How come 90 percent of the pitchers in AA have full pitch arsenals?

[Grub]

Seems a little unfair/unrealistic. I mean, I've played as a pitcher in RTTS, making it to the majors, and I didn't get a good 4th pitch until near the beginning of my season in AAA. Sure, you can use your points to get pitches earlier than that, but those things are expensive and would take points away from other stats, right? But the pitches they're tossing seem to be really high quality for the league that they're in. Most of the time the starters in AA feel like starters in the majors. I've only seen a couple guys without an R1 pitch. I suppose I feel it breaks the immersion factor a bit; breaks the feeling that these guys are on the same road to the show I am.

[Mets2004]

yea its totally retarted, im in my 4th season so alot of minor league guys have been called up and it just baffles me that every 2 or 3 games a starter has a knuckle as his third pitch a palmball as his second in addition to two fastballs and a curveball, i guess your supposed to edit all the minor leaguers

[Buckeyes_Doc]

Yeah I agree this is ridiculous and has been a problem in RTTS since it's creation. Way too many knuckleballs and the majority of pitchers have 5 pitches even at AA.

It sucks batting when 1 pitch you get a 95 MPH and the next one you get a 56 MPH knuckleball.

[kehlis]

I agree that the excess of knuckle ballers is definately frustrating, I don't see what's unrealistic that AA pitchers have a full arsenal of pitches.

The number of pitches shouldn't change much as the players progress through the system but the quality of the pitches should.

It's the same thing with velocity. RARELY will see a pitcher add velocity in excess of a MPH or two and progresses through the system. They things that should progress is quality, movement, etc.

These pitchers that are at this level were, for the most part, top pitchers in college and it isn't inconceivable that they would come to the minors with the same large repotoire.

That said, if this is EVERY pitcher (And I admittedly haven't played around with it too much) it should be looked at. Most teams would have someone in their bullpen that throws just FB, SL, and change (etc...).

[Buckeyes_Doc]

Quote: Originally Posted by kehlis

I agree that the excess of knuckle ballers is definately frustrating, I don't see what's unrealistic that AA pitchers have a full arsenal of pitches. The number of pitches shouldn't change much as the players progress through the system but the quality of the pitches should. It's the same thing with velocity. RARELY will see a pitcher add velocity in excess of a MPH or two and progresses through the system. They things that should progress is quality, movement, etc. These pitchers that are at this level were, for the most part, top pitchers in college and it isn't inconceivable that they would come to the minors with the same large repotoire. That said, if this is EVERY pitcher (And I admittedly haven't played around with it too much) it should be looked at. Most teams would have someone in their bullpen that throws just FB, SL, and change (etc...).

It isn't every pitcher but it is a large portion of pitchers probably 75%. I'm surprised when I see a pitcher with a 4 pitch arsenal, and once I saw a guy with a 3 pitch set up. I think overall though there are too many pitchers in AA who are 18, 19, 20 years old with a 5 pitch repetioire.