MLB 08 THE SHOW: Strategy: Tips on Batting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Fielding - Page 3 - The Postgame Pub

Raider1one · 03-16-2008, 06:27 AM

Tips to make a profit in Franchise mode:

The best single tip I got is to take out a loan from the Roll? Bank. If you take a large loan over the max term of 15 years they offer, you can get serious, serious moolah from day one to buy all your stuff for your franchise before the first home game. You can add all the vendors and facilities you like, and your only going to be paying a 350,000 dollar payment at the beginning of each month. Not a bad deal! You can buy all the training and rehab facilities. I think they honestly only added in the transportation option as a money sink for the game to keep people from amassing far too much money. If your winning your players don't care about the transportation. But if you do change that option, you will watch your bottom line head south in a hurry. Hell I would put them on bicycles if I could.

Also, if your one of those folks that likes to zip through seasons and sim most of the games...well if your any good at this game I wouldn't bother spending too much money on scouts (unless your say, simming the next two or three years with the royals/pirates/giants lol) because even when i TRY to suck it up so that I can see what it is like to draft a top 5 calibre player and watch him develop, I never can. Hell, usually when I get to the draft, all the players I spent all season scouting are worthless or already chosen....not always but normally. Others may have had different results, but when I spend top dollar on scouting, I always have a such low draft picks that my scouts pretty much say 'yep, these guys all suck' by the time my choice comes around. Good Luck GM's of the world.

augmental · 03-19-2008, 12:30 PM

Did it say in the manual that you have to hold the left stick in until your pitcher releases the ball? I thought that you just had to hold the left stick in until the ball fades away in the zone? What is the point of the fade if you still have to hold the left stick in to get the position that you want?

Thanks for the tips!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by buzzhunter

"You also have to make sure you hold he left stick in the exact position where you located the throw untill the pitcher releases the ball..."

This is going to be very useful to my 34 year old rookie pitcher trying to crack the bigs! :-) I thought I might have picked up on that while playing, but now I'm going to try this each time. I was doing fairly well, but threw way too many strikes. This will help with "tactical balls" for sure!

**Chubz** · 03-20-2008, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raider1one

Tips to make a profit in Franchise mode:

The best single tip I got is to take out a loan from the Roll? Bank. If you take a large loan over the max term of 15 years they offer, you can get serious, serious moolah from day one to buy all your stuff for your franchise before the first home game. You can add all the vendors and facilities you like, and your only going to be paying a 350,000 dollar payment at the beginning of each month. Not a bad deal! You can buy all the training and rehab facilities. I think they honestly only added in the transportation option as a money sink for the game to keep people from amassing far too much money. If your winning your players don't care about the transportation. But if you do change that option, you will watch your bottom line head south in a hurry. Hell I would put them on bicycles if I could.

Also, if your one of those folks that likes to zip through seasons and sim most of the games...well if your any good at this game I wouldn't bother spending too much money on scouts (unless your say, simming the next two or three years with the royals/pirates/giants lol) because even when i TRY to suck it up so that I can see what it is like to draft a top 5 calibre player and watch him develop, I never can. Hell, usually when I get to the draft, all the players I spent all season scouting are worthless or already chosen....not always but normally. Others may have had different results, but when I spend top dollar on scouting, I always have a such low draft picks that my scouts pretty much say 'yep, these guys all suck' by the time my choice comes around. Good Luck GM's of the world.

thats what I did. I took out two huge loans and revamped all the vendors and other options

Raider1one · 03-20-2008, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by augmental

Did it say in the manual that you have to hold the left stick in until your pitcher releases the ball? I thought that you just had to hold the left stick in until the ball fades away in the zone? What is the point of the fade if you still have to hold the left stick in to get the position that you want?

No it didnt say it in the manual thats why i made this tip list cause the manual is so vague...

