Does wind affect pitches?

[cardinalbird5]

For example, there is wind at Wrigley blowing 15 MPH from left to right. You have a pitcher with a 12-6 curve around 75 MPH. Will his 12-6 curve turn into a 11-5 curve now? And same for the opposite sides. If a lefty was pitching would his 12-6 curve turn into a screw ball?

JW because I have seen 12-6 curves almost look like a screw ball and vice versa, but I never even considered how much the wind might affect this.

[nomo17k]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Even with the presence of wind, pitches don't break that way in real life. But I remember Brian@SCEA talking about this being in the game.... that is, air condition affecting the game physics. You could search for his post...

[seanjeezy]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Knuckleball?

[SA1NT401]

Only think it effects the flight of the ball after contact.

[nomo17k]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

I may be able to quote his post later ... for example, if you throw curveball against wind blowing toward you, the pitch will break a tad more.

That is the game physics....

[nomo17k]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...post2040681386

One other thing you can see when in these stadiums is your pitch breaks are slightly lower. Your pitch speeds are slightly higher. This is visible in the pitch break indicator in 1P games.

Actually he only was referring to air being thinner at high altitude stadiums, and not specifically talking about wind... so strictly speaking I don't know if wind does have any effect on pitch break... However, I wouldn't be surprised if it does, given that air thickness is already considered...

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Well haven't you guys ever noticed 12-6 curves looking like a 11-5 curve sometimes and other times it looks like a screwball? I was just curious what was altering the break of this pitch.

[bp4baseball]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Each ball in the game should be slightly different.... Sometimes you get one with high laces that really cuts, othertimes you get a dud. We could have a button to throw the ball back to the umpire and ask for a new one.

I'll get my coat.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Well haven't you guys ever noticed 12-6 curves looking like a 11-5 curve sometimes and other times it looks like a screwball? I was just curious what was altering the break of this pitch.

I was always under the impression that the pitching motion/release point had a lot to do with this.

[nomo17k]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Right... it's very subtle but release point and delivery and such seem to matter in pitch trajectory... but that's not likely due to wind anyways... that's the response to the OP.

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

I realize pitch delivery, how you grip the ball, etc. affects this, but I am just talking about during gameplay, not real life.

[nomo17k]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

I realize pitch delivery, how you grip the ball, etc. affects this, but I am just talking about during gameplay, not real life.

I am talking about the gameplay.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Take a pitcher and only change his pitching motion and see if the pitches look any different. I notice some motions result in different pitch movements. Its not huge, but I have noticed the change in pitch movement and always thought it was because of the pitching motion and not wind.

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

I am talking about the gameplay.

Why does submarine delievery's have a perfect 12-6 then? I don't know if you guys are right, but I am just wondering. If it was based on delivery then certain pitches would be impossible to throw like a 12-6 curve, regular curve, slurve, sweeping curve, cutter, 2 seamer, sinker, cut 2 seam, splitter, etc. All of these pitches require a certain delivery. That is why I don't think it is based off that. You guys may be right though. I was just curious about wind more than anything.

[nomo17k]

Re: Does wind affect pitches?

Why does submarine delievery's have a perfect 12-6 then? I don't know if you guys are right, but I am just wondering. If it was based on delivery then certain pitches would be impossible to throw like a 12-6 curve, regular curve, slurve, sweeping curve, cutter, 2 seamer, sinker, cut 2 seam, splitter, etc. All of these pitches require a certain delivery. That is why I don't think it is based off that. You guys may be right though. I was just curious about wind more than anything.

The mechanism (ball physics) is there in the game, but the system is not really perfect. For one thing, it's already wrong in a sense to label pitches the way the game does right now, because if you throw a curveball from a side arm, it would break more like a slider due to how the ball spins. But for the sake of convenience, the game is labeling pitches by their movement. It's just a limitation of implementation like this... it would of course be more authentic to just go by ball spin, how it's delivered and whatnot, but I think many gamers will be confused by that .... (it's similar to how people want player rating numbers exposed in a sense...)


One thing I heard from a dev is that the pitch breaks follow pitcher delivery appropriately only if the pitcher delivery animation is tagged correctly... that is, even when the delivery animation looks like a side armer, if the game is not tagging him as a side armer, the pitch breaks won't follow that of side arm pitcher.

There are some guys who have ambiguous deliveries, and pitches don't look like they are delivered properly... that is partly due to this.