Power Pros Forum

Forgive me if this should be obvious, but I'm relatively new to the game and can't figure this one out - If I'm more likely to play games rather than sim them in Season mode using my success players, then do I want to stock up on green abilities or blue abilities? For example, if I had a player with A contact (green ability), then what would be the point of also having the contact hitter blue ability? If I can get a hit by lining up that nice big sweet spot with the ball and giving it a smack, then does having the contact hitter ability actually add anything, or is that just useful for simulating? There are other examples too - why take power hitter if you have a player with high power? Why take cannon arm if you have a player with high arm strength? Why take stealing if you have a player with great speed? I just send my SS with A speed for second every time he's on base, he's almost always successful, and doesn't have the stealing ability. Same thing with the fielding abilities. Can anyone offer an opinion? Thanks.

Green Abilities only work when they are being simmed (a la Slugger, etc.), Blue Abilities work all the time, simmed or played, for the most part.

Some blue abilities augment what makes the difference between a good player and a great player. I'd definitely take an outfielder with A arm strength, but if they also have Cannon Arm, it makes those throws to home that much faster. You can dump points in a stat like Power or Run Speed till they are maxed, but you do get diminished returns after a while as costs go up to train in the point. I'd rather have a runner with average B speed and Stealing 4 than one with a low A speed and Stealing 3.

Thanks Dark Shade, so if I'm getting what you're saying, the blue abilities (ie. cannon arm) augment the green abilities (ie. arm strength), so that a player with A arm strength would still not throw as hard as a player with A arm strength and cannon arm - is that right?
If so, then here's a follow-up - what would happen if you had a player with G or F power, but also had the power hitter ability? Or low contact but contact hitter, that sort of thing. It doesn't appear that there's a requisite level of contact (green) that a player is required to have before taking the contact hitter ability, so which one is more important when it comes time to playing a game?

The Green Abilities I'm referring to are under the "Other" column when you are using experience points to get better attributes. Stuff like "Patient HTR", where the batter is only taking advantage of that skill if the computer is controlling him -- the batter is only as patient as you are if you are controlling him. Items like Arm Strength, Run Speed, etc. are considered Attributes and are independent from any other abilities, but yes, two players with equal Arm Strength, yet one has Cannon Arm, the one with the extra ability will be a better choice, barring anything else.

I believe Power Hitter really only comes into play if you are in Big Swing, and even F power can hit one out of the park if you hit it right. Depending on what you are going to do with the player comes into play -- are you going into Season mode with him and want to make him better over the course of 10 seasons? At that point you have to decide what his role will be, should he be swinging for the fences or should I dump another 20 PWR points so he gets that little extra oomph when he hits for contact to bloop the ball over the infield?

Thanks again DarkShade. Since you obviously know what you're talking about, I'm going to pick your brain a bit more then.
So if I'm working on a success player that I want to then use in Season mode. I want him to be able to hit 20-25 taters a year and bat around .320 let's say. If he's got a high rank in power, let's say B, and say level 4 trajectory, in big swing mode he'll definitely jack a few, but he'd probably also hit some doubles to the wall which, if he had the power hitter ability, would have carried out of the park. Am I reading this right? Similarly, a catcher with B arm strength would throw out his share of runners but one with B arm strength and a cannon arm would throw out more. I think this is what I'm hearing, correct me if I'm wrong.
By the way, you're right, I was referring to attributes rather than green abilities - my rookie mistake. My original question, which you've done a good job of answering so far, really boils down to attributes vs. abilities and which are more important for playing come season mode? Thanks.

With 20-25 HRs @ .320 BA you'll want mid to high-C Power and high-B Contact with 3 Trajectory. As an example, my 3B has mid-B Power and low-B Contact and 3 Trajectory and he's already hit 20+ HRs into the second month of the Season. Power Hitter would help those off-the-wall doubles turn into homers, and would turn the high fly from mid-center field into warning track doozers. You are thinking right that a cannon arm would throw more people out, especially on standard running difficulty settings as they like to run pretty far out, you might catch a couple with a fast, low throw.

In Season Mode, you can increase your Attributes little by little by using Practice. You can't gain new Abilities as easily. So in a hypothetical situation, if I could make my player either have a mid-C Power and no Power Hitter, or low-C Power along with Power Hitter, I'd go the latter route.

Yeah as far as simming goes abilities rule. They "make" things happen based on the ability type and often over compensate.

I have a guy with G power and Power Hitter (and tons of other abilities) who hits 15-25 homers every year when I sim.

Thanks Odawali,
So what I'm hearing from you and Darkshade so far is go for abilities if I'm going to sim, but if I'm going to actually play out the seasons, build up some decent attributes with a few abilities thrown in to augment the attributes or to give you things the attributes wouldn't otherwise give (like barehand catch for example). I'm still a bit unclear as to when you would want to choose something like gold glover over increasing your player's attributes in fielding and error resistance, but I'm starting to catch on I think.

Because in Season Mode you can increase your players attributes, for instance my 3B had a 11(C) in Contact but now has a 12(B) because I put him in Contact batting practice. It's much easier to increase attributes than it is to learn blue abilities like Gold Glover.

Any stat that is based on a scale of 1-15 is significantly easier to level in season mode than the core stats (scale of 1-255) by virtue of the boost being 1 point per "bar of experience". So if you could theoretically go after the hard blues, the core stats and fill out the 1-15s last, like a bonus.

Of course, you don't want A+ power, 4 TRJ, and G contact, it just asks for pop ups (at least in my case) unless you hit it cleanly. A typical feast or famine hitter.