Super Mega Baseball 3(!)

kergguz wrote:

Two consecutive 4-3 wins, both with come backs in the 9th! That's got my Wild Pigs franchise season back on track, we're now 4-4.

I made an early mistake in signing an overpriced contact expert... I was trying to compensate for the Wild Pigs poor stats in that area. It used up most of my teams salary budget. However, it took me a while to realise that the amount you get for player development is unused salary cap / number of games in a regular season. In my case it left me with about $5k per game which is never going to develop anyone. I've now made adjustments so that I'm getting over $100k so I should be able to afford some development soon.

Been there, done that! Really need Hugs back for my rotation, but cagey Swaps of players in the second half of the season has me on the verge of a wild card spot entering the last 5 games of the season (Wild Pigs also). Got an acheivement for overcomming a 6 run deficit when the SP/RP that I picked up to replace an agining and overpriced Hugs went gas can for his second consecutive start. I probably need to bump up Ego, but I have finally gotten over .500 and I will be damned if I will sacrifice a playoff run!

Also, are you all playing 9 inning games? I am, along with 32 game season. The stamina system works really well based on prior games. I went with 2 SP and two SP/RPs and I am in a precarious situation in that my two SPs are rarely at full stamina and I am forced to use a poor option and hoping I can out hit the opponent and my bullpen can lock things down. Fortunately, my bullpen has been excellent and I have come up with big innings. I love the stories that develop. My middle tier, B or B- LF continues to play like an A+ player. It is crazy.

Yep, 9 innings, 32 game season here too. I'm guessing your over-performing LF is Rosy Hardman because she's the same in my game too, with the most HR and RBI by a distance after 11 games. I've not messed with the pitchers, even though Wes Yoghurt is currently 0-3 and really pissing me off. Still got Hugs, and she's performing well.

kergguz wrote:

Yep, 9 innings, 32 game season here too. I'm guessing your over-performing LF is Rosy Hardman because she's the same in my game too, with the most HR and RBI by a distance after 11 games. I've not messed with the pitchers, even though Wes Yoghurt is currently 0-3 and really pissing me off. Still got Hugs, and she's performing well.

Nope, Rosy has been a big disappointment and since mid season is resigned to being a DH vs. RHPs. Has has a couple good games lately and finally hit here second HR. It is Goyo that has been amazing. Top 4 OPS, 9 HR, 20+ RBI, good defense. The skills predict none of it.

Ohhhh really? He's mostly on the bench for me but has done decently when come in. So, some noob questions... what is OPS? Is it a more valuable stat than, say, OBP (which I know is on base %) or AVG (which I don't know how they calculate)? Also, on the scoreboard at the end of the game, I see the number of runs, hits, and something labelled 'E', which is usually a low number, 0 or 1 mostly. What does the E stand for?

E stands for ‘errors’. The game seems to be a little off in handling errors; if a batter gets on base or gets an extra base because of an error the batter isn’t supposed to get credit for it. I think that is happening, the player definitely gets credit at least.

Average is hits / at-bats. Being walked or hit by a pitch doesn’t count as an at-bay so doesn’t effect average.

OPS is on-base percentage plus slugging. Slugging percentage is total number of bases divided by number of at-bats, and can be used as a rough estimate of power. OPS can be used as a decent way of comparing the overall productivity of hitters. OPS+ is even better for this because it takes some external factors into account (mainly ball park dimension effects) and normalizes across the entire league so that 100 is exactly an average player.

kergguz wrote:

Ohhhh really? He's mostly on the bench for me but has done decently when come in. So, some noob questions... what is OPS? Is it a more valuable stat than, say, OBP (which I know is on base %) or AVG (which I don't know how they calculate)? Also, on the scoreboard at the end of the game, I see the number of runs, hits, and something labelled 'E', which is usually a low number, 0 or 1 mostly. What does the E stand for?

Sorry. I am an old time baseball head who is very into modern stats. OPS is OBS + Slugging % (O = OBP; P = Plus; S = Slugging %). I have included links to Fangraphs, a fantastic modern statistics site.

