MLB The Show

[Cactus Drags]

1. I have The Show 09, is it worth getting '10, bearing in mind I have to import it?

2. How in the bloody hell do you hit the ball? I can't guess very well beforehand, I can't read it as it's coming and I always seem to hit a stupid flyball or ground out in embarrassing fashion. Hence why I am doing RTTS as a pitcher.

3. Is The show actually the best baseball franchise for PS3, especially for an English fan with not much baseball game experience?

[METALMAN]

I would love a baseball game and it seems like the best one. I'd have got it ages ago were it not for having to import it. I remember having High Heat Baseball or something ages ago for the PS2. It was ugly as sin but had fantastic gameplay.

[Cactus Drags]

I loved MVP 05 on the PS2, had a wicked soundtrack too. I just wish they didn't region-lock the 360 ones.

I've got The Show 10 on my PSP, but I don't know how it compares to the PS3 version, and it's kind of fiddly as shit.

[SeanDMan]

I have MLB The Show 10, and I also play RTTS as a pitcher.

Hitting is about lining up the path of the ball with the cursor and timing. Timing is key. Even if your cursor and the ball don't line up, timing can cause some weird bloop hits, but if you mistime it, it almost never drops; it'll usually either swing and miss, or foul it off. I'd suggest cheating: use the ability to modify rosters to create a superteam filled with all-stars in order to practice. The better skilled the player is, the more lenient the window to get a hit.

Here a few tips that I've found work for me:

1. Before you face a single pitch, assess the player you have. Is he a slugger, or is he a guy who you want to get on base and try and bring home? It's important to know your own players, because the last thing you want to do is get someone stuck on first who can't run for shit and try and bring him home with soft hitters who rely more on speed. Know your players and try and tailor your lineup to avoid overexposing anyone's weaknesses.

2. Again before you face a pitch, look at the pitches the opposing pitcher has, and what hand he has. Try and determine what kind of breaks you might be seeing. In general, this is how pitches will break:

Subtle or no break: Most cut fastballs, most 2 seam fastball, four seam fastball

Subtle drop: Most circle changes, most change ups, most sinkers, some 2 seam fastballs, most palmballs, some splitters

Severe drop: Curve, 12 6 curve, some palmballs, most splitters, some sinkers, some sweeping curves

Lateral movement: Slider, some cut fastballs, some 2 seam fastballs, some sinkers, some circle changes, most sweeping curves, slurves

Don't bother swinging: Knuckleball

The better a pitcher is, and the better he is at that pitch, the better his motion on his pitches will be. Motion, on a pitch, is for the most part something you pick up late. Usually, a pitch will seem to be coming straight and or slightly down. The motion on the ball will then change slightly about half a second before it passes the plate. That can cause ground balls if it's something with drop, or swing throughs if it's a more pronounced motion. Knowing what you're likely to see gives you an advantage. I would take almost all of your first pitches simply to see how his motions work and how strong he is with his pitches, and time his deliveries in terms of when it leaves his hand to when you hear the ump call it a ball or a strike. Get information, then use it.

3. On the first and second pitches, I look at his X pitch. The pitches tend to work like so: X is his best pitch, then O, then /\, then [ ], then R1. Most starters will have four or five pitches, of which two are mostly crap. The X pitch is NOT always the players best pitch. Generally, only left handed pitchers with the X pitch as a slider, or guys like Tim Hudson with the Sinker as his X pitch, actually have their best pitch in that slot. Otherwise, their best pitch will be their O pitch, and their X pitch will be a 4 seam fastball. CPU pitchers tend to throw 4 seam fastballs about 60-70 percent of the time, and almost always will throw 1-3 of them as the first three pitches of the at bat. For the first two pitches, I always guess pitch and select X unless it's someone with a pitch other than the 4 seamer at X, in which case I either guess X anyway if it's a slider, or I look for the 4 seamer and guess that if it's a sinker.

4. If you guess four seamer on the first pitch and you're correct, chances are he's trying to get ahead in the count and is about to deliver a hittable ball. Put your cursor slightly down from the center and try and time it right, and hit the power swing button. If it's a mid or low fastball and you time it right, you usually smoke it. I have (in an 07 franchise, which is basically the same) 5 guys who are 1-5 in terms of doubles, and it's because of the first pitch tending to be a meatball. If, however, you guess fastball and you're wrong, your cursor usually shrinks a bit. In that case, consider watching the ball. Even if it's a strike, it could be more useful to take one to see how the ball moves rather than swinging and missing with your small cursor.

