Rebuilding the Rockies

[Bluesman]

I wanted to take a team and do either a partial or a full teardown, and am eyeing the Rockies as I think their playing in CO makes them a unique candidate. I plan on simming the first year, going through the offseason, and starting to play games for the 2017 season. I was looking for feedback from Rockies fans/franchise players as well as answers to a few questions:

To simulate the change in playing in CO, I was going to increase the contact and power for both teams by 1. Is there anything else I should adjust? I've read that Rockies hitters can have issues on the road due to seeing "better" breaking balls away from the thin air, so I was thinking of maybe dropping my team's contact by 1.

It appears that sliders are the most effective breaking pitches, and cut fastballs (often) the most effective fastball. What effect would a screwball have, as I am thinking of targeting Brent Honeywell from the Rays? Is there a way I can set an organizational strategy to teach certain pitch types to players, or is this something I will have to do manually while creating some house rules around?

Is it possible to induce groundball contact while pitching? I've primarily thrown the pitch/location called by the catcher, or thrown a certain way if I was knowledgeable enough about the hitter from watching them IRL.

I would be interested in any of your feedback and experiences playing as the Rockies.

[Jr.]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bluesman

I wanted to take a team and do either a partial or a full teardown, and am eyeing the Rockies as I think their playing in CO makes them a unique candidate. I plan on simming the first year, going through the offseason, and starting to play games for the 2017 season. I was looking for feedback from Rockies fans/franchise players as well as answers to a few questions: To simulate the change in playing in CO, I was going to increase the contact and power for both teams by 1. Is there anything else I should adjust? I've read that Rockies hitters can have issues on the road due to seeing "better" breaking balls away from the thin air, so I was thinking of maybe dropping my team's contact by 1. It appears that sliders are the most effective breaking pitches, and cut fastballs (often) the most effective fastball. What effect would a screwball have, as I am thinking of targeting Brent Honeywell from the Rays? Is there a way I can set an organizational strategy to teach certain pitch types to players, or is this something I will have to do manually while creating some house rules around? Is it possible to induce groundball contact while pitching? I've primarily thrown the pitch/location called by the catcher, or thrown a certain way if I was knowledgeable enough about the hitter from watching them IRL. I would be interested in any of your feedback and experiences playing as the Rockies.

I don't think you'll need to raise power while you're at home as I believe the game does that already. I like your idea of adjusting home and road though.

You cannot set a strategy to teach certain pitches. I know the Rockies current strategy when it comes to drafting/developing pitchers is looking for velocity. They tried getting sinkerballers in the past, but the ball just doesn't move at Coors like it does at other parks, so now they're thinking just get hard throwers and blow it by people.

For in-game pitching strategy, I would focus on staying low in the zone early in the at-bat, then expanding up and out when looking to put guys away. So get ahead with fastball/offspeed (primarily changeups I would say) low in the zone, then try to throw high velocity fastballs by guys up in the zone, or if they don't swing, use that as a set up for working below the zone and away with breaking pitches.