Power Pros Forum

I just got this game on Sunday, and have messed around with some of the modes but the one I've found most appealing so far is the one where you create a player who signs an MLB contract and starts out in AAA until he's called up. I first created one pitcher, named for myself, and found that he only threw two pitches: a fastball and a palm ball. In spite of that I did pretty well with him and was called up in June, quickly took over the closer's role, and went on to be ROY. The next season I broke camp with the big league club and led the league in saves and won Pitcher of the Year or whatever. All this time I bought books on breaking balls and all of that, but I could not get this guy to learn another pitch. Forgot to say that I was traded midway through my first full season from my favorite team to some team I have no interest in whatsoever (they'll remain nameless as to avoid offending those who may be fans of that team). I lost interest and created another player in the same mode.

I gave this new guy similar but different attributes (still a power pitcher with an over the top delivery, but this time I gave him different strengths and weaknesses). Is it just coincidence he only throws a fastball and palm, too?

If this is anything like real baseball, there's no way to make a viable starting pitcher with only two pitches. Plus, it's boring. You need at least one more pitch as a "show me" even if your other two pitches are ++.

So, the question is, is there any way to teach these little guys more pitches? If so, how? And if not, is there at least a way to get them to throw different pitches, like say a 2-seamer and a curve?

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but it seems information is difficult to come by on the internet. A search on this forum before I joined didn't yield an answer, and the manual doesn't seem to help out much. Thanks in advance for any help.

By the way, aside from this it seems like a pretty cool game. I'm not into video games much but I have checked out some baseball games on the wii (none were good) and PC (some were OK but I like this one better).

As a pitcher, you get a minimal of 1 breaking ball, but it is not of your choice. To get a 2-seamer choose spinning fastball. To get more go to here

to answer your question: yes, there is a way to teach these little guys more pitches. The good news is it's pretty easy, the bad news is you usually have to either be in AAA, somehow get demoted, or wait til spring training. anyways, I figure you've bought the 2-seamer, slider, drop curve guides (or another individual pitch guide) and tried to read em like books, only to find out they aren't books in that sense. Rather, if one is in your bag, it enables you to learn that pitch, which usually only takes 2 practices at most. Which brings me to that aforementioned bad news: you can only use them in spring training or AAA practice (also the only times you can practice an individual pitch). So if there's a particular pitch you want that happens to be in the store, and you can spring for it, snap it up cus on the 25th of the month, something else will replace it and it might be a while before you see it again. I haven't tried replacing a pitch yet, I might experiment with that later.

like Me and Lucy said, check that thread...or if it makes ya dizzy, check a couple wiki pages:
Pitcher Starting Stats
Pitcher Strengths and Drawbacks
they'll tell ya everything you need to know.

Thanks a lot of the info, guys. I never would have figured that out. I just made a guy who throws a fastball, shuuto, slider, and a forkball. That was just a test; now I can make a real pitcher who ought to be able to do more than bullpen work.

Thanks again.

Yeah, usually when you create a P, it takes you automatically to the pen, until you talk with the coach a little bit to change role, but that doesn't happen for a while.

Yep and that's like real life. This new guy I created, I think I'm going to play him for a while. He actually broke camp with the big league team and was only in the pen for a couple weeks before getting a chance to start. And thanks to you guys he's got more than two pitches he can throw...in fact he somehow ended up with four.

Anyway I only talked to the coach once and that was opening day. He said to ask again when I had the numbers to back it up or something. A couple weeks later, I was in the rotation. Now I'm 4-0 with an ERA around 1.00, and am beginning to strike people out. Got into the 9th inning once (selected "Workhorse"). One win came from a relief outing and I'm 3-0 with one no decision in the rotation.

It's somewhat unrealistic. An 18 year old kid isn't going to break camp with a MLB team very often, much less dominate the league once he gets there. I'm sure this guy will come back to Earth. Pudge Rodriguez is the only player in real life that I can remember coming up that young and making an impact. Well I guess Alex Rodriguez, too. But I can't remember a pitcher doing this.

Am enjoying the game anyway. Was getting frustrated until I found you guys...the manual for this game should be much better written.

Thanks.

glad we could help...yeah, the manual could stand to explain a few more things than it does (I prefer the expert pitching, tbh, though when I mainly used normal pitching it took me a while to figure out i could hit X to change speeds).