Double Plays

[moth to a flame]

Dead last in my Tiger's franchise in GIDP. Often after a GIDP the PCI will say I had solid contact with normal timing, so I don't know what is happening.

[moth to a flame]

I am now dead last by a significant margin. I just don't understand why I am GIDP at such a high rate. It is really frustrating. I GIDP about 95% of my games and it happens in the most crucial points. I am ranked 23rd in OBP, so its not as though I am having a ridiculous amount of looks compared to other teams. I am 25th/26th in Runs and RBI respectfully and I think its a major reason why.

Has anyone figured out if a specific slider affects this significantly? I am about to pull my hair out. Thank goodness for the Tigers starting rotation or I'd have thrown my controller out the window by now.

[Bobhead]

I don't have this problem at all. I don't have The Show on (and my PS3 is being used for MLB.TV) right now to check, but I am positive that i am not in the top 10 for GIDP. I check the team stats every few days, and it's something I would have noticed if I was.

Someone above asked if there's a way to address this with sliders. Like with most things, you really have to look at why it's happening before you can look at how to fix it.

I'll just list a few possible causes, in no particular order... I'm not saying they are all actually going on, these are just things that could cause a high number of GIDP, in general... You can read everything if you're bored or interested, or you can skip to the end for my own suggestion

1) Too many singles (or walks). Obviously, the more situations you are in, where a GIDP is possible, then the more GIDP you will see. Since you said your OBP is not abnormally high, it's fairly safe to eliminate this as a possible explanation. It only takes like 20 seconds to double check, though, so I listed it anyway... the info needed is within your season stats... Look at your hits totals, and subtract your doubles, triples, and home runs. MLB average is a little over 6.5 singles per team, per game.

2) Baserunners are too slow, relative to other things. This is pretty self explanatory. "Other things" include fielder speed, fielder reaction, and fielder arm strength.

There's no magic stat to check for this one, no MLB average for speed... but a pretty good litmus test is to look at your opponent's GIDP numbers. If speed is an issue, you should be inducing a high number of GIDPs as well... if you are not, you can safely eliminate this as a possible cause. If you are using default sliders (default Fielder Speed, Fielder Reaction, Fielder Arm Strength, and Baserunner Speed), you can be pretty confident this isn't related to your problem. If you are not using default sliders, make sure your baserunner speed is greater than or equal to your fielder speed. If you are someone that has Arm Strength or Reaction above default, I'd consider setting Baserunner Speed so that it's 1 or 2 points above Fielder Speed, as a balance.

3) Fielders have too much range. Fielder Speed and Reaction are in play here again, but you also have to consider Fielding Errors... if fielders are too reliable, it will make your GIDP numbers balloon up. Again, this would effect the CPU also, so if your CPU opponent is putting up normal GIDP numbers that is a good (but not 100%) indication that range is not the main cause. I don't have an "ideal" number (and I don't think it is possible to separate real life error data by fielding vs throwing), but I do think The Show at default does not produce enough "fielding errors" (which is more than just actual errors while fielding. I have my own Fielding Errors slider above default, but that choice is yours.

4) Not enough quality contact. Basically, are you hitting too many ground balls? MLB average for ground balls is 45%. You can check your ground ball rates in the Pitch Analysis Screen. There are two ways to calculate... the easiest way is to just add up fly balls + ground balls + line drives... it's a little less accurate but it gets the job done in this case.

If you are above the 45% mark by a wide margin, you will want to increase your offensive sliders (Solid Hits, Timing, or Power).

5) Not enough foul balls. I'll be honest and say that this is the cause I'd put all my money on. It would explain why I don't personally have this problem (my foul freq slider is at 10), and I can say with certainty that The Show does not give human players enough foul balls by default. Anyway... if you are putting too many balls in play, in fair territory, you are, by nature, going to ground into a lot more double plays (as well as get more pop ups and weak fly balls).

Based on MLB average, about 49% of all your contact should be foul. Basically, about half of your swings (where you don't miss), should put the ball into foul territory. You can check for yourself on the Pitch Analysis screen at the end of a game (you can't "mass check" for an entire season)... Go to the "Results" field... look at Misses, look at Swings, and subtract to calculate the number of swings on which you did not miss... then look at Fouls, and divide.

You'd have to check foul ball data every single game for a stretch of games to be sure... but like I said, I'd bet my house that a foul ball deficiency is the cause of too many GIDPs, for most of the people in this thread. I'd increase the Foul Freq slider a few clicks (it's not a strong slider), and see if things improve.

[allhailben7]

Don't forget too much contact, too:

19% of all swings in the MLB are whiffs. And 8.5% of all pitches end in a swing-and-miss. That should be a few per game in RTTs and 8-10 times in regular games. Sometimes, even with zone, would-be swinging strikes end up as weakly-hit grounders or popups.

Or Discipline, as MLB players (unless you're Javy Baez, apparently) swing at 44-46% of pitches.