As for E, it stands for Error. It is a subjective measure of defense. In real baseball, a scorekeeper at each ball park determines if an out should have been made when it wasn't. An easy fly ball that a fielder fails to catch. A ground ball that a fielder bobbles or misses that a normal player would be expected to make. At throw that goes wild. In SMB, this is often represented by the ! over a fielder's head. Sometimes, it is not an error, say an infielder dives for a ball and it bounces off their glove and they can't throw the player out. It is not a play that is expected to be made and will usually be ruled a hit.

AVG = Hits of any kind/At Bats (AB) - This is the old school assessment of who was a good hitter. The problem (one of many with using AVG alone) is that walks are not counted as ABs (nor is Hit By Pitch, HBP), and it doesn't distinguish the types of hits. Singles are treated equally with Home Runs, which they clearly are not as valuable.

On Base Percentage (OBP) - Remedies the lack of walks (BB) and HBP in AVG by adding them in. Getting on base gives your team a better chance to score, so it is a valuable feature. .320 is average in Major League Baseball. The leaders are typically in the .370+ territory. The link has a nice table.

Slugging Percentage (SLG) - Does not include walks like AVG, but tries to distinguish value of hits by looking at Total Bases / At Bats. So, assume a batter gets a hit or make an out 20 times, hitting one home runs (4), one triple (3), three doubles (2 * 3 = 6), and one single (1). For AVG, that would be 6/20 or .300. For SLG however, that would be 14/20 or .700 Slugging Percentage. League average is around .408 and league leaders are in the .600s (Christian Yelich of my team, the Milwaukee Brewers, led MLB in slugging last year at .671, the highest mark since 2006.

OPS - Super simple. To many, too simple. Add OBP and SLG and you get OPS. It weights getting on base equally with hitting for power. There are versions of OPS (OPS+ that attempt to adjust for the ball park.

I hope this helps. SMB3 does not necessarily give accurate stats relative to real MLB stats, at least in my game. Averages tend to be higher. That said, with the right ego balance and a 162 game season (real, not Covid season length), they may come a bit more in line, with the exception of walks for me. My pitchers rarely walk batters and I don't take that many. The rest is pretty good, however and quite impressive.

If you decide to delve into the Fangraphs site, they tend to use wOBA (weighted On Base Average) and wRC+ (weighted runs created, adjusted for ballparks). This gets super geek out mathy and is probably 100x more than what you are looking for!

Thanks very much both of you for the explanations. I'm a numbers geek and that's why I've been gravitating to the American sports in recent years... They're much more statty than footy and cricket.

So, my version of Rosy Hardman has 0.714 slugging at the moment (and 1.122 OPS) so I guess she would be hot stuff in the MLB!!

kergguz wrote:

Thanks very much both of you for the explanations. I'm a numbers geek and that's why I've been gravitating to the American sports in recent years... They're much more statty than footy and cricket.

So, my version of Rosy Hardman has 0.714 slugging at the moment (and 1.122 OPS) so I guess she would be hot stuff in the MLB!!

Baseball is probably the most stat heavy sport in the world given its history and records, along with the minimal rules changed over 100 plus years. It is probably the reason fantasy sports exist (Rotisserie Baseball was the first that I am aware of). Statistical analysis (book and movie Moneyball) has changed the way teams are assembled and teams are managed.

It is happening in basketball as well the past few years.

I remember the day my dad brought this book home for me. Probably had one of the biggest impacts on how I viewed sports, and life itself.

IMAGE(https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386803520i/232466._UY630_SR1200,630_.jpg)

There is better stuff now, but there was something absolutely magical about that moment, at 13, realizing that a sport I loved, with cards detailing the statistical careers of every player, and board games that recreated the stats we saw in real life, was was still using out of date data to measure a player’s worth to a team.

That image isn't working for me Jayhawker, what book is it?

I just fired Wiff Smesson after he left us in a 0-7 hole after two innings. Dumped his salary and picked up literally the cheapest RP I could find to put more money in development.

kergguz wrote:

That image isn't working for me Jayhawker, what book is it?

I just fired Wiff Smesson after he left us in a 0-7 hole after two innings. Dumped his salary and picked up literally the cheapest RP I could find to put more money in development.

It is Bill James' Baseball Abstract from 1982.

Good stuff as to Smesson. I was laughing my butt off when I faced him in one of my last two games on my 8 game win streak (and 10 out of 11) to make the playoffs as the #1 wild card. I dropped him pretty early, I think. Bloop is playing like the start he is in the playoffs an somehow, Goyo continues to hit.

