2010 Season Sim

Similar to the first year, stats wise, with 13 teams finishing with team ERAs under 4.00 and the Giants coming in with a 3.24 team ERA. (One team over 5.00 -- the Pirates) What's funky is that I cannot find the other stat outlier(s).

You'd think that with team ERAs being low I'd see another stat that is out of line that is telling me why the teams are scoring fewer runs. But I can't find anything else that looks significantly out of place. Team doubles, walks, homers, batting average, stolen bases...I can't find anything. It does look like that a lot of MRs are having damn good seasons -- lots of guys in the 2.0-3.5 ERA range. Kinda odd and many are playing way over their heads. Mike Lincoln's 2.01 ERA is ...whoa, I wish! And the game has turned Joey Votto into a 40 homer a year beast.

A lot of teams coming in with ERAs under 4.00 is not unprecedented -- baseball USED to be like this. And not that long ago. The pitcher stats look more in line to what you'd see in 1969..or even better 1989 rather than 2009, so while the game is favoring pitchers, in the simmed stats, I dunno how much that bugs me to be honest. I just wish I could find the reason for it in the numbers.

Just to add to the trade thing, I cannot find a screen that shows me JUST trades. I can cycle between league scores, promotions, and transactions, but there's a lot of data inside those -- I just want to see the trades ya know?

Speaking of trades, I have everything set to CPU right now but it will alert me when my team makes a trade. The Reds just made their first trade since the 2009 season -- and it's now June of 2011. Not a lot of movement going on in Cincy.

Oh and the Yanks beats the Cubs...again. This time in 6.

Player progression is looking very, very nice. Saw rookies jump up by 8 to 10 points in ability and old players are hitting the wall -- some faster than others.

One More Note

Last thing before I call it a night with posting about this game. If you use the settings cited in my last post you will disable the trading cards part of the game. (As you accomplish certain goals with or against a player you unlock a trading card for said player. You can then assemble a custom team with your unlocked cards and take it online.) Specifically, if you lower AI Pitch Success beneath 45 the feature is disabled, saying that you've set the difficulty below standard Pro levels. The really dumb thing about this? On Pro this slider is set to 40. Why it has to be at least 45 on custom sliders, but 40 is okay if you play specifically on Pro, I have no idea.

The Show: Free Agents and a Test Sim

I'm 3 games into my Reds franchise, sitting at 2-1 thanks to a 9th inning homer given up by Weathers to kill a potential sweep of the Mets.

So I decided to start a new franchise with everything set to CPU, sim out the season and see what shakes out.

So, a few random baseball geek notes:

• The default roster has a lot of great/solid players setting in the FA Pool (Manny, Abreu, Dunn, Sheets, and so on). These players remained unsigned for the entire year. The CPU basically ignored them. (I have team financials turned on, fwiw)
  
• During the off season FA stage, these players did sign with a new team after sitting out all of '09 -- except for Manny...who retired. Good FAs are being signed even though there were some aging players in the 2010 FA pool who could use a team, but no one that jumped out as a star that was languishing in the FA pool. Methinks we'll need a roster update to fix this.
  
• I cannot find an easy way to view the league's trades. There is a league transaction page, but it has everything in it (call ups, DL moves) and it's a huge running file. I just want to see the trades. I'm not sure if I can.
• Yanks over the Cubs in 5.
  
• Playoff teams: Reds, Giants, Braves, Cubs, Yanks, Tribe, Angels, Red Sox
• Some stats: 1 20 game winner (C.C.) and 5 19 game winners, including an aging Smoltz, who retired after the season.
  
• 15 SPs with an ERA under 3.00
• 28 hitters over .300
• Carl Crawford hit .322, 58 2bs, 16 3b, 21 HR, and stole 63 bases. Jesus.
• No 50 homer hitters
• 10 with at least 40
• 40 with at least 30
• 2 players with season OPS over 1.0+
• Team stats:
• Worst hitting team: Oakland: .252
• Best: Twins at .286
• Best TEAM ERA: The Cubs at 3.15
• Worst: Baltimore at 4.81 with the team average being around 4.12. This is the stat that jumped out as being a bit on the extreme side. The team ERAs, on the average, in this one test season, were a bit on the low side and a 3.15 TEAM ERA is pretty darn epic. For a team to pitch below 4.00 is very, very good. 3.15 is late 1960s era baseball back when the mound was high and Bob Gibson scared people.
  

