Power Pros Forum

I am relatively new to the game and I really enjoy it. I have looked through the forums for an answer for my question, but I can't seem to find one.

I play MLB Power Pros 2008 on normal difficulty level, with classic pitching. I pick a pitch and push the b button once to throw the pitch. My starting pitchers are gassed at 50 pitches, even though some have a stamina of 220.

I saw where if you push the pitch button more than once, your pitcher will get tired much quicker, so I make sure I don't do that. Also, the opponents pitchers get tired around 50 pitches as well.

I also saw where the formula for average pitches a pitcher can pitch are stamina/2 +/-5 depending on condition.

Should I raise the difficulty and will that allow me to throw more pitches? It is frustrating that I have to pretty much throw all strikes in hopes of getting my starter through 5 innings.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Sorry, but there isn't really anything you can do about it. It's one of the flaws of the game, in my opinion.

Welcome, though.

I guess if you're playing with the default rosters you can edit the pitchers and give them recovery 4, negative abilities can also have negative impacts on how long a pitcher lasts and likewise blues have a positive effect. But recovery 4 would be your best bet unless you gave extra stamina to each pitcher, but you may get more starters pitching through to the 8th thus your bullpen may not get much work

Thanks for the replies. I do have them on recovery 4 but I'll try to up the stamina to max to see how that goes. I edited the rosters to create the 1987 season. I play on the wii, which is unfortunate because I would love to share them. I'm pretty happy with them. It's funny that the stamina works out pretty accurately when simulating though.

On another note. On arrange team I set up the option for lineups to be with condition, but whenever I play a team, they always have the default lineup and there are many players who plays every game when simulating a season. I this another fault with the game?

I have played 20 games in my season and I haven't had an error yet. Does the team you control ever make an error? Just curious.

Thanks again for the quick and helpful responses.

I believe that is (supposedly) the case if your pitcher is in pink condition. Red would be less; yellow even less; etc. Also, if you play a team with a batter that has "intimidator" (like Alex Rodriguez), that saps your stamina.



I think it will leave your lineup as is, until a player falls to purple condition, meaning they won't swap out a starter in blue condition for a bench player in pink condition. I know this is the case with pitchers – it'll keep your starter as the starter unless he is in purple condition and your long reliever is in better condition



You said you have the computer doing your fielding at "normal"? I am surprised you haven't had an error yet, but many times, your SS or 2b might take a bad route to the ball, allow the ball to get past them, but it's labelled as a single. Also, if your players have "gold glove" ability, that'll reduce errors. Lastly, a lot of "errors" are poor throws, but the 1b will scoop the ball and get the out, so no error is charged.

When I first started playing the 2007 edition, I struggled with that same thing. Over time, however, I started pitching smarter through trial & error, plus using the 1-tap on the 'A' button trick! Now, with 2008 game (on expert level, classic pitching, but me controlling everything), I can get my starters into the 7th/8th/9th innings on a regular basis. I probably avg. over 100 pitches when they go 9, too! I don't even use a strike zone frame, either!

You need to change your approach, I think. Mix-in your pitches well (like real-life). I double-tap 'A' button on my strike-out pitches, for a little more gas. Really locate your pitches well, too. You're NOT going to recreate SP's going 135 pitches in a game unfortunately, but you can get them deeper in the game. I don't know this for sure, but it seems like this game's mechanism for stamina involves more than just Condition/Stamina score and # of pitches thrown. I used to play an old baseball board game (Sport's Illustrated), where every hit, every walk, every run would drain you. The amount a hit drained you, depended on the type (2b=2,3b=3,HR=4). Maybe this game follows this principle (I would bet on it!). Maybe even wild pitches/errors count against you!

You can alter some things, like Stamina, Blue abilities (Recovery-4 is just for recovering fatigue BETWEEN starts, btw), but good defense can also help. Do you defend yourself? Maybe you should, if not. I've gotten pretty good at defense over the years (sorry-don't mean to brag!), and I really think it helps shave runs off the scoreboard. Even with the computer fielding in expert mode, they still make TERRIBLE decisions at times!

Think of some little things you can do: With none or 1 out/ runner @ 3rd, move the infield-in and cut that run-off at the plate. Play your infield @ medium depth normally so you can make the long throws to 1st (never deep-you won't react in time to make those throws). Keep your OF @ medium depth as well. Train yourself to dive at the correct times. Train yourself to move the right way on hard hit balls to the gaps between SS-3rd/2nd-1st when the camera shifts. If a hard traj. 3 or 4 fly is hit, train yourself to head back first, then in, if needed (just like real life!). Get quick at those double-plays, they'll save your butt! Pitch down in the zone for those DP balls, especially sinking pitches. High and tight (fastballs) or down and in (changeups) are great strikeout pitches ( Don't ALWAYS do that though or you become predictable!).

I know you probably think I'm off-topic with the long-winded defensive tirade, but I swear that it will help you have less runs scored against you-thus less hits and ultimately less stamina drained! Cheers!- Doog.

