Generate Best Squad: Does It Truly Work?
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I'm having trust issues with the "generate best squad" setting in the squad management menu. I seldom use it at all, because I flat out don't trust it when it comes to my offense. I wonder if I should more often? Or at least let it generate my squad, and then tweak it from there?
From the cards that I have, it generated:
- 2B WBC Travis Bazzana
- RF WBC Hyu-min Ahn
- CF Spotlight Mike Trout
- C LS Cal Raleigh
- LF PS Garrett Anderson
- 3B Cornerstone Carlos Correa
- DH LS José Ramírez
- 1B NT Pete Alonso
- SS NL Henry Aaron
Bench
Contributor Joc Pederson
Egg Hunt Jason Varitek
LS Elly de la Cruz
WBC Ronald Acuña Jr.The one that really doesn't make sense to me is the Contributor Joc Pederson. Why is he on the bench? His fielding is only 44, his speed is in the 20s, and he has mid contact and power, only against righties. He has a Pinch Hitter quirk, but I don't think that justifies using a bench spot on him. Seriously questioning the game's judgement there.
Also, the order of the lineup doesn't make sense to me. Why is Ahn second? His hitting is good but Trout is liable to face a double play situation if he only manages a single. I don't know why it thinks 8th is a great place for Alonso—he has 3rd or cleanup written all over him.
I don't get the choice of Raleigh as a starter over Varitek either. I just played a game and went 0-4 with Raleigh. So much for being a cleanup hitter. I've been struggling with him lately.
I'm just like. Why does the game think this way? Do you all think this is a good lineup? How can I improve it from here if it isn't?
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Yeah the auto generate best squad is broken. Or atleast how it values cards. I know one time I tried it it gave me the 3 worst possible defenders with no speed at every OF position. You truly need to make the lineup to your liking. What do you value? Speed? defense? Power? Balanced hitting? Or maybe there are just guys to rake with. Overall really does not matter. I think the cpu tends to value power over everything else and the they put vision as the least important. I mean your team is solid. Cal was amazing for me the first couple weeks of the game, then we got better pitchers and his bad vision really shows. Trout always hits leadoff for me. Jram has excelled in the two spot, switch hitter with a bit of everything. The rest are a toss up. I don't know every card you have but I would look to move Hank to the bench, put Correa at SS and Jram at 3rd. That opens up the DH and gives you tons of options. Banana is solid but SS do just fine at 2nd base. Elly as a replacement? Grind for Konner Griffen he is free and is 5 tooled. LS Lindor or Seager are great if you have some stubs to invest. All are viable 2b replacements. Almost forgot spotlight mcGonagle solid. I never tried Ahn because he was the last leg of the WBC I finished but some love him. Alonso plays and I like him hitting in the back half, nice to have pop in the 8 spot. I haven't used Anderson or Correa much but stats are good, not sure I like their swings.
Bench- I would move Hank there we rounded plays a bunch of positions, decent speed but nothing special . Varitek stays unless you swap him with Cal, or have one catch and one DH. Then pick any two speed guys. PCA and Rafaela are cheap and over great defense in the OF also. -
I am not a fan of Generate Best Squad. Usually I will use it as a starting point and then tweak it from there. There are some guys I just don't like to play with and it always seems to put them in the lineup. It also always puts an extra catcher on your bench which is fine if you pinch run or pinch hit for your catcher but I rarely ever do that so most of the time I replace whatever catcher they put on the bench. I usually change around the pitchers it selects too. There are some guys I am not very good with because I dont like their windup.
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The problem is we don't know what logic they are using. We do know that they will always throw a second catcher in there. Does it try and cover other positions (like one catcher, one IF, one OF)? Does it try and make sure there is both a lefty and righty on the bench?
I have questioned the best lineup logic for years but it is hard to know whether it is working correctly without knowing what logic they are trying to use. In the end I would guess that most people would want to use "generate best lineup" as a quick start to fill the squad which they could then tweak to their liking.
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I dont think it actually works because ive put teams together then generated best squad only to see the overall drop and power/speed or fielding go down. I think it just puts the overall best player you have at their primary position without taken into account secondary positions.
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@mubby_33_PSN I prefer the traditional lineup approach:
- Fast guy who gets on base #1
- Fast guy who gets on base #2
- Best hitter
- Cleanup
- Great hitter
- Great hitter
- Good hitter
- Catcher
- Guy who has meh hitting but has wheels and defense
Also I just so happen to have LS Seager! I'll consider him for the lineup.
