MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

[Clarke99]

There is someone or a few in the SCEA studios that for years just dont understand that the few (5-10) players with explosive speed in the MLB can steal at almost any time.

The developers im guessing want to avoid a user from turning all theyre players into speedsters to beat the CPU. However if thats what some user wants to do to win good for them.

A player Such as Dee Gordon or Rajai Davis in real life can steal a base at almost anytime they choose. Everyone in the entire stadium along with the pitcher and catcher will know this type of player is going to steal they throw a fastball, catcher is upright throws to 2nd OR THIRD! and still cant stop them. They are safe 90% of the time.
The show however doesnt get this at all, I get it if say you had Michael Bourn and he got thrown out once every 10-15 attempts.
but the game has speedsters getting thrown out 1/3 times!! its not realistic.
Save it, if youre going to post "you gotta learn when to steal, blahblahblah youre an amazing gamer" I know the game of baseball this just happens to often.

If a player has a speed rating over 95 (which again only a FEW players are) and a respectable baserunning ability, you should be thrown out once in awhile, not every other time. FASTBALL or not.

[jclem92]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

I do seem to get thrown out a bit more than I should. But usually I can zoom around the bases with Cam Maybin.

[N51_rob]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

To the OP, what sliders/settings are you using? Through 29 games with Ian Desmond I have 9 stolen bases and only one caught stealing. Playing on all-star with pitch speed at 3, and fielding reaction, arm, and speed at 4.

[Mabster]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

A player Such as Dee Gordon or Rajai Davis in real life can steal a base at almost anytime they choose. They are safe 90% of the time.
The show however doesnt get this at all, I get it if say you had Michael Bourn and he got thrown out once every 10-15 attempts.
but the game has speedsters getting thrown out 1/3 times!! its not realistic.

Davis lifetime steal percentage is 78.3%, his last three years when supposedly he's really learned to steal is 78.6%....

Gordon, his one year in the Majors has a 77.4% success rate....

Bourn's career rate is 82.1%....

I think you need to re-evaluate what you know about base stealers.

[shifty_b]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

I think that they make the best base stealers too similar to an average one. I have seen opposing catchers steal second with no lead on a fastball away, seems like there just needs to be a little more disparity between the best and worst, just not as severe as you imagine.

[jmik58]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

There is someone or a few in the SCEA studios that for years just dont understand that the few (5-10) players with explosive speed in the MLB can steal at almost any time.

The developers im guessing want to avoid a user from turning all theyre players into speedsters to beat the CPU. However if thats what some user wants to do to win good for them.

A player Such as Dee Gordon or Rajai Davis in real life can steal a base at almost anytime they choose. Everyone in the entire stadium along with the pitcher and catcher will know this type of player is going to steal they throw a fastball, catcher is upright throws to 2nd OR THIRD! and still cant stop them. They are safe 90% of the time.
The show however doesnt get this at all, I get it if say you had Michael Bourn and he got thrown out once every 10-15 attempts.
but the game has speedsters getting thrown out 1/3 times!! its not realistic.
Save it, if youre going to post "you gotta learn when to steal, blahblahblah youre an amazing gamer" I know the game of baseball this just happens to often.

If a player has a speed rating over 95 (which again only a FEW players are) and a respectable baserunning ability, you should be thrown out once in awhile, not every other time. FASTBALL or not.

I understand your frustration, but with a game like The Show you really have to look at the numbers game. In real life, base runners will steal bases about 65-70% of the time on an average catcher. There are some who are far worse and some catchers who are far worse and some who are slightly better; but for the most part it's safe to estimate that an attempt to steal a base is successful about 65% of the time.

In regard to guys like Michael Bourne, he was successful in just over 80% of his attempts last year. While this is phenomenal...it's definitely not 9 out of 10 attempts. He is a top tier player in regard to stolen bases.

So if you were to take an average guy versus an elite guy you would say the average guy is safe 6/7 out of ten times. Michael Bourne is safe 8 times out of 10.

If you shrink your sample size in half to reflect per-five-attempts:

Average base stealer: 3/5
Michael Bourne: 4/5

You can see that when looking at five attempts, the elite stealers only are safe one more time than the average attempt.

This doesn't diminish the impact or excellence of Michael Bourne, all it shows is that you have to have a large sample size to reflect the significance.

My point then; take down notes and record the number of times you're seeing each result with different players in the game. If you want to go at developers and get somewhere, I suggest you come with numbers and data. Show them that the game is statistically and significantly different from real life figures. Or you may find it's not as bad after all.

[maddguuns]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

They should put Willie Mays Hayes in the game.

[jr86]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

Not sure where you are going wrong...I think you might need to reevaluate your sliders.
I am using default for stealing and have stolen 2nd regularly with Dee Gordon even on pitchouts....

[zukes]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

I find the baserunning the most unrealistic part of this game. There are far too many pick-offs if you lead off even one step. (I never do 2). I am 6 games in and my steal rate is 2 out of 9. Now I am the Jays, but my teal attempts have been with Lawrie (2 for 3), Davis (0 for 4) and Escobar (0 for 2).