The reason i think the fade is there so u get used to it for when u play some real person on line or whatever and you can move your pitch to where you want so they cant see where the ball is gonna be, otherwise they'd guess the zone every time..( if they guess the zone the cpu takes over for that pitch)

Good Luck!

Raider1one · 03-21-2008, 12:41 PM

HOW TO BE THE GREATEST GM EVER IN FRANCHISE MODE:

So this thread is intended to be more of a general overview of how to be successful at managing a franchise in MLB 08’ The Show rather than a detailed “step by step” of how I manage mine. My hope is that this thread will be updated and added to over time and will provide players with helpful information that may give you a better understanding of the mode (especially the financial aspects) so that you can find your own niche and make it your own.

There are many facets to this mode as it is as comprehensive of a mode as can be found in a next-gen sports game. I think this may lead to many players being hesitant to starting one as it can seem a little overwhelming. I assure all who read this that once you get into it and get rolling that it becomes much less daunting and much more rewarding.

Just so you know, I have two franchises running at the moment and my Mets franchise is still in year1 about 110 games into the season and is already turning a $5.5 million dollar profit at each regular season home game despite the fact that I am spending an insane amount of money on training, coaches, marketing, and player salaries.

Like I said, there are many ways to do this although my personal route is the following:

Spend Tons of Money = Make More Tons of Money =)

Phase 1 - Startup

Banking: So the first item you’ll need to take care of is a loan. If you play with a top-tier organization such as the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, etc etc please understand that this process will take much less time to be successful than if you manage a lower tier organization. The idea is to secure a loan from the lowest interest charging bank possible.

So if you are playing one of the top-tier teams, you will want to secure the largest loan amt. ($40million) from the first bank (not at home, can’t recall bank name) on the list. Now you’ll notice that there is an option for the duration of the loan - this is important.

If you play around with the duration you’ll notice that there are “sweet spots” where the interest level does not increase by changing the loan from 5 years to 6 years (hypothetical) or likewise. If, for example, the interest rate is 4.5% over 5 years and remains the same at 6 years (4.5%), you will want to take the loan at a 6 year duration rather than 5. You’ll notice that if you jump up to 7 years, the interest may jump to 4.7% which is not a good deal.

Now if you are playing with a team that is going to require a longer process to jumpstart (Marlins, Royals, etc), you will need to go to a larger bank for your loan because it is going to take a much longer process to turn your franchise into a hand-over-fist money maker. However, the idea still stays the same. You always want to take the largest amount available to you at that particular bank and find the “sweet spot” duration.

Now once you’re walking out of the bank with bags of cash in hand, there are a few things you’ll want to take care of. First is advertisers – go ahead and secure your billboard and primary advertisers. Now understand that your initial offers are not going to be as good as your offers will be in a couple of years so don’t necessarily go for the longest offer at the highest pay. Try to find the “sweet spot” here too. Usually you can find advertisers who are offering a good contract over a year and a half duration.

Once you have secured your advertisers, you are now ready to go on a shopping spree (yay!). The first item you’ll want is what is listed in your organizational goals. Likely an aerobic room. After that, you’ll need to secure team transportation. This is subjective to many people, but I have always found the Team Bus to be a solid investment for years 1-3. Relatively speaking, it doesn’t cost that much and it will keep your players fresh and marginally happy. I do not recommend purchasing transportation more expensive than the team bus in year1 or 2 under any situation.

Next thing you’ll want to get out of the way is promotions since they are paid upfront. Now understand this about promotions. They are different from “Team” and “Player” marketing in the its really not that important that you spend a ton for it to be successful. Just make sure that you have a promotion scheduled for all 81 regular season home games (this is a must). I would recommend investing around $20-40k per promotion.

