Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

[pbz06]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Pbz I have been using your sliders the last 2 days, with great help from an earlier post by Dr. Ursus and his pitching strategies and have not yet seen the lopsided hits you're seeing. I was actually worried Ursus' tips might have been too good as I shut out the Rays to games in a row. Next game vs the O's I gave up 3 in the first and was kind of glad I did.
Hits for both sides have been really even.

haha, I just overreacted last night because it was late and I spent so much time tweaking the sliders that have been playing EXCELLENT until the first 3 games of my season I know better and that's to stick with it...

[pbz06]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

I'm not sure, it seems that way, but then you have their #4, and #5 pitchers you get to face. They seem to pick up their game in the season/franchise, but I couldn't say for sure.

What worries me is whether they will play harder in the playoffs like in a lot of games. I'm losing a lot for a video game as it is, lol. I could get swept like the real Cubs in the playoffs .

Speaking of Cardinals, Carpenter may be on the DL again. I was watching the game last night on MLB.TV and he left with a left rib strain. My educated guess (not examing him or knowing the severity) as a sports med doc is that he will probably end up on the 15 day DL so it has good time to heal, and you just can't pitch well with a rib strain.

Pbz, do you follow the real season and remove Carpenter for a while (with CPU roster control ON) (I usually play this way)? If so, that will make your season with SL even harder .

I update my Exhibition rosters weekly, but I keep the Season rosters to what I had when I started them. So right now A-Rod for example is not on the Yanks, and I will continue to use Carpenter in my season. I usually do shorter seasons and keep trades OFF etc. I just like doing it that way....162 is way too much for me, and if I sim a lot of games, I might as well just play a shorter season. For example, after 29 games I should have a solid base to look at my stats.

[BleacherCreature]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

haha, I just overreacted last night because it was late and I spent so much time tweaking the sliders that have been playing EXCELLENT until the first 3 games of my season I know better and that's to stick with it...

That's exactly what I am doing. I'm in the 2nd week of May in my season and have spent much of that time fiddling with sliders trying to get everything perfect right away. Finally I settled on the set you posted and am sticking with them until I finish the season (or until NHL 2010 comes out whichever happens first)

[The Chef]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Getting more walks when you're pitching to the CPU:

If there is one thing I am good at in this game, it's pitching. My hitting and batting eye needs to catch up with my pitching.

Here's my approach to pitching and it's similar to how I pitched in college. I usually try to get a first pitch strike, but I always aim for the extreme corners of the plate. Where depends on the batter and his weakness.
If I get a strike, I do the same thing, I aim for extreme corners and pitch to the batters weakness. If I get a ball on the first pitch, then it depends on the circumstances. I either try to throw a borderline corner pitch again pitching to the batters weakness OR if needed, I will start to bring my pitches more into the zone.

I usually on pitch #2 try to still aim for extreme corners based on the batters weakness, my pitchers pitching repertoire, etc. I get myself into some 2-0 counts easily this way. I don't tend to give in, but that depends on the circumstances. Therefore, I do tend to get anywhere from 2-5 walks a game depending on the pitcher, and it keeps hits down.
Then of course if it is 0-2, they aren't seeing anything hittable. I try to at least pitch a tempting pitch, so as not to just waste one, but it will not near the borders unless it is a mistake by me. I continue to do this throwing progressively "tempting " pitches until I get to 2-2. When I get to 2-2, I will try to get my strikeout. If there is a guy on 1st however, I will try to pitch my strikeout pitch in a location, where if I miss, I will get a double play ball. This was drilled to me by the coaches in college, and it worked well. Because if you don't get the strikeout, you may miss more into the zone, but they if you pitch to that location, there is more of a chance they groundout into a double play. This is a very big part in the evolution of many pitchers, when they learn that they don't always need to get the strikeout.

Also try to think like a hitter when you're pitching. What pitches seem similar when they are coming at you in the game? This is often like in real life. I try to "setup hitters" a lot which can tend to lead to more walks thrown by my pitchers as well. For instance if you have a 12-6 curveball guy, and you are pitching low in the zone on him. If you want a strikeout throw him a high fastball. They have to make that split decision whether its going to be a curveball in the zone or a fastball (out of the zone or high) or vice versa. Roy Oswalt gives me fits in this game for that reason alone. Pitching is all about messing up peoples timing, and changing "the batter's eye". I love this game because it actually works as well as it can in a video game. The guys that made this game know baseball well or had great input.

