Com vs Com sliders

[Lupus11]

Latest game was another tight defensive battle in the NL.

Braves beat Giants 3-2 to go up in the series (2-1).

Hits : Giants 10, Braves 4
Ks : Giants 10, Braves 4
BBs : Giants 4, Braves 5
SBs : Giants 0/0, Braves 0/1
Avg : Giants .303, Braves .142
Pitch Count : Giants 104, Braves 118
Each team had 1 error

Giants took a 2-1 lead into bottom of 7th, Baumgarner had dominated, but Gonzalez doubled and the Hinske hit a 2 out homer to give the Braves the lead. Good defensive matchup. Giants had 8 singles, 1 double and 1 triple; Braves just 1 single, 2 doubles and the HR. That's 7 homers in the last 3 games. I'm happy with these sliders, only thing that needs watching is the number of homers: 1.9-2.1 per game both teams combined would be the range for MLB over last few seasons. Need to remember that these playoff teams are all contenders so they have stronger pitching, which should keep the big bats reasonably quiet...just not too quiet!

Anyway, Rangers and Yankees due up, so should see a few more runs and hits...

[Lupus11]

Ok, Rangers beat the Yankees 7-4 to go 2-1 in the series.

Hits : Rangers 12, Yankees 12
Ks : Rangers 8, Yankees 7
BBs : Rangers 3, Yankees 5
SBs : Rangers 2/2, Yankees 0/0
Avg : Rangers .307, Yankees .324
Pitch Count : Rangers 130, Yankees 167
Rangers had 1 error

Game scoreless until 4th, Rangers score 3 runs and repeat the trick in the 5th. Rangers led 7-1 after 7, Yankees rallied, but A-Rod struck out looking with men on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs in bottom of 9th. Rangers had 9 singles, 1 double and 1 triple; Yankees had 10 singles, 1 triple. Cruz homered for Rangers, Cano homered for Yankees.

[Lupus11]

Braves win series in four games with 3-0 victory over Giants.

Hits : Giants 8, Braves 6
Ks : Giants 8, Braves 10
BBs : Giants 6, Braves 2
SBs : Giants 0/0, Braves 0/0
Avg : Giants .235, Braves .222
Pitch Count : Giants 111, Braves 114
No errors

Braves scored runs in 1st, 4th and 8th innings. Jurrjens pitched 7 inns for Braves: 6 hits, 1 walk and 7 Ks. Giants had just 8 singles; Braves only 4 singles, but 2 doubles. Nice pitching duel. Braves to meet Reds in NLCS...should be low scoring!

[Lupus11]

It's bye-bye Yankees, Rangers win game four 4-3.

Hits : Rangers 12, Yankees 7
Ks : Rangers 9, Yankees 7
BBs : Rangers 6, Yankees 4
SBs : Rangers 1/2, Yankees 1/2
Avg : Rangers .333, Yankees .218
Pitch Count : Rangers 144, Yankees 152
No errors

Rangers score 4 runs in the 2nd, Yankees responded with 2 in the 3rd. Once again Yankees left men on bases in 9th inning. Rangers had 10 singles and 1 double; Yankees only 4 singles with 1 double. Cruz homered again for Texas; Jeter hit a 2 run homer, and Teixeira went yard for the Yankees. Boston and Texas in the ALCS...should be plenty of hits.

[Lupus11]

One thing that I've been wondering about is what if any role 'pitch speed' plays in CPU vs CPU games. I've had it around 75-80 in every slider set I've used, for no reason other than the fact that is how everyone seems to put it. I'm not convinced it plays a role at all, but I wondered if it affected where home runs were hit: I seem to be seeing rightys homering to right or right-center, and leftys hitting homers to left or left-center. Maybe it was my imagination, but I couldn't remember seeing anything going other than opposite. So after the last game I dropped pitch speed to 50 and ran game between the Royals and Indians. I feared that pitch speed might actually have an effect and a hit fest would occur, especially with teams with weaker pitching. Carmona was awful, seemed to be unable to locate the zone, walked and hit batters, walked a batter with bases loaded, and Matt Treanor stepped up and smashed a grand slam...deep over left! Ok, so maybe pitch speed affects where the homers go, but I had the sickening feeling that the slider set was not good for weaker pitching staffs. Royals led 6-0 after the 1st!! After two innings Royals led 6-1, but had given up 3 BBs to the Indians 5 BBs!! Fear not, the pitchers settled down (Carmona settled down on the bench!), Davies pitched well for Royals, and game eventually finished 6-2, with the stats all realistic for MLB. Treanor's homer was the main point of interest, first one I can clearly remember being hit opposite. So, I'll drop pitch speed to 50 for the LCS; pitch speed doesn't affect the game visually on CPU vs CPU. Hopefully a few more homers will be going opposite to opposite!

