Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

[Sgexpat]

I'm wondering whether any players can give me advice on what adjustments to make in order to achieve realistic rate stats for pitching BB's.

Just to set some context:
-Achieving K-rates similar to IRL K-rates [for my pitchers]
-Opp. batting average / opp. hr's etc are fairly close to IRL as well
-All Star
-Human control 0 / human consistency 0
-CPU contact 7 / CPU solid hits 6
-As A&S suggests I don't have pitch trail indicator or strike zone showing
-Meter pitching

I am throwing roughly half as many BB's as would be expected for the pitchers I have. E.g. D Salazar should throw 50-70 walks in 230 innings, but with me he only threw 24 in 221 IP. Another was Chris Archer, he only threw 27 in 231 IP, again around 50% less than IRL.

This results in pitches who are good being a little *too good* because of facing fewer hitters and having fewer guys on base, reducing their WHIP and ERA accordingly.

Before anyone suggests going to HOF / Legend mode, I've been there , done that. I got higher ERA's, but the game played less realistically in other ways - too much contact, way too few swings and misses and CPU does not chase realistically as compared with how players actually chase IRL (e.g. waving at the low curve just doesn't happen on Legend). I played half a season on Legend mode and achieved good outcomes but averaged <5.5 K/9 with legit strikeout pitchers, and the game was lacking the excitement you get when getting a swing-and-a-miss, and inducing a guy to chase out of the zone was not as frequent / effective as before. I should also note that playing on Legend did not materially alter my pitching BB rate.

Any suggestions would be great, as I'm seeing hitting stats that are uncanny in their similarity to IRL / historical performance on my guys, and the rest of the pitching stats are also pretty close to what you'd expect, but this lack of BB is really frustrating.

Was thinking about doing a dice roll or randomised IBB based on the BB rate for each of my pitchers IRL. This would probably solve it but would be pretty irritating.

[KBLover]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Maybe try Pulse or Classic with your 0/0 setup and see?

You'll have far less control (in theory) over your pitches, so if you try to paint the black or even sometimes when you're not, you'll miss more often.

If you're good with Meter, I could see that making it hard to miss often enough to issue walks.

Pulse does have a user input mechanic so it doesn't feel as random as Classic. Plus the randomness is confined to the border of the pulse circle, so if it's small, you won't just miss by 2 feet just because. You still might miss the zone, especially if you were trying to nibble the edges, though.

[underdog13]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Nvm misread

[KBLover]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Honestly I think you should bump it up to HOF Pitching, I never walked that many guys on All-Star. The AI's discipline on HOF is just better and they will walk more.

He already mentioned that he did that and didn't like the other side effects of the difficulty.

[underdog13]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

He already mentioned that he did that and didn't like the other side effects of the difficulty.

Dang Cant believe i missed that

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[Sgexpat]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Maybe try Pulse or Classic with your 0/0 setup and see?

You'll have far less control (in theory) over your pitches, so if you try to paint the black or even sometimes when you're not, you'll miss more often.

If you're good with Meter, I could see that making it hard to miss often enough to issue walks.

Pulse does have a user input mechanic so it doesn't feel as random as Classic. Plus the randomness is confined to the border of the pulse circle, so if it's small, you won't just miss by 2 feet just because. You still might miss the zone, especially if you were trying to nibble the edges, though.

Honestly I'd never considered pulse as a solution but I will try this today!

The meter perhaps is a bit too precise in the sense that even at 0/0 when you hit the meter the pitch is close enough.

Cheers!

[KBLover]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Honestly I'd never considered pulse as a solution but I will try this today!

The meter perhaps is a bit too precise in the sense that even at 0/0 when you hit the meter the pitch is close enough.

I hope you like it because I feel like I'm the only one using it on the board lol. Just seems like the "forgotten interface".

[Sgexpat]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

I hope you like it because I feel like I'm the only one using it on the board lol. Just seems like the "forgotten interface".

quick question on it - appears there's no way to vary your pitch effort and reach back to put a little extra mustard on the ball. Am I right in that understanding? Do you find that detracts from the game or your enjoyment is unhindered by that? Thanks again for the advice!