I suppose that I have run more often than I should, according to a quick check the Jays attempted 162 steals last season or about one a game, but this is a small sample size.

On the 2011 season the Jays were 119/162 for a 73.5% rate.

I will keep tabs on this.

[NFL Great]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

There is someone or a few in the SCEA studios that for years just dont understand that the few (5-10) players with explosive speed in the MLB can steal at almost any time.

The developers im guessing want to avoid a user from turning all theyre players into speedsters to beat the CPU. However if thats what some user wants to do to win good for them.

A player Such as Dee Gordon or Rajai Davis in real life can steal a base at almost anytime they choose. Everyone in the entire stadium along with the pitcher and catcher will know this type of player is going to steal they throw a fastball, catcher is upright throws to 2nd OR THIRD! and still cant stop them. They are safe 90% of the time.
The show however doesnt get this at all, I get it if say you had Michael Bourn and he got thrown out once every 10-15 attempts.
but the game has speedsters getting thrown out 1/3 times!! its not realistic.
Save it, if youre going to post "you gotta learn when to steal, blahblahblah youre an amazing gamer" I know the game of baseball this just happens to often.

If a player has a speed rating over 95 (which again only a FEW players are) and a respectable baserunning ability, you should be thrown out once in awhile, not every other time. FASTBALL or not.

Dude you obviously don't play online or head to head. Guys like Reyes, Gardner to name just two can steal wihout a lead, and even when hitting r2 to "pre load" the steal, without a lead, they get back no matter how much you throw over. They even beat pitchouts with no lead, 80 % of the time,. It's ridiculous.

[Guigsdaddy]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

I have auto base running. The cpu never tries to steal for me. Do I have to press a button to steal a base?

[shifty_b]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

You have to hit L2 for you runner to go, L1 for a lead

[NEOPARADIGM]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

What I want to know is why so many players have an absolutely terrible baserunning ability rating. I thought it was a glitch at first: like seriously 80% of the Tigers roster is guys with baserunning ability of 25 or lower. I understand if a guy's not very fast, but do they have to BLOW at running the bases on top of it? What is this based on anyway? The number of times dude tripped on the bag rounding second?

Anyway, I did a loose re-rate of most of the roster to include more players in the 50-79 range. Funny thing is, their ability bar (in-game, in the runner-window) didn't seem to change as much as I changed the rating. eg, Ramone Santiago's at 63 or something but it only filled the bar to, say, 34% or so.

But yeah, stealing. I'm pretty frustrated with it too. I'm just guessing but while I've had some nice success (stealing with non-fast guys, 1-step leads, etc.), I just get caught way too much. Like I probably have 20 or even 25 swipes, but it's on like 70 tries. I know Jhonny Peralta is like 1 for 5, Ryan Raburn like 1 for 6, Austin Jackson like 9 for 21, Ramon Santiago 2 for 8, garbage numbers like that - but then Miguel Cabrera is 1 for 2 and Prince Fielder is 1 for 1. Go figure.

And then the CPU is pretty bad at it overall as well. Sure they'll swipe here and there, just like me, but it's not even close to 50% success rate, I'm sure of that. More like the 33% mentioned in the OP. All of this with the "steal ability" slider maxed, by the way.

The point is, nobody with halfway-decent speed should be wallowing in 0-for-9 or 2-for-11 territory. Slow fatties and pitchers aside, if you're in the MLB, you should be able to swipe bags at a modest (40%? 35%?) clip, especially with that slider maxed. I'm not seeing that in this game. Hell, 40% clip is Austin Jackson territory for me.

[ryan36]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

This is my forte...and I was wondering if stealing was too easy this year.

My biggest problem is that is while the pitch "matters" it doesn't seem to as much as it should. FB should be harder to steal on. It's when a guy, I don't care HOW slow he is gets thrown out on a breaking ball in the dirt it irritates me.

This year, though it IS improved. For instance, as the pitch is coming in, I can generally tell if I'm going to get nailed, because I can see my runner in the screen on his way to second. I think it used to just be a dice roll based on BR Ability...but I'm not positive.

It can be improved, but seems MUCH more organic this year. My best advice is to STILL get a breaking ball to run on, just like in real baseball.

Also, I'm pretty successful with no lead, going on first pitch.

[deputydon]

Re: MLB The Show Series and Basestealing

My biggest problem with the game involving base running, why while playing online can you still drop a sac bunt so easily, and also, why can the runner on first make it to third before the first baseman will even react to throwing it to third base. It is far to easy to get a lead off hit, sac bunt the runner to third. And then either hit him in, or bunt squeeze him home. I can bunt successfully with almost every single player, even those I have never seen bunt, like Hafner or Thome. Factor in the lag that the online still has, and its possible to lay down a bunt and have the ball not even show up on your screen until the runner is already on third.