5. Be patient. Pitchers who miss their spots with a pitch or two and face a two ball count will usually throw up a meatball for their next pitch. If you guess the pitch and you're wrong, wait it out: the CPU pitcher hits the zone about 30% of the time he throws a pitch and relies on umpire variance and human error to get strikes. So sit back and watch a ball or two, and wait for a pitch you can hit.

6. If you have 2 strikes, though, umpire variance will be more of an issue. With two strikes, you have to fight off more pitches that are close because they'll be called strikes for the 3rd strike when they normally would be called balls.

7. Generally, with no strikes, I guess four seamer, and power swing whether I'm right or not. If it's a slider or a subtle moving fastball, it usually has the same result. If it's a sharp breaking or dropping pitch, I miss it anyway, but I usually am pretty good now at spotting flat balls. With one strike, I still guess four seamer, but I'll only power swing if I was right; otherwise, I'll use a normal swing cause it's more likely to touch the ball. With two strikes, I won't guess the pitch, I'll just try and line it up and make a contact swing.

8. The exception to that is with sluggers; guys like Prince Fielder or Adam Dunn, who can hit a ball really hard but couldn't run the bases if you chased them with a gun. If they don't hit at least a double, they're worthless, because it will take an act of god to get them around from first to home. For them, I always guess four seamer, and I always power swing, no matter the count. A lot of pitches tend to make a low outside four seamer their punch out pitch anyway, and if you time a ball well with a guy like Dunn, that's a home run. In my aforementioned 07 Franchise, Adam Dunn in mid august has 67 home runs, and he's 2nd on my team in that regard.

9. You're a better hitter if your player is a better hitter. I tend to have .400 averages throughout my lineup in my 07 game because I have built a powerhouse. My 10 Franchise is the out of the box Pittsburgh Pirates, and I'm 2-7 through 9 games and most of my players are sub .300. I'm still a good hitter, I confirmed that in exhibition, and all the mechanics are unchanged, it's just that my team is that much worse. Practice will make you a better hitter, but making your players better hitters is a different challenge.

10. If you have any more specific questions, or none of this makes sense to you, I'll be aboot.

[Cactus Drags]

Wicked, thanks. I'll give it a go later, but I just started really enjoying my pitcher career again. Just got called up to Baltimore as one of the starters has a fractured head (?!?!), had to play the Mets so I wasn't protected by the DH. I have pretty much 0's across the board for batting ability (I know pitchers aren't really expected to be good hitters). Managed a single and moved a runner into scoring position. Got an e-mail after the game yelling at me for not fdollowing my base coach's signals (I'd never come across that before, didn't know what it meant at all). Apparently I should have bunted.

[HailtotheYo]

I echo everything that SDM put up there.

I will just add this: don't get frustrated, as easy as it is to do. When I started my RTTS I couldn't hit a damned thing. I switched the settings around so that the cursor was irrelevent so that I could do nothing but get the timing of ALL the pitches down. That took a little while, but it was worth it. For me, the cursor movement was already natural to do in my swing, so the timing was what I needed to work on. I used the spring training games in my first few seasons to do nothing but work on timing. It paid of in a big way.

[SeanDMan]

Wicked, thanks. I'll give it a go later, but I just started really enjoying my pitcher career again. Just got called up to Baltimore as one of the starters has a fractured head (?!?!), had to play the Mets so I wasn't protected by the DH. I have pretty much 0's across the board for batting ability (I know pitchers aren't really expected to be good hitters). Managed a single and moved a runner into scoring position. Got an e-mail after the game yelling at me for not fdollowing my base coach's signals (I'd never come across that before, didn't know what it meant at all). Apparently I should have bunted.

I had the same thing happen. I was sent up and told to get the runner over, so I laid down a perfect bunt, but I was unaware it was my job to command the baserunner too, so he didn't break at all and got thrown out at second. They pulled me for a pinch runner and that was the ballgame.

[HailtotheYo]

Ugh, I hate when the camera switches and it fucks up your baserunning

Half the time I don't even pay attention to the signs/calls made by the manager, because half the time they don't make sense.

[SeanDMan]

The one big thing that makes me want to switch from 07 to 10 is how much better the fielder AI is. Making proper calls on when to go home instead of to a base, and better double play motions. It seems a lot more fluid on defense, which is good, because the AI in 07 is sometimes quite boneheaded.