This year, if you throw too many "cookies" over the plate, you will get scorched for hits. I have found my approach really keeps the CPU scores down and really avoids those huge bursts of offensive output. You would think with me walking guys they would have bigger innings, but its counterbalanced by pitching to the corners and pitching on the black and less hard hit balls.

Ok, I somehow missed this post but saw people making reference to it and decided to dig back and find it. I must say there is a lot of good information but I have one question, although Im fairly sure I know the answer to it, but do you use the API feature? Im talking about the feature where the catcher calls the game for you in terms of pitch and location. I use this and maybe thats why I was getting lit up previously because they tend to throw fastball a lot and they will call for you to challenge the hitter quite frequently.

Same question for you pbz06, do you use the API or do you call your own game? Im sure I could call a better game then the CPU anyways but at the same time I keep wanting to believe that having your catcher call your game for you is more realistic, which there have been a ton of times where Im shaking my head at the pitches my catcher wants me to call.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Im thinking that if calling my own game will result in better stats then maybe I dont need to dumb down the CPU's offense to get a better flow. What sliders are you using DrUrsus? Im especially interested in any changes youve made to the CPU's hitting sliders.

[DrUrsus]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Ok, I somehow missed this post but saw people making reference to it and decided to dig back and find it. I must say there is a lot of good information but I have one question, although Im fairly sure I know the answer to it, but do you use the API feature? Im talking about the feature where the catcher calls the game for you in terms of pitch and location. I use this and maybe thats why I was getting lit up previously because they tend to throw fastball a lot and they will call for you to challenge the hitter quite frequently.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Im thinking that if calling my own game will result in better stats then maybe I dont need to dumb down the CPU's offense to get a better flow. What sliders are you using DrUrsus? Im especially interested in any changes youve made to the CPU's hitting sliders.

Hey Chef,

No, I have never used the API feature. I have it on and look at their suggestions sometimes, but that's it.

Like I may have mentioned before I pitched in college (long time ago, lol, I'm 38 now soon to be 39), so I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do with batters (some of it described in my post). I like to get ahead with borderline stuff and then set up guys basically. I also watched Steve Stone pretty much my whole life, and he is one of the greatest pitching analysts that has ever lived (he pitched and won a few Cy Young awards as well). I wish he was back with the Cubs broadcasting team (he's with the White Sox now). Thanks Dusty Baker (Dusty had a little hand in getting him "fired" because Dusty and some of the players thought he was too critical of them). Anyway, I digress...

The problem with API in my opinion, is that it will often ask you to make pitches that may be destined for a higher "failure" rate due to their low margin for error (not always, but a lot of the time). Like hanging one, or it getting hit hard because it breaks back over the plate for instance.

Here's an example. In one of my games recently it asked me to pitch a 2-seamer Up and In to a L handed batter from my R handed pitcher. So if I miss my spot (accuracy), the 2-seamer essentially hangs back over the plate high, and usually gets hit hard or hit for a HR. That is just a ridiculous pitch call from my experience because your margin of error is so low.
It would be more understandable if they asked for a 2-seamer low and in to a L handed batter, but even that I don't personally like unless I set them up earlier with a low and in 4 seamer (that way the CPU "thinks" it is an inside and low straight 4 seamer, but it curves back in for a strike). This is classic mid to late era Greg Maddux pitching (he threw harder when he was young (yeah I know not that hard)). But, even that is more risky unless you set them up and catch them off guard.

Here's how I like to pitch in this example instead of what was called by the API: I like to throw a 2-seamer to a L handed batter from my R handed pitcher low and away, so that if I miss my location it will be off the plate, and not going to get teed off on. This also increases my walk totals as a repercussion if I don't hit my spots.

One thing I really notice about this game as opposed to many many many baseball games I have played (and I have played almost all of them), is that real life strategy works quite a bit in this game.

