Power Pros Forum

Weather you're playing exhibition mode, season mode, or MLB life mode, which pitcher do you struggle against the most? I have always had a hard time against Roy Oswalt. I always try to take as many pitches as I can to get him out of the game faster because I can never hit against him.

Sittch

in season mode probably Roy Halladay, he's got the curve that'll sneak into the strike zone causing me to swear at the ump

Zach Duke. I simply cannot hit him. Coincidentally he won Cy Young in my life!

I also have a hard time against Tim Wakefield and one of his pitches. I don't play against him in season mode because I'm the Cubs and he's still with the Sox, but I've played him in MLB Life mode, and this one pitch he has is so hard to hit. Someone tell me what the pitch is, I don't know what it's called.

He has a knuckleball and a slow curve. I murder both.

I can not hit Carlos Zambrano. His windup always gets me .

I can't hit Wake's knuckle. I keep waiting for him to throw his 50MPH fastball (I exaggerate a bit on the speed, but not by much) and hit it 500+ ft. Sometimes he doesn't throw it at all and I strikeout a ton.

Dontrelle Willis gives me trouble.

My strategy against Wakefield. Put your cursor below the location of the pitch as he is winding up(about as far below as a knuckleball break). Then watch the spin to see if it is a knuckler or not. If it is keep your cursor there and hit it after it breaks. If it is a Fastball or Slow Curve then move your cursor to where the ball is and swing. His Slow curve doesn't break much so it is pretty easy to hit. All of his pitches are slow enough to where you have enough time to do this.

That reminds me. I can never hit Daisuke Matsuzaka either. His windup is SO slow, so I'm waiting, and waiting, and then at the last second, his windup gets fast, and I whiff at the ball like I was trying to hit a bullet from a gun.

A couple of guys I've had trouble with are Carlos Marmol (incredible movement) and Joe Smith. Either Takashi Saito or Hiroki Kuroda (or both) I also remember as giving me trouble. I think it may be the funky deliveries?

Ah yes Dice-K.... oh and Gagne messes with me .

I can't hit Wakefield very well either. In fact, I don't hit Wakefield well in any baseball game. This sucks as I almost always play as the Yanks. Luckally the Yankee AI players in life mode usually shell him for me lol.

I live in New England, thus on any baseball video game I play with a friend, I play against the Red Sox. As you see from my profile, I am a Yankees fan. Over time, I developed a good knuckle ball "sense" . You see, many people will over-use starters in exhibition games. Thus being so used to all the different pitchers this way, I can't get through Beckett, Dice-K etc in the first 7 or so innings. Now that I am used to the fastball, they would bring in Wakefield. Wakefield, as we all know, is very slow. Sometimes you will be anxious and swing way early. Better off not swinign or swinging late then swing early. Swinging early just lowers your self-esteem, and also sets you up to swing early again. (Excluding milli-seconds early, or foul balls) . Now that you see the first pitch come in, the second will be nearly identical speed. This time you should make atleast some contact.

Onto where you should swing. Obviously a knuckle ball will drop. If you are still not used to it, with the bat follow the rectile of the ball and swing when you feel the ball will stop breaking. It is easier to swing and miss this way, but you will get the hang of how much it breaks. After awhile, guess where you think it will break to, and swing like a normal pitch.

Hope you all with knuckle ball troubles find this useful, as it made it easier for me.

Lol, same here. I play MLB 08 The Show (and also 07) and he freaking drives me nuts! It's even harder on The Show since his knuckleball literally dances all over the place. I swear one time, it defied the laws of physics and did an immelmann. Obviously, I swung over it and missed so badly that I hid my face in real life even though it's just a game.

At least on MLBPP08, his knuckleball has somewhat of a predictable movement.