Wudls roster AL East BETA 0.1 Beta

What difficulty slider do you recommend using with this

First reaction is to say, "very interesting."

Looking over the rosters and lineups, it seemed to me that the best team in the division was Tampa Bay. The Yankees were obviously good as well, so I decided to play as the Bombers hosting the Rays. I didn't touch the Tampa roster or lineup, but I made changes to the Yanks. I didn't feel the timing needed to be quite so current to the day, so I brought up Jeter from the minors. I changed the lineup pretty drastically. There's just no way Russel Martin is batting cleanup on that team if I'm making the decisions; I had him batting 8th. The pitching matchup I got was Kuroda vs. Hellickson.

I know it's just one game, but I did sense a different feel from the start. I played a solid game throughout, but there was a feeling of struggle to do some stuff which usually doesn't feel that way. I was making my pitches very well, but more hits were falling in than usual. I managed to get out of most jams, but Carlos Pena took me deep for a 2-run shot in the 2nd inning on a pitch that I threw pretty damned perfectly.

Meanwhile, my offense had a weird vibe going. I was getting good wood on the ball the entire game, but I seemed to be hitting rockets right at guys all the time. Aside from my pitcher, I didn't strike out once all game. It was like all of my big hits were islands to themselves; I had four two-out doubles and all but the last were stranded. When I was mounting a comeback late, I had leadoff hits followed by GIDPs in both the 8th and 9th innings.

The defense played a strange role as well. I mentioned I got down 2-0 in the 2nd inning, but I managed to hold them at 2 runs until the 9th because of 4 or 5 defensive gems that I'm just not used to seeing in this game. I ended up allowing 11 hits, but that could have easily been 15.

However, after I finally got a run in the 7th to draw to 2-1, my defense totally betrayed me in the top of the 9th. The score went from 2-1 to 5-1, and all of that damage was due to my outfielders misplaying balls in epic fashion. A couple of balls that should have been singles turned into triples, and Nick Swisher managed to run away from an easy can of corn at the last second (I did nothing out of the ordinary) allowing another guy who had no right even reaching base to get all the way to third.

Heading into the bottom of the 9th, the juice wasn't quite there down 5-1 instead of 2-1, but I still got a rally going and brought home another run. I got a leadoff double from Teixeira and then scored him with a Cano single, so with no outs there seemed to be some momentum building, but then reality snuck into my computer as A-Rod let all of the air out of the balloon by grounding into a double play.

Like I said, there did seem to be a different feel to the game, but we'll have to see how things go after more action.

@sgtpeppers:

I use custom sliders, otherwise it wouldn't work...

First reaction is to say, "very interesting."

At least you didn't say "very bad".

Looking over the rosters and lineups, it seemed to me that the best team in the division was Tampa Bay. The Yankees were obviously good as well, so I decided to play as the Bombers hosting the Rays. I didn't touch the Tampa roster or lineup, but I made changes to the Yanks. I didn't feel the timing needed to be quite so current to the day, so I brought up Jeter from the minors. I changed the lineup pretty drastically. There's just no way Russel Martin is batting cleanup on that team if I'm making the decisions; I had him batting 8th. The pitching matchup I got was Kuroda vs. Hellickson.

How did you come to the conclusion the best team in the division was Tampa bay? Did you look at ratings, overall ratings, players on the MLB team, on the AAA, etc.?

As far as my (not 100% updated) lineups go my rankings are the following:

- Blue Jays: pitching 85, batting 70, overall 81

- Orioles: pitching 87, batting 81, overall 87

- Rays: pitching 97, batting 75, overall 87

- Red Sox: pitching 81, batting 68, overall 77

- Yankees: pitching 92, batting 86, overall 91

To understand you correct (I am no English native speaker so sorry for that): you changed the lineups to your likings, right?

[When you look at those ratings you will see that pitching is always superior to hitting; this is somehow glitchy and caused by 2k. It seems to me that a pitching rating of 81 should be more like 76 and a batting rating of 68 more like 73; but these are only numbers that are quite irrelevant to be honest]

I know it's just one game, but I did sense a different feel from the start. I played a solid game throughout, but there was a feeling of struggle to do some stuff which usually doesn't feel that way. I was making my pitches very well, but more hits were falling in than usual. I managed to get out of most jams, but Carlos Pena took me deep for a 2-run shot in the 2nd inning on a pitch that I threw pretty damned perfectly.

I think the different feeling is caused by the edited ratings. 1) I changed the movement and control of many pitches drastically. 2) I changed the hitting ratings drastically. Before those changes there was this big gap between good and bad. Way too big IMO. But now I used this 3-year weighed average calculated rating and those big gaps are gone. I had to get used to it, too, but now I can handle it quite well.