I was using Default All-Star, but now I have incorporated PBZ's pitch sliders, relief pitcher 0 stamina, pickoffs at 3, Fielder reaction, arm strength, and speed. I think everything else is default right now including the CPU's hitting. The CPU doesn't score a ton on me unless I miss my spots (I use meter pitching). I don't score alot myself, that's my problem, lol.

Now hitting on the other hand, and taking walks, that is what I am working on now. I may raise my user hitting a little. Maybe I should lower the pitch speed to see better.

Chef, I would definitely try pitching without always using API. Think where would this pitch end up if I miss my spot. Will it end up hanging? Will it end up going back over the plate? Also, sometimes you are better off walking guys instead of grooving one if it comes down to it. You don't want big innings, but you don't want to give in to them either especially if you have 2 outs.

Oh, almost forgot. Think about double plays when they are there. Pitch low and away from batters. If you get ahead and want to strike them out (but you are still in a double play situation), try pitching in out of the zone or up and in, then pitch low and away outside of the strike zone. They will either swing and miss, or hit a dribbler for a double play a lot. It's a win-win situation if you execute.
Don't fall in love with only pitching outside (Tom Glavine comes to mind) or inside. You have to mix it up. If you do like to pitch outside a lot, make sure you bust a few in on them sometimes to "keep them honest". And vice versa. It never hurts to go up and in when you want to set up the low and away out or strikeout.
Lastly, make sure you don't fall into any patterns (like always throwing a fastball for the first pitch or strike). That can happen when you just start "mindlessly" playing. I do this sometimes.

Hope this is helpful, and not confusing.

[The Chef]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Thanks for the feedback, I will give it a try in my next game but Im unsure about putting the CPU's hitting back at default or not so I will probably see how this works with what Ive been using and if it becomes obvious that its working and is in turn making the CPU's offense completely inept then I will put it back on default and go from there. Thanks again for the feedback though.

[DrUrsus]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Thanks for the feedback, I will give it a try in my next game but Im unsure about putting the CPU's hitting back at default or not so I will probably see how this works with what Ive been using and if it becomes obvious that its working and is in turn making the CPU's offense completely inept then I will put it back on default and go from there. Thanks again for the feedback though.

I think you will like calling your own pitches. The strategic part of doing that is a blast. I LOVE pitching in this game. I know what you mean about realism with the catcher calling the game, but in real life you and your catcher are more on the same page if you know what I mean. They get to know what you're good at doing, and what you like to call in certain situations (a good game calling catcher that is).

Honestly, I don't think the CPU offense would become inept. You could always up the CPU sliders for hitting if they did. I still don't execute my pitches sometimes (meter pitching), and then they still score, which is as it should be. At least I know it was my lack of execution that caused the offensive outburst. That is why I never bought into the CPU comeback talk (at the All Star level, I never play HOF or Legend this year since hitting is harder).

I should try another team sometime that has bad pitching and see what happens. I use only the Cubs and the Red Sox (my 2 favorite teams).

[The Chef]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

I think you will like calling your own pitches. The strategic part of doing that is a blast. I LOVE pitching in this game. I know what you mean about realism with the catcher calling the game, but in real life you and your catcher are more on the same page if you know what I mean. They get to know what you're good at doing, and what you like to call in certain situations (a good game calling catcher that is).

Honestly, I don't think the CPU offense would become inept. You could always up the CPU sliders for hitting if they did. I still don't execute my pitches sometimes (meter pitching), and then they still score, which is as it should be. At least I know it was my lack of execution that caused the offensive outburst. That is why I never bought into the CPU comeback talk (at the All Star level, I never play HOF or Legend this year since hitting is harder).

I should try another team sometime that has bad pitching and see what happens. I use only the Cubs and the Red Sox (my 2 favorite teams).

Well I have lowered their hitting sliders already so thats what I was refering to. I have their contact at 3, Power at 6, Timing at 4, Fouls at 7 and Solid Hits at 4 so if I start calling my own game and their offense starts to reflect my lowering of the sliders and they suddenly struggle to hit then I will raise these back to default then. I hope that made more sense in case there was any confusion as to what I meant.