Ah the Wonderful World of Slider Adjustments

And the slider fun truly begins in earnest. (Said with all due sarcasm.) Jonah forwarded the following to me re: AI pitch sliders:

bigfnjoe96 posted:
The sliders posted are for the AI Pitching which I've already have a nice set.. Send these to Bill Todd to test...
AI Pitch Success: 10-25(10 lowest & 25 being the highest)
AI Pitch Selection: 100
AI Strike Zone: 25-50
AI Pitch Zone: 25-50
AI Composure: 75

I've tried these in one game and there's a definite difference to the pitcher's game with these. I even had my first batter get hit by a pitch; a first. I'm putting AI Strike Zone further down than this (trying 15) because it still felt like the AI was painting the edges of the strike zone more than it should. However, I'm not particularly skilled at ID'ing balls and stirkes, so it's pretty likely I just need the extra handicap.

As for the hitting sliders. My goal was to find something to get the hitter to take more pitches when they're located in the zone. Since I went up to All Start level (in my second or third game) the AI hardly ever fails to swing at a pitch in the zone. Here are the AI hitting sliders:

AI Batting Success
AI Batting Contact
AI Batting Power
AI Pitcher Handedness Influence
AI Inside Edge Batting Zone Influence
AI Batting Pitch Influence
AI Bunt Contact
AI Bunt Success

Hmmm. Seems we're missing the, "for the love of humanity, leave the bat on your shoulder for once!" slider. Bummer. I tried a game with Batting Contact reduced in the theory that a swinging strike is as good as a taken strike, but I was wrong. Watching the AI flail away, missing pitches with the slightest hint of movement just isn't much fun. I'm not sure there's a good way around this. Hopefully the 2k community is more industrious than I. (They usually are. I don't care enough about this stuff to be good at it.)

Strike Zone Tendency Works

I dropped Strike Zone Tendency to zero and the AI pitchers definitely miss the zone significantly more. I only walked once, but I'm so conditioned to having to swing at tons of pitches it was really hard to lay off. The good thing was I was able to get the pitcher to fall behind in the count quite often, which is a huge improvement. Gonna leave that slider at zero for now. Next project, get the AI hitters to take more pitches. They'll lay off pitches in the strike zone occasionally, but not enough (IMO).

Reds 5 Mets 3

Another great, great game with The Show. As I read Todd wallowing in strikeout hell, the 2nd game of the Mets series saw 9 total walks (I walked 5 times and issued 4) and one I REALLY didn't want to give up but Bray just could NOT throw a strike in the 8th.

The AI stole 3rd, successfully, on me in this game.

The CPU, on average, throws strikes now about 65% of the time -- which is just about where I want it. This is not on default sliders and I am playing with some house rules that I am sure some of you will fine hilarious, but it's working for me -- and working well.

This game is really, really good.

MLB 2k9 - Pitching Sliders

I've finally reached the point where I'm tired of watching the AI absolutely paint the zone with their pitches. I've walked once in 8 games. I've gotten to 3 balls -maybe- three or four times (including said walk). So I'm finally breaking down and heading to the slider route, which I hate doing. Here are the pitching sliders:

AI Pitch Success
AI Pitch Selection Tendency
AI Strike Zone Tendency
AI Pitch Zone Tendency
AI Pitcher Composure Influence

Is it just too damned hard to name sliders something clear or at least document what the damn things do? (This is a problem for nearly all sports games.) I have to assume pitch success affects how often a pitcher's pitches get lit up. I don't have the foggiest what pitch selection, in the context of a higher/lower values, means. If I raise it, does he throw his bread and butter pitch more? No clue. Strike zone tendency, I would think, affects pitch accuracy, but then, how is that different from pitch zone tendency? I'd like to know the difference before I change one or the other. As for pitcher composure influence, I know pitcher accuracy can go down if their composure goes, so I have to assume that's what that affects. Also, there's a separate slider for Pitcher Fatigue. I have absolutely no idea which way to move it to make pitchers fatigue more quickly. Logic says lower it to fatigue more quickly, but it's named Pitcher Fatigue, so it's entirely plausible that raising it means more fatigue, right?