[KBLover]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

quick question on it - appears there's no way to vary your pitch effort and reach back to put a little extra mustard on the ball. Am I right in that understanding? Do you find that detracts from the game or your enjoyment is unhindered by that? Thanks again for the advice!

That's true, but it doesn't bother me too much. It's usually just a MPH or two (and variance on the velocity can do that on its own), plus, at least in Classic where you can, it seems to detract from the command.

[bobzyauncle]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

That's true, but it doesn't bother me too much. It's usually just a MPH or two (and variance on the velocity can do that on its own), plus, at least in Classic where you can, it seems to detract from the command.

Does the fact you can't control velocity +/- using pulse pitching seem realistic to everyone? I like the fact you can't have as good an accuracy pitch but to sgexpats point, putting extra heat on a pitch is a fairly important aspect I would have thought?

[KBLover]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Does the fact you can't control velocity +/- using pulse pitching seem realistic to everyone? I like the fact you can't have as good an accuracy pitch but to sgexpats point, putting extra heat on a pitch is a fairly important aspect I would have thought?

I don't have any data on how often pitchers do it in the real game what effects it has.

In terms of pitching in the game, it doesn't impact things much to me. Chapman still blows people away, Urias still has his young-pitcher warts, Dickey was still up and down, etc.

I played on Classic where, in theory, you could "consistently" increase the velocity of pitches, and things play out the same either way. I never consistently got the increased velocity - I basically stopped using it as I never saw any benefit.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Outside of simming, walks have to be the single hardest stat to replicate.
Now when pitching, walk rates are a bit easier to reproduce than when hitting.

I'm curious what's the most walks OS users have been able to get out of a single hitter when playing an entire season with no sim.

[Sgexpat]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Outside of simming, walks have to be the single hardest stat to replicate.
Now when pitching, walk rates are a bit easier to reproduce than when hitting.

I'm curious what's the most walks OS users have been able to get out of a single hitter when playing an entire season with no sim.

I have found the walks hitting to be much easier than pitching (and I have long stretches of swinging at bad pitches). This past season I walked 115 times with Giancarlo Stanton, for example. I had between 8-15 percent walk rates on most batters.

Not a single inning simmed

[KBLover]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

I have found the walks hitting to be much easier than pitching (and I have long stretches of swinging at bad pitches). This past season I walked 115 times with Giancarlo Stanton, for example. I had between 8-15 percent walk rates on most batters.

Not a single inning simmed

Just curious, what's your take and chase rates (as reported on Batter Analysis - chase rate is Chased/Swung) in a typical game for you?

I've had games where I hardly chase, take a lot, and end up with 1 freaking walk.

I'm basically playing like Adam Dunn/Joey Votto when I'm on...without getting the walks Not much frustrates me more in this game than to take a good approach only to have the AI get in 'pound the zone' mode because it's a 3-ball count until you K or put it in play.

[Sgexpat]

Re: Rate stats realism issue (BB's)

Just curious, what's your take and chase rates (as reported on Batter Analysis - chase rate is Chased/Swung) in a typical game for you?

I've had games where I hardly chase, take a lot, and end up with 1 freaking walk.

I'm basically playing like Adam Dunn/Joey Votto when I'm on...without getting the walks Not much frustrates me more in this game than to take a good approach only to have the AI get in 'pound the zone' mode because it's a 3-ball count until you K or put it in play.

Good question, I've actually not looked! But I will and will come back on this.

I think the slider settings are important too. I have CPU strike frequency at 2 and CPU control at 2. I find above that they always pound the zone at a rate which indeed makes walking almost impossible.

The best advice I can give is:
-take the first 3 pitches most at bats
-always take 3-0 and 3-1
-be willing to take 3-2
-usually take 0-2
-if you can avoid it don't swing at any breaking pitches. It just boosts their pitch confidence and often you get very little in exchange
-only swing of the ball is headed directly into your reticle. Unless defending 2 strikes take strikes in the zone if not in your pci. extends your at bats (by reducing weak contact outs) and by nature increases your total walk rate
-in zone cover high/mid only and take everything else with the exception of sinker / 2 seamer / junk ballers for whom you do the opposite (cover mid to low zone and take everything else)

Best innings are where you only swing 5-6 times.