2012 MLB Games

[apsham]

I've been playing MLB: The Show 2011 from a friend and I was wondering if I should bother going out and purchasing 2012, or should I just keep this borrowed and do 2013 next year? I'm getting pretty deep into my player's career and I figure I should make up my mind soon.

[Cactus Drags]

Gah, first game against the Astros since I was traded and we lost 5-2. I pitched pretty well, but the infield collectively shat the bed and routine double play balls became doubles, outfielders were diving at balls they shouldn;t have been diving it, it was horrendous. And yet again, no run support. Dodgers were in the World Series last season, and I'm 6-2 going into the All-Star break; I don't know why we're struggling to get above .500

[SeanDMan]

I've been playing MLB: The Show 2011 from a friend and I was wondering if I should bother going out and purchasing 2012, or should I just keep this borrowed and do 2013 next year? I'm getting pretty deep into my player's career and I figure I should make up my mind soon.

I'd wait; I don't have 2011 or 2012 but usually the changes are subtle, and if you take a few years off, more things will be new to you and thus you'll feel like you got better value. Plus, by 2013 the Blue Jays might actually be good.

I guess fastball and in, then down at two strikes.

I gave Dragsy advice for hitting on The Show 10 and I still stand by everything I said, so I'm just going to quote it:

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.

[Trey]

Do I need to raise the ones like k/9 in RTTS or are those just for simming purposes?

[apsham]

Are there any known controller issues with MLB 2011? It's weird - everytime I try to do the guess pitch thing, the screen will pop itself up again or won't accept what I've put in. At the same time, sometimes the up and down starts to skip, and entirely freezes at points near the end game when I am trying to exit the game.. it's really odd. I'll notice the game skipping a little bit here and there too.

[apsham]

So I started out drafted by the Giants and of course, playing on their AA team. I lead the team to the top of the division - I'm leading in home runs, slugging, average, RBIs you name it. Then I get traded along with three other guys for a single player from the Cubs and I'm stuck on their go no where farm team. No matter how well I play the bastards can't get it right. Grr. I somehow still managed to end the season on top of most of the important columns for the entire league, and I'm playing for the Cubs in their spring training. But the chances I am getting.. yowch.

[Trey]

So you're mad at the fact you can't turn around the Cubs? Welcome to the past 100 years.

[Damian WayLNKe]

I've got three e-mails now saying that I would be promoted to the majors, but they have no room on the 40-man roster. I'm about to finish my second season in my career so I better be promoted by the start of year three.

[Cactus Drags]

I realise that my RttS pitcher is now 33, but I'm still rated the best pitcher in the league, and my K/9, H/9, HR/9 and BB/9 stats are all at 99, yet I don't get that many strikeouts and I'm giving up at least 6 or 7 hits a game. Generally speaking, that's not translating to any more than 2 or 3 runs, but I'd like to at least get close to a no hitter by the time I retire.

I presume given my ratings that it's something I'm doing wrong. Either that, or the sliders need adjusting - to be fair, I'm pretty sure my 3rd baseman was dropped on his head at birth, and my catcher can never ever throw a guy out on a steal attempt. But still. Let's assume it's me that's in the wrong. Statistically, I'm giving up way more hits than anyone else on the league leader lists, and conversely far fewer walks. So at a guess, I'm throwing too many pitches in the zone? The problem is that I throw where the catcher tells me to (since I'm not a hardcore baseball fan, I'm not exactly sure where/what to throw on what count). The other problem is that the AI never seems to chase anything out of the zone, and anything inside the zone is hit - I see a lot of balls fouled off, which means I get in a lot of deep counts. And I don't seem to wear them down, they just keep fouling them off until they get a hit. I just can't seem to fool anyone, at least not regularly.

Also, the pitch location training can fuck off forever. Even with my ridiculous ratings (99s for control etc.) I cannot hit the spots with any kind of consistency - pulse pitching just does not allow for that degree of control. Even at its smallest, the aiming circle is bigger than the square target, it's bloody frustrating.

[Meacon Keaton]

Definitely sounds like too many pitches in the zone. Don't throw strikes if you have two strikes and less than two balls. Try to get them to swing at bad pitches.

[Cactus Drags]

Yeah, I do try, particularly on 0-2. but then I always end up getting back to 2-2, 3-2 because they just don't swing. Had a couple of better games towards the end of the season, but apparently the Dodgers don't care about fielding. Nor do they care about scoring runs while I'm in position to get the win. It still irks me that I join a team that made the World Series the season before and they fail to make the playoffs two years in a row (struggled to get to .500 both times). Didn't feel like I was stepping up to an elite team (I expected the Astros to be average).

Still, with 6 years service, I qualify as a proper free agent, Dodgers want me for 5 years, but I just can't make that commitment given how poor they've been. Red Sox make an offer, but ew. Took a one year deal with the Reds (ALCS finalists last season), so hoepfully 2019 will be better. I'm 33 and never been in the playoffs!

As an aside, I love how dramatically the rosters change through the years. It may be jsut me, but it doesn't seem nearly as dramatic in Madden or NHL. The Reds have Cano

[KevinStorm]

What pitches do you use?

[phatman]

Can I just ask... Is there much difference between The Show '11 and The Show '12?

Would I be missing much to just pick up '11 cheaply instead of getting '12?

[KevinStorm]

I believe the ball physics in 12 were completely re-done.

[Cactus Drags]

What pitches do you use?

4-seamer, change, slider, sweeping curve and 2 seamer.

[Toe]

I really dislike the change and the 2 seam fastball. A good heater and slider is all I need!

[Cactus Drags]

I predominantly use the 4 seam and the slider. The change is to throw them off balance and the others I just wanted different directions and something to spend my bajillion training points on.

[Toe]

In 2k the 12-6 is great. In the Show, its not a good pitch for me. The normal curve or the slurve are pretty good if used carefully.

[Cactus Drags]

When I'm locked in with the sweeping curve, I'm unhittable. But if the spot's off just a little, it's a godamnned beach ball.

(This is all on Show 12)

[SeanDMan]

What pitches do you use?

4-seamer, change, slider, sweeping curve and 2 seamer.

Okay, some advice from a guy who also plays a pitcher RTTS:

4 seamer: use it constantly, throw it everywhere. You want to keep it low most of the time and most of the time in the corners but every once in a while, put it in his grill and throw it high and tight to try and jam him up and get him to pop a fly out.

Change: Use it as a 2 strike pitch, if you've thrown a couple fastballs in a row, drop the change on the outside corner, most times they won't swing.

Slider: Use it as a 1 strike pitch. If you're up against a guy with the same handedness as you, throw it high and tight to try and get him to jam up on it. If you're pitching against a guy the opposite handedness as you, have it slide off the plate and catch the outside corner, great way to get groundouts to third/short.

Sweeping curve: Use it as a 2 strike pitch. If you've been pitching him inside, drop it on the outside corner for a strike. Limit the movement if you can to prevent it curving for a ball.

2 seamer: If you're facing a batter with the same handedness as you, throw it at his knees and have it break back across the plate as the first pitch you throw. If you're facing someone with the opposite handedness, then use it as a 2 strike pitch, have it break onto the outside corner and freeze him up.

In terms of location, try and work in patterns of variance across three pitches. Example:

Inside->inside->outside.

Down->down->up.

Inside low->inside high->outside low.

Down->up->down.

Keep him guessing, mix the locations and speed up, you should do well. Remember to vary your pitches based on situation: if you need a groundball, throw the two seamer and the slider low. If you want to keep him in the park try and jam him up on the inside. if you just struck two guys out with the two seamer, throw the changeup this time. That sort of thing.