So you have API on but only to see what they suggest but generally dont use it anyways? I was going to turn it off completely so I dont become tempted to use it but you made it sound as if you have it on but just dont follow it so I wanted a little clarification.

[pbz06]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Time for me to take a break, lol. I've hit the worst rut ever in a baseball video game. I am now 0-8 in my Season (Cardinals) and just can't hit anymore. I'm at .186 as a team (lol) and almost everybody but Ludwick is in the Mendoza range. Even Pujols is having trouble getting anything more than a grounder. Ludwick has 4 homers and 8 RBI and that's basically all my offense. I scored 1 run in each of the last 4 games.

It's almost as if my sliders were overwritten somehow. The CPU just barely throws balls anymore, it's strike strike strike. Carlos Silva threw a complete game gem with 10 k's and 88% strike ratio. I was helpless. I even had a couple 3-0 counts but then it's take for 3-1, take for 3-2, and then either ground out or take strike 3.

I then played an exhibition game against the Mariners again, me being Texas (to see if a good offensive team would help me). Same thing....Silva was just throwing darts like he was Pedro in his prime. Every time I took a pitch, it was a strike...and every time I swung it was either a miss or a ground out.

I haven't drawn a single walk (ZERO!!!) over the last 4 games, and I also have only 1 double during that span.

I don't know what's going on Maybe I'm pressing now or something.....

[pbz06]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Well I have lowered their hitting sliders already so thats what I was refering to. I have their contact at 3, Power at 6, Timing at 4, Fouls at 7 and Solid Hits at 4 so if I start calling my own game and their offense starts to reflect my lowering of the sliders and they suddenly struggle to hit then I will raise these back to default then. I hope that made more sense in case there was any confusion as to what I meant.

So you have API on but only to see what they suggest but generally dont use it anyways? I was going to turn it off completely so I dont become tempted to use it but you made it sound as if you have it on but just dont follow it so I wanted a little clarification.

I don't use API and never have. I'm using those same CPU sliders you just listed and I've been getting roughed up a bit lately (as you can tell by my frustration posts, hahaha)

My pitching has been able to hold it's own over my 0-8 rut. I had one 12-3 drubbing, but other than that it's been my offense killing me. My ERA is alright, but I give up A LOT of base hits. I'm averaging about 12-14 base hits to the CPU right now.....argh

[The Chef]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

I don't use API and never have. I'm using those same CPU sliders you just listed and I've been getting roughed up a bit lately (as you can tell by my frustration posts, hahaha)

Alright, sounds good, we will see how good I am at calling my own game now and hopefully it doesnt hurt my strikeout totals in the end. I guess I just have to jump in and give it a shot and see what happens. In my last game I got roughed up and lost 7-2 to SF and they hit something like 0.318 for the game so they did pretty well against me and that was following the API 99% of the time.

[DrUrsus]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Well I have lowered their hitting sliders already so thats what I was refering to. I have their contact at 3, Power at 6, Timing at 4, Fouls at 7 and Solid Hits at 4 so if I start calling my own game and their offense starts to reflect my lowering of the sliders and they suddenly struggle to hit then I will raise these back to default then. I hope that made more sense in case there was any confusion as to what I meant.

So you have API on but only to see what they suggest but generally dont use it anyways? I was going to turn it off completely so I dont become tempted to use it but you made it sound as if you have it on but just dont follow it so I wanted a little clarification.

I hardly ever look, but sometimes I get curious. I just never bothered turning it off.

I also have guess pitch on, but with no feedback, but hardly ever use that either unless I am sitting dead red on a fastball in a fastball count. I just don't want to be penalized if I guess wrong (since I don't use feedback I have to judge the pitch too). I mostly leave guess pitch on just so I can get some info on my swing by pressing the L stick down to see where it was in the zone and in relation to the pci.
I am sure I would hit better with guess pitch fully on (with feedback), but I just don't want to play that way (never have).

[DrUrsus]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Alright, sounds good, we will see how good I am at calling my own game now and hopefully it doesnt hurt my strikeout totals in the end. I guess I just have to jump in and give it a shot and see what happens. In my last game I got roughed up and lost 7-2 to SF and they hit something like 0.318 for the game so they did pretty well against me and that was following the API 99% of the time.

