pitcher energy and confidence

[saucerset]

I just finished a game where I had the opposing pitcher up to 60+ pitches after 3 innings. His energy was at zero but his confidence was high. He ended up going the next 4 innings with his energy at zero. With his confidence pegged out he just kept going and going and there was nothing I could do. Solid contact hits were very weak outs. I ended up knocking him out in the 7th with a HR after 115 pitches.

So my question is, does the pitchers energy mean anything in this game? It certainly affects my pitchers but for some reason not the AI.

[tessl]

The two keys to succeeding in late game are knowing when to pull your starter, and transitioning to relief pitchers.

Starters
As a starter gets tired, he loses control of pitch location more than anything else. In fact, some pitchers gain velocity late innings while very few lose more than 1mph (there's even a hidden attribute that handles this). Keeping this in mind, when a starter is tired you want to pitch around a bit more. This is because it's much more important to avoid throwing easy pitches down the middle than to avoid throwing balls.

How does that work? For simplicity, imagine a normal pitcher misses in a circle of 6 inches radius. Let's say in the 7th inning, he misses in a 6.5 inch radius. By moving all his pitches out .5 inch (for example), as far as deep strikes are concerned he's no worse off than before. The drawbacks are the batter can get ahead on the count more, you might bean or wild pitch by accident (which isn't that common all things considered), and you throw more pitches per batter faced. But since this strategy overall can keep a pitcher in the game you'd otherwise pull, it's a way of coping with a loss of control. This is especially more important for mid to low tier starters than for top starters.

Most starters can pitch 100, even 110 pitches until they hit 25% energy. It all depends on their stamina attribute. Below 25% energy, starters start losing control more rapidly. In a close game and a #5 starter, you might want to pull him at that point. But with a #1 starter or in a game you've sealed the deal you can certainly keep going. You'll underperform on average, but it won't matter because a win is a win.

It's worth noting that aside from pitcher attributes (HPer9, BBPer9, KPer9), energy is the second most important factor in pitching. I'd even say that in a typical game attributes are roughly 70% importance, energy is 20%, and confidence is 10%. The problem here is that if you drain every starter to 0 energy as an extreme, instead of being only 20% important it easily become 40% or 50% important. Don't let that happen in a game that matters - only run energy down to 0% because you don't care.

The penalties ramp up as you go below 25% energy. Likewise, from 100% down to 25% energy it's not a huge difference.

[saucerset]

That is pretty much the exact opposite of what I just experienced. I wonder why the energy rules are different for AI pitchers.

[@legendm0de]

How is that post the exact opposite of what you experienced, it seems like it points out how you experienced that.

[Heroesandvillains]

I haven't agreed with tessl a lot lately but this post is pretty good!

Blue suits you!

[saucerset]

It says that when the pitchers energy gets below 25%, then his control slips. The AI pitcher got better. He was at 0% energy for 4 innings. It just doesn't make sense. (what happened in the game, not the post)

I thought I was losing my mind when it was happening again this morning. The pitcher has been at 0% energy for 2 innings now and is up to 140 pitches with over 90 strikes. His release is 'perfect' and is still hitting 96 mph. Finally on the 141rst pitch he goes out with an oblique injury. I don't see a human controlled pitcher going that long with that accuracy. I guess my point is that the energy bar seems to mean nothing when you're playing the computer.

I'm not arguing any of the previous posts, I am just sharing an experience to see if anyone else has seen something similar. I thank you all for your comments.

[Cavicchi]

Quote: Originally Posted by saucerset

It says that when the pitchers energy gets below 25%, then his control slips. The AI pitcher got better. He was at 0% energy for 4 innings. It just doesn't make sense. (what happened in the game, not the post) I thought I was losing my mind when it was happening again this morning. The pitcher has been at 0% energy for 2 innings now and is up to 140 pitches with over 90 strikes. His release is 'perfect' and is still hitting 96 mph. Finally on the 141rst pitch he goes out with an oblique injury. I don't see a human controlled pitcher going that long with that accuracy. I guess my point is that the energy bar seems to mean nothing when you're playing the computer. I'm not arguing any of the previous posts, I am just sharing an experience to see if anyone else has seen something similar. I thank you all for your comments.

Well, I experienced something similar. I switched teams and took over for a C-rated CPU pitcher and threw 138 pitches. He was out of energy and still hitting spots! Now that was me pitching and not CPU. Maybe the game was being kind to me

The speed on his fastball was definitely down.

[Steven78]

Pitcher confidence has always been ridiculously overdone in this game. Confidence matters more than energy.