And one further question: what did you change? I was looking into the game right now and in my roster Jeter is still playing the SS and Pena is on the bench. So how come that he hit a homerun against you?

Meanwhile, my offense had a weird vibe going. I was getting good wood on the ball the entire game, but I seemed to be hitting rockets right at guys all the time. Aside from my pitcher, I didn't strike out once all game. It was like all of my big hits were islands to themselves; I had four two-out doubles and all but the last were stranded. When I was mounting a comeback late, I had leadoff hits followed by GIDPs in both the 8th and 9th innings.

Maybe this is caused by the sliders or you simply had bad luck. For me mostly it is like either I get good contact and profit from it or I do not get anything going and I am completely shut out and I strike out all the time. E.g. I played 2 games with the Rays vs. the Yankees:

1) Hellickson vs. Kuroda: I played the Rays and I won 8-1, Hellickson going 8.1 innings (giving up only 1 walk, 5 hits and striking out 6), Kuroda lasting only 2 (I had 5 runs and 7 hits after the second already)

2) Price vs. Sabathia: I played the Rays again and lost 1-2. Price going 6.2 innings (perfect through 5, but already 110 pitches after 6), Sabathia going even 8.1. I managed only 5 hits of Sabathia the whole game. After I pulled Price because his fatigue was high I brought in Peralta. He first secured my lead I had at that time in the 7th. In the 8th he struck out 1, gave up a hit, struck out another and then gave up a 2 run homer to Raul Ibanez (lol clutch Raul...). Soriano came in for the save. Felt damn realistic.

Do not think I always hold the AI to low scoring. I had some games, e.g. Orioles vs. Red Sox yesterday, where I had to pull my starter (Tillman) early because I was behind 1-6 after 3. The result was a whopping 3-13 in the end, I gave up 17 hits in total (4 homeruns).

But to be honest without changing my playing style, changing some game settings and especially changing the sliders a little bit I would not have experienced this game.

Do not think I am making things up, I made screenshots of all the games I played to compare things to reality.

The defense played a strange role as well. I mentioned I got down 2-0 in the 2nd inning, but I managed to hold them at 2 runs until the 9th because of 4 or 5 defensive gems that I'm just not used to seeing in this game. I ended up allowing 11 hits, but that could have easily been 15.

What gems do you mean? Again this seems like a slider problem to me. Do you mean those diving catches?

However, after I finally got a run in the 7th to draw to 2-1, my defense totally betrayed me in the top of the 9th. The score went from 2-1 to 5-1, and all of that damage was due to my outfielders misplaying balls in epic fashion. A couple of balls that should have been singles turned into triples, and Nick Swisher managed to run away from an easy can of corn at the last second (I did nothing out of the ordinary) allowing another guy who had no right even reaching base to get all the way to third.

Do you remember this missed catch by Swisher some days ago against the Tigers...

I know what you mean, but I think those defensive mistakes are primarily caused by the game engine. I know those mistakes since the first time I played the game.

But you can drive those down with some slider adjustments.

Heading into the bottom of the 9th, the juice wasn't quite there down 5-1 instead of 2-1, but I still got a rally going and brought home another run. I got a leadoff double from Teixeira and then scored him with a Cano single, so with no outs there seemed to be some momentum building, but then reality snuck into my computer as A-Rod let all of the air out of the balloon by grounding into a double play.

Typically A-Rod...

Like I said, there did seem to be a different feel to the game, but we'll have to see how things go after more action.

Yap, would be nice if you could play some more games. Thank you for your in deep review.

Also it would be nice when you could use my sliders that I did upload?

Recommended:

Game settings:

Pitcher fatigue: 55 (Important! With 55 the Cpu will manage his pitchers more realistic but you have to look at your energy ratings because the more fatigued your pitchers are the more homerunprone they get!)

Hold runners: Smart Hold

Active bullpen: On

Catcher suggestion: Off (they call so much BS like 2-seamers high into the zone, so I turned this off, it seemed sometimes disgusting)

Dynamic player ratings: On

Control settings:

Pitching - Control Type: Classic (Important! Combined with the slider settings this works out quite well! Try it out and you will see that classic is not as easy as you think...)

Pitching - Aim: Pinpoint Aim

Batting - Control Type : Classic (Important! I did not test those sliders or the game with the analog hitting. I do not like it. Maybe it works, maybe it does not. What I do know is that with classic hitting and using the left stick for the hitting direction [pull/opposite] I get pretty realistic results)

Batting - Batters Eye: Off

Controller Options:

Batters Eye: Off

Pitch Aim: Pinpoint Aim

Auto Fielding: Off (Important! Less mistakes, better throws)

Auto Baserunning: On (Important! With the sliders you will see enough aggressivenes on the base paths and with setting it to automatic you won't see those baserunning glitches anymore)

Maybe you give those sliders and settings a shot even when you are not used to classic pitching and hitting. But with Total Control pitching I am simply not able to locate a sinker or curveball and I do not like the analog hitting, too.

