Pitching

[ksig24]

Re: Pitching

Fire up your game next chance you get and tell me how many k's you get with Blake Beavan, Ross Detwiler or the likes of Phil Humber. I dont have issues whiffing anyone with top tier pitching. My issue is that I want to come out and be unpredictable. I notice too many times that I get hitters in the hole and am ON, but cannot get k's for the life of me. I want variety and differentiation from game to game.

All I am saying is that if I have a pitcher who is on that day and has the slightest bit of propensity to whiff hitters than it should reflect in game.

I would love to hear your pitching lines of note with sub-par pitchers.

[nomo17k]

Re: Pitching

At Legend, the discipline and contact of CPU hitters significantly improve, so it is obviously harder to strike them out. At least that's been my experience.

I don't know which pitching interface you are using, but one of the reasons why some guys might have problem whiffing hitters is that they may be throwing too many strikes. With Pure Analog, I had hard time pitching on the black (inside/outside), so that slightly limited my ability to K them out just off those borderline pitches (pitched on all AS/HOF/LEG). Now I'm running my franchise with Classic pitching at AS, things are running pretty realistically (6.3 K/9 over three months... not bad for a below-par rotation with R.A. Dickey on it).

Unless the pitcher has dominant stuff, he'll get most Ks from pitches that are outside the strike zone, so if you are going for a K, then you should not be afraid to throw a lot of balls and go deep in the counts. With Pure Analog, doing so was harder for me but using Classic, pitcher is much wilder so you can quite occasionally get Ks from even erratic pitches out of the zone.

[b22gamer]

Re: Pitching

Fire up your game next chance you get and tell me how many k's you get with Blake Beavan, Ross Detwiler or the likes of Phil Humber. I dont have issues whiffing anyone with top tier pitching. My issue is that I want to come out and be unpredictable. I notice too many times that I get hitters in the hole and am ON, but cannot get k's for the life of me. I want variety and differentiation from game to game.

All I am saying is that if I have a pitcher who is on that day and has the slightest bit of propensity to whiff hitters than it should reflect in game.

I would love to hear your pitching lines of note with sub-par pitchers.

Ksig, I'll "fire up" a game when I go home for lunch - I'll use Humber against a random opponent and post my line when i get back around 2pm.

[ksig24]

Re: Pitching

Ksig, I'll "fire up" a game when I go home for lunch - I'll use Humber against a random opponent and post my line when i get back around 2pm.

Sweet man I would love to see the results. Its funny how people tell me that I need to pitch like a pitcher. Do these people know what I do for a living?

LOL

[b22gamer]

Re: Pitching

So I used Humber @ home against the Tigers. Using The Oct 3rd OSFM Rosters and tnk perfect sliders. I may have proved your theory right.

HUMBER, (ND)
6 IP 7 H 3 ER 2 BB 4 K

I ran into trouble in the first, giving up 3 straight hits and was down 2-0. I settled in after that, only allowing another run in the 6th. I worked exclusively soft away and hard stuff in to; Humber's 2SFB was working well and had good bite. I did find myself up 0-2, 1-2, 2-2 and had a little trouble either putting the hitter away (with a strikeout) and no hitters were biting on Humber's curve out of the zone. Of the 4 K's 2 were looking (one a beautiful backdoor slider) and another on a low and inside 2-seamer that caught the bottom of the strike zone. The other 2 were balls away and out of the zone; slider and change-up low and away. I was trying to strike guys out, but my pitching instincts took over to get a ground ball when I needed one. I struck out Cabrera, Jackson, Magglio (looking) and Brennan Boesch (looking).

[decga]

Re: Pitching

Well I love pitching in this game. I play on the All Star level, classic pitcher meter with the vibrating fading mark. I can strike out 10 with using someone like Tommy Hanson or 4 o 5 with Kris Medlen. I think you cant just fall in love with the 4SB fstbl. I do have catcher api on, but I call my own game.

I also think knowing repitore of the pitcher your using is huge. The 8 pitch warm up is helpful tool as well. I hope its in the Show 12.

