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MVP Baseball Playing Tips
for
beginners, or those wishing a new look
Forward
Note that we are not associated with either EA Sports
nor with MLB baseball. We do however enjoy playing the EA Sports
MVP Baseball video game. And we also did want to share some of
what we had learned playing it. The other important point here for
this initial information is that the version we are using is the 2003
edition for home computers. We would believe that some of this
information will translate into other MVP baseball editions.
Batting Practice
As some of the MVP Baseball information suggested, it is
a good idea to get some batting practice. That can be done in the
home run derby. When starting to learn in the home run derby, note
that the person that you are competing with need not be the CPU.
You can set the other person to be keyed from a different keyboard
setting or game controller. Since there would be no one likely to
use that other game controller, the person you are competing with will
never hit, leaving you stress free as the only batter. As you
start to become good, you may later decide to set the other controller
to CPU, which of course would then place you in competition during
batting practice.
Batting - Hitting the Ball
Hitting the ball seems to have three different levels -
at least in the video game. If you are just starting, the first
simple goal would be timing your swing to a point of release on the
pitcher. This of course takes much practice. After you get
used to that, there are two more levels - level two is being able to
tell if the ball is going to be a strike, and level three is adjusting
to the speed of the pitch.
I would not worry about levels two and three until you
get used to being to hit the ball at least partially well. The
reason for that is that your reaction time and vision adjust such that
you now seem to see more information regarding the pitcher than you used
to. This means that you have to train your own reaction times to
be able to look for oddities faster, and that will take practice.
Level two - determining if a pitch is over the plate or not - may be
hard to practice during home run derby. The reason is that most of
the balls in home run derby go over the plate. But of course
during a real game, pitchers do not always throw over the plate.
With a real pitcher, it is really hard for me to say what it is you are
looking for in just that first portion of a second. But it does
seem that after a while you get a "hunch" that the ball is not going to
be over the plate. That is the time to take the pitch. Also
be careful with a real pitcher - to see if they are simply trying to
walk you on purpose. CPU pitchers will do that at times. So,
all four pitches could easily be off the plate. Unless you watch,
you might never see that happening and miss out on an easy walk when it
is being offered to you.
Level three of batting is being able to time a pitcher -
as they change from fast balls to a slower pitch, such as a change or
curve ball. What I have noticed, at least with some pitchers, as
that they will do slightly different things right before release.
Some pitchers right before throwing a fast ball seem to tense up and
have themselves totally wound up right before the throw - and that means
they are throwing fast. Those same pitchers often seem just a
little more casual when throwing a changeup or a slower ball.
Since we have not seen all pitchers, the differences are hard to give
here, but I would look to see if the pitchers just look different for
the different speeds.
Batting Strategy
Perhaps the most important strategy is deciding whether
or not to bunt. So far, I have not yet seen a time when I bunt
when the batter makes it to first base safely. However, bunting is
often a sacrifice. If you are concerned that the batter that you
have up might hit into a double play, or just simply does not have
enough power and technique to avoid an infield ground ball, and you have
less than 2 outs, considering a bunt is not such a bad idea if you have
someone on base. It usually moves the runners up and avoids the
double play.
You can place the ball by picking a direction at the
same time as you bat. A good time to do this is to hit in a
different direction than where your runners are. For example, if
you have a runner on second that you want to get to third, it would be
best to hit to right field far away from 3rd and 2nd base to keep the
ball out of the path of your runner. However, it does seem that so
far for us unless you have a key direction issue like that, it is often
best to just hit and not set a direction at all.
Base Running
Base running is very important - even if you are playing
the computer version with a keyboard and have the players on full
automatic. The problem is that sometimes you can hit the ball, and
the players on the bases do not run - or they may do the opposite and
run too far into an out you didn't need. The best approach is to
control each runner, and key them to exactly the base you want them to
go. If you are just going to advance the runners (using page up
and page down in the computer version) you have to be careful. It
seems that if a runner is going from first base to second, that telling
the runner to advance and then releasing the advance key will send the
runner to second and he will stop there. However, it does seem
that if the runner is on second and you hit the advance key - even only
briefly - that the runner may not stop at third and run right into an
easy out at home.
The other problem is that players also leave the bases a
bit on a fly ball - and you will need to press the "retreat" button
(page down for the computer version) to send them back to tag up as soon
as the ball is caught. If you do not do this, I have seen a number
of cases where the player is simply caught off base and the other team
has a double play.
