A pitching question

[BrianU]

Do you guys ALWAYS try to fill the circle as much as possible for a max pitch every throw, or do you ever fill in partially to save your pitchers arm/throw slower? Which situations? Do you even try to your best stuff against pitchers and such? I like how they added the factor of mixing pitches up based on percentages, so its good to save your strikeout pitches to use against good hitters, but in terms of filling the circle what approach do you take? Does it make a difference

Does not maxing it everytime benefit your pitcher at all or does throwing a less effective pitch just give the batter a better hit i guess is what i am asking

[m1ke_nyc]

Re: A pitching question

I dont always max out, I try to mix up speeds with my pitches. Lets say I fill my fastball up half way and I throw it 3 times in a at bat. Later on in the at bat I got 2 strikes I decide to fill it up hoping to catch the batter swinging late because hes only seen my fastball at a slower speed. I do this for all pitches.

[BrianU]

Re: A pitching question

I dont always max out, I try to mix up speeds with my pitches. Lets say I fill my fastball up half way and I throw it 3 times in a at bat. Later on in the at bat I got 2 strikes I decide to fill it up hoping to catch the batter swinging late because hes only seen my fastball at a slower speed. I do this for all pitches.

Thats how id like to pitch, but is the game programmed to have that actually happen? Sports games are all based on ratings almost too much, can you trick the CPU by changing speeds on the same pitch FB @ 85 MPH vs FB @ 90 MPH?

[tvman]

Re: A pitching question

I always thought MAX was the best you could get. Your pitcher doesn't tire quicker by Maxing because it is based on pitch count, also breaking balls don't break as much when you don't hit MAX. But what do i know, lol.

[m1ke_nyc]

Re: A pitching question

I always thought MAX was the best you could get. Your pitcher doesn't tire quicker by Maxing because it is based on pitch count, also breaking balls don't break as much when you don't hit MAX. But what do i know, lol.

Interesting, I honestly dont know either way so I dont wanna pretend to have the answers. But I do tend to not throw breaking pitches weak as they seem to just hang and get smoked so you may be on to something there. This is a interesting thread and I would like to get a sure answer on this.

[BrianU]

Re: A pitching question

Its hard to test, I know that not filling up 100% you can definately control the speed of pitches, but i think that just makes it easier for the CPU to hit. That plus the way pitch counts work it doesnt seem to matter if you threw 100 pitches half max, versus 100 pitches full max. If i stop posting on here I will test. If the pitcher fatigue slider was seperate for USER and CPU this would be ideal so you could lower USER and force yourself to not max it everytime but I believe its linked to user and cpu.

So the real question is can you get more pitches out of your guy by using half max the entire game otherwise theres no point to NOT max it everytime

[Victor99]

Re: A pitching question

So the real question is can you get more pitches out of your guy by using half max the entire game otherwise theres no point to NOT max it everytime

I've been wondering about this as well. Also, what does it mean when the circle around a pitch (in the menu) changes color? I've seen them green, yellow, and red. A lot of times my fastballs are yellow and even red while my sliders/curves/changups are green. Does that mean I'm throwing too many fastballs and need to mix up my pitches more?

[BrianU]

Re: A pitching question

I've been wondering about this as well. Also, what does it mean when the circle around a pitch (in the menu) changes color? I've seen them green, yellow, and red. A lot of times my fastballs are yellow and even red while my sliders/curves/changups are green. Does that mean I'm throwing too many fastballs and need to mix up my pitches more?

I love the pitching this year, heres what I believe it means. There are two seperate things that change. The pitching rating spins and turns green or red depending on if the rating from the last batter went up or down. Use a curveball to strikeout a guy and boost that pitch. Give up a hit with your curveball and its effectiveness drops.

Seperate from that, I believe, the backround of the pitch goes from normal to yellow to red. I believe this is tied into the actual pitchers IRL pitch distrubution #s. So say Johan Santana throws his fastball 70% of the time. If you start using that pitch more than 70% the backround will turn to yellow then red. I think this means the CPU is looking for that specific pitch and the only way to prevent that is to start using the other pitches. More than 1 pitch at a time can have the backround be yellow/red. You really have to save your best pitches to use agaisnt the good hitters, it is awesome.

