Help with Practice in Season Mode

[rassledoya]

I am trying to get my players to improve on things like batting practice (power), etc, but I cannot figure out how to do this because the menus are a tad confusing and I may be a bit stupid as well. When I select batting practice, a weird 16 box shows up in the lower left corner of the screen and then it seems like I cannot click on anything.

Could someone please explain to me in a step by step process, how I train my players in practice?

Thanks a bunch!

[ComfortablyLomb]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

I am trying to get my players to improve on things like batting practice (power), etc, but I cannot figure out how to do this because the menus are a tad confusing and I may be a bit stupid as well. When I select batting practice, a weird 16 box shows up in the lower left corner of the screen and then it seems like I cannot click on anything.

Could someone please explain to me in a step by step process, how I train my players in practice?

Thanks a bunch!

I'd like to know what to do here as well. It's not too easy to figure out...

[wangjaz]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

when u first start season, everyone's on automatic.

go there first, pick a player than move him to pitching, batting, D etc, where u wanna put em at.
make em practive, power, control, runing, whatever u want.
then when ever u goto batting, pitching etc, in the practice screen, u can see the list of players u put in there.
if ur're still confused moved only a fwe guys, just click OK to exit, then come back. u'll see ur guys r not in "automatic" no more
u can see them slowly improve.
I think it takes about a 1 month or so, depending on the player, for them to gain a point.
buying the items in the shop help too, though they're crazy expensive.
u get better items later on.

i'm still not sure about the grouping teammates thing.

[wangjaz]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

anyone figure out what "REST-Fitness or Rehab" is in practice?

i'm guess rehab is if any of ur players r injured.. don't have anyone injured yet, so i can't be sure.
But what about Fitness?
i've been using that + sitting guys out a day or two, for guys who's fatigue has gone up pretty high.

anyone know a definate cure for fatigue in season?

[TrueKingPK]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

i'm still not sure about the grouping teammates thing.

Actually the grouping thing is nice. It allows one player while training with that player to learn the other player's skills. For instance if you have two pitchers and one has no curve ball. After they spend a certain amount of time together the player with less experience will learn a new pitch from the player with more experience.

[blackpuppy]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

Actually the grouping thing is nice. It allows one player while training with that player to learn the other player's skills. For instance if you have two pitchers and one has no curve ball. After they spend a certain amount of time together the player with less experience will learn a new pitch from the player with more experience.

Adds benefits to having the veteran player on your squad. I'm using a veteran player I picked up by grouping him with my younger players in hopes that something rubs off.

[TrueKingPK]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

Adds benefits to having the veteran player on your squad. I'm using a veteran player I picked up by grouping him with my younger players in hopes that something rubs off.

How many were you able to group because I could only group one other person to a player.

[nemesis04]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

How many were you able to group because I could only group one other person to a player.

The total is five at any one point.

[XiaNaphryz]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

The total is five at any one point.

You can increase that number by purchasing more slots in the shop.

Can't remember if the most you can have in 1 group is 3 or 4 players.

Also, as a reminder when initially creating your group, the SECOND person chosen will become the "veteran leader."

[TrueKingPK]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

You can increase that number by purchasing more slots in the shop.

Can't remember if the most you can have in 1 group is 3 or 4 players.

Also, as a reminder when initially creating your group, the SECOND person chosen will become the "veteran leader."

What are the benefits of the veteran player. for example: If I have a young pitcher who only has a fastball and a change up. If I leave him paired up with a veteran who has a variety of pitches will the young pitcher develop one of his pitches?

[XiaNaphryz]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

What are the benefits of the veteran player. for example: If I have a young pitcher who only has a fastball and a change up. If I leave him paired up with a veteran who has a variety of pitches will the young pitcher develop one of his pitches?

Pretty much. I believe there's also a chance he'll transfer one of his other attributes (good low ball pitcher, etc). Same thing should apply with fielding/hitting/running/etc and their related attributes.

[TrueKingPK]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

Pretty much. I believe there's also a chance he'll transfer one of his other attributes (good low ball pitcher, etc). Same thing should apply with fielding/hitting/running/etc and their related attributes.

Thanks for the answer but what I want to know if teaming up with a veteran ball player will you rookie ball player develop one of their pictches. For example will a rookie with no curve develop a curve by building a relationship with a veteran that has a curve ball. Also is there a place where you change your player's position through training because the expansion team gave me 3 right fielders and two of them are really good. I would like to change one to a first base man as my first baseman isn't really good.

[XiaNaphryz]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

Found some info from my NeoGaf thread:

Having read about it and messed with it A LOT lately, these are some general things I've found out.

- The skills will develop very slowly, but you WILL notice a difference in their experience levels over time. Since I've been simming my seasons rather than directly playing the game, I can't vouch for how much small improvements would help a particular pitcher or hitter.

- After every game, simmed or not, you can check on every player's progress, by looking at which attributes have improved and deterioated. As I said, the day-by-day difference is usually pretty small (but not all the time; more on this in a bit), but you can see the level of improvement by looking for the yellow area of the experience bar. A player who has 'leveled up' will make a sound when you scroll to their name, along with the improved attribute flashing. Don't forget that players also change their attributes merely by playing in games, so don't be surprised to see multiple stats increase slightly for a lineup regular, or even decrease in a few areas when he has a bad day

- In addition, you can press a button combination (c+dpad up in wiimote/nunchuk style) to see a complete list of all improved players for that day. HOWEVER, players only appear on the list if they improve absolute stats (like trajectory, top speed, and the level of a breaking pitch), or improve the letter grade of one of their normal attributes (e.g. going from C to B power). If they simply improve the numerical rating of a graded stat without actually changing the grade, they won't appear on this list. Also note that simming multiple days via the schedule command will not let you directly see progress day-by-day, although assuming the option is enabled, it will tell you after each day whether a player has improved, although they never do specify which player. Fortunately, you can always check a player's overall experience by going to the player list->experience option in the main menu.

