Drawing walks.. what does it take?

[Rdrunner]

I have all my slider settings as they are listed by mkharsh33. However, I experimented in a recent game by sitting and taking every pitch after 4 different batters got to a 3-0 count and only watched as 3 straight strikes were thrown (pitches that weren't even close to being out of the strike zone either). I did manage one walk but that's as good as I can usually do regardless of where the sliders are. Exactly what are people doing in order to draw walks?

[jeffy777]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

That's strange. A lot of it depends on who's pitching, but I usually can draw a few walks per game by just showing normal patience. I also use mkharsh33's sliders.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

2K baseball is the first game that helped a hacker like me get at least a decent amount of walks. I was stunned when I actually walked 7 times in one game! Of course my average is far lower but I think this is one area that's pretty good. With the pitch speed being slower, a variety of batting cameras, hitter's eye, strike zone tendency slider - I think they give us a lot of tools to earn walks against the cpu.

[peigone]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

I did manage one walk but that's as good as I can usually do regardless of where the sliders are. Exactly what are people doing in order to draw walks?

You can definitely set the sliders so that you end up drawing a handful of walks a game. So it's all about you, and you laying off the right pitches. Not much people can say past that.

I will add though that past iterations had more slider adjustments that allowed one to set things to the point where you could pretty much draw a walk every AB. But the devs in their wisdom removed those sliders along with a number of other sliders and features (like zone hitting). The game apparently was too customizable for them.

[seriousluboy83]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

I draw walks from a system i use...it's all based on patience...basically i'll take every pitch if i'm ahead in the count unless the entire strike zone lights up or if the pitcher battles back to become ahead in the count or it becomes a 3-2 count...just try to be as patient as possible

[jeffy777]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

You can definitely set the sliders so that you end up drawing a handful of walks a game. So it's all about you, and you laying off the right pitches. Not much people can say past that.

I will add though that past iterations had more slider adjustments that allowed one to set things to the point where you could pretty much draw a walk every AB. But the devs in their wisdom removed those sliders along with a number of other sliders and features (like zone hitting). The game apparently was too customizable for them.

Up until 2K10, the AI pitchers were very unrealistic in their pitch selection (in 2K7-2K8, they would NEVER throw you a ball if they were behind 3-0 in the count no matter what slider settings you used, and maybe you forgot about all those ridiculously high breaking balls?). So if they needed to remove some sliders to get things more realistic, then so be it. 2K11 has all the slider options needed to get the AI to pitch realistically, so I'll definitely take that over more slider options with weaker results.

[seriousluboy83]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

I draw walks from a system i use...it's all based on patience...basically i'll take every pitch if i'm ahead in the count unless the entire strike zone lights up or if the pitcher battles back to become ahead in the count or it becomes a 3-2 count...just try to be as patient as possible

Just a update on my method playing against the Indians with Carrasco on the mound just got him pulled by the cpu in the 5th with 92 pitches 4BB and 5Ks...he gave up 4 hits 2 ER(1R in the 1st/1R in the 5th) but he's been pulled b/c the run in the 5th was a Homer and then i hit a single up the middle after that with 2 outs

[seriousluboy83]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

Just a update on my method playing against the Indians with Carrasco on the mound just got him pulled by the cpu in the 5th with 92 pitches 4BB and 5Ks...he gave up 4 hits 2 ER(1R in the 1st/1R in the 5th) but he's been pulled b/c the run in the 5th was a Homer and then i hit a single up the middle after that with 2 outs

Another update against the Orioles with Arrieta on the mound pulled in the 5th once again he threw 92 pitches (OMG that's crazy) but he had 2BB and 10Ks...gave up 4 hits 3ER (1R in the 1st and 2R in the 5th)

[metal134]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

I was stunned when I actually walked 7 times in one game!

I walked 13 times once. Also gave up 12 in that same game. Granted it was a 15 inning game, but still.

[peigone]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

maybe you forgot about all those ridiculously high breaking balls?.

I'll definitely take that over more slider options with weaker results.

Good point about the high breaking balls. I don't see though why there needs to be a tradeoff, one for the other like that. The CPU shouldn't be programmed to throw high breaking balls, period. And there could still be a slider that allows us to adjust how far balls miss the strikezone, which then made it much easier to tell balls from strikes. Removing that slider, which was in the game for years, makes no sense and bears no relation to your observation regarding the pitching AI.