I'm trying to figure out the best lineup for the WBC mini season specifically. I've been struggling offensively. Lot of lineouts and flyouts on good contact and good timing swings. It's so bad I'm wondering if it's rigged. And it's on rookie.
One thing's for sure I'm not trusting generate lineup again loooool. I'll test out y'all's suggestions and see if they work.
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I've honestly never even tried using it. I just assume that my idea of the best squad will rarely, if ever, match what the games idea of the best squad is. So much is dependent on swing types and certain attributes that I prefer that probably wouldn't be considered "best".
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The generate best lineup is similar to franchise. It takes in account the age on the card. So a 91 overall that is 22 will be better than 91 that is 34.
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@LadySwampfox_XBL yes solid strat. Also look at handedness. Im not saying you need all switch hitter but don't stack 3 lefty bats in a row. I feel like WBC mini, you need to focus on guys with vision. Power matters but its not like new threads mini where you play on blank canvas and you can still hit bombs. Here is what I'm rolling with (i was lucky to make a ton of stubs selling off Miggy collection cards i finished the LS)
CF Trout right (5 tool)
3b JRam switch (5 tool)
SS Tulo right (top card in the game right now)
1b Albert right speed mod makes him 5 tool
LF or DH Soto left his defense is not great, more of a DH but he can field well enough. He is my best hitter the past 3 years.
RF Tatis (6 tool, his arm counts for double)
C Biz switch
DH or LF Dealers choice here. Singleton or Bryant if you want to DH Soto, otherwise DH guys 95 Cabrera, Ohtani, Alvarez, Tucker, Manny, Schwrab, really the person you hit best with who sucks on defense. Judge's vision is almost too much to overcome but he does hit tanks.
2b Supercharged Elly switch (trying Pedroia) Lindor is a beast here, seager is solid hitting but slow on the bases. I love Witts swing so he is an option. So many good SS this year, luckily you can play them OOP most spots. Willi Casto can still get it done here.Bench
C- pick one. I have yet to love anyone catcher this season. If you have Biz and another catcher, Biz is the supreme bench guy.
Utl Figgins switch speed and can play everywhere, lacks pop, but should be a starter if you need a spot filled.
IF Witt he automatically warps to 3rd base if you pinch run with him for a guy on first.
OF Im partial to Buxton here, defense, speed, I feel like they did something to his swing, it used to be butter two years ago. Otherwise look at defense and speed, Rafaela would be my second than PCA. -
@LadySwampfox_XBL I think you are putting too much thought into it. Certainly more than the CPU does. It "works" in the broadest sense of the word, but it's not very good. It doesn't take that long to make a squad. You will be much better off just doing it yourself.
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The one question i have always had is does a certain card perform better in a certain a in batting slot regardless of the other players. Example: will Trout hit better at leadoff or cleanup? Does not matter who hits in front of him or behind him. Does position in the lineup matter for each card. My mind tells me yes of maybe I am just over analyzing
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I would try players with as much contact as possible like Valenzuela over Cal at catcher if you are struggling. He’s also a switch hitter but he has much more contact than power which I find much more important this year than others. Probably the most important thing for getting base hits of all kinds.
And I can’t help but think if you are struggling that much you probably don’t use zone hitting, which isn’t a huge deal, but I will forever make the argument using zone hitting and NEVER moving the pci is still better than directional when playing on rookie vs the CPU. On Rookie the PCI will cover the width of the plate for most diamond hitters, so you just gotta wait for a pitch in the middle which on rookie does happen quite a bit and you get the bonus of zone hitting which is tremendous compared to directional or timing ( if you go into the settings it will tell you the harder the mechanic the more rewarding it is) They also added new hitting mechanics where it’s like a soft zone. You can guess any of the spots and the game will keep the PCI there for you because alot of people freak out and jam the stick down.
I was once very bad at this game and still had a lot of fun. But winning made it a lot more fun and honestly just faster to unlock rewards. I used to use timing hitting and thought well if I just have really good players and time it right surely I will put rallies together and score runs eventually. You don’t. It’s designed to play like real baseball on directional. If they throw a slider away your PCI shrinks and the game says “nah that would be a swing and a miss 90% of the time in real baseball” and you rely on averages and attributes, it’s just not as rewarding and fun.
