Pitching- luck or skill?
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This aint a complaint but i always felt like pitching was lot more luck (and pitcher stats) than skill vs player.
If the dude is decent with the sticks hitting then literally any pitch and any location can be hammered for a hit or homer.
How many times have we snapped a perfect timer changeup or curve anywhere low and have it hit outta the park
Just kinda wondered if i was in the minority or majority thinking that way.
Played like 100 event games an i swear i always felt every pitch a i threw could be a homer
Its like keep the ball out of the middle is about all you do to increase your chances of success as u have no clue where the other player is gonna move his sticks -
Pitching is significantly better than last year. Also pinpoint is legit if you can start getting it down.
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The short answer is probably yes these days. That is the main reason why I quit playing the Show towards the end of summer last year and I havenāt even considered purchasing ā21. There were other contributing factors, but in a nutshell, that was by far my main complaint. PCI was too big, it was too easy to make contact in general, be that for foul tip after foul tip, or hitting pitches hard in ridiculous locations that should never generate useful contact.
When I started playing in ā16, you could drill two fastballs on the inner half to a same handed batter and then have them perfectly set up for a change up to drop down and out of the zone, or a slider to look like another heater, until it broke off the plate and had them reaching for a swinging strike three. The point is, there was a psychological battle between the pitcher and batter in each AB, much like real baseball. Not only was there the ability to pitch a great game by controlling the strike zone and forcing your opponent to swing and MISS BECAUSE THEY WERE FOOLED BY THE SPEED AND/OR LOCATION OF THE PITCH, which wasnāt really possible in H2H play after ā17, there was the opportunity to force your opponent to hit the ball in the air for an out by ensuring they get under the pitch, or getting them to hit a weak ground ball by pitching them outside. From ā18 onward this was slowly eroded, until we reached the point where it was almost impossible to swing and miss, with an insane amount of foul balls and contact in general. There was also an insane amount of home runs that shouldnāt have been hit. Finally, the ability to pitch to contact tactically was nerfed to irrelevance as well. The well placed slider that could generate a dribbler to the right side was replaced by a ludicrous opposite field line drive home run off the foul pole. The devastating 12-6 style curve employed by the likes of Vida Blue in ā17, which relied heavily on fooling the batter with speed differential, as well as that wicked late downward break, could now simply be chipped back over the wall with a golf swing for yet another gifted home run.
This was the exact thing that killed the game for me, it became an arcade style game for kids as opposed to a simulation type experience and the sole focus was on making it as easy to hit the ball out as possible. You couldnāt pitch competitively, you couldnāt hope to improve your skills as everything felt random at best and the game didnāt encourage or reward the use of established baseball strategies or attempts at realistic tactics, instead opting for a button mashing, home run smashing festival of fun that somehow felt very lacking to someone like myself who is perhaps slightly more of a baseball purist. The sheer volume of jazzy 99 overall cards we ended up getting, with 125 stats in everything, only served to confirm this was the direction the series would be taking. So far this year, itās the same game from what Iāve seen. New menus, new interfaces, more jazzy new cards, but the same old flawed core mechanics.
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@comebacklogic said in Pitching- luck or skill?:
The short answer is probably yes these days. That is the main reason why I quit playing the Show towards the end of summer last year and I havenāt even considered purchasing ā21. There were other contributing factors, but in a nutshell, that was by far my main complaint. PCI was too big, it was too easy to make contact in general, be that for foul tip after foul tip, or hitting pitches hard in ridiculous locations that should never generate useful contact.
When I started playing in ā16, you could drill two fastballs on the inner half to a same handed batter and then have them perfectly set up for a change up to drop down and out of the zone, or a slider to look like another heater, until it broke off the plate and had them reaching for a swinging strike three. The point is, there was a psychological battle between the pitcher and batter in each AB, much like real baseball. Not only was there the ability to pitch a great game by controlling the strike zone and forcing your opponent to swing and MISS BECAUSE THEY WERE FOOLED BY THE SPEED AND/OR LOCATION OF THE PITCH, which wasnāt really possible in H2H play after ā17, there was the opportunity to force your opponent to hit the ball in the air for an out by ensuring they get under the pitch, or getting them to hit a weak ground ball by pitching them outside. From ā18 onward this was slowly eroded, until we reached the point where it was almost impossible to swing and miss, with an insane amount of foul balls and contact in general. There was also an insane amount of home runs that shouldnāt have been hit. Finally, the ability to pitch to contact tactically was nerfed to irrelevance as well. The well placed slider that could generate a dribbler to the right side was replaced by a ludicrous opposite field line drive home run off the foul pole. The devastating 12-6 style curve employed by the likes of Vida Blue in ā17, which relied heavily on fooling the batter with speed differential, as well as that wicked late downward break, could now simply be chipped back over the wall with a golf swing for yet another gifted home run.
