Stealing

[COMMISSIONERHBK9]

What the best count to steal and what is best to go by when you steal the person speed and steal rating or just speed or just steal rating ?

[Jr.]

Re: Stealing

What the best count to steal and what is best to go by when you steal the person speed and steal rating or just speed or just steal rating ?

Counts where you anticipate an offspeed pitch are the best to run in.

As for the ratings, I like to have guys at least at a 60 in both speed and steal to attempt a straight steal. So o look at both, unless one is like 85 or above.

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[jcar0725]

Re: Stealing

Speed is obvious and speed rating is how often he'll get a great jump. Both are important but I had high speed guys that can't steal too well because they get poor jumps.

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[Funkycorm]

Re: Stealing

What the best count to steal and what is best to go by when you steal the person speed and steal rating or just speed or just steal rating ?

Large parts of this are situational.

The best running counts are when the pitcher is not likely to pitch out. Typically counts like 2-0, 3-0, 2-1, 3-1, and 2-2

To a lesser extent, counts like 1-0, 1-1, 0-0 but more likely to see pitch outs here so unless it is a true speedster at first, then it is a bit more risky.

Never run in counts like 0-1, 0-2, 1-2 because pitch outs are likely here because they can easily waste a pitch.

So much of baseball is situational too and that is the thing. If I am down by 1 in the 9th and I have a speedster on first I am less likely to steal with him than of it were the 4th inning because I don't want to lose that tying runner and chance he is thrown out.

The only way to truly know is to do this in game. You will start to see pitcher patterns and know when it is good or not ideal to run.

A simplified rule to think about all of this: if the pitcher can easily waste a pitch, it is not a good time to run.

As far as ratings, if at least one is not 60 or more they will have less success but still very much depends on the above and is still situational.

If I need a steal and it is late game and the runner is less than 40 overall, it is easier to pinch run than to force a steal.


If you take anything from this, baseball is situational. You will know when to run just by playing and seeing those patterns.

[jeffy777]

Re: Stealing

The AI will unfortunately almost always unrealisticly pitchout at least once early on (even if a guy has like 60's speed), so your best bet is to wait till they pitchout (usually after 1 or 2 pitches) and then go on the very next pitch as they rarely pitchout twice in a row. Then you just have to pray they don't slidestep


I really hope SDS tones down the pitchouts eventually as they are actually pretty rare in real baseball these days compared to how frequent they are in The Show.

[COMMISSIONERHBK9]

Re: Stealing

I notice this year the ai pitching is more smarter the cpu pitch out twice i ran on the third pitch but he side step and caught me out

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Stealing

On a related note, do you guys have advice for getting CPU pitchers to be less paranoid about throwing over to first base? I have the slider set all the way to zero, and yet there are still times nearly every game where my player just begins to take one step away from the base, and the CPU pitcher fires the ball over to the bag and picks him off. And this doesn't just happen when I do it manually or tell them to steal, it happens ALL the time.

Given that I already have the slider as far down as it can go, is there anything else that I can do? I'm playing 20, and never had this problem with older versions of the game.

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: Stealing

I somewhat disagree not stealing on 0-2. Sometimes on that count they will bounce a pitch in the dirt.

[RainOnTim]

Re: Stealing

The AI will unfortunately almost always unrealisticly pitchout at least once early on (even if a guy has like 60's speed), so your best bet is to wait till they pitchout (usually after 1 or 2 pitches) and then go on the very next pitch as they rarely pitchout twice in a row. Then you just have to pray they don't slidestep


I really hope SDS tones down the pitchouts eventually as they are actually pretty rare in real baseball these days compared to how frequent they are in The Show.

I disagree that they rarely pitchout twice in a row. If they pitchout on the first pitch, they seem pretty likely to do it again. Especially if you're taking an extra lead. Honestly, it feels like you can pretty realiably get yourself a 2-0 or 2-1 count by taking an extra lead and scaring the CPU. Both those counts I find are pretty reliable counts to run on.

I feel like to be able to tone down CPU pitchouts, they need to completely change stealing too. It's much more viable in the game than it is in real life.

EDIT: Wanted to add this too: You also need to consider more than just the count. Some pitchers have incredibly slow deliveries, even in the stretch. This makes stealing a lot easier than it would be against quicker pitchers. Then there's pitch speed. If a guy throws 100+ he will be harder to steal on than a guy who throws 90. Some pitchers through slow enough that even if they slide step or pitchout you can still beat them easily if you have a good speed/steal ratings on first.

[Funkycorm]

Re: Stealing

I somewhat disagree not stealing on 0-2. Sometimes on that count they will bounce a pitch in the dirt.

They will throw in the dirt on this count I agree but there is a good chance they will pitch out as well.

Like anything in baseball, it is all situational so there is no wrong answer here.