[Cactus Drags]

I made a retarded play this morning. Not realising that the icons you hit to throw to bases are reversed between picking off and throwing in the field, I chased down a bunted ball and promptly threw to third, where no one was running.

[Toe]

I turn down the CPU Pitcher Strike Frequency, because I could never draw a walk. I still don't draw many, but I find it helps. One way to get better at hitting is to see a lot of pitches and start to understand what is thrown when. Also, if you can get a pitcher into the 80 and 90 pitch range, they start to give up more and more meatballs that you can hammer.

[Cactus Drags]

I'm struggling at the moment with my RTTS pitcher, I can't seem to make guys miss. Fortunately, they hit a lot of foul balls, but I usually have a choice between throwing a ball or hitting a bat. Also, some pitches are going nowhere near where I expect them or aim at. I've improved things like my K/9 attribute, so I'm guessing it's the individual control stat for the pitch types.

[Toe]

I've barely played RTTS, so I have no idea about your stats and stuff. I just know you have to be unpredictable. It's better to have a guy 1-2 then 0-2 since at 0-2, it seems. Start guys out with balls sometimes, and when you have control of the count try to pick the corners. If they hit, its going to be a poor hit, and if they let it go you might catch the corner or get a friendly call.

Also, do not be afraid to give bad hitters something to hit. It can burn you, but most of the time they will pop it up.

Edited July 27, 2010 by Toe

[HailtotheYo]

I'm struggling at the moment with my RTTS pitcher, I can't seem to make guys miss. Fortunately, they hit a lot of foul balls, but I usually have a choice between throwing a ball or hitting a bat. Also, some pitches are going nowhere near where I expect them or aim at. I've improved things like my K/9 attribute, so I'm guessing it's the individual control stat for the pitch types.

Fatigue is one issue that effects this, but also the power you throw the pitch with as well. It's the difference between winding the slider so tight that it doesn't really move, or snapping it so tight it slides right off the screen. Mess with your timing in the pitching meter and see how it messes with the pitch placement/ball movement of the pitch.

[KevinStorm]

What is this cursor thing you guys are talking about with hitting? Is that where you move the left stick to aim the oval looking thing?

[StoneColdSwede]

I have 09, and before getting it I read all about guessing the pitch when hitting and whatnot, and when I tried it out for myself it drove me nuts. So now I stay away from any type of guessing and just look at the pitch and the ball and decide whether or not to take a swing. I don't even mess around with the analog sticks, I just hit away when the pitch is looking favorable. And seeing as how it's giving me a whole hell of a lot more hits, I'm sticking with it.

[SeanDMan]

What is this cursor thing you guys are talking about with hitting? Is that where you move the left stick to aim the oval looking thing?

It's technically called the "plate coverage indicator", but fuck saying that six times.

Guessing pitches is the best way to slug effectively, because pitchers tend to throw a lot of four seam fastballs down in the zone, which are extremely hittable balls. But you can easily hit for a good average by just having great timing, you'll just do better to produce a lot of extra base hits if you guess your pitches and power swing.

One more thing I like about the show, and this was mentioned on one of the GameFAQ boards: The sound. Specifically, the crowd sound. I love how when Carlos Beltran comes to bat at home, the crowd chants "MVP!", but if he comes to the plate away from home, they chant "Overrated!". I love how whenever Mark Loretta steps up to bat at Shea, some fan yells "You're a bum, Loretta!", as if he is aware that Loretta was on my Mets team for four months before he traded him because he couldn't hit for shit. I love how on Show 10, there's one random fan who yells "The Buck stops here!" when John Buck of all people step to the plate. If this game includes custom audio for randoms like John Buck you know it will be a while until you've heard everything.

My favourite is still "if you don't have a visible parking pass you will go to prison for no less than ten years" if you leave it on pause for a while.

[Toe]

I play as the Braves. I love it when the away crowds start chanting "Laaaaaaarry, Laaaaaaaary" at Chipper just before I smash a two run homer.

[Meacon Keaton]

I'm going to echo the audio love. During my RTTS when I'm at the plate I love hearing them yell my name, and I love it even more when they taunt me on the road.

Also I love Guess the Pitch. I always just assume it's going to be a four-seam fastball. That way if I'm right, I'm dead on it when he pipes it in there, and if I'm wrong, I'm more likely to sit back and wait for a breaking pitch and rip it.

[HailtotheYo]

^ except for guys that have bad ass change ups