Variable Strikezone

[mikeq672]

Kinda surprised I searched and found no other posts on this. Everyone I know that has the game absolutely hates this "variable" strikezone. There is nothing variable about it, it just randomly decides to take strike after strike for anyone with enough skill to pitch to corners. It doesnt take away the outside corner but give you a little extra room inside or something. All it does is shrink the zone(mostly at the end of games) and this type of zone being forced on us for online games and DD is a bit of a joke.

[RoyalKC]

Id have to disagree as i feel the corners are 50/50 as they are in real life. I notice some umps squeeze the zone while others are loose and let it fly. I dont use a strike zone though as i play

[jimbo22]

Id disagree too. Ive seen balls called strikes and in the same game strikes called balls.

I only play offline so cant comment on online games.

[Black59Razr]

I agree this feature is not working properly. However, I am willing to bet that the Devs do, in fact, have the umpires set to make mistakes a realistic amount of the time. This article here says umpires get it wrong 14% of the time. I am willing to bet The Show is aligned with those stats.

However, it shouldn't be so random. Check out the below OS posts from 3 years ago. A certain percentage of the blown calls should be more consistent. Most of that 14%, in fact.

I would also like to see the catcher set up inside or outside during the windup, which would heavily influence the umpire into making the wrong call. Set up outside, and frame the ball perfectly, just off the black of the plate, and it will likely be called a strike. Or, set up outside, and catch a ball on the inside edge of the plate and it will be a ball.

I realize there has to be a limit on how realistic you make a video game. And this is definitely one of those things that would be scrapped in lieu of increasing graphics. (Everyone that is praising this year's game for having better shadows; this is what we get instead of better gameplay. Stop encouraging thm ) Check out the graphics from MLB 12 The Show. I would love to go back to this if it meant addressing even more gameplay issues.

Okay, back on topic! Perhaps you can make this a feature you can toggle on/off. You can give every catcher a "pitch framing" attribute. This is a real metric that MLB teams take a very good look at. I remember reading some article about an MLB team signing some 15 year minor leaguer to a multi million dollar contract solely on his pitch framing ability. The Molina brothers are also known for their "soft hands".

Quote: Originally Posted by N51_rob

syf, kinda hit on the idea I had for umps and the strike zone. In the image posted below, let the black box represent the "official MLB" strike zone, it is the one you would see in the game, if you turned strike zone on, or what you would see after each pitch. The red box is the "umps" strike zone. It is coded to be what will "actually" be called balls and strikes most importantly FOR THE WHOLE GAME, us as users would not "see" it but as we pitched we could get a feel for what it would be. That in a nut shell is my dream for "variable umps". I apologize in advance for my simplistic drawing, I suppose when I'm done being lazy I could make it look better.

Quote: Originally Posted by N51_rob

Okay, that was easier than I thought, here is an in-game screen shot of how it would work. Again, the red is the umps strike zone, you never "see" it, but it is running I guess invisibly and as you pitch you would start to notice that he was calling pitches inside (not over the plate) strikes and pitches on the outside (over the plate) balls. The strike zones for each up could be different. Giving high strikes vs low, outside vs inside etc. and the degree could be as minescule as an inch or as great as a foot, it is all on the umps. It would make variable umps actually variable.

[Armor and Sword]

The following umpires will make you grey at an early age.


Clyde Washington
Woody Keller
Jerry Hillsdale


Those three are the three blind mice of MLB The Show.

[BeatArmy]

Amen to "stop encoraging them". Yes, I realize that this is facetious but also partially true. I'd so much rather have a fantasy draft/lineups/rotations work as well as they did three years ago rather than hear the "squeeeeee" at Encarnacion's green/blue Franklins.

High Heat 2002 had the shifted strike zone. Outside might not get called but you got another inch or two inside in trade. Count me along with those that wish for a more consistent variability.

[Smallville102001]

I have played ever mlb the show game from 08-15 and I have never ever seen really any difference between the different umps in this game. The are all like the same to me. I fell like this years game is worse when it comes to this. In the past you could get some strikes on pitches outside the plate and would get squeezed some times. This year how ever you never get pitches in less the whole ball is over the plate where years past you could get strikes on pitches a good like 3 inches off the plate and you get squeezed a lot more then years past. I kind of fell like it is broken this year.

[Keirik]

Quote: Originally Posted by Black59Razr

I agree this feature is not working properly. However, I am willing to bet that the Devs do, in fact, have the umpires set to make mistakes a realistic amount of the time. This article here says umpires get it wrong 14% of the time. I am willing to bet The Show is aligned with those stats. However, it shouldn't be so random. Check out the below OS posts from 3 years ago. A certain percentage of the blown calls should be more consistent. Most of that 14%, in fact. I would also like to see the catcher set up inside or outside during the windup, which would heavily influence the umpire into making the wrong call. Set up outside, and frame the ball perfectly, just off the black of the plate, and it will likely be called a strike. Or, set up outside, and catch a ball on the inside edge of the plate and it will be a ball. I realize there has to be a limit on how realistic you make a video game. And this is definitely one of those things that would be scrapped in lieu of increasing graphics. (Everyone that is praising this year's game for having better shadows; this is what we get instead of better gameplay. Stop encouraging thm ) Check out the graphics from MLB 12 The Show. I would love to go back to this if it meant addressing even more gameplay issues. Okay, back on topic! Perhaps you can make this a feature you can toggle on/off. You can give every catcher a "pitch framing" attribute. This is a real metric that MLB teams take a very good look at. I remember reading some article about an MLB team signing some 15 year minor leaguer to a multi million dollar contract solely on his pitch framing ability. The Molina brothers are also known for their "soft hands".

The old High Heat series had pretty much exactly what you are describing. To be honest, I just wish instead of having an exact box like that adjusted, they just had umpire ratings based similar to potential with letter grades for inside/outside/low/high tendencies for strikes