The game has a really weird sense of karma. Playing my franchise, I had a game where I hit 3 opposing pitchers with hits goings straight at mound.

The next 4 games, 3 of my starting pitchers have now gone down with injuries due to being hit by line drives to the mound.

Which when you play as the Moonstars, all about their starting rotation is pretty massive. Used to have games that were decided by a few runs. The last 2 I've lost by 9 and 14

Brace and bored and awake at 2:30am for no reason, I tried pennant race in the demo.

First game: went well! Opponent and I were both unranked, they got off to a 4 run lead in the second but I had a strong third with 6 runs. That’s what the game ended at, felt fair. One homer for them, one for me.

Second game I went up against someone with a bunch of badges and a SENIOR label, ranked in the 2500s. Figured I was in for a beating and I was correct. 12-0 loss. Lotta dingers on their end and a lot of pop fly outs for me. I wrote this off as a “schedule loss” since they were highly decorated.

Third game.. person was also unranked and used the same team as me (Moose). I lost 22-4 after the mercy rule was applied. Any pitch I threw in the vicinity of the plate was either in the gap or over the fence. Anything I tried to get them to chase was taken for a ball. Don’t see what else I could have done and feeling helpless doesn’t encourage me to try again, much less buy the game.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Don’t see what else I could have done and feeling helpless doesn’t encourage me to try again, much less buy the game.

Three things that may or may not help.

First, the vs CPU is fantastic. The Ego system lets you dial in a difficulty that is just to your choosing and can be adjusted on the fly. If I never play vs another person, I am cool with that.

Second, if this doesn't suit your playstyle, the on line play is a learning system re: ego and match making, meaning that the matches should get better as you play. Jayhawker or one of the others can probably say better, as I have just been playing Franchise mode.

Third, 3 five inning games is really harsh to judge. Heck, I played 1 and 2 and it took me 15 - 20 games to start dialing in and even think about bumping ego off of 40, where I started.

Pitched a 2 hit, complete game shutout as Manny Kays with the Sirloins. Won 24-0. Ugh so close to perfecto. It was pretty hilarious how effective the big curveball was against the CPU. They couldn't hit it and it seems it's K zone is much more generous than a fastball.

Yeah, probably time to bump the Ego up from 50. It's interesting how you learn and adapt. First game moving from 40 - 50 was a nail biter. CPU got out to a 4 - 0 lead going in to the bottom of the 5th and I had one hit on a bloop single. The BRILLIANCE of the simulation of this game is that was my third time going through the lineup, and true to form, I chained together some hits, slapped a homer and tied it up. Battered the starter around some more in the next inning and went up 8 - 4 and then pretty much traded hits/runs/homers for the rest of the game and won 14 - 9. Felt way closer. But that was it. I learned how to pitch/field/hit and now haven't scored less than 15 in the last 5 games or given up more than 2. Will probably try a higher ego in the Exhibition matches before cranking the dial and ruining my perfect season.

bhchrist wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

Don’t see what else I could have done and feeling helpless doesn’t encourage me to try again, much less buy the game.

Three things that may or may not help.

First, the vs CPU is fantastic. The Ego system lets you dial in a difficulty that is just to your choosing and can be adjusted on the fly. If I never play vs another person, I am cool with that.

I’ve been playing a lot of exhibition games, starting at 30 and can now regularly have good games at 50. But I get bored with just playing the CPU and no career mode also puts me off.

Well, Pennant Race kicks my butt, for sure. Lost 11-0 earlier today. Thought I was about to go down the same way, getting down 6-0 after 2. But I finally got patient enough to scratch three runs across, in the third, addd another in the 4th, and thought I had a shot going into the 5th down 6-4. Gave up two runs, and lost 8-4.

But in both of these games, I got better pitching. Pitching HARD against anyone that has much experience.

The trick is figuring out how they approach hitting, and then do the opposite of what they expect. And pound the edges. Nearly every pitch needed to be a maybe. And throw lots of balls out of the zone.

Also, try to unlearn traditional pitching strategy. A lot of it works, but not until you can break any sense of what he thinks is coming.

