Papelbon on legend mode with M.ellis is no joke
the tension involved in this game is harzard for people weak of the heart!

[GSW]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

manny hit a walk off homer on me last night in the 11th inning...

but i owned broxton in the 9th so all is right with the world...

btw...furcal has a lazer arm...

[tedi]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

After losing a 15 inning game 3-2 at Fenway to Yankees on HOF, after Matt "signs off", you can here him say - off microphone to Rex - "Tank goodness that one's over!" I mean, how amazing is that?

[Jackdog]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

OMFG!
i just had the best game ever in my video game history! count that all games ive played my hole life!!!!

Game 2 of a 3 game series against the red sox on my A's season , the sox were 7-0 and i was 4-4 ....fisrt game they destroied me 9-2....

second game was S.Gallangher against Dice-K.
Game reaches the 9th inn with a 1-1 draw, with me only having 5 hits(1 solo HR by Buck) and the sox with 8 hits....
top of the 10th inn i put in the righty Wuerts to try to close the inng against J.Bay after Blevins got 2 outs...
first pitch, a slider up in the zone: GONE Hr sox... 1-2 the score
after that i put in Devine and he gets Lowe swinging....than comes the bottom of the 10th and with it comes Papelbon.
First batter was Nomar, but i pitch hit him for Holliday who was having a day off... 3 straight fast balls strikes out Matt... than comes Giambi and another strike out on fast balls, papelbon was literally blowing me away.
2 outs and here comes Jack Cust, i manage a walk after fighting off some tuff 2 strike sliders....
Now comes M.Ellis, who was having a terrible day, 0-4 with 2k and a really cold start of the season hitting only .210 on the first 8 games.... 2 pitches and 2 strikes for Jonatha... 3rd pitch i foul off a hard splitter, next pitch he trhows a fast ball outside the zone and i lay off....now 1-2 count im literally sweating my hands and my heart is like a hard core band drum... Papelbon throws a slider inside and MARK ELLIS turns on it like it was the last swing of his life, the ball flyes and hits the foul poll for a 2 run WALK OFF HR against arguably the best closer in the game!
i jumped out of my chair and started screaming!!! ahahaha my wife is like WTF!?
she cant understand the tension i went throught to get this W...best video game feeling i ever had! thank u SCEA thank u!

the box score in 10inn:
BOS-2-11-0
OAK-3-7-0

Nice!!

[Jackdog]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

Deal!




Crap Jackdog! I thought you were getting good numbers on HOF with manual fielding! This blows my theory of maybe moving up to HOF to see if I can fix this. I was hoping it might be isolated to All-Star. I've not gone 12 games on All-Star in my two seasons with 0 errors. The probability of that, even with a small sample size, is extremely low.

Sorry brother. I'm too damn old for playing manual, unless it's with myself.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

Sorry brother. I'm too damn old for playing manual, unless it's with myself.

That's alright. The Autumn Wind is finding the errors to be good on HOF. I can only assume that the error logic might be different for each level which I'm hoping for. I'm going to give it a shot in an exhibition game tonight.

[jim416]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

"Santa Maria" as Matt V says.

Great second spring training game with my Nats. Lost my first one 4-1 to Houston.

This one a back and forth affair vs. Detroit.

Willy Mo Pena hit a two out homerun off relief pitcher Aguilino Lopez in the bottom of the 9th to win it. Man, this game keeps you on your toes, that's for sure.

TIGERS 3-9-0
NATS 4-9-2

(Anderson Hernandez had two errors, between the legs in one inning for me).

[wsu_gb23]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

I'm starting to think All-Star difficulty is the way to go. I have played 2 games in my Indians season; I am 1-1. The first game I won 2-0. The second I lost 10-8. You can guess who started the first game.

I play with pitch speed slider -2, without guess pitch. It is a lot easier to judge balls and strikes with -2 for pitch speed. I now strikeout maybe 5-6 times a game instead of 10-15. All-Star is playing great so far.

[wsu_gb23]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

I have seen some UGLY pitching animations in my 2 games. The first is Vincente Padilla...there is no way anyone that made the major leagues can throw like that...the same goes for my reliever; Kobayashi? Both of these guys throw like they have alligator arms. I have never seen it look so bad.

