With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

[Dogslax41]

Quote: Originally Posted by SwitchbladeAli

I haven't found the time to play much last year so this year I thought I'd give dynamic difficulty a try to see if I can still pitch in All-Star like in 12 & 13. Through my first ten games in my franchise I have yet to see a change in difficulty, the best I could do was Rookie+ and +++ in progress (pitching that is). Then the CPU, behind in runs, decides to give itself a nice two out rally in late innings. And I have yet to pitch a game where I do not give up a home run. Sometimes mixed into the rally, sometimes early in the game. I'd play more but after such games I quit and won't touch the game for a day or two.

After being frustrated by this I stepped back and considered if it was something that I was doing and found that it's more often than not a matter of me not adjusting my pitching to the situation. Not a matter of mixing up pitches but a matter of my location. I've noticed that the inning immediately after you score or when trailing in the late innings the cpu begins to get much more aggressive. I tend to always pitch to the corners in the zone and have very low walk totals and when the cpu goes aggressive I get burned. And as I said thats usually in those moments when they need a rally. My guess is people that are seeing these "opportune" comebacks have low walk totals and an abnormally high strike to ball ratio that are playing right into the cpu aggressiveness.

[kooch66]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dogslax41

Most MLB pitchers have exactly this type of control. Those that don't aren't in the league very long. More than 90% of the time when a MLB pitcher misses his spot he does so toward the side of the plate he is aiming. Very rarely does a pitcher completely miss. What would make more sense is to put the system in place so that if you aim high and miss the meter late then it goes higher than the spot but if you are aiming low and miss the meter late it goes low, mimicking an overthrow.

That's just not true. Not every missed low fastball is going to miss lower due to overthrow, and not every high fast ball is going to be missed high with underthrow. Pitchers underthrow a low fastball and catch too much plate ALL the time.

The meter is a pretty tried and true video gaming method for things like pitching, golf, free kicks, etc but the motions in real life have nothing at all to do with a meter. A real pitcher doesn't "set" his power coming back then "set"'his accuracy coming forward. There are literally thousands of small motions and thoughts that go into the location of every single pitch.

I think you should go look at MLB averages for ERA, hits allowed, runs allowed, etc. They have much less perfect control than you think.

[Dogslax41]

Quote: Originally Posted by kooch66

That's just not true. Not every missed low fastball is going to miss lower due to overthrow, and not every high fast ball is going to be missed high with underthrow. Pitchers underthrow a low fastball and catch too much plate ALL the time. The meter is a pretty tried and true video gaming method for things like pitching, golf, free kicks, etc but the motions in real life have nothing at all to do with a meter. A real pitcher doesn't "set" his power coming back then "set"'his accuracy coming forward. There are literally thousands of small motions and thoughts that go into the location of every single pitch. I think you should go look at MLB averages for ERA, hits allowed, runs allowed, etc. They have much less perfect control than you think.

But they don't miss a low and away fastball up and in without some serious extenuating circumstances. As someone that pitched growing up I can tell you that if I am aiming low and away 99.9% of the time my pitch is going low and away to some degree and I was not a good pitcher. The original complaint with the meter system is that if you miss the bar the ball has a chance to go anywhere so you target low and away, slightly miss the bar and it goes inside. That's just not realistic at all. The original post was not about perfect control at all. It was about imperfect control.

And statistics using histograms and standard deviation from trend lines shows this exact level of control for MLB pitchers.

[kooch66]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dogslax41

But they don't miss a low and away fastball up and in without some serious extenuating circumstances. As someone that pitched growing up I can tell you that if I am aiming low and away 99.9% of the time my pitch is going low and away to some degree and I was not a good pitcher. The original complaint with the meter system is that if you miss the bar the ball has a chance to go anywhere so you target low and away, slightly miss the bar and it goes inside. That's just not realistic at all. The original post was not about perfect control at all. It was about imperfect control. And statistics using histograms and standard deviation from trend lines shows this exact level of control for MLB pitchers.

Even with the changes to the meter this year you are NOT going to throw a fastball low and away, miss the meter low, and have the pitch come way up and in, that is not happening. However, if you throw a fastball low and away and miss the meter in either direction (high or low) the ball might come SLIGHTLY up, meaning that if you're using a RHP vs a RHB and you're targeting the black low and away and miss, it might come up a bit and allow for some good contact. This is totally realistic, to me anyways. I just don't believe that most MLB pitchers "miss where they want to" 90% of the time.

Also don't forget about player's stats as well. Outside the top 10 to 15 guys most everyone else has fairly low control and bb/9, usually in the 60s or even 50s. That's playing a part too. If you have a guy with bad control and bad bb/9 he may just miss his spot, on top of the over/underthrow. For example, again if I put my marker on the low black and overthrow you guys want the pitch to miss down. But the pitcher might MISS HIS SPOT meaning where you placed your ball marker and actually throw it waist level, then with the over throw it does drop a bit but still gets a lot of plate. You are seeing this as a low fastball with overthrow "missing high, randomly" when in reality the pitcher has missed the spot altogether.

[Dogslax41]

Actually I have experienced it happening this year. And with respect to mlb pitchers control f/x stats show mlb pitchers miss their spots by an average of less than 12 inches. A good mlb pitcher misses by less than 8.

[kooch66]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dogslax41

And statistics using histograms and standard deviation from trend lines shows this exact level of control for MLB pitchers.

And I would love for you to link me these stats, histograms, deviations, and all this other technobabble that shows what you're saying. I took a quick look and could not find much, though I did find one article from 2011 comparing Halladay's pitch locations vs Edinson Volquez. Halladay hit his spots near perfect over 50% of the time and missed his spots in a very even distrubution. Volquez on the other hand missed nearly all his pitches to his right, and almost all of those up...So when he missed, which was a lot, he missed up and right like 65-70% of the time. So this guy lead the league in walks that year ans you mean to tell me he was missing up and right by design 99% of the time?? No way.

And 4 years later he's still in baseball and making over 7million dollars a year. Major League Pitchers, while generally the best in the world, are still much less accurate than most of you seem to think.

[kooch66]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dogslax41

Actually I have experienced it happening this year. And with respect to mlb pitchers control f/x stats show mlb pitchers miss their spots by an average of less than 12 inches. A good mlb pitcher misses by less than 8.

How is a foot not a SIGNIFICANT amount of variation??

[kevin_bondra]

Quote: Originally Posted by kooch66

How is a foot not a SIGNIFICANT amount of variation??

Correct, 12 inches absolutely is huge. The plate is only 17" wide - if you aim outside on the black and miss by 12", that pitch is grooved on the inner half right where the hitter wants it. WHAMMO!