Pitcher at the Plate

[bigshawn1738]

Is there anything better than having your pitcher at the plate and just crushing one into the gap?

[TheWarmWind]

I once had a game where the pitcher not only pitched a complete game shutout but also drove in all three runs that I got in the game.

Best part of the story: I play an AL team. It was inter-league.

[danwin]

The pitchers hit way to well in MLB The Show. They need to remedy this.

[nemesis04]

Quote: Originally Posted by danwin

The pitchers hit way to well in MLB The Show. They need to remedy this.

I agree with this, in our online league pitchers generally hit like cleanup hitters. Something is off balance here especially when it is an AL pitcher at the plate.

[xNobleEaglex]

Overpowered pitcher offense is definitely not something I'm seeing. My SP have a .126 /.165/.147 line and opponent SP have a .110/.146/.149 line (1 HR by Jordan Zimmermann) through 117 games in my Braves franchise (Hall of Fame with Mike Lowe's sliders and playing 162). Real life pitchers put up a .132/.159/.169 line this year, so my results are actually a little underpowered.

The only thing that has been "off", is the fact that opponent SP have only struck out 26.6% of the time against me, where my SP have struck out 35.5% of the time and real life 2015 SPs struck out 37.7% of the time. That could just be the way that I attack batters though, as I'm in the bottom 3rd of strikeouts in the league anyways.

[ryanmc564]

the only thing I've noticed in my franchise while using quick count that some pitchers who do hit well doesn't always start with a 1-1 count.

[zello144]

Using Bartolo Colon in DD and making him hit

[Bobhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by nemesis04

I agree with this, in our online league pitchers generally hit like cleanup hitters. Something is off balance here especially when it is an AL pitcher at the plate.

It's a flaw in the system. The Show generally rewards "centering" the PCI, by giving you high line drive/hard hit rates (high BABIP rates). There is an undefined "central" area of the PCI that produces these hits consistently, ie: "squaring up." Let's call the rest of the PCI (the NON-center area) the "dead zone".

The lower a hitter's ratings (or sliders), the smaller his PCI.
The smaller the PCI, the bigger the center is in proportion to the dead zone, ie: the rest of the PCI.

This, in my opinion, is the crux of many of the remaining issues people have with hitting, and is definitely the cause of pitchers being over-competent.

When controlled by a CPU, this is a lesser issue, because the chances of striking out or incorrectly placing the PCI also increase dramatically, and it balances out (mostly). However, with a human player, of course, this placement ability is static, and the same for any hitter. The only thing that has dramatically changed is the size of the PCI.

My favorite way of explaining this: Think of it like a dartboard. The game adjusts the size of the dartboard depending on the skill level of the dart thrower, but the size of the bullseye is the same every time. So while a smaller dartboard means a high chance of missing the board entirely, it also means an extremely low chance of hitting the "dead zone," that is, a low-point area on the perimeter.

This phenomenon manifests itself all over the place: Raise the difficulty level or lower your contact slider or timing slider, and you will see a higher line drive percentage. Pitchers have an even higher line drive percentage. Your power and other numbers drop, of course, but the type of contact you make changes significantly.

I'm not claiming that this "bullseye" area literally does not change at all... but it needs a lot more variance to it.