Too much offense in play-by-play?

[terryr]

Hello Everyone,

I've been playing games in the play-by-play mode over a 2-week span of games, and it seems like there is way too much offense (players batting .500 or close to it, too many HRs, etc.). Have any of you found the same thing? If so, have you adjusted the play-by-play settings to account for this?

Thank You!

[Voidmare]

I've played 2+ seasons starting in 2006 and playing every game in PBP mode with the Cubs. It seems to me to go in spurts... games will be offensive battles for a couple series in row and the next couple series will be close pitcher's battles. In two seasons I haven't seen absurd offensive totals like you're asking about over the long term. League leaders in average and HRs (to the best of my memory since I'm at work right now) have been around .340 & 60 each year. I have seen spurts of extreme offense... Aramis Ramirez hit 7 HRs in 4 games for a stretch, but then he turned around and did not hit another for over 5 weeks! GRRR!

I was experimenting a couple weeks ago after reading some other posts here. I simulated through a season to compare Simulation with my PBP performance. In Player mode, I control the pitchers fully but for hitting, I call bunts, hit&runs, and such, but always just click the "don't guess" box rather than guessing pitch type and location. I haven't adjusted any bars or editted players.

I had slightly better offensive numbers in Player mode, but not drastically better... I attributed this to better decision making over having the computer manage my team and my stars staying healthier (see below). Pitching, I came out MUCH better than computer control, so opponent offense against me was way down compared to the simulated seasons, but across the league I didn't see much difference PBP vs Simulating (not that I would have expected to except maybe with NL Central teams that face my pitching 3 times more than the other teams).

One thing I noticed is in PBP mode as opposed to simulating through, I had far fewer injuries, so my best players got more games in during the season. Season 1, I had 1 injury of 1 month and 1 of 3 months to position players and my starting pitchers missed 7 starts total (this is WITH Wood and Prior). Season 2, 1 injury of 2 months and one of 4 (both my 3rd basemen oddly enough and within days of each other) and my starting pitchers missed 1 start all season (Prior). I did have several smaller injuries of a few days and had to juggle my rotation a couple times both seasons, but overall significant injuries have been non-existant in PBP mode. I'm in May of season 3 right now and the only injuries my team has had so far are to a couple of minor leaguers. Maybe I've just been lucky? But for this to be mere luck after 2+ seasons seems odd to me.

Simulating the same seasons resulted in 4 major injuries in the first two months alone! (Poor Maddux might as well retire after coming back with his drop in stats.) All but Zambrano, Lee, and Walker spent time on the DL in season 1... at this point I was frustrated with the injuries and never bothered with season 2. Injuries just seem less severe and to happen less in PBP with the same league settings.

Has anyone else played a season in PBP and Simulation for comparison? What results did you have?

[HoustonGM]

Raise the difficulty level in the Options screen.

"Manager" mode gives very realistic results nearly exactly as a sim.
"Player" mode, with more user interaction, can easily result in outrageous results.

[SirKodiak]

I got this feeling in a season where I cut in on games within 2 runs after the 7th. Always played in manager mode, and seemed that there would be like 7 runs scored (with a lot of HRs) in the final 2 innings or else we'd go into 3-4 extra innings with no scoring. Not that this doesn't happen IRL, it just seemed to happen almost always. I didn't analyze it though to see if it was actually a pattern or just something I thought I saw.

[DeViLzzz2006]

hahaha .... well checkout my 1980 replay of the '80 Astros and you will hear me begging for offense and there are more than a few teams in the NL wondering where the offense went ... and in the AL Oakland is hitting .219 as a team hahaha


Hello Everyone,

I've been playing games in the play-by-play mode over a 2-week span of games, and it seems like there is way too much offense (players batting .500 or close to it, too many HRs, etc.). Have any of you found the same thing? If so, have you adjusted the play-by-play settings to account for this?

Thank You!