AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

[RandyBass]

These two things always felt off to me, seemed like AI hitters were far too disciplined, and AI pitchers were too good with their control. So I went ahead and checked real life numbers and sure enough I was right.

MLB hitters in real life chase roughly 26 pitches per game, per team. That is far more than you see in this game. You can check this data after each game. I'm lucky to get 15, even with nasty pitchers and well set up pitches.

The AI pitchers are a bit closer to real life numbers, but I've been very disciplined at the plate with a low number of pitches chased, and can average around 2 walks per game. Real life average is 3, with the team range going from 2.5-3.5. These are averages too, so there should be games above this range, but I'm just not seeing it enough. Might not seem like a big deal, but walks are pretty significant, ask any manager lol.

I used the new bug/suggestion form to report these two things. Vote on them if you want to see them perhaps get looked at:

AI hitters don't chase enough pitches

AI pitchers don't issue enough walks

Might be tough to fix without throwing something else out of balance, but still worth consideration in my opinion.

[kehlis]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

I'm kind of having the opposite problem.

I'm walking about 5 times a game so I'm good with that but I can't find good setting where I walk the CPU without sacrificing throwing mistakes to them every other pitch.

[RandyBass]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

I'm kind of having the opposite problem.

I'm walking about 5 times a game so I'm good with that but I can't find good setting where I walk the CPU without sacrificing throwing mistakes to them every other pitch.

Five times?! What difficulty are you using? I found I could draw walks on Legend through a handful of games, but found that it was too hard overall. Went down to All Star, after a few weeks of franchise with well disciplined hitting I'm at 2 BBs per game, with a high of 3.

As for pitching, yeah if you lower your control, you start serving it up. I've got my CPU contact all the way at zero, with the hopes that it would result in more chased pitches. It didn't really, hence the bug/suggestion report, but it also helps tone down the CPU jumping on every mistake.

[kehlis]

Five times?! What difficulty are you using? I found I could draw walks on Legend through a handful of games, but found that it was too hard overall. Went down to All Star, after a few weeks of franchise with well disciplined hitting I'm at 2 BBs per game, with a high of 3.

As for pitching, yeah if you lower your control, you start serving it up. I've got my CPU contact all the way at zero, with the hopes that it would result in more chased pitches. It didn't really, hence the bug/suggestion report, but it also helps tone down the CPU jumping on every mistake.

I'm on all star with control at default, consistency at 3, and strike consistency at 1.

I'm happy with settings, I'm now trying to figure out good settings for when I'm pitching, I should be walking more.

[BrianU]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

I'm on all star with control at default, consistency at 3, and strike consistency at 1.

I'm happy with settings, I'm now trying to figure out good settings for when I'm pitching, I should be walking more.

What control scheme are you using for Pitching? Have you tried Classic?

[RandyBass]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

I'm on all star with control at default, consistency at 3, and strike consistency at 1.

I'm happy with settings, I'm now trying to figure out good settings for when I'm pitching, I should be walking more.

I'm going to try something here, and that is not stray to far from the default sliders, the idea being that the balance is already close to being there and any extreme changes will throw things off.

Already got one game in using this theory and it got me four walks. What I did was move each slider no more than two notches either way, with cpu control at 4, and cpu consistency and cpu strike consistency at 3.

Onviously tough to tell after one game, though I will say I played my first few handful of games at default and had trouble drawing walks. Maybe the solution is slight changes, with extreme changes throwing things off too much. I guess we'll see.

Makes me wish there weren't sliders for this aspect of the game. They don't seem to serve any real purpose.

[RandyBass]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

If they expanded the aggressiveness of AI hitters it would probably result in more walks too, as you would be more inclined to pitch outside the zone, which would result in more total pitches outside the zone without having to lower your control and be subject to mistake pitches getting crushed.

So all in all it would make for more realistic strategy, and more realistic results. In theory at least.

[ParisB]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

I feel that its balanced perfectly. The AI batting is much more realistic this year. The hitter:s chase and bite on junk in the dirt in 0-2 counts. The pitcher k/Bb matters now. Pure money. Last year they all had eagle eyes.
As for User walks, that's all on you. I play on All star default except with srike frequency at 0, and I have 16 walks the last 3 games. The walks are there. I would turn down pitch speed to help develop your eye. Try not to swing at low off speed stuff.

[shifty_b]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

Off and on I have the problem of the AI pitcher painting corners all day (not going out of the zone enough for a walk), but I haven't really had the issue of AI hitters not chasing yet. They sometimes chase pitches that are a little further out of the zone than I would expect, but overall they aren't, in my experience, unwilling to chase quite a few pitches per game.

[RandyBass]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

ParisB, as noted my discipline has been good. If my chased pitch count is low then I should be rewarded with walks. I make more than a concerted effort. Bottom line is pitchers just throw too many strikes in this game. All the numbers back up this claim. It's not bad, just needs a slight tweak.

As for AI hitters not chasing pitches, same thing. It's not bad, just could be better.

[ParisB]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

I'm getting realistic strike percentages and walks issued from the CPU. I'm playing All-star default except CPU Strike Freq at 0 and CPU Consistency at 3. Don't mess with Control for now. Brian the dev said that Control can lead to more meatballs and strikes if you lower it.

Last year I complained that the CPU had a tendency to become robotic with the corner painting strikes. This year it has been fixed and in fact I've been a walk drawing machine, lol, and loving it.

I got Cahil to leave the 5th inning with 45% strikes.

[BegBy]

It's much better than last year, but both issues still present some problems. It might just be me but I think a lot of it from a batting perspective is the first pitch strike issue in conjunction with pitcher confidence. As I said, while better than last year, it's still there.

As far as batters being too disciplined I feel it's feast or famine. I struck out Cano 3 times last game (I was Ricky Romero) and Tex was the opposite. He got 4 hits. I don't mind guys taking pitches and I certainly don't mind a good hitter having my number, but I do mind a guy like Cano not even lifting the bat off his shoulder one time in 3 at bats in a row. It's as though they are programmed to just not offer at anything that isn't in their hot zone. Very unrealistic. With that said, it's not every batter now. It does feel a bit more organic.

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[DetroitStyle]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

One of the first things I noticed this year was that CPU pitchers give up more walks on default sliders and CPU batter chase more pitches. They don't chase as much as I'd like, but it's definitely an improvement over previous years.

[Bobhead]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

Balance issues don't normally get patched, so I'd advise you to warm up to sliders or warm up to dealing with it.
Sorry to be frank, I'm just a frank person.

And you can't really throw too much out of balance as long as you make specific and planned changes. Don't just go changing random sliders. Really a 1 point cut to both Consistency and Strike Frequency should be all you need.

[RandyBass]

Re: AI walks issued, AI pitches chased... Hopefully can be adjusted in a patch...

...Don't mess with Control for now. Brian the dev said that Control can lead to more meatballs and strikes if you lower it...

Aha! This may be it. I currently have it at four, and think I had it even lower before. I got consistency same as you, at 3, anything less and there are way too many WPs and HBPs. I've got strike frequency at 2 and am okay with that, the numbers for first pitch and early count strike percentage have been good.

Control though, I think that must be it, because I'm getting my chased pitches into the teens... And the strike percentages are pretty good, it's just the tail end of at bats where the cpu is just a bit to willing and able to throw a strike.

Thanks for the reply.