[ksig24]

Re: Pitching

You see what I am saying! There should be games where Humber has 1-3 k's and some where he averages 4-5, but there should also be those games where he has 6-8 realistically. Thats all I am looking for.

[b22gamer]

Re: Pitching

You see what I am saying! There should be games where Humber has 1-3 k's and some where he averages 4-5, but there should also be those games where he has 6-8 realistically. Thats all I am looking for.

I know, but think about the factors:

1. Detroit has a potent offense
2. It was my frist game of the day and I was missing my spots (early on most)
3. Humber isn't a strike out pitcher.

I researched Humber's stats against DET last season, and oddly enough he posted 8 K's in 5 2/3 INN ; 1 of the 4 teams he pitched against last season where he struck out more than 5 in an outing.


I'm curious to see how he would fair against the A's or Toronto, two other teams he pitched well against. I'll give one of those teams a go tonight and post my results.

[nomo17k]

Re: Pitching

Just to put things in perspective, Philip Humber's pitching log in 2011 is:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...ph01&t=p&year=

and he had more than/equal to 6 K in only 5 games out of 28 games he pitched last year. That's like 18%, so you need to play *at least* 6 - 7 games before you can say anything about the chance of Humber having a high-K game (i.e, > 6 K here).

You really cannot say much from one or two games.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: Pitching

I think a plate discipline slider would be a nice addition for those that want the cpu to chase more. I think the Show had that years ago but removed it. Not sure. I wonder if they added any more sliders this year.

[Bobhead]

Re: Pitching

Yeah seriously. Philip Humber? At least pick a good pitcher. You can't pick a turtle and then question the lack of speed. Not fair at all.

[Heroesandvillains]

Re: Pitching

Yeah seriously. Philip Humber? At least pick a good pitcher. You can't pick a turtle and then question the lack of speed. Not fair at all.

You make a good point Bobhead. But, I don't think Ksig's greater point should go overlooked.

He's made some pretty good observations on CPU contact in 2 strike counts, and the dynamic variety of single game strikeout numbers with pitcher's that aren't/aren't currently aces.

I'd also like to see more of those 8-10+ K game's with non-household named pitchers. It's definitely do-able currently, but just slightly not as frequent as I'd like to see...you know, on that rare day or two a season, when the stars align and confidence is maxed out and everything is firing on all cylinders. It definitely happens now...so don't take me the wrong way... but I'd personally like to see a bit more swing throughs and a few more taken strike 3's when these circumstances occur.

[nomo17k]

Re: Pitching

You make a good point Bobhead. But, I don't think Ksig's greater point should go overlooked.

He's made some pretty good observations on CPU contact in 2 strike counts, and the dynamic variety of single game strikeout numbers with pitcher's that aren't/aren't currently aces.

I'd also like to see more of those 8-10+ K game's with non-household named pitchers. It's definitely do-able currently, but just slightly not as frequent as I'd like to see...you know, on that rare day or two a season, when the stars align and confidence is maxed out and everything is firing on all cylinders. It definitely happens but I'd personally like to see a bit more swing throughs and a few more taken strike 3's when these circumstances occur.

Which pitching difficulty are you talking about?

I see a huge difference between say AS and LEG. My hobby is to play/sim with a strikeout pitcher like David Cone, so I was trying to be a bit more observant with the swing through issue. (Though I didn't quite get to collect data as I usually do, because it's a bit more chore to do this from pitcher/batter analysis.)

I usually pitch very well, so this year I upped difficulty to LEG at some point. Still pitched well, but K's weren't coming as I wanted for a pitch of Cone's caliber (I used K/9 = 99 rating). So recently I've gone back to pitching at AS, and (expectedly) hitters swing and miss much more than at LEG.

I agree and I also feel CPU is likely a bit better at making contact/fouling off pitches when he needs to (i.e., X-2 counts). I hope the devs revisit the issue at some point... But if you are playing at HOF/LEG, then the game needs to boost the difficulty artificially, so I don't really see it as a big issue.