[Lupus11]

There were 8 games played with the adjusted sliders in the LDS. Stats per team per game were:

Runs : 3.37
Hits : 9.11
Ks : 7.12
BBs : 3.5
Avg : .265

There were 12 homers and 7 errors in the eight games.

Runs to the lower end of the present MLB range, hits to the higher end. Strikeouts about right, BBs to the higher end of range, batting average just about ideal. The stronger pitching staffs seem to be containing the offenses, but the better batting lineups holding their own.

I was a little concerned by the high-ish number of BBs, thinking that lowering pitch success may have lead to the increase. I checked the balls to strikes ratio, 38% pitches being balls with these sliders, then found this link http://www.efastball.com/baseball/pi...to-ball-ratio/ which shows MLB pitching as balls 38%, strikes 62%. I guess the number of walks (and high-ish hits) is due to good batters finding a way of getting on base against good pitching, but good pitching meaning there isn't a homerfest or too much heavy scoring...who would've thunk it! Plus better defense, so the fielder speeds have been crucial, along with the lowering of pitch success.

[johnriii]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lupus11

One thing that I've been wondering about is what if any role 'pitch speed' plays in CPU vs CPU games. I've had it around 75-80 in every slider set I've used, for no reason other than the fact that is how everyone seems to put it. I'm not convinced it plays a role at all, but I wondered if it affected where home runs were hit: I seem to be seeing rightys homering to right or right-center, and leftys hitting homers to left or left-center. Maybe it was my imagination, but I couldn't remember seeing anything going opposite. So after the last game I dropped pitch speed to 50 and ran game between the Royals and Indians. I feared that pitch speed might actually have an effect and a hit fest would occur, especially with teams with weaker pitching. Carmona was awful, seemed to be unable to locate the zone, walked and hit batters, walked a batter with bases loaded, and Matt Treanor stepped up and smashed a grand slam...deep over left! Ok, so maybe pitch speed affects where the homers go, but I had the sickening feeling that the slider set was not good for weaker pitching staffs. Royals led 6-0 after the 1st!! After two innings Royals led 6-1, but had given up 3 BBs to the Indians 5 BBs!! Fear not, the pitchers settled down (Carmona settled down on the bench!), Davies pitched well for Royals, and game eventually finished 6-2, with the stats all realistic for MLB. Treanor's homer was the main point of interest, first one I can clearly remember being hit opposite. So, I'll drop pitch speed to 50 for the LCS; pitch speed doesn't affect the game visually on CPU vs CPU. Hopefully a few more homers will be going oppposite.

this is good news, because I was wondering if it were just me. 75-80 percent of the homers being hit are going opposite field. moustakas has hit 5 in 13 games, and all but one has gone to direct left field. alex gordon has two, one down the LF line, and one to center. Hosmer has 3, all to left field. hopefully, you have come up with the solution, without affecting the slider settings. and yes, I have my power up to 80 now, I'm not seeing a dramatic increase in homeruns.

[Lupus11]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnriii

this is good news, because I was wondering if it were just me. 75-80 percent of the homers being hit are going opposite field. moustakas has hit 5 in 13 games, and all but one has gone to direct left field. alex gordon has two, one down the LF line, and one to center. Hosmer has 3, all to left field. hopefully, you have come up with the solution, without affecting the slider settings. and yes, I have my power up to 80 now, I'm not seeing a dramatic increase in homeruns.

It does seem that pitch speed, while not visually affecting the game nor the mph of pitches, may influence where homers go. I had seen fly-balls to opposite field, but not homers. I think many of the sliders work better under 50, such as contact and pitch success, there does seem to be a tendency for people to up sliders because defaults always give unrealistic stats, but when you think about it too many hits and Ks happen at default. Having said that boosting power for more home runs might be the answer. I guess that unless you CPU vs CPU played all 2430 games in a season it's hard to know for sure whether or not the low-ish numbers of homers is due to good pitching containing the top batting lineups or just a problem with the sliders. It may be worth boosting power all the way up to 100 for a few games, and why not drop it all the way down to 50 for a series, and see what effect that has, rather than nudging up slowly. The main issue with homers is that you do need some games where there are multiple homers, just as you need some games where there are none, while in probably 80-90% of games you want 1-3 homers. Before I continue with the LCS, I'll run a few random games with power at 100. My only worry about upping power is would it mean more actual hits, I don't think it would other than possibly turning a couple of flyballs per game into homers. Moving pitch speed under 50 might end up being best for where the homers end up. There does seem to be a fear of going under default sliders, most seem to only trust using the 50-100 range, but I tend to think game producers over 'rate' players abilities. Chicks may dig the long ball, but casual fans dig Ks and homers!