MLB 2023 Season - The Winter Stove of Warmth

Prederick wrote:

On everything but the easiest difficulty level, MLB 23 is very clearly a game built to lean heavily simulation-y (I cannot recognize pitches for the life of me, and this is with a solid 100 ABs in RTTS so far), whereas SMB makes it much easier and is about mashin' dingers and bouncing liners off the pitcher's skull.

I was wrong, FYI. I gave up on RTTS (reasons below) and fried out Franchise mode, and the first 2-3 levels of difficulty are literally just the AI grooving you pitches to help get your timing down. The difference between AI pitching in RTTS on "Amateur" and Franchise on "Amateur" is inexplicable and huge.

Anyway, so, RTTS has... a problem, which is that it's fallen to the never-ending creep of microtransactions and monetization in games.

In RTTS, basically, all of your abilities are defined by stat boosts from perks and equipment, both of which can be earned via grinding, or bought much more quickly using the game's currency, "stubs."

And like, it's bad. You literally cannot grind your way to making a 99 overall player without using the perks and equipment bonuses. Your player's natural attributes start at 30, and can slowly be grinded up to a maximum of....

...50.

Like, I haven't played NBA 2K recently, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to buy anything or play online in MyPlayer to grind up to a 99 player. Like, they offer that option, but you don't HAVE to.

Anyway, Shohei is Shohei-ing again. He currently leads the Angels in...

Batting Average
Home Runs (#1 in the MLB)
RBIs (Tied for #1 in the MLB)
OBP
Hits
Triples
Stolen bases
WAR

Prederick wrote:
Prederick wrote:

On everything but the easiest difficulty level, MLB 23 is very clearly a game built to lean heavily simulation-y (I cannot recognize pitches for the life of me, and this is with a solid 100 ABs in RTTS so far), whereas SMB makes it much easier and is about mashin' dingers and bouncing liners off the pitcher's skull.

I was wrong, FYI. I gave up on RTTS (reasons below) and fried out Franchise mode, and the first 2-3 levels of difficulty are literally just the AI grooving you pitches to help get your timing down. The difference between AI pitching in RTTS on "Amateur" and Franchise on "Amateur" is inexplicable and huge.

Anyway, so, RTTS has... a problem, which is that it's fallen to the never-ending creep of microtransactions and monetization in games.

In RTTS, basically, all of your abilities are defined by stat boosts from perks and equipment, both of which can be earned via grinding, or bought much more quickly using the game's currency, "stubs."

And like, it's bad. You literally cannot grind your way to making a 99 overall player without using the perks and equipment bonuses. Your player's natural attributes start at 30, and can slowly be grinded up to a maximum of....

...50.

Like, I haven't played NBA 2K recently, but I'm pretty sure you don't have to buy anything or play online in MyPlayer to grind up to a 99 player. Like, they offer that option, but you don't HAVE to.

Anyway, Shohei is Shohei-ing again. He currently leads the Angels in...

Batting Average
Home Runs (#1 in the MLB)
RBIs (Tied for #1 in the MLB)
OBP
Hits
Triples
Stolen bases
WAR

He actually has more wins than the Angels, remarkably.

RTTS has definitely deteriorated for the reasons you mention. I think they justify this because you can use your player in myteam or whatever they call their version of it.

I didn’t buy the show this year, but in last years version without buying their currency I was able to put up Shohei or better numbers with my two way player. I usually leave dynamic difficulty on, and pitching difficulty ended up near or at the top. Batting difficulty did as well, but I did really poorly there and it was very slow to decrease. Finally I set it to the level just above amateur. This ended feeling a little too easy, but it was fun being a little too easy. I definitely miss how much easier it was to find a fun but challenging difficulty in previous versions. Creating a god like character development was fun sometimes, and even with spending cash it’s really hard or maybe impossible to do that now. The Ego system in SMB3 is so much better.

The grind is insane in the past few releases of NBA 2K though. If you can treat it as a full time job for awhile, you can probably grind it out for free, but it will be more painful than fun. Your character is even more involved in most of the multiplayer modes, with the end result that if you want to have any chance at all of competing in multiplayer you’ll need to spend some cash.

absurddoctor wrote:

RTTS has definitely deteriorated for the reasons you mention. I think they justify this because you can use your player in myteam or whatever they call their version of it.

Diamond Dynasty, and yeah, like 2K, they've leaned into "take your MyPlayer online for competitive play" as their excuse, which doesn't work for me because I have ZERO interest in ever doing that.

But yes, I've heard both games, in the name of "realism," have added a whole lot of grind, when it's really just "buy shit to get good" unless, as you mentioned, you wanna play the game like it's your actual job.

Well, in non Shohei news, Luis Arraez is back under .400 (he says, like batting .398, especially today is some kind of failure).

I had not recognized that Ozzie Albies has 17 freaking homers already. LOTTA pop in that Braves lineup, yeeesh.

Ray Lankford.

Prederick wrote:

So the Reds have a new guy.

He just hit for the cycle tonight.

He's been in the majors for around two weeks.

At this rate they are going to take Ichiro's landed titles away and give them to Shohei.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia nicknamed "pits" because the name on his uniform went from one armpit to the other.