I'm really interested to see how this goes. I think you will love the strategy involved and the execution of it. Adds a lot more dimension to the game for me. It makes pitching fun (instead of not fun like playing defense in Madden or something in my opinion).

[The Chef]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

Ok, so I played 2 games and while I am enjoying the aspect of calling the game from the pitchers stand point there is one thing thats starting to piss me off to no end, lack of power for me team. In my last game Orlando Hudson hit a ball up the middle but hit it so weakly that the 2b who was cheating in the hole actually outran the ball and fielded it right in the middle of the diamond and still threw out Hudson at first. Now this problem only seems to effect slap hitters, ie. weaker hitters like Figgins, Furcal and Hudson, but since I have all 3 of those guys in my lineup it takes a damn near perfectly placed ball just to actually get a hit. For the record, Figgins is hitting .248, Furcal is hitting .219 and Hudson is hitting .258 and Im about as selective a hitter as there can be and still these three guys barely ever even get the ball out of the in field, no joke. I used to write off the guys who had increased the humans power slider to 6 as the ramblings of mad men but after playing 34 games and only hitting 25 homeruns total (25th) and 40 Doubles (30th) coupled with the problem I mentioned above, I can clearly see why people are raising this slider up as its driving me nuts at this point. Now on to the stats for these last 2 games...

Game 1 (Lost 6-5 in 13 innings to Philly)
I struck them out 11 times and walked them 4 times, they struck me out 8 times and walked me 7 times. I actually hit 2 homeruns this game with Loney and Martin which was a shocker for the reasons mentioned above. This was the first time I ever felt like the CPU was going to win no matter what I did as every time I got a lead they would score right away. I led by 2 heading into the 8th, then led by 1 heading into the 9th, took the lead in the top of the 12th only to lose it and eventually lose the game in the 13th.

Game 2 (Lost 4-1 to Philly)
I struck them out 6 times and walked them 3 times. They struck me out 3 times and walked me 3 times. This was easily the most frustrating game Ive ever played on The Show. I hit ball after ball as hard as I could, stung the **** out of them, and yet everything was either to the biggest part of the park or right at someone. Dont get me started that Adam Eaton pitched 2 innings the game before in relief and somehow had enough gas to last 8 innings the very next day as the starter, ****ing unbelievable. Watched Figgins, Furcal and Hudson hit weak grounder after weak grounder and when Furcal finally got a fastball middle in he banged it off the right field wall finally, that was about all that happened this game.

Now dont get me wrong, I dont want to hit the ball all over the field and just destroy teams but the utter lack of power on my hits is starting to kill it for me. I dont mind having these speed guys, thats why I traded for Figgins, but if they cant get the damn ball out of the in field then how the hell are they ever going to get on base exactly? DrUrsus, what do you have your power slider at for user? pbz06, your at 6 for that slider arent you? I know Psycho and blzer both have theirs at 6 as well and I really think Im going to need to follow suit.

Thanks again for the tip though DrUrsus as it was fun throwing my own game, they scored a total of 10 runs in 22 innings for an ERA of 4.09 so thats reasonable for sure. They went 21/77 hitting wise for an average of 0.273, they walked 7 times and struck out 17 times for a WHIP of 1.27 and a K/9 of 6.96 so Im very happy with those stats considering I was playing at Philly for both games.

[fistofrage]

Re: Breaking this Game Down on AllStar ,group effort

I just picked this game up and have been playing on All-Star.......

On default All-Star settings, the AI doesn't seem to have much pop in its bat. I played with the Tigers and played at Boston and at Texas. In two games I gave up no Homeruns and lost 2-1 at Fenway and 1-0 @ Texas in 11 Innings. Both losses were due to the fact that I haven't gotten the hitting down or baserunning down yet. Started another game game @ Boston and it was scoreless through 6, so I scrapped it and went into the sliders.

So I upped the power and solid hit slider for the AI and lowered the Control and Consistancy for the Human and played at Texas and @ CWS and gave up a Home Run in each game as well as a few doubles. May have to lower the solid hit because they were raking some balls, but I believe power for the AI has to be at minimum 6 and possibly even 7. I'll test more tonight.