There seems to be no way to avoid problems - other than
watching and controlling the runners - at least on the computer version
of MVP baseball.
Pitching Control
At least for the computer version, note that pitching is
a two step process in order to get the maximum best pitch for each type.
For the first portion, you hold down the button until the indicator is
almost done going in the first direction and is in the red - and then
release the button just before the end and it reverses. On the way
back, press the button a second time when it is in the green portion.
This approach seems to give the best pitch for accuracy - or speed or
curve as the pitch indicates.
Pitching Technique
Just as in real baseball, throwing a fast ball down the
center of the plate is often a bad idea. It is best to vary both
the location and the speed. If you know something about the
batter, you might want to modify your pitching strategy for the batter.
However, for some batters, throwing a slider high and away, followed by
a changeup low and away might get you two quick strikes on the batter.
In doing that, you are changing both the location and the speed of the
ball delivered to the batter. If you do get those two quick
strikes, sometimes you might want to try the third pitch as a sucker
ball - a super fast ball high and out of the strike zone.
Sometimes that gets you a strike out - and you might feel on top of the
world.
Pitching to Each Batter
This next part may seem extreme, but does work well, and
does what real pitchers do. It is best to take notes on what each
batter liked and didn't like. Sometimes the announcers may give
you free information - such as "this batter is dangerous to any inside
pitch" or "this batter loves the ball high and can hit them right out of
the park". Free information such as that is wonderful, but even
then, I would suggest marking it down. If you do play a season or
a franchise, you might see the same batter 12 times or even more.
If you have notes on this batter to know where a safe pitch is, it might
be great information to have. Also, advice from the game seems to
suggest to vary the pitches from batting to batting a little bit.
So, if you lead off with one batter high and outside with a slider, and
you know that the batter likes the ball inside, you might throw a
different pitch than a slider to this same batter on the next pass and
make that pitch low and away rather than high and away.
However, the above is all good for a batter when no one
is on base. If you have a runner on first, you of course should
think a little about a double play. As the game suggests, it is
time to consider throwing the ball low to the batter - trying to get a
ground ball - and a double play. Now, this does not mean all
pitches should be the same. You can still vary the pitches, for
example, from a low and away slider to an inside and low changeup or
other combination. If you do get two strikes on the batter, now
you have to decide if you are going for a double play or a strikeout.
For a strikeout, you might try the fast ball high and outside the strike
zone. For trying for a double play, you of course would still like
to keep the ball low.
Throwing Pick off Plays
Throwing pick off plays by your pitcher to first or
second may seem silly at times, since most of the time there is no pick
off. Perhaps the first 20 pick off attempts that I tried, did not
result in any success. However, the 20th or so one resulted in an
out. So, there can be good results from doing pick off plays and trying
to keep the runners close.
Going to Your Bull Pen
When do you give up on your starting pitcher and go to
your bull pen? It is really the same strategy as the coaches use.
As long as the starting pitcher is being effective and not getting hit,
it is best to keep them in. However, if things start to change and
they begin to be hit a lot, it might mean that they are tired and less
effective and it is time for a relief pitcher.
Another time to go to your bull pen is if you need to
catch up on runs or need an insurance run when you are already ahead -
and are in a later inning such as the 7th inning or 8th inning. In
that case if you pitcher is due up to bat, you might consider a relief
batter for him. And then when it comes time to go on defense
again, you need to change your pinch hitter for a relief pitcher.
Closers
Some sports announcers say that the last three outs are
different from the other 24 - they are harder. Like real baseball,
you might want to give the ball to your closer for the ninth inning.
Pick a closer where you like the pitches they throw and you can control
him well.
Getting Your Favorite Players
Real baseball teams change rosters all the time.
So if you are looking for your favorite players for your favorite team,
you might feel upset that they are not there. However, MVP
baseball does allow trades. In my case, I was able to make trades
to get the players from other teams that made up the favorite team
roster of my favorite baseball team. That was great! To do
that took a number of changes multiple times. I had to make
trades, then modify batter order and then modify defense alignment.
After a number of changes I arrived at just the right team that was the
favorites of mine in the right positions. So, it might take a
little work to get things where you want them, but it often can be fun.
And then of course, the game is more fun when playing with the team and
team players of your choice.
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