Power Pros Forum

i was wodering if anybody could give some tips on what blue abilities to buy if im trying to make a pure power hitting player. i know the "power hitter" ability is a must. i also like to get "firstball hitter" and "spray hitter". are there any others that i really need if im making a power hitter?

Walk-Off, Rally, and BL hitter are all abilities that will help with RBI, which is important for a power hitter.

i know bl hitter is good, but is it really worth it to waste a turn gambling on an ability that only helps in a situation that rarely if ever happens in success mode. and even if i do bring my guy to season mode getting the bases loaded doesnt happen that often either.

but i will remeber rally and walk-off

any others?

You won't be gambling for any of those abilities. The only ways to acquire them are through random events and secrets of hitting books.

First off, BL Hitter can't be obtained on the Ability Boost screen (and therefore, not by gambling either). You should go after a SoH book to get that ability. The easiest way to get a book is either a surprise bag (Annie or a different RE) or the Prof HW RE.

Secondly, I don't think you should ever decide on an ability based on whether or not its going to help you in success mode. Of course, you should upgrade certain areas before others in order to make success mode a little easier, but don't turn your back on a certain ability unless you won't need it at all. If you're not planning on bringing your created player over into season mode then you can stick to getting abilities that will help you in success mode only. But if you are planning on bringing them over, you need to keep in mind that abilities are much easier to obtain in success mode then season mode. Get them while you can.

Thirdly, while I have much respect for Mr. J-Gao, I have to disagree with his suggestions. Rally Htr and Walk-Off Htr are good abilities, but they don't necessarily scream "Power Hitter". Rally Htr just means your guy hits better when your team is down. Walk-Off Htr makes your guy hit better when your guy's up to bat with the game on the line (which comes up even less then the bases loaded situations you were speaking of). As for abilities that will help with HRs, Power Htr is a given. Contact Htr will do just what it implies; help you make contact. A lot of people think this ability is just for "slap" hitters putting the ball into play, but that's completely false. You have to make contact before you can hit it out of the park, so you want your contact up and you want Contact Htr. Push Htr will help you hit to the opposite field and, therefore, also help you hit HRs to the opposite field. There are plenty other blue abilities that will help you, but these are the big ones in my opinion. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

Now, lastly, lets talk about green abilities. These abilities will direct how the computer controls your player and they're extremely useful if you ever plan on simming any games. For a power hitter, you want Slugger. All it does is make the computer hit with power more instead of just a normal swing. Many believe it hurts your average and makes you K more. While that makes sense in theory, I personally haven't noticed this effect. If you have your contact up and have some other generic hitting abilities (abilities that are good for every type of hitter; VsLefty, Clutch, etc.) I don't think you'll see any negative effects. I could be wrong so you might want a few more opinions on that. Another green ability that I don't understand why everyone doesn't put on their hitters is "Patient Hitter" which basically gives your guy a good eye at the plate instead of swinging more freely.

Hope all this helps.

I think you need to clarify, is this for a creating a generally productive middle of the order hitter, or designing a player that behaves like a prototypical power hitter (negatives and all)?

Those are two separate things you know. For example Spray Hitter is more of a slap hitter's ability as it gives balls hit down the foul lines a better chance to stay fair. I don't think a realistic power hitter would need that kind of bat control, but having it of course would boost average, by extension RBI, and make the player more productive.

There's also the difference between a good player to use on your own team, or a good player in sim mode.

I generally agree with everything you said except for Contract Hitter. It only helps off-center contact in normal swing mode so I don't see it helping out much in hitting homers.

Oops.... I was under the impression that it helped no matter which swing you use, but it makes more sense that it only helps with normal swings.

Spray hitter allows you to hit with normal power even if you swing late on an inside pitch/early on an outside pitch. It is very useful. Instead of hitting a fly to the center field when you are late on a fastball but center it perfectly, you will often instead hit HR's with this ability.
Push hitter does help you keep the ball inside the line when hitting to the opposite field. It also might help opposite field hitting in general as well, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
Although I prefer swinging for the fences every time because it's pretty easy to hit homers and the hits come equally either way, contact hitter is very effective and makes normal swing close to being worth using. You will definitely hit for a higher average with normal+contact hitter but hitting no homers and few doubles is too big of a sacrifice for me.
This is the craziest thing ever but I always bat worse with firstball hitter because it encourages me to swing at the first pitch even if I am surprised, leading to a lot of bad outs. It is better to take the patient approach even if your hitter is worse.
Make sure get pull hitter, and probably try to get a lot of those hot contact zones. I have noticed that I hit a lot more homers to left field on balls low and away with this attribute, although I hit more groundballs to the shortstop as well.

Just sim a season and you will notice the effects immediately. Gaia has the worst BA on the whole team and I will pick my guy a-rod over him because he doesn't have slugger.

I simmed a season with two of my success guys, one with a 150 power and more abilities, and another with 210 power but less abilities. The weaker guy came up with a higher average, more HR's, and over 200 RBI.

Raw stats are great, but abilities can compensate for lower stats depending on what you are looking for.

One of the walk-off hitter descriptions is "homers often with the bases loaded" That implies power.

I will back this up. Had an average power hitter that became Ruth with the bases full.

Yeah, I'm aware of the 3 different Walk-Off Htrs. And I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a nice ability for a power hitter. I was just pointing out which abilities I believed to be the most important because they come into effect every AB, not just ABs with the bases loaded.

Yeah, but there aren't that many, IMO, so I decided to put some "reaches." I guess if I wanted I would say Durability 4 because an injured power hitter on the DL doesn't hit for any power.