This was the exact thing that killed the game for me, it became an arcade style game for kids as opposed to a simulation type experience and the sole focus was on making it as easy to hit the ball out as possible. You couldnāt pitch competitively, you couldnāt hope to improve your skills as everything felt random at best and the game didnāt encourage or reward the use of established baseball strategies or attempts at realistic tactics, instead opting for a button mashing, home run smashing festival of fun that somehow felt very lacking to someone like myself who is perhaps slightly more of a baseball purist. The sheer volume of jazzy 99 overall cards we ended up getting, with 125 stats in everything, only served to confirm this was the direction the series would be taking. So far this year, itās the same game from what Iāve seen. New menus, new interfaces, more jazzy new cards, but the same old flawed core mechanics.
Same game as last year, only difference is less check swings, but still guys fouling off dirt balls abs pulling down and away changes for 445 foot bombs. I donāt want a sim but I sure as heck want it to be more realistic physics wise. 90 percent of the runs in this game are home runs, I wish they make gap hitting and contact guys be valuable
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They have never got pitching right. Pitching doesnāt matter if opponent has good pci movement. They know itās broken, thatās why they gave Rivera a pitch he didnāt throw. Pitching and hitting need a complete overhaul if they ever want it to play right.
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I'm not necessarily complaining but I will say in my experience (at least so far) as someone who has bought and played every single version of this game ever, that this year it has definitely been HR or bust for me, with the occasional double. Now, the "bust" part hasn't been strikeouts (I rarely strikeout) but numerous pop fly outs and hard grounders etc. I know some of it is user error, I'm not the best hitter but I'm usually pretty good. Just my two cents.
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@crimson_monk_psn said in Pitching- luck or skill?:
@comebacklogic said in Pitching- luck or skill?:
The short answer is probably yes these days. That is the main reason why I quit playing the Show towards the end of summer last year and I havenāt even considered purchasing ā21. There were other contributing factors, but in a nutshell, that was by far my main complaint. PCI was too big, it was too easy to make contact in general, be that for foul tip after foul tip, or hitting pitches hard in ridiculous locations that should never generate useful contact.
When I started playing in ā16, you could drill two fastballs on the inner half to a same handed batter and then have them perfectly set up for a change up to drop down and out of the zone, or a slider to look like another heater, until it broke off the plate and had them reaching for a swinging strike three. The point is, there was a psychological battle between the pitcher and batter in each AB, much like real baseball. Not only was there the ability to pitch a great game by controlling the strike zone and forcing your opponent to swing and MISS BECAUSE THEY WERE FOOLED BY THE SPEED AND/OR LOCATION OF THE PITCH, which wasnāt really possible in H2H play after ā17, there was the opportunity to force your opponent to hit the ball in the air for an out by ensuring they get under the pitch, or getting them to hit a weak ground ball by pitching them outside. From ā18 onward this was slowly eroded, until we reached the point where it was almost impossible to swing and miss, with an insane amount of foul balls and contact in general. There was also an insane amount of home runs that shouldnāt have been hit. Finally, the ability to pitch to contact tactically was nerfed to irrelevance as well. The well placed slider that could generate a dribbler to the right side was replaced by a ludicrous opposite field line drive home run off the foul pole. The devastating 12-6 style curve employed by the likes of Vida Blue in ā17, which relied heavily on fooling the batter with speed differential, as well as that wicked late downward break, could now simply be chipped back over the wall with a golf swing for yet another gifted home run.
This was the exact thing that killed the game for me, it became an arcade style game for kids as opposed to a simulation type experience and the sole focus was on making it as easy to hit the ball out as possible. You couldnāt pitch competitively, you couldnāt hope to improve your skills as everything felt random at best and the game didnāt encourage or reward the use of established baseball strategies or attempts at realistic tactics, instead opting for a button mashing, home run smashing festival of fun that somehow felt very lacking to someone like myself who is perhaps slightly more of a baseball purist. The sheer volume of jazzy 99 overall cards we ended up getting, with 125 stats in everything, only served to confirm this was the direction the series would be taking. So far this year, itās the same game from what Iāve seen. New menus, new interfaces, more jazzy new cards, but the same old flawed core mechanics.
Same game as last year, only difference is less check swings, but still guys fouling off dirt balls abs pulling down and away changes for 445 foot bombs. I donāt want a sim but I sure as heck want it to be more realistic physics wise. 90 percent of the runs in this game are home runs, I wish they make gap hitting and contact guys be valuable
Yeah, I watched a few streams and YT vids post launch and itās the same game with bells and whistles for sure. Itās understandable they dumbed it down over time to appeal to a wider audience, but once Iād gotten over the shock of not being able to even make contact with the bat playing online because it was so tough to hit for me back in ā16, I obviously enjoyed myself because I was motivated to try to improve and return in ā17. I suffered through ā18 and was pretty happy that they were getting back on the right track with ā19, but ā20 was a crushing disappointment - As you said, with more physics defying random nonsensical occurrences in H2H games, that generally felt totally out of my control than I could personally bear. I really wanted to see a good game this year, revamped and vastly improved, a game that would make me think āOK, letās go and drop the money for a PS5 to enjoy this game.ā What Iāve seen so far has just been typical SDS, as in previous years. Itās really quite repetitive, the community and indeed, the game itself, face the exact same issues year after year.
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