When I hit, I start with a small area that I think he will throw in. As I get more strikes, I’m willing to move my cursor more to hit a pitch. But if I’m hitting well, I’m taking a lot of pitches, including strikes.

I’m constantly looking for patterns. When Perry Quaker comes up with his Low Pitch trait, I assume two things. If a pitch is low, it will probably be our if the zone. So I look for a pitch up.

That’s what I think about when I pitch. So sometimes, when someone has a trait like that, I might fire a fastball right into it. I figure they will assume I won’t. Now I have them thinking.

A lot of this reminds me of poker, though. You have to keep going to the next level thinking. At some point, a change-up down the middle will work. Or spectacularly not!

Which brings up another aspect I started to pick up. While the edges are where you can fool him, sometimes hitting spots just off the center will get you some weak hits because they are moving their cursor to a soot they never see.

So in the first game I gave up 5 home runs and six runs in the first inning. That sucked. But I was learning the whole time, and he didn’t hit another HR. While he still got me for 2 and 3 runs in the next two innings, I also picked up some K’s and was getting him out.

But I’m still figuring this out. I’m playing Oennant Race mostly to learn the mode so that when the drop the patch that will allow us to create custom Pennant Races on top of setting up rules, you can create for one group of friends.

Hopefully that will create a chance for playing humans, which is a lot more fun strategically, that aren’t so dialed in.

Another thing, I get better at Pennant Race as I play it more. But when I play the other offline modes, I get in that and get worse online.

Blind_Evil wrote:

...and no career mode also puts me off.

Career Mode as in playing as an individual player or stat tracking of teams and players in Franchise Mode over multiple seasons?

I should add, I’m currently 0-7 in the current Pennant Race, losing two more this afternoon.

Today it was fielding that killed me.

Another aspect about playing online that I like is that you HAVE to pay attention to baeerunners. Doing the minimum of occasional pickoffs, step-offs, and pitch-outs are required. Because if you get the sense your opponent has stopped paying attention, you almost any speed runner can swipe a base.

But the tools for stopping aggressive guys are really good, but they do require you keep thinking about what your opponent is thinking.

I do think it is a little too hard to throw out a base stealer with a normal jump without a pitchout. But toying with runners also affects how well you pitch. Not in the game, but in your head. So being aggressive can help you hit better, too.

bhchrist wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

...and no career mode also puts me off.

Career Mode as in playing as an individual player or stat tracking of teams and players in Franchise Mode over multiple seasons?

Individual player.

The game mimics MLB Power Pros in a lot of ways and that mode was the game’s crowning achievement.

... maybe I’ll hook up my Wii U and find my Power Pros disc.

I did play another few games in the pennant race, to get ranked. Won the first game 3-0 and lost the second game 12-0.

Never really could get into the career modes in baseball games. I gave it a go in The Show a few times, and it lost me. Same for Madden’s attempt with Face of the Franchise, which limits you to QB. Actually, Face of the Franchise was pretty fun, but it’s not balanced very well.

I think hockey and basketball are better sports for this because you spend more time in play. And the online competitive modes for those sports really shine if you can be one of 5 friends (or six in the EASHL if someone wants to play goalie) playing together. I also think NHL 20’s World of Chel is a fantastic career mode. It’s about all I play in that game.

I think the devs will need time to balance franchise progression and gameplay before committing resources to career mode. They have been pretty upfront that they plan on balancing franchise play quite a bit. They just need more data.

I have my doubts that they are aiming for a career mode, but they have been very aggressive in adding features. It’s worth sending in to the devs, as they also are pretty responsive to what their customers ask for.

Turned my franchise difficulty up a bit after smacking the previously undefeated Grapplers around and that pesky Devon Godsendez to the tune of 33 - 2. Felt good to win big but actually became a slog playing for that long and hitting so many home runs I could dieeeeeee

So was expecting a more competitive game and yeah! Started out that way! Bloop single. Another base hit. Double cashing two runs. It felt like I was earning every hit. Pitching was much tougher. Got to 2-outs then my pitching fell apart. Walked a batter. Then pitched what I thought was an amazing high inside heater. Dude smashed it out of the park. Tied 2-2.

