The Art of Walking

[KOL]

I have never grasped the art of walking in this series, I am a very patient hitter, trying to work a count in my favour and most of the time it works e.g mostly hits.
But what has eluded me is walks, any kind of advice, pictures or videos are welcome.
My mindset when nobody is on base is walk but I never pull it off, I either get a hit (which isn't a bad thing) or struckout, I wanna find that perfect mixture without the need to adjust sliders.
Cheers.

[TNKNGM]

Re: The Art of Walking

Try my sliders - I draw walks and I issue them as well

[Ball_Bag]

Re: The Art of Walking

I also need advice on walks-BAD! And I'm not a patient hitter.

[econoodle]

Re: The Art of Walking

I have never grasped the art of walking in this series, I am a very patient hitter, trying to work a count in my favour and most of the time it works e.g mostly hits.
But what has eluded me is walks, any kind of advice, pictures or videos are welcome.
My mindset when nobody is on base is walk but I never pull it off, I either get a hit (which isn't a bad thing) or struckout, I wanna find that perfect mixture without the need to adjust sliders.
Cheers.

drop the strike frequency to 0

[Gagnon39]

Re: The Art of Walking

I've only played about 4 innings on default All-Star and I drew a walk with Carlos Zambrano against Chris Carpenter. It was awesome. I worked 2 or 3 2-0 and 3-1 counts. I thought it was interesting. Again, a very small sample size, but there's definitely potential to draw a base on balls.

[Dabeeds]

Re: The Art of Walking

drop the strike frequency to 0

How's the strike frequency on 1 ?

[JermaineDye05]

Re: The Art of Walking

I'm actually walking a lot more than I did in MLB 09.

A lot of it could depend on the pitcher. I've already played a series against the Blue Jays and am into my 2nd series against the Indians and naturally I am seeing a ton of walks.

seeing that I'm 11-0 right now, I'm probably going to jump up to the next difficulty level (What comes after Allstar? HOF?). At least on pitching at least.

[spitoon]

Re: The Art of Walking

I don't think I'm going to say anything ground breaking, but usually when I'm struggling to get walks, or if I feel that I'm letting the pitcher get away with throwing too few pitches, I'll go with the "don't swing until they throw a strike" philosophy.

This will quite often get you ahead in the count. Also, don't be afraid to take a strike...especially at 2-0.

[Pared]

Re: The Art of Walking

I also need advice on walks-BAD! And I'm not a patient hitter.

That's the problem. Almost everyone is the same way.

Walks come if you are patient and willing to take a 3rd strike... but how many guys are actually willing to do that when it's so easy to just press X?

[Jgainsey]

Re: The Art of Walking

If you can master the walk, it will completely change the game for you. I've been playing on HOF default so far, and drawing key walks throughout a game can be essential to having success. Make sure you pick your spots, don't be afraid to not swing at a pitch in the zone, especially if you are already ahead in the count. Start telling yourself, "no matter what, I'm not going to swing at the first pitch in this at bat". Also, make sure you're picking up the ball as soon as possible, just like you would need to if you were batting in real life.

It's also somewhat important to keep the opponents pitch count in the back of your head at all times. If you're only seeing around 10 pitches every inning, then you're not being patient enough. If I finish the 3rd inning and the pitcher I'm facing has only thrown 28 pitches, chances are he's doing pretty well against me.

[KOL]

Re: The Art of Walking

I have always taken Skyboxers advice on never swinging on the first pitch, I just really want to have those 11-12 pitch at-bats at least once in the game (like Utley vs. Sabathia in Game 1) is there any skill behind fouling balls off, or is it all luck?

[swaldo]

Re: The Art of Walking

My mindset when nobody is on base is walk but I never pull it off.

There's your problem right there. First, as a pitcher you have to be an idiot to issue a leadoff walk - it's a cardinal sin because 70% will score. Perhaps the CPU logic understands this and pitches accordingly. Personally, if I have 3 balls on a leadoff batter I'm going to throw it over the plate one way or another and make them earn the base (unless they have killer power.)

Also, the first thing you should do before a game is check the pitchers walks to innings pitched ratio. The average is 38.4 walks to 100 innings pitched. If his ratio is higher then go ahead and try to draw some walks. If it's lower then a more aggressive approach may be needed because he is not going to walk you.

[CoreyMac]

Re: The Art of Walking

Im from the Bobby Abreu school of thought. Never swing at the first pitch. Also, learn to be good at checking swinging. You will at the very least get alot more 2-2 and 3-2 counts. I check swing more than I full swing in a 9 inning game. It benefits me dearly.

[swaldo]

Re: The Art of Walking

Also, if you want pitchers to get wild in this game you have to spank them which reduces their command and confidence. Make them pay for mistake pitches and walks will come easier.

[rodperezto]

Re: The Art of Walking

The only tip I can give is, learn to take strikes; particularly those tht seem to be painting the corners. Many of them will be called balls, believe me. Also, don't be afraid of striking out looking! By adopting that mentality I have not only been able to take more walks but to get in awesome counts and get some real good pitches to hit. Not only does this work against the CPU but it also works online. My first online game this year, I drew 5 walks!