- From what I've noticed, you definitely want to focus on the contact attribute for your hitters, while focusing on either control or improving a specific breaking pitch for your pitchers. Don't neglect top speed either, especially for newly drafted players, as 85 mph fastballs likely won't cut it unless you have the control of Greg Maddux. Stamina shouldn't be a concern unless you're trying to groom a starter, and even then, it doesn't need to be extremely high if you have the control and stuff to make up for it. Also, this is easy to forget, but please try to improve defensive attributes if neccesary. They don't all need to be As or Bs obviously, but as you might have noticed in success mode, middle infielders with terrible arm strength won't turn double plays often, even on David Ortiz types, outfielders with terrible fielding and running speed won't be able to reach those bloop fly balls, and catchers with terrible arm strength are going to get eaten alive by the Reyes/Ichiro types. Don't forget this.

- Keep in mind the different scales for different attributes. Stats like contact and run speed go on a linear 0-15 scale, so it's faster to progress those. Power, control, and stamina need to reach into the mid-to-high 100s to be considered good, and progress much more slowly. Fortunately, there is a way to compensate for this...

- With your excess salary points, buy practice equipment from the shop. The low level items might not seem to make too much difference, but they do help. The high level items however are EXTREMELY effective, and well worth the 50000 points needed to buy them if you decide to focus on one area of training. Though the day-by-day improvement might not seem like much, it adds up significantly over the 7 months the season lasts (playoffs included). These items especially come in handy for the power, stamina, and control stats, since those improve very slowly. For everything else, the lower level items should suffice.

- One major caveat: These items aren't permanent. They eventually become unusable with repeated use, so expect to only gain its benefits for a season at most before having to rebuy it. Of course, as you might've gathered from what your secretary told you at the start of your season, there is one other major factor to consider...

- Friendship: You may notice that you have the chance to group multiple players together in a practice routine, with the ability to see how much the players like each other. It seems rather pointless at first, but rest assured: player friendship is one of, if not THE most important aspect of practice mode. Period. Why is this? Building your player ratings is important, but as you should know by now, the ratings do not completely define the player. A player's learned techniques combined with their ratings, however, does. That is the purpose of the 'Techniques' training section in the practice menu. In there, any player could learn how to become a power a hitter, a contact hitter, a tough out, an intimidator, a gold glover, along with a lot of other things... or so you would think. The fact of the matter is that if you try to put Jose Reyes in technique training on his own to learn how to be a power hitter, you're going to become frustrated as the experience bar continues to fill and reset itself while the 'improved players' dialog politely tells you each time that Reyes failed to become a power hitter. So what's the deal?

Reyes can't learn to become a power hitter on his own. He CAN, however, learn it from someone else... if they're willing to teach it to him. See where I'm going with this? By developing close friendships between players, they develop trust in each other, which in turn allows them to teach each other their most valuable skills. Want Reyes to be a power hitter? Have him practice in a group with Jason Giambi and become friends with him. Then group them together in technique training. Perhaps Giambi would be willing to tell him the secret to hitting all those home runs, while Reyes would tell him the secret to being an effective base stealer (yes, I know you're LOLing, this is just an example). As you might've guess, this also helps in normal practice too, as friends tend to work much more effectively together, especially when one is training a weakness that happens to be the other's strength. As you can see, developing friendships between players will help greatly. The only problem is that only a few players can be grouped together in this fashion at a time overall, so you have to choose wisely which players you want to become friends. There is one more thing friendship helps with, but I need to cover the last bastion of practice mode first...

- Spring Training: Your first season starts right away, but in each subsequent season you first go through a month and a half of spring training. During this period, the game let's you sim on a week-by-week basis for the express purpose of training your characters. The major difference though, is that the improvement in each practiced category is substantially increased over what would occur in the season. Compounded with friendship and practice items, you can expect to see some sharp improvement from certain players. However, this isn't just a period of extended practice. Remember those 4 blacked out options in the practice menu that you've been wondering how to 'unlock'? Well, that's what spring training is for. During this six week period is the ONLY time during the year where you can directly convert to a new position, learn a new stance or windup, or have a pitcher learn a new breaking ball. Yep, with spring training, you can teach Pedro Martinez how to throw a knuckleball!

...Ha ha, you didn't think it'd be that easy, did you? Attempting to teach a new pitch straight out will almost definitely result in failure and valuable wasted spring training. I mean, it's kind of hard for a pitcher to learn something that he had no real experience with on his own, right? Of course, if someone were to TEACH him the new pitch... this is where friendship becomes vital also. Have Pedro Martinez make friends with Tim Wakefield in the season, and during spring training I'm sure Tim would be glad to teach Pedro the old knuckler. Maybe in return Pedro can teach Tim his great circle change! (more LOLs from you I presume)

That's all I can think of for now, and I can't guarantee that this information is 100% accurate, as I'm still learning from experience. But this should be helpful in planning how to distribute your players in practice. It's actually a really deep gameplay element, and honestly destroys any other player development system I've seen attempted. Road to the Show seems pedestrian by comparison.

[Vast]

Re: Help with Practice in Season Mode

Found some info from my NeoGaf thread:

wOW DUDE. I must buy this game. And i HATE the Wii. and im not a huge baseball fan.