[JoshC1977]

Steps for Using Dynamic Difficulty:

Lots of new players this year; so let's not assume everyone knows everything. I've referenced "All Star Plus" in my thread and I'm sure many folks don't know what that is. MLB The Show has something called "Dynamic Difficulty". If you set the game difficulty to "Dynamic", the game will adjust what level you're playing on based on your performance. So you can go from Rookie all the way up to Legend. In the slider screen, there is a dynamic difficulty sensitivity slider that allows you to adjust how quickly the level will change based on performance. Set to 0, it won't budge.

Here's the super-cool thing. There are "plus" levels which are middle-grounds between difficulties and these are often fantastic for many players. So, instead of going from All Star to Hall of Fame, you go from All Star to All Star+ to Hall of Fame. I really love All Star+ because it is still a ratings-based format (unlike the more arcade-like HOF difficulty) but it also provides that little extra edge I want. Here's how you get there.

1. Go into game settings and change hitting and pitching to dynamic.
2. Load sliders, make sure the dynamic difficulty sensitivity slider is set to 5. (It can be higher as well while you do your run to boost the difficulty).
3. Save any changes to the sliders.
4. Go into a Play Now game and see what level it has you set to (there will be a pop-up).
5. Play the game and wait for it to go to AS+. (now...if it starts you at a lower level...go ahead and boost the sensitivity slider to 10 and/or bias the sliders completely in your favor - this all will just make it go faster).
6. Once you hit AS+ on both hitting and pitching, exit the game you're playing. Go and load the OP sliders and then change the dynamic difficulty sensistivity slider to 0. That will lock you into AS+.
7. Once in franchise, double check your game settings and sliders and make sure they are what you want.

Nuances of Classic Pitching
You definitely have some control over pitch outcome. How long you hold the button matters. It affects pitch speed, command, and the amount of break on breaking pitches. It just isn't 'push a button and go'...there is far more subtlety in it. In fact, if you simply tap the button, it is an excellent way to get shelled".

When pitching in classic, you have about a 1 second time period before you get the controller vibration (i.e. max-effort). The following are my observations...

Max effort pitches (holding the button down till the vibration) result in the following:
More velocity
Less control
A sharper break on breaking pitches
Pitches tend to rise more

Minimum effort pitches (tapping the button) results in the following:
Less velocity
Better control
"Loopier" breaking balls (especially curves/sliders
Pitches sink more (due to lower velo) - changeups will pretty constantly wind up in the dirt
In many cases, an "intermediate" duration is optimal. However, you can vary this from pitch to pitch (i.e. like a pitcher adding/subtracting from the speed of the pitch). This is a tremendous way to keep hitters off-balance to help to avoid them getting solid contact/timing.

For those of you who have pitched IRL, think of the button press duration as your arm velocity. Full duration is you using your max arm velocity, tapping is like you taking a lot off the pitch.

This is definitely just the tip of the iceberg, but should get folks started.