Maybe if the manual weren't 12 pages (4 of which are the warranty/license agreement) or if there were a manual in the game (if there is one, I haven't found it), I wouldn't have to write blog posts about figuring out what it all means.

Santana is Good But...

So I started a Reds franchise today to get a feel for the new features in this mode -- played the opener against the Mets.

Santana has a no hitter going against me into the 9th. He's walked 1, struck out 7 and I haven't hit a ball out of the infield. I'm starting to get a bit mad. It's 1-0 Mets into the 9th. He walks Keppinger to start the 9th. I PH for the pitcher and bring in Hairston Jr. -- who promptly takes the first pitch 400 feet to LF.

Reds win.

I wake up my 14 year old sleeping dog with a loud "Yeah!" (I was started to get pissed...no way can I stand to get no hit in the opener.)

Sanatans IS good, but a walk off is better.

Volquez walked 1, fanned 9, and Santana was unhittable. Until he wasn't.

Nice way to start.

Time

Of my last game with fast play (or whatever it's called) turned on: 55 minutes. Take it FWIW. I still wish games were just a tick faster.

Why is it that...

Nine times out of ten (scientifically not proven) when I have a game crash (re: lock up) my Xbox 360 it's a 2k game? I've never had Rock Band or Fable 2 or Left 4 Dead crash my console. Madden -as irrelevant as it is to my existence- has never crashed it. No, it's always a 2k sports game.

Now, maybe there's some funky environmental factor. Maybe it's a fluke of biblical proportions. Maybe the Norse god Loki is just having some fun. But -all of a sudden- every time I try to load my MLB2k9 franchise my console locks up such that my only recourse is to manually power it off and turn it back on. I've tried it three straight times now and am ready to give up this franchise as lost. I have three different franchises saved to my 360 right now, two were for simming and the third, the hosed one, was for playing on the field. I go to the load screen, select the franchise, confirm I want to load it, even get a franchise loaded successfully screen, but at that point I remain stuck on the load screen and nothing I do with the controller changes a thing.

This sort of console crashing disaster has been an on and off trait of various 2k sports games for as long as I can remember. Frankly, I'm tired of it. Unlike PCs, which can be a nightmare to develop for, consoles are a closed platform. There is absolutely zero excuse for this sort of thing to happen. Ever.

As it happens, I don't really care that much about losing this franchise. I only had four (successfully) completed games invested in it (discounting the two on-field crashes... oi). But I think about this happening to the dude who's on year 4 of a franchise or the guy who's manually played 150 games of a season and I think about how pissed off I would be. It's not hard to imagine because I've been there before with 2k games. (Anyone remember the varied convoluted sequences of events that could wreck your College Hoops franchise a few years ago?)

For the sake of anyone who might be buying this game I'm wracking my brain to think about what I might have done differently with this franchise that I didn't do with the other two that could lead to this crash. The only thing I can think of, and I'm not seven sure it's true, is that I didn't use the Quit option on the franchise menu before exiting on last session. I think I have with the other two. Not positive, but it's something to try. If I'm able to confirm that, I'll let you all know. But I have very little time between now and deadline day for the review and I really don't want to spend it doing 2k's troubleshooting testing for them.

EDIT: Scratch that theory. I just played a game on franchise 4. Turned off the console without returning to the main menu. Started up again and it loaded just fine.

I'm so sick of this sh#&.

Scouting Report

"His Average will be quite Average for a Batting Average" - Scouting Report for Willy Tavarez in The Show 09. Not much else to say, but I absolutely love that line.

I finally have access to the TV again, and I'll about to dive into franchise mode. I'll get some basic stats posted in a bit and run an FA test.

