What does pitcher confidence do?

[poop69_lol__PSN]

Does it change the type of contact a batter makes? Or does it change the type of results contact turns into? Or does it just change the sharpness and accuracy of pitches, which would effect the previous two points?

Just curious.

[The_DoctorsWife]

Pitcher confidence usually determines how well a pitcher performs. It does help with accuracy, but it also helps with pitch effectiveness and how difficult it is to get strikeouts or induce other types of outs. The higher your confidence, the more strikes and strikeouts you can get, and the less hits and walks you allow. It affects the pitcher more than the hitter, but it does affect how easy/hard it is for the batter to hit against you. Thus, it affects how well you perform against a pitcher when you're batting—it's why that if you swing at literally everything he throws at you, it's going to be very difficult to get a hit.

Pitcher confidence increases in varied degrees by doing the following— Getting strikes, causing swings and misses, getting strikeouts, and getting outs in general. Also, when a batter fouls off a pitch, it counts as a strike, so it also raises confidence. Confidence increases more if the batter swings at a pitch that's out of the zone for a strike, for example (basically, the more you stupid you make the batter look, the more your confidence goes up).

Pitch confidence decreases due to the following—The batter takes a pitch for a ball, if you allow a hit of any kind (and the greater the hit, the more confidence you lose—allowing a HR causes more confidence to be lost than allowing a single), if errors of any kind are allowed, allowing a runner to score, hitting a batter, walking a batter, throwing wild pitches, or throwing passed balls. Stolen bases might affect confidence, but I haven't payed enough attention to be sure. Basically, if things hit the fan, pitcher confidence goes down the drain.

Another important note—confidence not only affects overall performance, but it also affects performance with each pitch in your pitcher's repertoire. For example, if you get a strikeout with a nasty curveball, your pitcher is going to be more confident in using that pitch. That, in turn, increases the pitch's speed, accuracy, and break. If you throw the curveball and the batter hits it for a HR, then you are going to lose confidence with that pitch and will have trouble throwing it accurately and for strikes.

[KILLERPRESENCE4_PSN]

What she said ^^^

[radinskyFTG_PSN]

its just a way for SDS to mask or water down the game with RNG. only in SDS' world do balls come off bats differently based on a made up attribute like pitcher confidence. but they get away with this gameplay year after year because the fanbois love all the new, shiny 'content'.

[KILLERPRESENCE4_PSN]

@radinskyFTG said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

its just a way for SDS to mask or water down the game with RNG. only in SDS' world do balls come off bats differently based on a made up attribute like pitcher confidence. but they get away with this gameplay year after year because the fanbois love all the new, shiny 'content'.

Really wish we could down vote posts and if you get enough down votes you get a little troll emblem next your gamer tag

[The_Joneser_PSN]

@The_DoctorsWife said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

Pitcher confidence usually determines how well a pitcher performs. It does help with accuracy, but it also helps with pitch effectiveness and how difficult it is to get strikeouts or induce other types of outs. The higher your confidence, the more strikes and strikeouts you can get, and the less hits and walks you allow. It affects the pitcher more than the hitter, but it does affect how easy/hard it is for the batter to hit against you. Thus, it affects how well you perform against a pitcher when you're batting—it's why that if you swing at literally everything he throws at you, it's going to be very difficult to get a hit.

Pitcher confidence...

That was both informative and beautifully written. Nice post.

[mjfc_363_PSN]

@KILLERPRESENCE4 said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

@radinskyFTG said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

its just a way for SDS to mask or water down the game with RNG. only in SDS' world do balls come off bats differently based on a made up attribute like pitcher confidence. but they get away with this gameplay year after year because the fanbois love all the new, shiny 'content'.

Really wish we could down vote posts and if you get enough down votes you get a little troll emblem next your gamer tag

Why?? What he said is exactly true!!! If I locate a pitch and you hit it, it should be a hit. If I locate and you miss, it should be a strike. A made up computer thing called “Confidence” should have nothing to do with user input!

[rAtbAby407]

If someone bunts aboard or reach on a jammed hit or an error... 75% a HR is coming, watch out.

[PennStateFencer]

@KILLERPRESENCE4 said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

@radinskyFTG said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

its just a way for SDS to mask or water down the game with RNG. only in SDS' world do balls come off bats differently based on a made up attribute like pitcher confidence. but they get away with this gameplay year after year because the fanbois love all the new, shiny 'content'.

Really wish we could down vote posts and if you get enough down votes you get a little troll emblem next your gamer tag

I'm not going to pretend to know exactly how SDS codes the outcomes (although certain factors are pretty obvious), but pitchers having magical powers that keep the ball in the yard shouldn't be a thing. Removing the impact of HR/9 last year was a good start, but if confidence does have any impact whatsoever (which it likely does) then that needs to go too.

If a player has a card with 125 power and uses a power swing while squaring up a pitch belt high and down the middle, it shouldn't die at the track because the pitcher had a great breakfast, saw a puppy on the way to the ballpark, and is feeling good about himself.

Pitchers also shouldn't be hitting no doubt shots when they're at the plate on contact swings that are good/okay because the RNG allowed the previous three batters to get on base from a walk, an error, and a bloop single on terrible contact resulting in lower confidence.

In my opinion (and you are free to disagree), confidence should impact control and maybe pitch velocity. Nothing else.

[The_DoctorsWife]

@The_Joneser said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

@The_DoctorsWife said in What does pitcher confidence do?:

Pitcher confidence usually determines how well a pitcher performs. It does help with accuracy, but it also helps with pitch effectiveness and how difficult it is to get strikeouts or induce other types of outs. The higher your confidence, the more strikes and strikeouts you can get, and the less hits and walks you allow. It affects the pitcher more than the hitter, but it does affect how easy/hard it is for the batter to hit against you. Thus, it affects how well you perform against a pitcher when you're batting—it's why that if you swing at literally everything he throws at you, it's going to be very difficult to get a hit.

Pitcher confidence...

That was both informative and beautifully written. Nice post.

Thank you so much! I like to help out and be as informative as possible.