The AI does not know how to be patient at the plate

[Detroit Tigers]

Quote: Originally Posted by kdutch98

Depends on the situation, honestly. With a light hitter, and the bases empty, I will challenge the hitter on 3-2, knowing he is probably not going to take me deep. With a power hitter up, who is probably looking dead red, I will throw either a borderline pitch, or something outside the zone, because a walk is better than a home run. It all depends on what the situation dictates. But I agree, some guys will never throw a pitch out of the zone on a 3 ball count.

Right on. Yeah what I’m doing most often on the mound is trying to throw pitches where I’m saying “ok, hit this” when I release it. I really have no idea if it’ll be a ball or strike and don’t particularly care, I just know that if does what I expect it to do it’ll be tough to deal with.

That’s my approach for every pitch regardless of count or situation. Count and situation determines which pitch to throw and where, but the nature of the pitch itself will always be a variant of “ok try to hit this” or “ok this pitch is unhittable” without worrying about ball or strike.

Of course there’s also full variance on the back of this, where absolutely there are times where “this HAS to be a strike” is a thing, but I will still attempt to throw something that’s unhittable for that hitter, for that at-bat.

And, when you pitch like that, every pitcher is totally unique.