Fielding Sliders

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Great thread. I enjoy reading everyone’s thoughts.

What do you guys think about Fielder Arm Strength Outfield? I feel like I might need to increase it a notch to compensate for the slower move speed, but not 100% sure. Sometimes it seems like I should have a play at the plate, but I’m not as close as I should be.

I personally have my Outfield Arm Strength at 4, with baserunner speed at 4 and i get a realistic variety of outs and close plays at the plate. At 5 it was a little too strong. I tried it at 3 also, and too many singles were able to stretch into doubles.

Howeever, in addition to baserunner speed, this could also be affected by hitting sliders to a degree. Because when more balls get to the outfield faster on base hits, it will be easier to cut people down at the plate. Of course that will make no difference on sac flies, unless it pushes the average fly ball deeper into the outfield also.

Keep in mind i am at 2 Fielder Speed, so its possible you would need to increase it more if you are going with 0 Speed.

[KBLover]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Great thread. I enjoy reading everyone’s thoughts.

What do you guys think about Fielder Arm Strength Outfield? I feel like I might need to increase it a notch to compensate for the slower move speed, but not 100% sure. Sometimes it seems like I should have a play at the plate, but I’m not as close as I should be.

I use a very high base runner speed compared to most (I'm on 8), so I increased OF arms to 6. Along with a Fielder Speed of 0.

I don't think about OF arms in relation to their speed but it works more with/against baserunner speed.

OF Arms is the "scare" slider for runners. It vs Baserunner speed vs their own speed rating vs where the ball is helps determine their decision to try to advance or not.

All things being equal, higher outfield arms (and lower baserunner speed) will "scare" runners more. They will be more hesitant to take another base, sometimes even when they could (or should, realistically) be able to take it.

Raising OF arms might give you that play at the plate...or it might prevent it from happening at all because the runner thinks he might be out, so he won't even try to score. This is actually realistic. One reason cannon OF arms don't often have a ton of assists is runners/3rd base coaches are like "I ain't running on him". You can't get an out if a guy won't test your arm or you get the ball in so fast they have to hold instead of send.

Basically, raise OF arms as high as possible without scaring runners from trying to take too many extra bases. That's where you might have a chance to cut them down because they are still taking risks and some of those risks might cost them if your defense executes.

There's no way to know except to try it and observe the behavior you get.

[mkharsh33]

Re: Fielding Sliders

I started a Franchise the other night. Did the fantasy draft. Creating a whole new MLB where each League will use the DH and all teams start fresh. Trades turned up all the way - so I want this New MLB to be active and constantly changing. I drafted a bunch of young guys with upside and have made some trades. My pitching staff is young, and in the Spring Training games I'm 0-3. But I'm having fun.

I'm using the Spring Training games as test runs on slider stuff. With the other combination of pitch speed / contact / power - I've settled on this setup (again, going against the grain of my previous thoughts):

- fielder speed - 2
- fielder reaction - 4

And I had to lower some of my higher error numbers because I was seeing a LOT of stupid stuff in the field. The ratings will still shine through, but those "I want to throw my controller through my TV" moments should lower.

I have base running speed at 4 - so I think this is the combination I'm going to run with having tested numerous options. Again, I appreciate the discussion here as I can see the thinking we're taking into our combinations.

[Cycloniac]

Re: Fielding Sliders

I use a very high base runner speed compared to most (I'm on 8), so I increased OF arms to 6. Along with a Fielder Speed of 0.

I don't think about OF arms in relation to their speed but it works more with/against baserunner speed.

OF Arms is the "scare" slider for runners. It vs Baserunner speed vs their own speed rating vs where the ball is helps determine their decision to try to advance or not.

All things being equal, higher outfield arms (and lower baserunner speed) will "scare" runners more. They will be more hesitant to take another base, sometimes even when they could (or should, realistically) be able to take it.

Raising OF arms might give you that play at the plate...or it might prevent it from happening at all because the runner thinks he might be out, so he won't even try to score. This is actually realistic. One reason cannon OF arms don't often have a ton of assists is runners/3rd base coaches are like "I ain't running on him". You can't get an out if a guy won't test your arm or you get the ball in so fast they have to hold instead of send.

Basically, raise OF arms as high as possible without scaring runners from trying to take too many extra bases. That's where you might have a chance to cut them down because they are still taking risks and some of those risks might cost them if your defense executes.

There's no way to know except to try it and observe the behavior you get.

Why did you raise baserunner speed to 8?

[Cycloniac]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Thought I would share my full fielding setup, for the sake of further discussion:

Fielding Errors Infield: 8
Fielding Errors Outfield: 7
Throwing Errors Infield: 7
Throwing Errors Outfield: 5
Fielder Run Speed: 4
Fielder Reaction: 1
Fielder Arm Strength Infield: 1
Fielder Arm Strength Outfield: 5
Baserunner Speed: 5

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Good idea. Here is mine.

