MLB 14: The Show

[Cole]

Anyone else notice when pitchers get on base, they end up wearing their warm up jackets? I find it extremely weird, especially as that was something that would happen last gen in the 2K series.

Does it happen all the time or only because it's still technically cold weather (or if you play in april/may, or night time during franchise/road to the show)

[Twist]

Was playing franchise yesterday and my 2B fielded a grounder near second and pop it up to my SS round his back. I didn't even notice until the replay. Amazing.#

Also, DYSI, I accepted your friend request (finally) so you can probably send a league invite now.

[The Buscher]

I was always planning on getting a PS4 this summer with this game to go along with it, especially with my 360 starting to have overheating issues. I put my 360 back to horizontal and all of my problems seemed to go away for a few weeks...until it overheated again today when I held a lead in a Madden playoff game. Decided I'd had enough and drove to Best Buy to get this earlier than expect. I had pretty much asked for Best Buy gift cards for from everybody for my birthday/Christmas last year in preparation for this so I managed to get the system and game for about $275 before tax, would have normally cost $460. Excellent.

I spent most of the evening toying around in exhibition and editing the full minors roster I downloaded. Absolutely stunning visuals.

Then I fired up my franchise. Manually injured everybody in the league who was set to miss major time from an injury suffered in ST or earlier. Really just played one game and used Quick Counts and on Beginner difficulty as I want to reacquaint myself with everything. I love that quick counts helps move the game along but I am a bit confused as to how I'm supposed to go to my bullpen with them on. Not sure if that's been addressed in here or not. I pitched an awesome game but wanted to make a move to bullpen in the 8th but the next batter would come up and immediately be deep into the count and I wasn't about to bring a reliever in mid-count. The end result was Dillon Gee tossing 146 pitches on Opening Day. Not sure why I wasn't given an option to go to the pen before the next batter came up. Only managed to get him out by pinch hitting for him in the 8th so I could use Parnell in the 9th.

[Your Mom]

Why not just bring them in mid count?

[Cole]

I dislike quick counts a lot, I mean I never played with it; but I also will never. It's literally not baseball. I understand the feature, and it works for those who want to use it. I just never will.

The Show is now perfected as it allows every type of gamer, and every type of baseball fan to sit down and play enjoyably. Whether it be from quick count exhibition, road to the show, or franchise, online etc.

[JasonM]

Isn't QC's broken because you will never get quick outs from batters, jacking up the pitch counts of the pitchers and tiring them out even more?

Don't have the game, but from reading around that seems to be the general concensus about it.

[The Buscher]

Why not just bring them in mid count?

I dunno, bringing a pitcher in mid count all the time seems odd. Looking back, I can't remember if I actually remembered to get a set up man warmed up. I'm thinking maybe if I did, the game would ask if I wanted to make a switch. Kinda like how in the bottom of the 8th when Gee came to bat a message popped up saying "you probably should consider pinch-hitting for him". I imagine my biggest issues will be wanting to pinch hit for another position player, since the game tends to start the at-bat straight away.

I'll give QC another whirl. It's certainly different. I imagine I'll still play plenty of games in full, but QC will allow me to zip through a series in the time it'd take to play one game. The only way I could get through a season, let alone several, is by simming a lot more game than I play, and I feel like I lose control of my players. Now with QC I can at least know I was in charge of everything for the most part.

It does suck not being able to get a one-pitch out, but on the flipside I like that the CPU pitch count drains faster too. In previous Shows I swear the CPU would finish me off with 10 pitches or less per inning because they never threw balls so I had to swing at everything.

[Meacon Keaton]

I don't play with quick counts, but a review I read said that if you bring in a relief pitcher, the count will reset itself. It may still give you a 3-1 or 2-2 count or whatever, but it's be credited to your reliever.

[Twist]

Also, when you're batting click up on your D-Pad and set your reliever to warm. Click on him again and then set to schedule to put in game. When it ticks over to your team fielding it will ask you if you still want to place the reliever in game.

Meacon's way also is correct.

[Gabriel]

I'm not sure how quick counts are "literally not baseball".

As I've said, I've met very few people who play the entire game and get realistic numbers from the majority of the stats. Quick counts makes the pitch counts far more realistic. I've had lots of 1-0, 0-1 counts come up. Gone are the days when you can finish a game with your starter at 84 pitches on a regular basis. If anything, I think quick counts makes the game MORE like baseball. It's a new feature, and it needs tweaking, but it's hardly ruining the game.

[SeanDMan]

Quick counts is kind of like having a hockey game and starting in sudden death overtime.

[Meacon Keaton]

I don't mind it being an option, but it's not for me. I like to bunt runners into scoring position more than stealing, so that aspect of the game is taken away from me if I'm starting with two strikes.

[Gabriel]

Quick counts is kind of like having a hockey game and starting in sudden death overtime.

Kind of, but not really.

Starting the game in Extra Innings would be like starting a Hockey game in Overtime.

It's not really comparable. You could say that it's like starting a period of hockey with an automated shot count... but it wouldn't affect the score of the game. In the NHL series, there's no real fatigue factor to having lots of shots against... where in The Show, if you're a batter that doesn't work deep into counts, you're probably seeing pitchers finish eight or nine innings with less than 80 pitches. It's just not realistic.

The argument about bunting and strategy is a legitimate concern, but even then, if I start with two strikes, I'm imagining that the guy I would have bunted with, didn't do too well in his first attempt(s). The game starts me out with 2 strikes as often as I start with a no-strike count, so I don't really see an issue with that.

I do agree that it isn't for everybody, but it's not as ridiculous as some people make it out to be... and for me, I can't invest an hour into every game I play in my franchise if I want to make it out of the first season. It's just not feasible. I work 30-40 hours a week, and I'm engaged, so I have responsibilities to my fiancee. I'm lucky if I get a couple of hours per week to put into The Show this year, so I am exceptionally grateful for quick counts.

[Maxx]

Quick counts make it far more likely that I'll actually complete a few years in Franchise.

[The Buscher]

Completed a season-opening sweep of the Nationals, not allowing a single run and striking out double digit batters in each.

Now that I've given my Mets a badly-needed cream puff start I suppose I can take the pitching difficulty off of Beginner.

[Cole]

I'm not sure how quick counts are "literally not baseball".

As I've said, I've met very few people who play the entire game and get realistic numbers from the majority of the stats. Quick counts makes the pitch counts far more realistic. I've had lots of 1-0, 0-1 counts come up. Gone are the days when you can finish a game with your starter at 84 pitches on a regular basis. If anything, I think quick counts makes the game MORE like baseball. It's a new feature, and it needs tweaking, but it's hardly ruining the game.

Yeah I used to hate the low pitch counts as well, would always resort to finding sliders on operation sports to use that would help.

Though this year Dynamic difficulty seems to have fixed that problem. Through 5 games haven't had any pitchers mine or the computers even come close to a complete game. I had Hutchinson pulled after 6 innings yesterday, no runs, no walks, 5 hits and 7 k's with just over 100 pitches lol.

It can be said that I take a lot of pitches at bat, and throw a good amount of pitches out of the zone. Though it's not a high percentage by any means, probably 20%

[The Buscher]

Work days suck a whole lot more now that I've experienced first hand how awesome this game is and how I really want to be playing it right now.

[Meacon Keaton]

The beauty of working from home.

[The Buscher]

Joke's on you after you get fired following a noticeable slip in productivity, jerkface

[Meacon Keaton]

Then I'd have even more time to play!