Now there is one promotion that is different from the others. That is “Free Ticket Night”. This is one you can really use to your advantage. Say that you are playing in a 50,000 seat stadium and are only averaging about 35,000 attendance/game. If that is the case, you’ll want to dole out a bunch of free tickets since you won’t be selling those tickets anyway. Vendors make mad money in this game and giving out 5-10,000 free tickets is only smart business if you’re likely not going to sell those tickets anyway, right? right. So just pay special attention to this one as time goes by. There will be a time when you may not need to give away many, if any, free tickets....but in the beginning this can really be a help.

Now in terms of Team and Player marketing I suggest investing heavily. Now don’t go crazy, but invest heavily. On the general marketing screen you’ll see fan comments. As with all things, these fan comments are the key to everything. They will tell when you aren’t spending enough. You never want your fans to complain about not enough. Marketing is something that will need to be increased as the season goes along. Again.........invest heavily as marketing has a direct correlation to how many fans come to your games. We need butts in seats to make money.

Next is vendors. Wow.........can’t tell you how important vendors will be. Your first purchase needs to be face painting. Its only a $100,000 investment and it will pay itself off 100x over. It’s a gift to us from Sony. Next thing you’ll want to do is max out your $10,000 vendors. There are 3 of them and you’ll want to have 30 of each of them right off the bat. From there, its hard for me to say, since some people will have more money than others at this point, but let me say this loud and clear:

Vendors are the lifeblood of your empire. They are heavy “fixed cost” investments meaning that once you buy them, they are mostly all profit from there on out. So its vitally important that you live on the edge financially in year 1 and 2 in order to purchase as many vendors, apparel, and fun zone items as quickly as you can.

Now, I have to get back to work (I will continue adding to this later in the day and tomorrow), but let me also go back to my statement about how my Mets franchise is pulling in over $5.5 million in profit in each home game in year 1. Well also understand that even though I am generating that much revenue, I go into the red (negative funds) every single month. You will need to get used to seeing the notice that says “Your organization is dangerously low on funds.......”. Do not worry about this. It just means you are doing things right as long as you can be sure to end each month with enough money to make your loan payment. In the early years, you want to live on the edge. If you have free cash laying around, you are not doing a good job.

The only stipulation to this is that at the end of the year (circa game 130), you will need to start stockpiling cash to prepare for your revenue sharing payment in the offseason.

Ok, that’s all for now folks. If anyone has any specific questions or suggestions please feel free to add them and I will see you all later.suggestions please feel free to add them and I will see you all later.

Raider1one · 03-21-2008, 12:43 PM

HOW TO BE THE GREATEST GM EVER IN FRANCHISE MODE pt2:

Phase 2 – Moving Forward

Before moving forward too far, I want to rehash that before playing a single regular season game you will want to spend an insane amount of money purchasing fun zone, food & beverage vendors, and “Jerseys & Junk” stores within the stadium. Think of it like this:

Ultimately, in year 5, you will want to have the maximum number of “Jerseys & Junk” stores in your stadium as they are a kingpin moneymaker. Each one of them costs $10million to buy and they never get cheaper to purchase. So every single day that you do not have that maximum number, you are, essentially losing revenue. But this does not mean that you want to get the biggest startup loan known to man and buy up everything because in the early stages you might not be filling the stadium and your item pricing is still relatively low. But you want to purchase a handful of them early and continue to add them steadily throughout season 1.

You will want to be sure and have every single fun zone item purchased before the All-Star break of season 1.

No ifs, ands, or but(t)s. Preferably sooner, the better. Also be aware that in season 1, item pricing changes daily. You will need to regulate pricing a few times per week in season 1. You do not have to do the save, try, load, and try again method. I never, ever, ever, ever have to do that and neither do you. It’s a waste of your time.

You just need to pay special attention to the Fan Feedback section; particularly the “Facilities” and “Fun/Value” section of the feedback. This will tell you when your pricing is off and when your fans are having a hard time buying all of the things they want to buy. This is important because this is the games way of telling you that if you spend another $10million on an 11th “Jersey’s & Junk” that its going to pay off bigtime.

