Strikeouts

[lufc2004]

Hi

I'm new to the game and have a quick question. At the moment I am not really playing the game in depth, I've just been trading and signing players whilst managing the odd game.

When I do manage a game my pitcher rarely throws strikeouts, i've played a couple of matches where i've not even thrown 1 strikeout! On the other hand the computer seems to throw a lot of strikeouts once I got destroyed the pitcher threw 14 K's. Does anyone know what i'm doing wrong?

Does it have anything to do with the "pitch" "pitch around" option? If not can someone please tell me what the difference is between the choices anyway?

Thanks!

[Kaitiaki]

Originally Posted by lufc2004

When I do manage a game my pitcher rarely throws strikeouts, i've played a couple of matches where i've not even thrown 1 strikeout!

Well, that is going to happen sometimes, and if you've only managed a few games, you may simply be seeing random chance at work. On the other hand, several things contribute to how many strikeouts a pitcher gets. The big two to worry about are a pitcher's Stuff rating, and his velocity. Hard throwing pitchers with high Stuff will get the most strikeouts of anyone. If your staff consists of a lot of soft-tossing command/control types, you aren't going to see many strikeouts. And, of course, the opposition gets a say: each batter's Avoid K rating determines how good they are at not striking out (if your batters are striking out a lot on a regular basis, consider hiring some guys with better Avoid K ratings ).

Does it have anything to do with the "pitch" "pitch around" option? If not can someone please tell me what the difference is between the choices anyway?

It can. Pitching around a batter means to pitch to him very carefully - only throwing pitches around the edges of the plate, never giving him anything good to hit. It increases the likelihood that the batter will draw a walk (since the pitcher is working around the corners of the plate, he's going to miss the plate completely more often than he would otherwise) in exchange for decreasing the likelihood that he will get a hit.

Indirectly, then, the fact that pitching around means you're going to be throwing more balls and fewer strikes than otherwise is going to reduce your strikeouts.

Generally, you want to use the Pitch Around option when there's a dangerous hitter at the plate and/or a big hit could really hurt you. It's a good idea when the opponent's star slugger is up and there are runners in scoring position, for instance (though you won't usually see it with a runner on first base, since a walk in that situation would put a runner in scoring position).

- Kai

[Left-handed Badger]

Yes, Pitch Around is something you generally use with Barry Bonds type. Where a walk can generally be pontentially better than the likely result.
I generally will only use it to 1 or 2 batters in the luneup if even that.

[lufc2004]

Thanks for both the replies, I had guess the pitching meaning correctly. I was mainly using pitch arounde when the pitcher was facing % batter, ie RHP v LHB and a straight pitch RHP v RHB.

Kai i'm a Jays fan too, but i'm from England and have only been into baseball for about a year so I don't know all that much about the game. I have been to a few games though and I do know that Marcum has been a huge player this season!

[Left-handed Badger]

Interesting, actually I am a Jay fan too. Well Blue jays/royals fan.

[lufc2004]

Nice one. I've been to Canada a couple of times this year so i've actually made it to about 4 Jays games. I love baseball but all they really show over here are the yanks, red sox, braves and I don't like any of them especially the yankees.

I have a feeling that they will trade Rios next year, I hope I'm wrong I think he'd be a massive loss. Hopefully his performance this year will make them keep him..... but what do I know!?

[Kelric]

This thread is just full of people for me to mock! Kaitiaki and I have been badgering each other's choice of sports teams for about seven years now, I think. Plus he's actually Canadian, so that's even worse.

One day a judge sat in court and was to work a parental custody battle over a little boy. The judge requests that both parents leave the courtroom and asks the little boy if he'd like to live with his mother. 'No, sir. She beats me,' says the little boy. The judge then asks if he'd like to live with his father. 'No, he beats me too,' was the reply. The judge thinks this over for a minute and asks, 'Well, who would you like to live with?' Without hesitation the little boy responds 'The Toronto Blue Jays. They don't beat anybody.'

[Kaitiaki]

Originally Posted by Kelric

This thread is just full of people for me to mock! Kaitiaki and I have been badgering each other's choice of sports teams for about seven years now, I think.

Good lord, has it really been that long?

'The Toronto Blue Jays. They don't beat anybody.'

I refer to you the Red Sox box score from April 17th of this year. That was the day Gustavo "There Are Three Things I'm Known For: My Glasses, My Delivery, and My Cologne; Notice How My Pitching Wasn't One Of Them?" Chacin outduelled Daisuke Matsuzaka as the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 2-1.

But don't worry, I'm sure you picked up Matsuzaka on the cheap, so it's not like it's horribly embarrassing or anything.

- Kai

[injury log]

Welcome to another UK OOTPer,

Originally Posted by Kaitiaki

The big two to worry about are a pitcher's Stuff rating, and his velocity. Hard throwing pitchers with high Stuff will get the most strikeouts of anyone.

Stuff determines strikeouts. Velocity does not, from all evidence I've seen (though Velocity and Stuff are correlated when OOTP creates players, so high-Stuff guys usually also have high Velocity). See post 48ff here:

Morale feature

The point being that a guy with rubbish Stuff and great Velo won't strike many people out- no more than a guy with rubbish Stuff and poor Velo.

[Kelric]

Well I was on GG in 2000 and maybe even in 1999 if I could remember that far back with any detail.

Originally Posted by Kaitiaki

I refer to you the Red Sox box score from April 17th of this year. That was the day Gustavo "There Are Three Things I'm Known For: My Glasses, My Delivery, and My Cologne; Notice How My Pitching Wasn't One Of Them?" Chacin outduelled Daisuke Matsuzaka as the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 2-1.

Yeah, the joke works best with teams like Tampa Bay, but as there were more Jays fans in this thread than DRays fans outside of Tampa itself....

[OldFatGuy]

Originally Posted by Kelric

Yeah, the joke works best with teams like Tampa Bay, but as there were more Jays fans in this thread than DRays fans outside of Tampa itself....

I'm a Nationals fan (used to be a Senators fan ). It works here too, unfortunately.

[Kelric]

I was also going to list the Royals and the Nationals, but figured I would limit it to the AL East cellar dwellers.

[lufc2004]

I didn't mean to start an arguement. Reading these posts was pretty funny though.

You've got to respect people who follow the lesser (not wanting to offend anyone) teams, there is no fun in following "big" teams

[Kelric]

Originally Posted by lufc2004

You've got to respect people who follow the lesser (not wanting to offend anyone) teams, there is no fun in following "big" teams

It's called 'winning.'

Of course, that's not something the Red Sox usually do once the playoffs/June/July/August/September/the Yankees/rookie starters/washed up veterans/lefties arrive.

[lufc2004]

Winning is no fun unless you have to work for it, it means so much more