[Heroesandvillains]

Re: Pitching

Which pitching difficulty are you talking about?

I see a huge difference between say AS and LEG. My hobby is to play/sim with a strikeout pitcher like David Cone, so I was trying to be a bit more observant with the swing through issue. (Though I didn't quite get to collect data as I usually do, because it's a bit more chore to do this from pitcher/batter analysis.)

I usually pitch very well, so this year I upped difficulty to LEG at some point. Still pitched well, but K's weren't coming as I wanted for a pitch of Cone's caliber (I used K/9 = 99 rating). So recently I've gone back to pitching at AS, and (expectedly) hitters swing and miss much more than at LEG.

I agree and I also feel CPU is likely a bit better at making contact/fouling off pitches when he needs to (i.e., X-2 counts). I hope the devs revisit the issue at some point... But if you are playing at HOF/LEG, then the game needs to boost the difficulty artificially, so I don't really see it as a big issue.

HOF. Meter pitching (though I played approximately 40 games on AS with Classic, and approximately 60-80 games on HOF with Analog before making the switch to meter).

Keep in mind, I LEAD THE LEAGUE IN STRIKEOUTS in my Giants franchise with Tim Lincecum. LOL! And my team is 4th overall in SO (averaging around 7.0 per game). So I'm not complaining in the slightest. Just suggesting possible refinements, that's all.

My main point is that two strike contact, two strike plate discipline, and curveball effectiveness (pretty much across the board on how the CPU reacts to curveballs, in my opinion) could use some refining. Not necessarily with aces (minus the curveball/s) though.

I think once a pitcher gets below that 70-75 K/9 threshold, overcoming the circumstances I mentioned in the paragraph above, when confidence is really high, is slightly more difficult than I believe it should be. Key word: slightly. I cannot stress that enough.

My hope is that the new confidence system for 12' makes a pitcher with a maxed out confidence meter more dangerous in regards to the K. Specifically in how it relates to misses and chases with two strikes. You know, turning just a couple more weak infield popouts into K's on that day my non-stud is lights out.

[nomo17k]

Re: Pitching

HOF. Meter pitching (though I played approximately 40 games on AS with Classic, and approximately 60-80 games on HOF with Analog before making the switch to meter).

Keep in mind, I LEAD THE LEAGUE IN STRIKEOUTS in my Giants franchise with Tim Lincecum. LOL! And my team is 4th overall in SO (averaging around 7.0 per game). So I'm not complaining in the slightest. Just suggesting possible refinements, that's all.

My main point is that two strike contact, two strike plate discipline, and curveball effectiveness (pretty much across the board on how the CPU reacts to curveballs, in my opinion) could use some refining. Not necessarily with aces (minus the curveball/s) though.

I think once a pitcher gets below that 70-75 K/9 threshold, overcoming the circumstances I mentioned in the paragraph above, when confidence is really high, is slightly more difficult than I believe it should be. Key word: slightly. I cannot stress that enough.

My hope is that the new confidence system for 12' makes a pitcher with a maxed out confidence meter more dangerous in regards to the K. Specifically in how it relates to misses and chases with two strikes. You know, turning just a couple more weak infield popouts into K's on that day my non-stud is lights out.

Yup I'm talking about that sort of slight adjustment... I don't know if it's the confidence system that needs tweaking (because it presumably only affects pitch accuracy), but subtle adjustment somewhere would be sufficient...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/672941-mlb-power-rankings-halladays-cutter-and-leagues-25-most-unhittable-pitche/page/19

I personally think the best strikeout pitch in the Show is fastball. Perhaps, with the exception of change-up, breaking pitches in the Show is not nearly as effective as in real life. You see in the cited article that best breaking pitches can whiff hitters at 40 - 50%... That's a lot! Like every other swing... And I don't think CPU swings and misses this much in the game even against aces with high K/9 ratings.

But overall, when I tallied the numbers up for CPU vs CPU game sliders, most stats are consistent with the overall MLB average. So based on that, I feel it is only a subtle adjustment that we need.