Why can't SCEA fix these remaining short-arm pitching deliveries? They look terrible. There are much better generic looking deliveries in this game; although generic one is ugly as well. I have been editing some deliveries using generic 3 just so they aren't so bad.

It is hard for this game to look like a real game when I see pitchers throwing like alligators, or the infamous T-Rex.

[RogueHominid]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

That's alright. The Autumn Wind is finding the errors to be good on HOF. I can only assume that the error logic might be different for each level which I'm hoping for. I'm going to give it a shot in an exhibition game tonight.

Just had Cust mis-play 2 balls in the OF today on HOF. I don't think either was scored an error, but one was a grounder that I tried to take running a bit too fast and passed right over. There's plenty of fielding variety on that level.

[ThreeKing]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

OMFG!
i just had the best game ever in my video game history! count that all games ive played my hole life!!!!

Game 2 of a 3 game series against the red sox on my A's season , the sox were 7-0 and i was 4-4 ....fisrt game they destroied me 9-2....

second game was S.Gallangher against Dice-K.
Game reaches the 9th inn with a 1-1 draw, with me only having 5 hits(1 solo HR by Buck) and the sox with 8 hits....
top of the 10th inn i put in the righty Wuerts to try to close the inng against J.Bay after Blevins got 2 outs...
first pitch, a slider up in the zone: GONE Hr sox... 1-2 the score
after that i put in Devine and he gets Lowe swinging....than comes the bottom of the 10th and with it comes Papelbon.
First batter was Nomar, but i pitch hit him for Holliday who was having a day off... 3 straight fast balls strikes out Matt... than comes Giambi and another strike out on fast balls, papelbon was literally blowing me away.
2 outs and here comes Jack Cust, i manage a walk after fighting off some tuff 2 strike sliders....
Now comes M.Ellis, who was having a terrible day, 0-4 with 2k and a really cold start of the season hitting only .210 on the first 8 games.... 2 pitches and 2 strikes for Jonatha... 3rd pitch i foul off a hard splitter, next pitch he trhows a fast ball outside the zone and i lay off....now 1-2 count im literally sweating my hands and my heart is like a hard core band drum... Papelbon throws a slider inside and MARK ELLIS turns on it like it was the last swing of his life, the ball flyes and hits the foul poll for a 2 run WALK OFF HR against arguably the best closer in the game!
i jumped out of my chair and started screaming!!! ahahaha my wife is like WTF!?
she cant understand the tension i went throught to get this W...best video game feeling i ever had! thank u SCEA thank u!

the box score in 10inn:
BOS-2-11-0
OAK-3-7-0

Nice game! I'm not surprised Wuertz gave up the gopher ball. He sucks.

[RogueHominid]

Re: MLB 09: The Show - Impressions

The second approach (used with two strikes or on rare occasions when I'm trying to resemble a MLB hitter) is to try and be patient and swing at only good pitches down the heart of the plate. I can usually work pitch counts better, draw walks and get singles this way. I'm not too early on the breaking stuff but the hard heat usually gets blown by me. Nothing worse than seeing a fastball down the heart of the plate that you either whiff on or push foul down the line.

Man, it's crazy how this game forces you to play baseball right.

I'm like you but reversed with the pitches. I can smoke heat, but I am caught looking really silly by good breaking pitches. Just like real life, it's damn near impossible to have real success against a guy who can locate a FB in the low 90s, a breaking ball, and a second offspeed pitch. The first two alone are tough if the guy can throw the breaking ball at any point for strikes.

That's quite realistic, so when I face a guy who is locating 2 top tier pitches or three plus pitches, I don't get too upset if I get dominated. That's what happens in real life. The tricky thing for me is knowing when to expect offspeed stuff by count and situation. If I'm looking for it, I'm okay, but if I'm looking FB, I am usually way off when it comes to adjusting to the breaking ball.

After several games on HOF, I may move down to Legend to see if I can maintaint a challenge while striking out less and waling more. I don't want to mess with sliders, and I'm not default HOF-type good yet, I don't think.