P.S. That was my first post- hi to everyone here and glad to see great interest in a great game, still to this day!

Welcome aboard, and thanks for your tips. When you refer to the A button trick, you mean to only hit the a button once except for your strikeout pitch? I must say, I rarely hit the button more than once, but it might make sense to do it on your strikeout pitch to try and get rid of the batter on that third pitch.

A pitching strategy I've been thinking about, but have not employed for more than a game or two yet, is to look through my opponents batting order and see who has "timely whiff." For those that have it, after I get my first strike on them, I use my strikeout pitch for strike number two, since their contact level goes down and I should not need as good a pitch for the strikeout.

With the stamina issues in this game, nothing drives me more crazy than not being able to finish off a better after going 0–2.

For the sake of developing pitchers, one thing I try to remember doing is to always have my starting pitcher training on "stamina" when he starts. Even if I normally have him training on a breaking pitch, I'll switch him to stamina training on the day he starts. It seems that by doing this, even if my pitcher gets pulled in the 1st few innings, he won't lose stamina points, And if he gets to the fifth inning, he will game stamina points. Without doing that, a picture who leaves earlier than the fifth inning loses stamina points, one who only makes it to the fifth or sixth inning has no game or loss, and you need to get the sixth inning to gain stamina strength.

Also, on my arrange team, I have one catcher with the "great catcher" ability. It regularly helps my pitchers go two – three innings longer then with my other catchers

Yes- I believe that the computer-controlled hitters are not only trying to guess the pitch you are going to throw, but also guess at the timing. It doesn't always work out, but I average over 12 K's a game playing this way. If I think I've been preserving my pitch-count well, I may even multi-tap a pitch to a dangerous hitter. Sometimes it seems that they're just a tad late on a strikeout!



Amen to that, brother!!



On my season team (the Ottawa Pisskats), I have Paulino and McCann. I can't exactly remember if Paulino had the GD BLOCK ability, but he did have the GD CATCHER ability. He taught McCann that in technique training on his 2nd attempt (no reloading). I think McCann taught Paulino GD BLOCK (first attempt-no reloads!!), and they both picked up the GRT CATCHER trait in spring training (first attempt again!), all within the 1st year. The GRT CATCHER ability is definitely worth the effort! My pitchers did great with just the GD CATCHER ability.

That sounds good. Let me know if it seems successful or not. Too bad you couuldn't just SEE that a hitter has Timely Whiff rather than timing out, going to Score, 'C' button for abilties, scrolling across for hitting abilities...! All that time drives me nuts. I check out the pitcher's stats because I want to know what I'm up against- and that seems too long for me sometimes. One thing I need to do on defense, and I'm just too dang lazy to do it all the time, is bring my OF-in on weak hitters. I don't know how many times they bloop a stupid little single in there and the computer decides my SS should run back 100 ft. rather than my LF stepping forth 25 ft. !! And of course I'm trying to run my LF-in right from the get-go. That second or two you waste in limbo as your brain tries to catch up with the computer's thinking is usually the difference!

Welcome to the forums Doogleplex. Hope you stay here for a few years. Also please read this. It lays down some ground rules
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2305

I tried your strategy, with double-tapping the button. Sometimes it worked; sometimes not, but I struggle to consistently locate my pitches well. I think you gave a good tip!

I'm having more success on forkballs and foshes that I throw above the strike zone (for them to drop in) than those thrown lower.

My comment on those with timely whiff seems to work. What I do is go throughout he lineup at the beginning to see who is fast, who is powerful, and whether the catcher has a strong arm. I can usually remember after going through it once.



I almost never pull my infield in - I just can't react in time. I almost always play regular depth. Sometimes I will play my SS & 2b deep, but I adjust the 1b and 3b so they are at regular depth. I like to do that if my SS has D defense and the batter is powerful and slow. It does leave a big gap between the midfielders, though.

I play my OF in against anyone with F power and deep against B power, although at golden apples, I just play my CF deep.

Doogleplex, I definitely see your strategy (hitting the day button a second time on my strikeout pitch) helping. It seems to give me a little more room for error, and while I am definitely not as good at pitching as you are (1 strikeout per inning is a good day for me), I absolutely see it working. Batters miss the pitch if I am a little off my mark, and when they do connect, it is more likely to be a week ground ball.

I would not have thought that tapping the a button just one more time would make such a difference – thank you!

You're welcome! Thank you for the Timely Whiff-tip. I just started a new season with an arrange team (Hawaii Halos), and I've been working on another pitching strategy that so far has been working well. Instead of going up high and tight with a fastball on some batters, I will go high and tight on the 2nd strike (and they seem to whiff 3 out of 4 times), then for the K, go low and in with a change-up. Deadly combo! My son actually does this in real life when he's pitching and the game seems to reflect real-life strategies to some degree.

Welcome to the fourms Doogle! When ever i get into the 9th inning with my starter i usually have pitched 80 or less pitches; the non tapping of the A button is very useful for control but not for speed.