Then I broke the game open. An 11 run 4th and just knocking pitchers around for the rest of the game. Eventually I didn't even care about pitching because I was up so much and let my starter battle through and put literally my worst reliever in and he didn't do so hot either.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/nuTkkWc.png)

Pretty cool discussion about franchise mode from one of the developers at Xbox Wire.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/05/...

This is one of the radon’s I kinda hope they never go licensed. I’m not sure how recreating convoluted and dumb bargaining agreements in games became a thing. I love the idea of chucking those and going with more board game inspired rule sets.

It’s one of the things liked about NCAA’s recruiting mini game. It wasn’t realistic, but did a decent job of distributing players based on where players invested their interest.

I’m totally fine with no trading until there is an online league function, which doesn’t seem likely this year. There is not a single sports sim I’ve ever played that hade trade and FA AI worth wasting time on. But online leagues would need trades.

From the beginning, attempting to clone the franchise modes found in other AAA sports titles was never feasible, nor desirable. While these other games closely approximate how team management operates in real professional sports leagues, they tend to be quite complex – largely due to the complexities present in the systems they approximate.

We wanted to create a Franchise mode that was more accessible to everyone, yet still delivered on the key features that make Franchise mode exciting: roster management and player movement. We ultimately achieved this by focusing on two core mechanics, player development and free agency, which we put a lot of effort into polishing before launch. While we have countless ideas for expanding the mode, we wanted to put our best foot forward with our first iteration of the new mode. Any features that we do add to Franchise mode post-launch will be carefully considered with regards to keeping the mode accessible.

So, as my rating plummeted to below 1500, it got better. I’m now playing at 39 EGO, as the game sets Pennant Race sets EGO for you. That’s down from 50. Matchmaking is pretty good. I won a game 1-0 last night that was fun as heck.

They were the ultra speedy Sand Cats, so it was a constant challenge to slow them down. I scratched a small ball run across the plate in the third, and then held in for dear life.

Earlier today I git down 5-0 n the first uninhabited but clawed back to a tie, and then scored a go ahead run in the bottom of the 8th. My best reliever, who I brought in for an out in the third, go the first two outs. His stamina was down, so I brought in my closer, who promptly gave up a hit and HR.

In the bottom of the fifth, I got first and third with no one out. I tried my first suicide squeeze, but his catcher made a diving catch for the out. After stealing second to make 2nd and third with one out, he walked intentionally walked me. And with bases loaded I proceeded ground into a doubleplay.

On the plus side, I still got positive starpoints, and have my rating over 1500 again.

II’ve been posting clips and screenshots to the GWJ Sportsball club on XBL. I’m hoping I can get more if the sports gamers to post stuff from their sports games. There are just a few of us, but I am hoping to encourage others to post, to collect our GWJ sports highlights in one place.

I noticed last night that the Community app now organizes the feed in a few Netflix style menus that run horizontally. The first one is posts from all of XBL that are based on games you follow. Then they have a row for friends, a row for posts in all clubs you are a member of, and a “Best of XBL” or something.

Haha.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/yD8zHLD.png)

That is hilarious. I have not seen this player development yet.

How do players get the “Juiced” health level? My guys are only ever “Well” or varying states of injured. Is every other team doing roids but me?

staygold wrote:

How do players get the “Juiced” health level? My guys are only ever “Well” or varying states of injured. Is every other team doing roids but me?

If you bought the Canadian version of the game, they replaced juiced with sauced.

I think Juiced is related to your Mojo level. As your Mojo increases, so do your ratings. Juiced guys are much higher than their default ratings.

On the other end, I’ve hit so poorly with Nacho Crisp, my starting SS, that he is benched, and isn’t even a reasonable PH option. I think he is listed as Rattled. And this is in Pennant Rave, which means I’m short handed. It kind of cool.

I’m now starting to get better. I just won my last game 7-1. And my starting pitcher, Sylvio, started rattled. I tried to just taker her out after the second hitter hit a freaking bomb on me. But there is a three batter minimum. I ended up getting out of the inning and put my best reliever in for the second., and he finished the game.

Six of my runs came in an offensive explosion in the third inning. I got on a toll, was guessing every location, stealing bases, and finished the run with a two-run bomb. Otherwise, it was a quiet game. I think his pitcher got tired and he did not react soon enough. He started falling way behind in the count, and it snowballed.

Seriously loving this game.