And please do me one favor and try to manage your bullpen well. I realized that some "flaws" I was seeing were caused by myself. Sometimes I got in a reliever that was strong against lefties and bad against righties and then blamed the game because I got pumped by Ryan Lavarnway with a clutch homerun...

My feeling that Tampa had the best team was just from looking over the MLB players. It seemed like if I wanted to win with one of those five teams, the Rays would be my choice.

I played as the Yankees against the Rays, so I did change around my Yankees lineup, but I left Tampa alone.

Carlos Pena, the 1B for TB, hit the HR against me. Jeter was down in AAA when I first looked at the rosters. I assumed that was because of his ankle injury the other night. I chose to bring him up to play as my SS.

I used the sliders that I generally use which are quite difficult, but I mean that in a good way as they make things competitive and challenging.

The defensive gems I mentioned included two tremendous plays by Jeter moving to his right to field ground balls. Both were virtually in spots where it should be the 3B's play, but both times Jeter just barely got to the ball deep in the hole and then managed to get the runners out at first. I don't often see a SS even get to the ball where these were hit, and I had absolutely no expectation either time that he would actually get the runners out at 1B with the throws.

A couple others were diving catches in the OF, but it seemed like the dive came just a split second later than usual, and the dives seemed to propel the defender further from where he jumped to where he caught the ball as he landed than what you normally see. There was also an OF catch that wasn't a dive, but it had to be the longest run deep into the corner to make a catch that I've ever seen since I've been playing this game.

If using the classic controls is a big key for this, that may be a bit of a problem for me. Everyone has their preferences, but I just don't find the game to be much fun without using the analog sticks for both hitting and pitching. I've managed to get really good at the pitching, and this is coming from someone who had never even used an XBox 360 controller one time before starting with MLB 2K (in general I'm not a gamer by any means, but this was just something special from the first time I played it).

I can give the sliders you listed and the classic controls a try, but I doubt I'll want to stay with the classic controls. I'll have to see what kind of a difference the sliders make because I've found settings which are pretty right on for me when I normally play the game, although, I'm constantly forced to alter them because the more I play and the more I improve, the game inevitably becomes a bit too easy. Then, after making some subtle adjustments to compensate for that, it usually is way too hard, so I have to tinker with it to find the combination which is just right (and then I go through that process again and again each time I find that I'm winning too much or too easily).

As far as I can say in my roster I do not have Carlos Pena in the lineup. He is on the bench against LHP and RHP. Keppinger is the 1B so I do not know, maybe I did upload the wrong version, I gonna check that.

I do not know how your sliders are set, maybe you could give me some numbers (contact/power, pitchers control, Outfield speed and Infield speed, baserunning).

In the game I played yesterday I saw only one succesful defensive catch with a jump in the whole game, so I do not know where your problem comes from. There were two defensive jumps where the SS missed the ball in the infield. So 3 jumps overall, I think this is okay.

Regarding this longest run you have ever seen: I bet you have set your outfielders speed higher than 0, right? This game's OF defense is BS with OF speed above 0. I have never ever seen a hit above a OF's head with OF speed above 0. Never. Maybe you try it out and set it to 0. Since the game favors the reactions of the AI you can set it to 5 for users. But AI should be set at 0.

I do not think that classic hitting or classic pitching is a big key for this. I pitched with total control for a long time. Only 2 or 3 weeks ago I gave classic pitching a try, since I am simply not able to locate sinkers or each kind of curveballs with total control. The problem for me was that if I set user pitch control up so that I could locate those pitches my other pitches were located so damn good that I got more than 10 Ks per game. When I set the control lower that I wasn't able to get so many Ks I was not able to locate the mentioned pitches. Then I switched to user control 0 and classic pitching and everything is working. Sometimes I have good games, sometimes I have bad games. Sometimes I get many K and lesser BB, sometimes I get many BB and lesser K.

Regarding hitting I can not talk much about the analog hitting. For me it is simply BS to be honest. As I tried it out for a few weeks I was hitting bomb after bomb after bomb. With classic batting you hit a bomb when you get the right pitch and not when you want to hit a bomb on a good pitch. That is my feeling. Hard work is way more rewarded with classic batting. And furthermore with classic hitting I see a much bigger variety of hits. Hits over the OFs head, bloopers, and so on. With analog pitching I don't see it.