For the mostpart, if you manage pricing and marketing effectively in year1, you will be able to consistently raise your pricing enough that by season’s end, you will have maxed out each item’s cost ceiling. This is a great feeling because you now know you are able to bring in serious cash and you no longer have to pay so much attention to pricing. In other words, it becomes much less tedious and starts to generate much more revenue.

Oh by the way, if you manage your franchise properly, you should never have to take out a 2nd loan. The initial startup loan should be all you will ever need.

In the beginning, its easy to keep your fans happy if you are winning. Do not worry if your “Fun/Value” section of fan feedback indicates that fan morale is low in this area. It should reside at around 40% of the bar. This is the only one of these where it is not only ok to have a lowish bar, but highly advised. All other bars need to be kept high.

Side note: I also suggest firing and rehiring the best coaches available, putting $70-80million in training, and firing and rehiring the best scouts possible. If you are running your franchise properly, you will be able to afford the best and it is very much worth it in the long run.

If you are really winning and are able to pack out your stadium often, I highly suggest installing extra seating. In that section, you can see which sections have the highest percentage of filled seats. Once you have identified those sections, do not hesitate to add seating in year 1 as it is another “fixed cost” investment that will only provide revenue as time goes on.

In summary, the key to the whole thing is year 1. The idea is to stay on top of marketing, pricing, and facilities investments with an eagle eye in year 1 to lay the foundation for your future financial giant enterprise. You will need to reinvest almost every dollar early on into extra vendors and only occasionally purchase a new spa or batting facility for your players to keep them happy. But the players’ items come in 2nd in priority due to the fact that there is no lost revenue by installing them later rather than sooner.

I know people aren’t into franchise this much this year, but it really is one of the best modes you can find in a game, anywhere. I am willing to help anyone turn their organization into the new evil empire so please ask any questions you want and I will answer them as best I can.

Raider1one · 03-21-2008, 03:51 PM

Various representatives from SCEA have answered some questions on our forums. For those of you wanting some specifics on MLB 08: The Show I recommend you check this article out. Some of the topics include: whether to use guess pitch or not; what pitching meter to use and how the difficulty levels play; and much much more. SCEA has also been taking questions and we are compiling the answers that have been provided to get a more complete story for the beginning of next week, so expect even more information coming out of the forums very soon!

This will be old hat for those of you that already caught it but for those of you that missed the thread in the forums, here are some highlights from his notes he passed along.

Classic vs. Meter Pitching

Both types of pitching meters produce consistent results when used by a skilled player. However, some players are better at one or the other (strategy vs. execution skill). Holding X down longer on classic will trade some accuracy for power.

Difficulty Information

Veteran: Considered the easy mode and best suited for beginners. It is also a good place to play for players who do not want tan All-Star Level Challenge which means losing about half of the time for average players.

All-Star: Best for most non-beginners. If you need handicapped sliders to play on Hall of Fame, it's probably best to just play on All-Star. You will see a more realistic game on All-Star in that case.

Hall of Fame: To play this mode and win even half the time, you have to be better than 90% of players. In SCEA's words, "HOF is for the best player out of 10, on OS that might be the best out of five players." Difference of HOF difficulty from All-Star is the actual difficulty, not AI intelligence.

Guess vs. No-Guess The Pitch

It does not matter whether you play with the feature or not, the game is designed for either case. You can also just do one or the other in terms of guess pitch type or guess zone. Guess Pitch helps beginners and those who are stronger at strategy than reaction, but it's balanced for a skilled user. The AI on veteran thinks like an intermediate-beginner.

Modes of Guessing

Here's the quote from SCEA on how the modes of guess pitch work: "The modes of guess pitch are: New, Classic 1/4, Classic 1/6, No Feedback, and Off. Within guess pitch you can guess both type and zone, only type or zone, or neither. "New" guess pitch tells you if you guessed location correct, without showing you the location. Classic 1/4 shows you the location. Classic 1/6 is the same but your guesses cover 1/6 of the strike zone. No feedback never tells you if you guessed correct. The bonuses/penalties are carefully tuned differently for every combination of usage and result (yes every combo), and each detail has been retuned from last year (mainly for realism/balance/challenge). Note that using the L stick you can always manually guess pitch (the old fashioned way in real life) but the full explanation is too large for the space I have."