MLB2k9 Patch Details

Got an email from Jonah pointing to an Operation Sports news item that lists the stuff in the release day patch for MLB 2k9. It does say the free agency issue is addressed and lists some other non-associated items that are also fixed (nothing to do with play on the field or the crash issue I've experienced when playing with Hurry Up Baseball enabled). There's nothing about player development (which *probably* isn't that severe an issue) or AI roster management, which I do consider to be severe. Teams should not be carrying 10 pitchers or 3-5 catchers. Maybe, if we're lucky, this is also tied into team payroll management and fixing that will alleviate this.

Game Two

So with the stupid as hell slider fiasco (thankfully) behind me I played another Ex. game this morning, running on about 4 1/2 hours sleep thanks to a phone call at 7 AM that was a either a wrong number or a prank call from users at Operation Sports -- can't be sure which.

Again, I set the sliders to favor lower control and the game played brilliantly. I walked 4 times. I gave up 3 walks myself, hit 3 doubles fanned 10 batters, whiffed 8 times myself, and sat tired and giddy as I played an absolutely joyous game of morning baseball. I saw an OF drop a ball, diving to match a circus catch, I saw the CPU get thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double, saw it easily score from 2nd on a base hit, and I saw it use its bullpen to favor L/R matchups. All things that sound like baseball 101 but things that so many games screw up in one form or another.

It really is one of my big litmus tests with baseball games: Can I walk consistently? Can I strikeout consistently as well? And is this based on player tendency? It's important -- and it's where a lot of games tend to fall down. This part of the game HAS to be right, otherwise you aren't playing baseball, but rather a game that successfully resembles it.

You need the CPU to take strikes (it does in The Show) and you also need it to miss strikes that are in the zone (it does that too). That said the same has to go for you. You need to miss pitches that you think you can catch up to and you need to be able to issue walks even when you are trying to throw strikes. So far the Show passes these tests in a big way.

I am well aware that the whole walk thing has turned into a obsession with me over the years in every baseball game I play. I blame Bill James. But if accuracy is the goal we should see around 6 walks combined per game -- on average, depending on the players involved. (Something that can't be overlooked.) It shouldn't be a case of saying, "Hey I walked!" but it should be a crucial part of any baseball game design. At least I think so.

So I'm pretty darn happy this morning with what I'm seeing.

As for complaints, the doubles thing is something you are either going to agree with me on or you aren't. Not sure what else I can say. Are there enough doubles in the game? YES. Did they improve the down the line doubles issue from last yer? Yes. Is it where I want it to be? Not quite. I'm no programmer. I don't design games. But I only assume that this is a tricky issue because you don't want to fix one thing and then have it break 10 other things. I can absolutely live with hits going over the bag and not reaching the corner being singles as long as hitting a double isn't some rare occurrence -- and it's not.

I do see the occasional stuttering fielder animation. In this last game I dropped a SAC bunt and the catcher jumped out to make a play on it and was running, and then when he got near the ball he started walking/stuttering, then he sped up again and made the play and I beat the throw. It looked like that slow down cost him an out. I've seen that more than once, which is why I mention it.

I wish the game played faster. Right now this is my #1 "complaint" with the game. If you remember the old High Heat days you could play a game in 25 minutes. You could take out every last bit of fluffy animation and game waster that had nothing to do with the game itself. Here, you can't. Even if you turn the fast play on you are still going spend a bit too much time watching things that you shouldn't need to watch. I haven't timed a game yet, but I am curious to see how long a game takes with fast play on.

OK anyway, some franchise/stat tests coming today, unless I fall back asleep.

Sweet Jesus I'm An Idiot

I'm getting older...or dumber...most likely both. They say as you get older your brain cells die at at quicker rate so you can chalk this up to biology.

OK all that stuff I said about The Show's sliders...yeah, you can ignore that.

After I made that last post a bit ago, I was about to go upstairs and attempt to crawl into bed without making up my wife. She rarely appreciates the 1:30 AM lumbering doofus trying to sneak into bed.

