We manage only fans get the short end of the stick. We are a dying breed. We have to resort to playing games that are years old because of very few newer options. In my case, I have always played La Russa baseball for Sega Genesis. I have probably completed 5 whole seasons on it and parts of many others. Well like many others I was always hoping for a new console game that had an in game manage only mode worth playing. After being disappointed again this year (I do not have a PS2 - so couldn't try The Show) I started to search forums looking for anything. I found ASB 2005 and bought a copy (xbox). I have read about every topic on this forum regarding ASB MO mode. I am making this thread as a resource for future manage only players to save time and not give up on this game after a short trial - because it is a pretty good MO game after a few tweaks are made. I will start by listing some results from my first season. I played this as an expansion franchise playing in the stadium "The Mac":
I played about 70 games and was about 5-10 games under .500 in the NL Central. Here is what I learned:
There are bugs - many of which have been detailed on this forum many times over.
OF arms are too strong resulting in singles off the wall, baserunners not advancing when they should on base hits and sac flies.
There are very few walks. VERY few.
There are way too many K's, not enough runs, not nearly enough home runs. I was leading the league in ERA and was dead last by a wide margin in both runs scored and home runs allowed. I was deep enough into the season to know it was not a short term streak. I was tempted to give up on the game until one day I decided to mess with the settings. To my amazement, the settings for pitch speed and swing type both had a huge impact on the game for both teams. I had played so far using the default settings of sim (fastest) pitch and Timing batting. I played a few weeks using slow pitching and I was seeing a big jump in the number of runs scored per game so I decided to sim the rest of the season and start fresh.
I decided that I would play in the Acclaim Sports Park as it's bio said it was prone to high scoring games. I played on the following settings:
Pitch type: Rookie (Slow)
Swing Type: Zone
I also turned the batter aid on and the pitching aid off though I am not sure at all if they have any impact. After 35 games here were my results:
My hitting stats: Avg: .283 Runs: 117 HR: 13 Slg: .422 OBP: .289 BB: 7 (not counting intentional walks) SO: 185
My Pitching stats: ERA: 3.67 Runs: 128 HR: 12 BB: 31 (does inclduide IBB) SO: 106 WHIP: 1.40
I was getting better results but it still wasn't good enough. Still not nearly enough HR's and way too many doubles and triples in my home ball park which has a very deep CF wall. I realized that I needed a stadium with shorter walls to up the homers and reduce the extra base hits. So I started messing around with the settings again and tried the 3D Cursor swing type rather than Zone and immediately I noticed more home runs being hit. I continually tweaked the settings and came to the conclusion that Slow Pitch and 3D along with a smaller ball park would be my best bet. The following post contains my results with these settings:
I played about 70 games and was about 5-10 games under .500 in the NL Central. Here is what I learned:
There are bugs - many of which have been detailed on this forum many times over.
OF arms are too strong resulting in singles off the wall, baserunners not advancing when they should on base hits and sac flies.
There are very few walks. VERY few.
There are way too many K's, not enough runs, not nearly enough home runs. I was leading the league in ERA and was dead last by a wide margin in both runs scored and home runs allowed. I was deep enough into the season to know it was not a short term streak. I was tempted to give up on the game until one day I decided to mess with the settings. To my amazement, the settings for pitch speed and swing type both had a huge impact on the game for both teams. I had played so far using the default settings of sim (fastest) pitch and Timing batting. I played a few weeks using slow pitching and I was seeing a big jump in the number of runs scored per game so I decided to sim the rest of the season and start fresh.
I decided that I would play in the Acclaim Sports Park as it's bio said it was prone to high scoring games. I played on the following settings:
Pitch type: Rookie (Slow)
Swing Type: Zone
I also turned the batter aid on and the pitching aid off though I am not sure at all if they have any impact. After 35 games here were my results:
My hitting stats: Avg: .283 Runs: 117 HR: 13 Slg: .422 OBP: .289 BB: 7 (not counting intentional walks) SO: 185
My Pitching stats: ERA: 3.67 Runs: 128 HR: 12 BB: 31 (does inclduide IBB) SO: 106 WHIP: 1.40
I was getting better results but it still wasn't good enough. Still not nearly enough HR's and way too many doubles and triples in my home ball park which has a very deep CF wall. I realized that I needed a stadium with shorter walls to up the homers and reduce the extra base hits. So I started messing around with the settings again and tried the 3D Cursor swing type rather than Zone and immediately I noticed more home runs being hit. I continually tweaked the settings and came to the conclusion that Slow Pitch and 3D along with a smaller ball park would be my best bet. The following post contains my results with these settings:
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