As I said I do not know if it is a must to use classic control, but I recommend it since I tried the roster/sliders only with this kind of control. I can understand that you feel that you found some pretty right settings for the normal rosters.

But the normal rosters for me are simply BS and I wanted to have rosters that are rated fairly on a common base. The good guys should be good ,the bad guys should be bad. The sluggers should be able to slug, the contact hitters should be able to make contact. The good fielders should give you good defensive plays, the bad defenders should play it sloppy. I do not get this when I use the 2k rosters.

OF COURSE YOU CAN USE THEM. Everyone should feel free to play the game he wants to!

But you only have to look at some things like this:

- Ricky Romero (TOR) having one bad season and being dropped to 59 control and 72 OVR while completely ignoring the previos 2 seasons which weren't bad, he even was considered as an ace

- Carlos Villanueva starting 16 games after being a reliever for the biggest part of his career (16 games, what a laughable small sample size since he had 17 relief appearances this year, too) and having way worse stats this year as a starter than as a reliever and he gets to 73 control and a 83 OVR

- Jhonny Venters stats have dropped significantly compared to the previous 2 seasons but although he still has way better stats than Villanueva he gets 65 control, 54 ConR, 66 ConL and a 78 OVR

So tell me:

Who would you pick in reality when

- you look for a SP: Romero or Villanueva?

- you look for a RP: Venters or Villanueva?

Or look at Francisco Rodriguez (MIL). Stats tell that he is declining, but still he has way better stats than Villanueva. His fastball command was somehow off last year, but now he is back to his usual good fastball since dropping some velocity. And I wanna quote Wikipedia: "He uses his changeup more against left-handed hitters.[24] It has a whiff rate of 48% since 2007, the third-highest among all changeups thrown by relief pitchers." K-Rod's changeup was and still is one of the best changeups in the MLB today!

Now let's look at the game. 4-seamer rated 66, changeup rated 70 (because he has a control in the 60s lol), 2-seamer 66, power curve 65.

Carlos Villanueva: 4-seamer 69, slider 71, curve 74, 2-seamer 74, change 79.

You can look at the batters, too.

Let's take Andre Ethier (LAD). In reality he has been hitting .224 against LHP over the last three years. In game he gets a contact rating of 72 against LHP.

Kelly Johnson (TOR) has been hitting .241 against RHP over the last three years. In game he gets a contact rating of 56 against RHP.

Where is the stringency?

Why is Curtis Granderson getting a 79 contact rating when he was hitting .252 against RHP over the last 3 years?

Is hitting .252 really 23 rating points better than hitting .242?

In my roster Ethier would get a contact rating of 60 against LHP and Johnson would get a contact rating of 65 against RHP, Granderson would get 69 against RHP.

In 2k's roster Jeter has an overall defensive rating of 74 at SS. Derek Jeter had a very bad UZR/150 of -16.4 this year according to fangraphs.com. Jed Lowrie got an overall defensive rating of 74 at SS by 2k, too. According to fangraphs his UZR/150 was -0.2.

In 2k's roster Jose Reyes has a overall fielding rating of 93 at SS. Over his last 4 years his UZR/150 was: -4.7, -, -5.7, -3.6, -2.9. Brendan Crawford has a overall fielding rating of 89 at SS. In his 2 years in the majors he got 8.2 UZR/150 in 2011 and 9.5 UZR/150 in 2012.

Of course the UZR/150 does not reflect everything, but why does 2k do something like this?

As a baseball fan I am a fan of stats, too. That's why I can not have fun with a game that has random ratings that are based on the preferences of some guy over at 2k.

I can not stand things like Buster Posey getting rating rewards in form of rating pushes by 2k for his good season, while Hunter Pence does not get punished for his bad season while 2k does not touch his ratings and he still has contact ratings above 80. 2k touches some players way in a way too drastic manner while they do not even touch players that should be touched, too.

2k assigns ratings on no common base. For me I can not have fun with such ratings. They are unrealistic as hell and as far as my experience goes this can be seen in the game, too. As I said when I play a game I want the good players to play good and the bad to play bad (at least most of the time, some randomness is required ).

But when you are fine with those ratings they do offer to you I won't complain. I simply got my oppinion and want to give a different offering with my rosters. ;)

Ah and one little hint.

MAYBE those hard hits that cause those diving plays are caused by the pitch speed. Try to lower it a little bit, I think it could help.

The power of balls that are hit depends not only on batting power.

Are you eventually going to do all the divisions?

I have made the 25 man rosters of the Tigers, Cards and Giants lately. Yes I want to do all the divisions. That's why the current version was called BETA. But as I said it takes a lot of time. One franchise needs 4-6 hours of work.