But as I was going, I saw the PS3 -- "Try me again, Bill. YOU HAVE THE SHOW. Come on. You never use me for anything but THIS GAME and as a Blu-Ray player." "

So I caved.

Upon loading the game and firing up my profile -- the slider settings had not saved. Wait, what?

I will avoid the details as to how I know this, but trust me -- I wasn't saving my slider changes. After removing my forehead from my hand after slapping myself, I decided to start a test franchise with the Reds and played Tampa in a Spring Training game. I again altered the sliders to try to make he CPU throw a lot of balls -- I wanted to see walks -- too many walks if possible and SAVED the changes....

...and promptly drew 4 walks in the first two innings as Garza was all over the damn map, hitting the zone about 50% of the time, tops. That was enough. I turned off the game, and made the slow march back to my office to write this damn blog entry.

So now I really am going to bed, feeling both thrilled and somewhat sad. Thrilled that the sliders in the Show work, and sad that I am slowly starting to lose whatever sense I had to begin with.

Tomorrow is a new day though, right?

We'll start the real Show impressions on February 28th, sound good?

Before Going to Bed...

Got a few (ok, 10) emails from people re: the initial Show post.

You guys know how this works -- I get the game, I play a few games, I type what I see. You read it. I play more games. I post more details. You read them and the cycle of life continues.

I should not be receiving emails from people saying "I can't believe the sliders are broken."

I didn't say that they were. Consider the sample size. Do I think it's worth noting that the CPU Pitch accuracy was still very good with the slider at zero? Yes, I do. I think it's something to keep an eye on--nothing more, nothing less so don't turn my initial ramblings into more than what they are -- initial impressions based on a sample size that is statistically meaningless. The next game I may draw 5 walks and get hit by a pitch. It's like doing a slider set -- you really can't (or shouldn't) play one game and then start messing with sliders based on that one game sample.

In one game Kerry Wood struck out 20 Astros. If you had PLAYED that game you might think "this game has too many strikeouts." The sample size is too small. Way too small. It's the same here -- let's just allow this to play out a bit. I am likely to play this game for about 15-20 hours this weekend. After that, I'll be able to talk about it with a bit more certainty.

The thing is, even if the accuracy for CPU pitchers is a bit too tight, those first 5 or so games were a lot of fun.

Finally.

We have completed an Advanced campaign in Left 4 Dead.

I died, but I don't care -- I consider this a positive achievement.

The Show Stuff

Got the green light from Sony PR so I can talk about it a bit.

I have played parts of about 5 games so far and 3 complete games, testing stuff out, etc.

This is obviously a polished looking game and if you're a fan of The Show then you're set -- in many ways this plays like a tweaked version of '08. It seems more like a refinement so far, and nothing has jumped out and made me say, "Whoa that was not in last year's game."

This is what happens when your game from the previous year is that good. It starts to get hard to find the obvious fixes and enhancements.

And to be clear: I love The Show '08. Love it. But I'm still digging and uncovering what's really new. That's going to take time -- as again I have only fiddled with Exhibition games.

I just finished a 3-2 win for the Reds over Washington and I won on a catcher error throwing on a dropped 3rd strike. Catcher heaved it into RF and I scored the game winner. Hilarious. Gotta love those Nats.

Two things that jump out that we should keep an eye on:

Doubles. Yes, you can hit doubles this year -- more than last year I'd say. But the whole "down the baseline issue" is still there. Look, if my batter laces a frozen rope over the 3rd base bag, unless there is a OF shift on, I better be standing on 2nd base unless I'm Greg Luzinski. I still see way too many singles on hits that LOOK like they should be doubles when they are first hit. And again, I hit three doubles last game so it's not like it's all singles all the time -- far from it. But the visual indicator I see when playing doesn't always add up. It's a balancing act I'm sure. I mean you don't want teams hitting 6...7 doubles per game, but just know going in that this is not 100% fixed.

A big issue?

No, not as much as last year because there are more gappers and more hits down the line tend to reach the wall -- but many of them seem to die when they hit the grass.