[bigfnjoe96]

Good point about the high breaking balls. I don't see though why there needs to be a tradeoff, one for the other like that. The CPU shouldn't be programmed to throw high breaking balls, period. And there could still be a slider that allows us to adjust how far balls miss the strikezone, which then made it much easier to tell balls from strikes. Removing that slider, which was in the game for years, makes no sense and bears no relation to your observation regarding the pitching AI.

The AI throw Strikes/Ball slider never took into account a pitcher's control rating.

When VC took over they wanted that rating to matter that's why they took it out & added the Pitch Control slider, which worked really well last year.

Hopefully they have kept this formula for 12

Sent from Awesome Phone

[jeffy777]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

Good point about the high breaking balls. I don't see though why there needs to be a tradeoff, one for the other like that. The CPU shouldn't be programmed to throw high breaking balls, period. And there could still be a slider that allows us to adjust how far balls miss the strikezone, which then made it much easier to tell balls from strikes. Removing that slider, which was in the game for years, makes no sense and bears no relation to your observation regarding the pitching AI.

My point is it's easy enough to draw walks and tell balls from strikes with the sliders that are available now, mainly because the AI pitches more intelligently. Thanks to VC's improvements over the past couple years, it's now very possible to obtain a realistic balls to strikes ratio from the AI, with pitches being thrown in realistic locations, which is what people want in a baseball game, so there's no need for more AI pitching sliders than we have now.

[Qbrick808]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

I just played one of the most bizarre games ever!

<O</OI was matched up against the Tigers in Game 3 of the ALDS using the game's Postseason Mode, and Detroit was starting RHP David Pauley. I immediately noticed that his Pitch Count Cap was listed as 58-70 pitches, so I figured he was a good quasi-starter to try out an approach of patience on and see how quickly I could get him out of the game.

<O</OBy the way, my sliders were not set to anything funny… I always play at Legend level these days.

<O</OSo in the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> inning I scored five runs and had Pauley’s pitch count over 50; I figured he might not even come out for the 3<SUP>rd</SUP> or would certainly be gone sometime in the 3<SUP>rd</SUP> inning.

I continued my patient approach, continued to run deep counts and draw walks, but Leyland stubbornly left Pauley in the game. It’s true that after the 5-0 lead I grabbed in the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> inning, I didn’t score again until the 7<SUP>th</SUP>, but Pauley was over the high side of his supposed pitch count cap in the 4<SUP>th</SUP> inning and yet he remained in the game.

<O</OWhen he stayed in after giving up two more runs in the 7<SUP>th</SUP>, I started thinking about Al Leiter and his 162-pitch game in 1989 which led to surgeries which cost him more than three full seasons. Even Steve Phillips and John Kruk were talking about how Jim Leyland seemed to be putting his pitcher in a dangerous and injury-threatening position by not going to his fully stocked bullpen.

<O</OWith over 150 pitches thrown and trailing 7-0, amazingly, David Pauley came out for the 9<SUP>th</SUP> inning and proceeded to throw wild and erratically. He hit a batter, allowed the bases to become loaded, and even walked in a run! I thought for sure he was coming out after a four-pitch walk gave me my eighth run of the game, but Leyland must have been intent on getting this guy a complete game.

Pauley finished up allowing only 7 hits over 9 innings, but he walked 12 plus hit a batter and gave up 8 runs (6 earned); he also struck out 12, but much of that came as a direct result of my increasingly patient approach as this whole thing unfolded.

HIS FINAL TALLY WAS 180 PITCHES (93 strikes & 87 balls)!!

<O</OI just don’t get it! I’ve played hundreds of MLB 2K11 games and I’ve never seen anything which even rivals a situation like this. The CPU is usually pretty much in sync with the pitch count limits displayed, and when a guy is allowed to go over by more than just a little, it’s generally because he has a shutout going (or something GOOD like that… not BAD).

<O</OI’m including some screenshots below of this most unusual contest.
<O</O

[stcardinal]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

I can usually walk 2-3 times a game if I really tried. You're right, there are times when you're 0-3 only to strike out. That has happened to me a couple of times as well.

[pistolpete]

Re: Drawing walks.. what does it take?

Lower the pitch speed if you have problems drawing walks. You'll be able to read pitches better.

Also, sometimes the computer will not pitch to a godly hitter, like they sometimes won't pitch to Bautista for me.