Someone call 911, no pulse detected in Colorado

They scored 10 runs with 2 outs.

Rockies' only run was a HR from their #9 hitter, too.

Also from the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL files, the Phils plated 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th with only 1 hit, beat the mets by 1.

Bonus LOL: MLB didn't get the title of the video correct.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzhVaxTaYAEmxmE?format=jpg&name=large)

Hrdina wrote:

Also from the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL files, the Phils plated 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th with only 1 hit, beat the mets by 1.

ESPN wrote:

The final tally, for those keeping score at home: The Phillies walked three times, were hit twice, reached on an error and had just one hit in a 10-batter, four-run eighth inning that set off a 7-6 win over New York on Sunday.

I may never have to change the thread title.

billt721 wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Hey! Remember last year's AL Cy Young winner, Alek Manoah?

Yeah, he just got demoted. To the lowest rung of the minor leagues.

Interesting. IIRC the Jays did the same thing with Roy Halladay way back when. Worked out pretty well then.

About that!

Ron Karkovice.

This is a positively deranged statline.

Shohei Ohtani:

3-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR, 1 BB
6.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K

Angels win 4-2 (so, basically, thanks to Shohei).

@minakimes wrote:

Just a few years ago, there was a healthy debate over whether he should even *attempt* this. Whatever attention we’re giving to what he’s doing, it’s still not enough.

EDIT: I was listening to an American soccer streamer I like trying to describe what Shohei is doing to his not-baseball-knowledgeable audience, and the only comparison I can think of is being a Pro Bowl QB and being a Pro Bowl DE/LB.

And given how utterly insane the idea of such a thing sounds, really puts into focus how absurd what Shohei is doing is.

EDIT v2: Okay, last thing about this. Shohei posted a 0.8 combined fWAR today. That's nearly an entire win. Is it a record? Well, no, but...

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzrqyeZaUAAzcnj?format=jpg&name=large)

I can’t wait for the Mets to give him $500m followed by the inevitable second tommy John.

For no reason, Albert Belle, whose peak was probably better than you remember.

Immediately following Steve Cohen's press conference, the Mets brought a puppy into the press room. Not sure if the idea was to distract the media, but it's working.

Genius.

The Mets are bad, but honestly, I'd rather have Cohen own the Mariners than the people in that position currently.

I think long-term they're in good shape unless the other owners get mad about him being willing to spend a lot of money and kick him out of the club or otherwise punish the team.

Is it even fair to call a perfect game against the A's a perfect game?

If the A's ownership wanted Oakland to stop whining about them leaving, this is one way to do it.

Yankees and perfect games. Name a better pairing.

(Hint: There isn't one, no team has thrown more.)

I see your (and my) Yankees and raise you Tampa Bay, which has had three perfect games thrown against it in the 25 years of its existence.

Chairman_Mao wrote:

Is it even fair to call a perfect game against the A's a perfect game?

Yes. A look at the list of pitches to throw one makes pretty clear that it’s more luck than skill. Besides, the A’s offense is bad, but clearly not the worst in the league.

A million years ago, when I was 1) more of a Baseball fan and 2) a Braves fan (mostly for Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz) I remember Kent Merker threw a complete game no-hitter. In the next game, Maddux gave up a hit in the second and the announcers joked to get someone up in the bullpen.

So no-hitters are random, perfect games are more so. Give it to him, sometimes a pitcher goes out and rolls a natural 20!

I fondly remember staring into Glavine's intense eyes when he was on the Mets. *swoon*

Ian Snell Went to high school with this kid.

billt721 wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Is it even fair to call a perfect game against the A's a perfect game?

Yes. A look at the list of pitches to throw one makes pretty clear that it’s more luck than skill. Besides, the A’s offense is bad, but clearly not the worst in the league.

my tongue was firmly in my cheek there, but Oakland definitely has the worst offense in baseball this year (though it is slightly edging out the Yankees in OBP, ha).

Chairman_Mao wrote:
billt721 wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Is it even fair to call a perfect game against the A's a perfect game?

Yes. A look at the list of pitches to throw one makes pretty clear that it’s more luck than skill. Besides, the A’s offense is bad, but clearly not the worst in the league.

my tongue was firmly in my cheek there, but Oakland definitely has the worst offense in baseball this year (though it is slightly edging out the Yankees in OBP, ha).

I pointed this out earlier, but the three most inexpensive rosters this year are the A's, the Orioles, and the Rays. If you were to combine all three payrolls, the resulting team would barely beat the 8th highest paid roster in the MLB (Atlanta). And they would still come more than $70m short of the Yankees. They would also be nearly $140m short of the Mets, a .450 team currently 17 games back in their division.

Chairman_Mao wrote:
billt721 wrote:
Chairman_Mao wrote:

Is it even fair to call a perfect game against the A's a perfect game?

Yes. A look at the list of pitches to throw one makes pretty clear that it’s more luck than skill. Besides, the A’s offense is bad, but clearly not the worst in the league.

my tongue was firmly in my cheek there, but Oakland definitely has the worst offense in baseball this year (though it is slightly edging out the Yankees in OBP, ha).

27th by OPS+, which isn't park-adjusted. But 26th by wRC+, which is. Ahead of DET, MIL, KCR, COL.