Fielding Errors Infield: 9
Fielding Errors Outfield: 7
Throwing Errors Infield: 7
Throwing Errors Outfield: 7
Fielder Run Speed: 2
Fielder Reaction: 2
Fielder Arm Strength Infield: 5
Fielder Arm Strength Outfield: 4
Baserunner Speed: 4

[KBLover]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Why did you raise baserunner speed to 8?

More realistic to me compared to the speed of IRL runners based on what I can find and hand timing

[KBLover]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Fielding Errors Infield: 7
Fielding Errors Outfield: 7
Throwing Errors Infield: 7
Throwing Errors Outfield: 6
Fielder Run Speed: 0
Fielder Reaction: 5
Fielder Arm Strength Infield: 10
Fielder Arm Strength Outfield: 6
Baserunner Speed: 8

[sublime55]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Fielding Errors Infield: 7
Fielding Errors Outfield: 7
Throwing Errors Infield: 7
Throwing Errors Outfield: 6
Fielder Run Speed: 0
Fielder Reaction: 5
Fielder Arm Strength Infield: 10
Fielder Arm Strength Outfield: 6
Baserunner Speed: 8

What do you have for baserunner steal ability with that?

[KBLover]

Re: Fielding Sliders

What do you have for baserunner steal ability with that?

Steal Ability 5
Steal Freq 7

[mkharsh33]

Re: Fielding Sliders

I've done a LOT of testing with this - and I've come back to fielding speed at 4 / reaction at 1.

The outfielders just make a LOT of dumb plays, which leads to many triples and inside-the-park HR's if the combination is anything less. They just take really bad angles, and then dive for balls they have no chance at. They really need to add a separate user VS. cpu option for this. We all have our preference, but after trying a bunch of other combinations - I settled in on the 4 speed / 1 reaction - and I think I'll just stay with this. Great input here! Very much appreciated!

[Cycloniac]

Re: Fielding Sliders

I've done a LOT of testing with this - and I've come back to fielding speed at 4 / reaction at 1.

The outfielders just make a LOT of dumb plays, which leads to many triples and inside-the-park HR's if the combination is anything less. They just take really bad angles, and then dive for balls they have no chance at. They really need to add a separate user VS. cpu option for this. We all have our preference, but after trying a bunch of other combinations - I settled in on the 4 speed / 1 reaction - and I think I'll just stay with this. Great input here! Very much appreciated!

There ya go!

[KBLover]

Re: Fielding Sliders

I've done a LOT of testing with this - and I've come back to fielding speed at 4 / reaction at 1.

The outfielders just make a LOT of dumb plays, which leads to many triples and inside-the-park HR's if the combination is anything less. They just take really bad angles, and then dive for balls they have no chance at. They really need to add a separate user VS. cpu option for this. We all have our preference, but after trying a bunch of other combinations - I settled in on the 4 speed / 1 reaction - and I think I'll just stay with this. Great input here! Very much appreciated!

Interesting. Do the outfielders defend the difficult zones easily? That was always my issue with higher speed - high difficulty plays became too easy.

I can't go 1 reaction. Infielders would get destroyed for me. I was down there but then I realized the velocity on grounders was eating them alive, leading to too much of that "aw crap I couldn't react to it" animation on balls hit right to them, literally. Do you see that much?

What they really need is separate sliders for Fielder Reaction and Speed by IF and OF. OF reaction might be fine on 1 but IF reaction suffers.

That's interesting you mention the dives. I saw two terrible dives by the CPU last time I played, but those were the first two I've seen this week (probably about 7-8 games played). One of my OF did a nice sliding basket catch.

I wonder what the trigger really is.

[Cycloniac]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Interesting. Do the outfielders defend the difficult zones easily? That was always my issue with higher speed - high difficulty plays became too easy.

I can't go 1 reaction. Infielders would get destroyed for me. I was down there but then I realized the velocity on grounders was eating them alive, leading to too much of that "aw crap I couldn't react to it" animation on balls hit right to them, literally. Do you see that much?

What they really need is separate sliders for Fielder Reaction and Speed by IF and OF. OF reaction might be fine on 1 but IF reaction suffers.

That's interesting you mention the dives. I saw two terrible dives by the CPU last time I played, but those were the first two I've seen this week (probably about 7-8 games played). One of my OF did a nice sliding basket catch.

I wonder what the trigger really is.

Usually, since speed is higher, I've seen infielders in better positions to react and don't see a lot of that annimation. If it's hit right to someone, I've seen the play made the majority of the time.

[KBLover]

Re: Fielding Sliders

Usually, since speed is higher, I've seen infielders in better positions to react and don't see a lot of that annimation. If it's hit right to someone, I've seen the play made the majority of the time.

Yeah it's mostly the balls at 90-100 MPH at them they didn't have the time to even try to react to.

On 5, they'll at least attempt to react, not just stand there frozen until they play that silly animation.

Interesting you don't see it at 1. I wouldn't think speed would matter on a ball hit right to them.