[Victor99]

Re: A pitching question

I love the pitching this year, heres what I believe it means. There are two seperate things that change. The pitching rating spins and turns green or red depending on if the rating from the last batter went up or down. Use a curveball to strikeout a guy and boost that pitch. Give up a hit with your curveball and its effectiveness drops.

Seperate from that, I believe, the backround of the pitch goes from normal to yellow to red. I believe this is tied into the actual pitchers IRL pitch distrubution #s. So say Johan Santana throws his fastball 70% of the time. If you start using that pitch more than 70% the backround will turn to yellow then red. I think this means the CPU is looking for that specific pitch and the only way to prevent that is to start using the other pitches. More than 1 pitch at a time can have the backround be yellow/red. You really have to save your best pitches to use agaisnt the good hitters, it is awesome.

Makes sense to me. That's basically what I assumed what it was.

[Ltrain44]

Re: A pitching question

I always try to Max out since the pitch is more effective and your pitcher tires by pitch count

[kpkpkp]

Re: A pitching question

I love the pitching this year, heres what I believe it means. There are two seperate things that change. The pitching rating spins and turns green or red depending on if the rating from the last batter went up or down. Use a curveball to strikeout a guy and boost that pitch. Give up a hit with your curveball and its effectiveness drops.

Seperate from that, I believe, the backround of the pitch goes from normal to yellow to red. I believe this is tied into the actual pitchers IRL pitch distrubution #s. So say Johan Santana throws his fastball 70% of the time. If you start using that pitch more than 70% the backround will turn to yellow then red. I think this means the CPU is looking for that specific pitch and the only way to prevent that is to start using the other pitches. More than 1 pitch at a time can have the backround be yellow/red. You really have to save your best pitches to use agaisnt the good hitters, it is awesome.

+1.

This is exatcly my impression and experience of how it works.

Not to hijack.. but it makes me wonder..

If I make a pitcher in MyPlayer mode.. what determines the percentage of how often I throw my pitches? Especially if I havent playes my first game yet?

Like if I make a MyPlayer and start with a fastball and a curveball.. does it just go 50/50? Will it change over time I wonder?

[BrianU]

Re: A pitching question

justed did some testing with Johans fastball. it took 12 maxed 88 mph pitches to get to 90 energy level. it also took 12 "weak" 84 mph pitches to get to 90 energy. It seems energy is the exact same as pitch count, unless giving up hits/runs/being rattled affects that more but I didn't test that.

didn't see if its possible to trick the hitter by taking something off the fastball and throw it slower but I doubt it.

tl; dr: max that sumbitch every pitch. if you wanna change speeds throw a different pitch.

[Victor99]

Re: A pitching question

Slightly off topic, but try putting the pitcher fatigue slider to 45, seems just about perfect to me. That's what mk has for his slider set and it works really well IMO.

[TheNumber35]

Re: A pitching question

+1.

This is exatcly my impression and experience of how it works.

Not to hijack.. but it makes me wonder..

If I make a pitcher in MyPlayer mode.. what determines the percentage of how often I throw my pitches? Especially if I havent playes my first game yet?

Like if I make a MyPlayer and start with a fastball and a curveball.. does it just go 50/50? Will it change over time I wonder?

As to the My Player question...you can select your tendencies when your picking your pitches. As long as it adds up to 100% you can have it however you like

[econoodle]

Re: A pitching question

justed did some testing with Johans fastball. it took 12 maxed 88 mph pitches to get to 90 energy level. it also took 12 "weak" 84 mph pitches to get to 90 energy. It seems energy is the exact same as pitch count, unless giving up hits/runs/being rattled affects that more but I didn't test that.

didn't see if its possible to trick the hitter by taking something off the fastball and throw it slower but I doubt it.

tl; dr: max that sumbitch every pitch. if you wanna change speeds throw a different pitch.

awww, it would've been nice it MAXING pitches wore u down quicker.
alas, thanks for testing Brian.