Power Pros Forum

I'd like to start a thread to share tips and ask questions about practices.

Question: With batting practice, there is 1 option that that upgrades, power, another that upgrades consistency, and a 3rd that does both (I think it's called "batting"). Why would someone not use the 3rd option to upgrade both simultaneously? Does it upgrade more slowly?

Tip: In some ways, I think trajectory is more important than power. Seems to me that a "C" power with "3" trajectory is most dangerous - fly out almost all the time. If I have a player with a 2 trajectory, I try to keep him there until his power is up to a B, and then try to get it past 3 and up to 4 ASAP

Question: how important really is pitching control? Even with a low control of "E," my pitches seem generally accurate until my pitcher gets tired. Maybe stamina is more important" May be it's more important when simming? Still, part of me feels a pitcher should have a control level of at least a D (and stamina of E) before pitching in the majors.

Question: Anyone try to give their guys special abilities (canon arm, gold glove, etc)? Seems like a lot of time that could be better spent upgrading more tangible levels

Question: It seems that in automatic practice mode, "Fix" means you practice whatever level is lowest and "build" means you upgrade whatever levels are highest. Do you agree?

Question/Tip: I find training players to a new position during spring training is very worthwhile. Seems to only take a few days and the increased flexibility of your lineups make it a lot easier to deal with fluctuating fatigue and more flexibility to make trades. That being said, what would be the use of changing one's batting stance - other than changing it to more accurately reflect what a batter does in real life? Is 1 particular stance better for home runs; another better for hitting to the opposite field, etc?

I try to stay out of 4 for Trj, to many fly outs. Just my opinion. I find 3 to be the best, followed by 2, 4, and 1.

In Spring Training, you can do a bunch of crazy stuff with your players. Position change is good if yo picked up a F/A you want to start at a position with already a decent starter. As for batting stance, there's an option to make them a "Switch" hitter, VERY useful for your lineup/pinch hitters. I find changing your pitching motion is good for either making them more effective or just not ruining your eyes watching a sidearmer start.

Wow - I did not realize "switch hitter" was an option - that is cool!!!

As far as you know, are the ratings the same from both sides (like how a lot of lefties hit lefties at a 2 and a lot of righties hit lefties at a 4)?

How long does it take to switch?

It's just like when you have a pitcher learn a breaking ball. It usually takes 2-3 days, but sometimes it fails and it starts over again. It's really annoying when it fails twice and the whole spring was a complete waste.

And yes, the batting practice upgrades both, but at half the speed. I use it for recent draft picks that have both contact and power under a D.

1. I am pretty sure it does both more slowly. Still, I do prefer using Batting over the other two unless the player has a large difference between power and contact i.e. C contact, F power, practice Power obviously.

2. Control is definitely important when it comes to simming. If you play most of your games, you can get away with less control, but you should try to get most of your starters above E.

3. Reserve Special Abilities for your very best players that have nothing else to train. I recommend buying a Technique book from the Shop and ideally training with a group of friends. Try to train the most important abilities such as Intimidator. When training special abilities, it is wise to save the day before the bar is almost filled, and then exit and reload if the player doesn't get the ability. Continue to exit and reload until the training is successful.

4. As far as I know, batting and pitching stances have no effect on player performance. Switch hitting is good, but does not grant as large an advantage as you might expect. I spend most of my spring trainings training new breaking balls to pitchers and fielding positions to fielders. I love doing things like turning Mark Teixeira into a center fielder.

After thinking about it some more while I review player stats and play some games, I see your point. Hitting a ball curving versus curving out is only an issue if you're trying to pull the ball.

I guess the main differences would be facing a sidearm pitcher and a significant number of lefthanded batters have a lower control rating against lefty pitchers. With the latter, I guess it's a choice of either boosting control for both, or adding the switch hitter option to increase it against lefties.

Thanks.

Normally, I go with contact or power training if the player is close to leveling up (i.e. D: 9 in Contact or C: 118 in power)

Meanwhile, I use the general Batting when they're terrible with both (i.e. F: 4 and E: 88) and he isn't close to leveling up in Run Spd.

And under most circumstances, I go for tangible skills, mainly because, well, the impact is easily seen, and also because after all the work they put into getting the ability (say, Intimidator), they still might fail. So instead of upgrading Contact to a B, they miss out on an ability and stay at their current level. Risk management, almost.

Contact Rating (CON) = Batting average vs righties, regardless of batter handedness.
VS Lefty 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 = Batting average vs lefties - Batting average vs righties.

I published the differential in a previous post, but it's something like -.070, -.035, .000, +.035, +.070. So a batter that hits approx .270 against nighties and .235 against lefties should probably have CON 8 and Vs Lefty 2. Blue/Red abilities can tip the scales of course. In reality, most left-handed hitters would have Vs Lefty 2 and most right-handed hitters would have Vs Lefty 4, but the default players in MLBPP are mostly neutral across the board in that regard.

Batting stances seem to make a difference, especially in terms of power, but I haven't done any work in that area. You have Josh Hamilton and Lance Berkman struggling to hit enough homers to reflect their PWR while Dave Dellucci and Jason Michaels go ape . . . makes you wonder.

When trying to gain an ability, does practicing with a good friend who has that ability increase the speed of getting the ability, or increase the likelihood of succeeding at getting the ability? Also, what does the mentor do? Do they only help with getting the other person an ability or can they try for a very low chance at an ability in that time?

Practicing with a good friend will increase the speed of getting the ability, I don't think it will increase the likelihood. The mentor, I think, wil help with getting the other person an ability. Not sure about the mentor, though.

How do you find the good friends? Lots of trial and error? Because I've never found one in any of my seasons.

I think you either hope that 2 guys strike a bond on there own or you purchase a product that does it. It's in the misc category, like where you get sunflower seeds, hot dogs, & rings

Hey ERISA Dude, how did you get a space in your username? I'm pretty sure I attempted too, but was turned down.

Just have them practice together, and their friendship increases over time.

It just let me. Trust me, I did nothing special. Maybe between the time you joined & I joined, there was a system upgrade?