OK, next is the CPU sliders. I dunno if they are working or if they are they are doing SUBTLE changes to the formula. Case in point: CPU pitch control. I played the last game, just to see what would happen, with CPU Throw Strikes at zero. All the way to the left. The SP for the Nats ended up walking me 1 time (a MR issues one, too) and for the game the SP threw strikes 82% of the time. That's with Throw Strikes at 0? And I take a LOT of pitches. Granted I still swing at some I shouldn't but it even out in the end -- I took a fair number of pitches down the pipe.

Just something else to keep in mind when you get the game next week.

We'll do some franchise stuff tomorrow, but for now I want to play a game at Wrigley.

On the plus side, I walked 3 batters with Volquez -- and I was not trying to walk them. It just sorta happened. AND -- NO HOMERS in that last game against the Nats; I dunno about you, but I love baseball games that allow this to happen.

New Blood Bowl Screens

Chaos vs. Wood Elf.

Rockin'.

MLB 2k9: On-the-Field Impressions

Note: I was running short on time, so I have not spell-checked this post.

I've now put in roughly six games of MLB 2k9. These are largely played on all default slider settings. After one game I upped the difficulty from Pro to All-Star because hitting on Pro is ridiculously easy. (I have no problem with that. Pro is the second lowest difficulty level after all.)

First thing's first. In my first two games MLB 2k9 crashed during an inning transition. I have to emphasize that *both* of these games were played with the "Hurry Up Baseball" option enabled. Both crashes came about the same way.

In Game 1, I went to my pen in the 8th. When my reliever came in there was no pitch selection menu. It was just gone. I could still throw pitches, but I couldn't see the key to tell me what pitches the pitcher had available or what right-stick motion I needed to use them. I muddled through and when I got out of the inning the screen went black (which it normally does for a second on half inning switches) and never came back.

In the second game it was a similar deal. I lost Verlander to injury in the 2nd. No problem. All was well with selecting his replacement. When I went to my pen (I have pitcher warmups turned off, for the record) in the 6th, however, it was the same thing. No pitch selection screen for the reliever. I muddle through without it. Inning changes and the screen goes black. I gave it 15 minutes to come back around and nothing.

For the next four games I've turned Hurry Up Baseball off and I've completed all four, having gone to my pen multiple times, and not had a problem. This is a bummer to me, because I *really* like the Hurry Up Baseball option. It cuts out all the between pitches and between innings junk that make games take forever. (I don't mind the between inning transition so much as all the noise that goes on between pitches.) So, *if* it is the Hurry Up option being enabled that's messing with the game's stability that's a bummer for me, but better than having the crash come about with the setting disabled too.

As for the rest of the game. If you're a fan of 2k8 or if you think you could've liked it last year had it not been for some of the knucklehead issues with it had, then you should be happy with this one. The feel of the game is very similar, but a lot -not all, but a lot- of the sloppiness of last season is gone. If you hated 2k8, you're probably not gonna like this one any better.

In general it plays a solid game of baseball. Whether you like it or not will depend on where your hot button issues are (and how good the sliders end up being, I suppose). Hit variety seems consistent with last year (which is good). The stuttering of last year is gone as well. However, I still think the fielding is weak. And I don't like the balance of balls and strikes.

With regards to fielding, when I'm trying to field the ball the game feels like it's slowing down, like I'm having the players run through molasses. Since the ball slows down too, it doesn't affect the play, but it's kind of annoying to me. (It'll be interesting to see of others are bothered by this or if it's somehow all in my head.) And because of how momentum is done, if you so much as twitch the controller in the wrong direction you are going to be very hard up to make a play on the ball. The AI is putting up monster hit numbers on me right now largely because I keep hyperactively flipping the control stick in the wrong direction and taking myself out of the play. Very frustrating.

The batter pitcher matchup is much the same as last year, except that when pitching it doesn't appear that quality of the pitch motion (on the right stick) really matters. Last year if you weren't precise with the right stick motion it affected pitch quality, which I thought was a good thing. (I don't think it can be brought back, but perhaps I missed the option.)

