Catchers too slow to pounce on blocked balls in dirt

[Azamien]

Quote: Originally Posted by sfpxgalaxy

I think that the problem is the unrealistic reaction time of the runners.

That's certainly half of the problem, but the way the catcher reacts is the other half.

As an example, today I had a ball stay within arm's reach of the catcher. But instead of just picking it up from his knees, he popped up, shed his mask, reached down for the ball, then did the infuriating fist pound into his glove before throwing. The combination of the runner going on a ball that no real-life runner moves on and the terrible catcher reaction allowed the runner to take 3rd.

[RockPowderDownLoL]

I have been having a problem where i can react quickly with my catcher but he ALWAYS lobs the throw to third if he has a chance to get the runner out and the runner is always safe because of the lobbed throw.

[capa]

This is an area where they really dropped the ball this year...no pun intended.

The catcher botches too many pitches...his reaction time is so so...and too often his throws to try to nail the advancing runner are lobbed or very under powered.

They need to patch this...again. Pitchers with big breaking balls wind up throwing 3-5 WPs per game sometimes because of the current logic and animations. Runners are advancing way too often and with ease most of the time.

Much work is needed to be done here. I do hope they have this on their radar...for THIS year.

C

[nomo17k]

The developers are aware of the issue and have said that they are looking into it in a post-patch thread (1.05 or 1.06 I believe)... to what extend they will go to tone this down, it remains to be seen.

As far as I can tell, I don't think things around wild pitches have improved with the most recent patch (1.07). On average, I still see about 2 - 3 times more wild pitches in CPU vs. CPU games than the MLB average per game.

[mikelecrenski]

This has come close to ruining the game for me. I can't throw a breaking ball in the dirt with a runner on base.

It is funny too, because if the bases are empty and you throw breaking balls the catcher will also catch it but as soon as you have that runner on base they will drop the ball.

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by mikelecrenski

This has come close to ruining the game for me. I can't throw a breaking ball in the dirt with a runner on base. It is funny too, because if the bases are empty and you throw breaking balls the catcher will also catch it but as soon as you have that runner on base they will drop the ball.

Yeah, I think this is how a lot of pitches in the dirt were handled in MLB 16... by not dropping them at all... catchers in MLB 16 were able to do this more often with runners on base. That's one of the bigger differences I could see between catchers in MLB 16 and 17.

That's why I'm wondering why it cannot be reverted in that direction a little bit (but not too much). That's no way the most satisfying solution over a longer term (fielding urgency and base running aggression are both issues), but at least it can help with reducing the inflation in the current game.

[Greencollarbaseball]

I think if they just tone down the jump runners get on balls in the dirt it will fix most of the problems. Catchers don't seem to react fast enough because by the time they do, the runners super jump makes the play not close. If runners actually read that the ball is far enough away and then decided to go or not, it would cut down the wild pitches being attributed.

I do agree that sometimes the catchers take their time and then lollipop the throw, especially on plays to third.


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