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There are times with balls hit in-between certain fielders that you want to control a particular position and the game will refuse to switch over. For example, a hard liner toward short that hits off the pitcher’s glove and falls toward second base, the game will at times deny your wish to control the charging second baseman, instead switching between the pitcher and shortstop. By the time you figure it out, the guy is safe at first.

But, running the field is simple, once you get the hang of it.

Double plays can be tough on regular hit balls. You’ll notice when your fielder does not have an excellent arm. If the ball is hit hard in your direction, turning two is simple. If you’re forced to charge the ball, you better hope the runner is slow. In truth, double plays are turned about as regularly as they are done in the pros. I routinely turn 1-2 double plays a game if I give up enough base hits to warrant it. MLB games average just under 2 per game. So, it’s right in line.

Stats are really the last thing to worry about with this game. Simmed stats can be a bit off, though I’m just heading into the second month of my season, so I can’t really confirm. But, it seems all over the place. Damon is hitting .280 for me. Jeter is at .304 or something like that. Rodriguez is at .310 with 10 homeruns and 22 RBI. Cano is struggling hitting under .200 for me. Posada is the anomaly hitting .400+ with 11 homeruns and 20 RBI. Jeter and Cano each have four homeruns, which might be a bit much for them in the first month.

I can still make hitting more challenging for myself. Right now, I have it on Lock-On 2. I can still put it on Lock-On 1 (which just means that the hitting cursor has less of a magnetic field toward the ball) or Normal (which completely eliminates the magnetic field). Also, I always hit with power because you can’t seem to get homeruns or extra base-hits without it. It leads to smaller averages, but smashes bad pitches (which is what happened with the last game. Bad opposing pitcher leaving mistake pitches over the middle of the plate).

With that, I can also bump up AI Pitching one or two more levels. I forget where I have it right now. I have to check. The AI Hitting can be bumped two more levels, and as you can see, they are capable of taking advantage of bad pitches if given the pitches to do so, even at lower levels. I had bad pitchers with poor movement in that game.

Keep in mind that when I say how much I can bump up each level I’m talking about from where I have it set right now. There are many different difficulty levels to change AI Pitching, AI Hitting, AI Running, AI Fielding, and User Hitting with two User Pitching options.

AI/User Hitting can be adjusted to have Lock-On 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Normal with Lock-On 5 being the easiest. Yes, you can even make the AI’s Hitting a Lock-On 5, which is fantastic if you find yourself dominating too easily. Right now, I have AI Hitting at it’s third (of five) difficulty level with Normal Hitting. So, if I find that I’m beginning to strike out the AI all the time even at its highest difficulty rating, I can then bump up it’s Hitting Level to Lock-On 1, 2, or higher. There are just so many options in this game.

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