Runner on 1st = double play?

[Jr.]

I would say about 50% of the pitches that I hit with a runner at 1st end up in a double play. The defense turns them way too easy in the game with every throw being right on the money for the feed at 2B. I see more 360 spinning throws that are bullets right to the chest of the guy at second in this game than I've ever seen in real life.

This leads to my biggest issue with The Show. Errors seem to be completely random rather than being related to the actual difficulty of the play attempting to be made. Sure MLB players will duff a routine grounder or airmail a routine throw, but they seem to boot those plays more often in the game than a throw moving to their glove side and making a contorted throw.

[RogueHominid]

I think there are maybe less DPs in the game this year than last, but it is still definitely an issue.

Here's what I do, though, to maximize my chances of staying out of one:

If I'm up in the count, I don't swing. On AS pitching or higher, the CPU is going to work you down in the zone or out of the zone to induce a ground ball, period. So if you can wait and get into a hitter's count, you increase your chances of getting a pitch high enough in the zone to do something with.

If I'm at 2-2 or 3-2 and have a hitter with better than average contact ratings, I will often start the runner and use the directional aim down and to the opposite handedness of the batter to try to push one through the hole.

This means I'm more aggressive than I'd like to be, and sometimes this strategy fails because you hit a pop up, but there are also plenty of times where starting the runner prevents the DP, even though I often lose the out at first if the grounder doesn't get through the IF.

I think that's the best you can do with this game, honestly.

[LionsFan01]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jr.

I would say about 50% of the pitches that I hit with a runner at 1st end up in a double play. The defense turns them way too easy in the game with every throw being right on the money for the feed at 2B. I see more 360 spinning throws that are bullets right to the chest of the guy at second in this game than I've ever seen in real life. This leads to my biggest issue with The Show. Errors seem to be completely random rather than being related to the actual difficulty of the play attempting to be made. Sure MLB players will duff a routine grounder or airmail a routine throw, but they seem to boot those plays more often in the game than a throw moving to their glove side and making a contorted throw.

I think this is the real issue. I've had runners with 80+ speed thrown out by SS's on their knees because they can still throw bullets across the diamond. Third basemen have zero issue snagging 100 mph hits down the line and getting back up and getting the out at first or with barehanding a slow roller and throwing a perfectly placed laser to first. Only animation I've seen that seems to have a penalty associated with it is second basemen fielding balls up the middle and having to throw to first while falling backwards.

And that's not to say that the above things shouldn't happen from time to time. We've all seen amazing plays made by infielders in real life. It just happens with far too much consistency in this game.

[WhiteBunny]

Quote: Originally Posted by sportsgamer5761

No matter where the pitch is thrown, I seem to hit into a ground ball double play almost literally every time a runner is on 1st.

That's why in my Cubs Franchise i called up Kawasaki from the Minors, he's a bunt artist.

[nemesis04]

Through the games history it has been heavy handed with the twin killing.

[DarthRambo]

Every year my team leads the league in double plays and it's not even close. Really wish they would tone them down somehow. I try my best to stay out of them but with using timing interface for hitting it feels impossible a lot of times. No way to control the pci and cpu seems to locate pitches down with too much consistency. This has been an issue with the game for years.

[KBLover]

Quote: Originally Posted by IrishSalsa

cpu seems to locate pitches down with too much consistency. This has been an issue with the game for years.

Quote: Originally Posted by Jr.

The defense turns them way too easy in the game with every throw being right on the money for the feed at 2B. I see more 360 spinning throws that are bullets right to the chest of the guy at second in this game than I've ever seen in real life.

I think these two things combined are where a lot of the issues lies.

The animations for turning DPs sure seem much quicker than the others fielders have, especially for throwing.

The throws to second are either right there or way off and you get no outs. Not much in between where the feed might be a little offline where the 2B might have to slow down that "neighborhood play" to make sure he gets the ball and the bag before making the return throw or anything like that.

And the difficult throws being right on the money a lot - yeah I see that. And it's tough because if you raise the throwing error slider for IF, you might see 4 Knoblauchs on the field suddenly.

CPU pitchers being able to locate low consistently, regardless of BB/9 or Control, seems to be part of it.

Another part is that it seems infield outs go right to infielders too much. Not a lot of moving a couple steps to field and then still throwing out. On DPs, those extra tenths of a second could add up to let the batter-runner beat it out. Combine that with more imperfect-but-not-error-causing throws and I think we'd start to see it subside.

[strawberryshortcake]

Quote: Originally Posted by KBLover

I think these two things combined are where a lot of the issues lies. The animations for turning DPs sure seem much quicker than the others fielders have, especially for throwing. Spoiler The throws to second are either right there or way off and you get no outs. Not much in between where the feed might be a little offline where the 2B might have to slow down that "neighborhood play" to make sure he gets the ball and the bag before making the return throw or anything like that. And the difficult throws being right on the money a lot - yeah I see that. And it's tough because if you raise the throwing error slider for IF, you might see 4 Knoblauchs on the field suddenly. CPU pitchers being able to locate low consistently, regardless of BB/9 or Control, seems to be part of it. Another part is that it seems infield outs go right to infielders too much. Not a lot of moving a couple steps to field and then still throwing out. On DPs, those extra tenths of a second could add up to let the batter-runner beat it out. Combine that with more imperfect-but-not-error-causing throws and I think we'd start to see it subside.

Haven't been playing this game much lately so I am not going to recall the animations for turning double plays.

But are you saying "The animations for turning DPs sure seem much quicker than the others fielders have, especially for throwing." is a bad thing?

From my recollection, I think fielders' throwing reaction are already too slow. The lack of urgency throwing animation is still often too frequent. The game doesn't need to slow down any more throwing animations. They need to increase the amount of urgency throws to a more realistic level. Turning double plays requires urgency. I don't want to see the game artificially nerfing realistic urgent fielding and throwing motions with nonchalant throws.

I'm currently playing the Japanese baseball games (PYS/Jikkyou), and not all doubles plays are successful at all. All the double plays turned have fielders with urgent fielding and throwing animation, however the difference is the runner is able to beat the throw to first with speed and secondly, where the balls are hit to the infielders makes the plays at first very close or unsuccessful. Maybe more ball hit variety is a better solution (not everything hit directly to the infielders), but definitely not toning down the speed of how the double plays are turned. I'm already frustrated by non-urgency throwing motions in MLB16. This is why I have been using the "fast forward" feature during pitching so I don't have to be further frustrated by non-urgency throws and errors that seem to come out of nowhere. Errors is a part of baseball, but some of the MLBshow errors simply don't look organically natural.