As for hitting, while there are some new control options, the feel is the same as last year unless you opt for Zone Hitting. First of all Zone Hitting is not zone hitting. It's cursor hitting. If you like cursor hitting, you'll probably like this. I don't. I tried it for three innings and I cannot simultaneously try to judge balls from strikes and move that dam bat cursor to where the ball is going. I hate it. Also, on All Star it remains very easy to make contact with the ball. (Note I do mean make contact and not necessarily get hits.) In my just completed 4-game series against Toronto (I was Detroit), I did not hit well the first two games and did hit well in the second two. That could be Toronto's pitching or it could be that once you're used to it, non-cursor contact is just too easy.  We'll see how it goes from here.

Balls and strikes, at default setting, are straight out of last year's playbook. Which, in my book, is not good. Pitches really don't miss their mark. I mean a 12-6 curve always goes below the target you select, but since it always does that, it's just a matter of adjusting your pitcher's aim to compensate. Likewise, the AI pitcher rarely *RARELY* lets himself fall behind the in count. I'm not the poster child for plate patience, but I really worked hard to not swing at first and second pitches that weren't what I was looking for and I was constantly down 0-2 in the count. In all the games I've played I have walked just one time and have yet to issue a walk. If you need a strike you can get one. End of story. (Well, barring slider fixes.)

I do think AI hitters are much improved this year. They will swing at the occasional pitch out of the zone. They'll take the occasional strike. It's very nice. I can't say for sure that I've ever struck a batter out looking - that bares watching, but beyond that there's good variety in terms of when the AI hitters take or swing.

Now, there is one issue I've seen that just makes me crazy: close calls at the plate. When you're trying to throw a runner out at the plate, it's just crazy. This is not the sort of issue one generally looks for, but I've been using replay a lot to look at these plays and it just makes no sense. So far I've seen three things happen (a couple of them multiple times):

1. The runner is going to beat the throw to the plate. The throw is coming in off-line, so that the catcher has to move away from the plate and the runner to get to it. The runner slides feet first way off to the side of the plate, right at the poorly positioned catcher. If the runner were on target he would touch home easily. Instead his feet and legs miss the plate entirely, and by the time he gets around to swiping his hand on the plate, the catcher has gotten the throw and tagged him out. This is not a fluke. I've seen it happen twice already.

2. The throw to the plate is only a little off, but the catcher can just reach for it and still block the plate. The runner goes feet first right at home plate in this scenario. Hit feet go straight over the plate (if they're somehow not touching it, it's impossible to tell), the catcher swipes at the runner and the runner is called out when he is *clearly* safe. I've seen this happen twice as well.

3. The ball is thrown on the money from the field. It beats the runner there, the tag is made and the runner is inexplicably called safe. I've seen this happen once.

I'd call it just another knucklehead rarity, but I've seen the home plate scenario unfold five times in six games where the ball and runner get there close enough for there to be a play and have the result just be wrong every single time. That's not a minor issue. It's an out when there should be run scored or a run scored when there should be in an out. I have three saved replays of this. (Does anyone know if I can export them to my PC somehow? I haven't checked.)

There's also still some fielding wonkiness that comes up in every game. I had a ball hit to my RF. He was sitting right there to make the catch and just let the ball conk off his head. He then proceeded to snag the ball in the air, off his head, and make the out. Nice physics. Weird play. It's like if you're not lined up perfectly with an animation sometimes the game doesn't know what to do with itself and just lets the ball go by. I've seen it happen on multiple balls where the ball just goes right by a guy who is just left or right of being centered on it. It's the kind of thing that's annoying, but if you're careful not to be off-center, it really shouldn't happy very often. (Emphasis on shouldn't. I need to play more and see how much of it is me and how much is the game being a pain in the ass.)

That's it for now. I need to pick up my kids from daycare. I'll be playing the game a bunch this weekend and I'll try to get some more impressions up if I can make the time.

Winslow to Tampa

We just traded our Pro Bowl TE to the Bucs for, what I hear, is a 2nd round and a late round pick this year.

Wow.

So, KII is out, Rogers wants a trade, and we still have Braylon on the roster.

It's painful being a Browns fan.