Power Pros Forum

Wow - the swingmen/starter thing - I'll have to experiment with that. It just doesn't make sense for the programmers to make swingmen recover faster, but who knows.

Re the graybar challenge, I do something similar that is a little quicker and easier. My settings are what is stated in that post, although pitch speed may be regular. I run a fantasy draft, which I like 'cause it really seems to even out the teams, but I can only pick graybar players through the 1st 8 rounds. Thus, I get the best prospects and then some mediocre experienced players. Only graybar players may train up. Each year my goal is to win it all with more graybar starters than in the prior year, and I ultimately want a team of all graybars.

This offseason I had most of my pitchers train for the "good delivery" ability and it's been great! I still don't strike out a lot of batters, but I strike out more and it makes my faster off-speed pitches more effective. What I mean is that I notice batters struggling significantly more with forkballs and vertical sliders. I don't notice as much of a difference with curve balls, which were pretty effective for me before anyway. I wish I had a pitcher with a decent splitter to see the effect.

The effectiveness on the vertical slider had been amazing, turning one of my struggling starters (whose best pitch was a level 4 vertical slider) into my best pitcher this season. I had another pitcher learn the vertical slider and pick up the good delivery ability last off-season and I'm even able to strike out batters regularly with that level 1 pitch!

Anyway, this has really shown me the value of that ability, so I wanted to share.

Decided to pop the game back in again and start a Phillies season with default rosters. First time I've ever used the default rosters, and I'm glad to just be enjoying the game again (not taking so much time editing rosters!).

Currently sifting through the rosters to see who I can trade for to be a part of my future.

what % of players from the 2008 game are even still in baseball? my guess would be somewhere around 20-25% -- I think it'd be a fun challenge to try to put together a team (or two) of players, maybe even edit them and put 2008 versions against current ?? hmmm

Incredible thing going on in my 2008 Phillies sim. After a lot of trades, I hit the postseason and noticed that the best ERA in the league was 2.83 (Johan Santana). Out of almost 60 ranked, most had 3.00 or under, and even those with good win-loss records had a below-average ERA. Meanwhile, an astounding 97 batters had 91+ RBIs. Over 61 of them had 100+ RBIs - David Ortiz leading the way with 163!! Over 50 had 25+ HRs as well, over 30 with 30+.. and ARod trumped all with 46.

Hmm...if most league starters are pitching well, the players must be racking up their rbi totals against relievers

I changed the TV on which I play the game and my hitting now S U C K S! I have the lowest runs scored in the league. Fortunately, I've also allowed the fewest runs and I'm doing awesome in 1-run and extra inning games so I'm in 1st place. Still - when I'm looking for a level 1 change up and get the level 1 change up, I can't seem to knock it out like I used to.

Switching from a Gamecube to XBone controller definitely impacted my play. I'm noticing slightly more difficulty squaring up pitches over the middle but better contact on pitches on the corners... the feel of the stick is definitely very different. Different screens didn't seem to matter much.

Anyway, I'm 10-10 in my new season and managed a 6-game losing streak after a hot start. Just about everything that could go wrong went wrong. Bloopers falling, mistake pitches to good hitters with men on base, baserunning mistakes, ill-advised throws. It was ugly, and mostly the fault of my pitching/defense. Manny ended the skid with a walk-off grand slam to dead center though, which was fun.

I noticed a mention of the difficulty drawing walks in the Sonics thread but after playing all these years I don't seem to have to much trouble walking a couple times a game. Walk totals in my last six games: 3 3 1 3 2 4. I'm more aggressive with my better hitters but I tend to let pitches to the corners go by early in the AB and am willing to take some close ones with two strikes. I definitely was less patient when I first started playing this game when it was released.

I'm envious - I hate striking out since it hurts contact levels, so while I often let close pitches go early in the AB, I really enlarge the hitting zone with 2 strikes. In some ways, it's worse with my poor hitters - I Especially hate when an For or E contact hitter strikes out, but those are the guys who should be working out walks.

I have a sim-only save with the Padres rolling right now. My MVP? C David Ross. Signed as a free agent going into the second season and he is a perennial .350+ hitter. I don't get it. He started with E or F contact and is up to C but has mashed all along. Meanwhile, Adrian Gonzalez consistently underperforms with C contact and A slugging. There is some voodoo under the hood.

I also forgot how many quality players can be stolen in free agency. I landed CC Sabathia, Carl Crawford (underperformer... shocker), and Hanley for relatively little. Chase Utley cost a fortune but was worth it.

Is defense a primary driver for pitching performance? Some of my starters are struggling and they seem pretty great on their own.

It is for me. A 4 strikeout performance is a lot for my pitchers!

Just had a crazy game against the Cubs for those following my log.

We were down 8-3 going into the top of the 9th facing Bobby Howry. We were able to scratch 3 runs across the board to make it 8-6, and then Sonic came up and crushed a 3-run shot to make it 9-8! And he did the thing where the guy jumps on home plate after a huge homer.

Then the bottom of the 9th came, and there were runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs against Eggman. He gets the batter to ground it to the 2B, Blaze- and it goes "right through the wickets!!" I managed to get the ball in fast enough to hold the runner at third, but now it was Alfonso Soriano up with the bases loaded. He crushed a gapper, scoring two to end it

That is an exciting game!

I've had some moderate recent success in using a cutter as a strike out pitch. If my main strike out pitch does not work, and I've got a lefty v right match up (or vice versa), a cutter that starts on the plate and slides off works about 40% off the time - and that's with only a level 2/3 slider!

because i don’t know where else to put this:

Found another CPU glitch (the first being the pinch-hit for pitcher and put the PH in a different spot trick that usually leads to somebody playing out of position)

Today, was playing season mode with my arrange team of all success guys, facing the orignal roster Reds. Bottom of the ninth, my pitcher comes up with the bases loaded and one out. Kent Mercker (a LHP) is summoned to face him. Then I pinch hit with Pete Grossman, a switch-hitter. The Reds immediately put in Francisco Cordero (a RHP) without Mercker ever throwing a pitch.

Last time I checked this violated at least one rule,,,,but ok

A few things happened in my season over the past week that never happened before.

1. My starting SS was on IR through 8/31 - the date to set the post season roster. I think that means my starting SS will not be eligible for the post season. Can anyone confirm that?
2. The computer broke MLB rules! In a close game, the computer brought in a reliever, then I put in a pinch hitter and the computer put in another pitcher without the 1st reliever having thrown a pitch!
3. I hit an opposite filed hr into one of the "lucky pocket" holes in the Las Vegas stadium

1) In real life, players on the DL would be eligible for the postseason. Not sure if it works the same in Power Pros, though.

2) I've had that happen to me a couple times before. The CPU doesn't seem to care for some of the rules lol

3) Nice!