Learn to Work the Count

The header says it all, learn to be able to lay off off-speed pitches early in the count. Before strike two you should only swing at good pitches because chances are even if a bad pitch is a strike before strike two, you will get a better pitch in the next 2-3 pitches. You also have to learn to time pitches based on location. So you have to swing a bit earlier on inside pitches and a bit later on outside pitches to put them into play.

Learn to Own the Plate

Here's another full quote from SCEA: "When you've gotten the hang of facing pitches down the middle, learn to use the L stick to cover the plate better. This is more important on higher difficulties and is not necessary for beginners. Even though pitches down the middle are the best to time/cover, the pitcher is trying to pitch around you. If you cover 2/3 of the SZ with the L stick (ignoring 3 other zones), you can improve your pitch recognition (ball/strike location, even guess pitch type) and narrow down your timing window (if looking in/out). This is manual guess pitch, which has been around a hundred years in baseball."

Stay Ahead of the AI

"When you've gotten the hang of facing pitches down the middle, learn to use the L stick to cover the plate better. This is more important on higher difficulties and is not necessary for beginners. Even though pitches down the middle are the best to time/cover, the pitcher is trying to pitch around you. If you cover 2/3 of the SZ with the L stick (ignoring 3 other zones), you can improve your pitch recognition (ball/strike location, even guess pitch type) and narrow down your timing window (if looking in/out). This is manual guess pitch, which has been around a hundred years in baseball."

Use Power Swings In a Hitters Count

Using the power swing button is best when you are using it in a 2-0 or 3-0 type of count. SCEA brings up the point that on some teams and in some situations some batters aren't even allowed to swing on those counts. On power swings you get a moderate power bonus, you are fully committed to swinging and your timing window is a bit harder. You also can't make adjustments that easy (chasing pitches outside of the zone). SCEA recommends if you don't know what you are doing, you are better off not power swinging in the long run.

Pull/Push Hitting

SCEA puts it best: "Player strategy has a big influence on results. For example, batting opposite field like Derek Jeter or Ichiro and gaining contact at the cost of power. These players will tend to do that naturally, but you can choose to shift every player in that direction to some degree by choice. By swinging later on pitches, you gain pitch recognition (type and location) at the cost of some power (pushing vs. pulling). Power strategies work the other way and require excellent pitch recognition without hesitation. The most powerful swing requires you to be slightly early (P for perfect in pitcher/batter analysis) - obviously trajectory plays a dominant factor. In the game, contact strategies tend to be optimal for contact hitters, and power strategies tend to be optimal for power hitters. But it's a minor factor that only matters in HoF level play, because there are much more important skills to focus on like taking pitches well."

Strategic Bias

SCEA points out that players who try biased strategies will get biased results within the game. Your results will only be realistic if you play a realistic game.

Statistical Streaks and Anomalies

SCEA talked about how some players will get weird results: "There are 30 teams in the MLB, but perhaps a million people who will play the game. Every person will get different results and different streaks. Let's take the Red Sox in real life and their first 5 games of 2007 (April 2nd-7th). They hit 1 HR out of 5 games. This isn't enough to draw any broad conclusions about MLB or the Red Sox's power. If I pick another team, there will be another stat I can focus on. If 1 team out of 30 had this kind of streak, imagine the variety in a million people. I've found that it takes 10-20 games before most stats will stabalize, and in multiple runs there will eventually be a set of 10-20 games that strays from the trend. You can see this in a good/bad month for a team. In internal development, I never hear anything from the 90% of people getting expected results, just the 10% who get the unexpected."

**Chubz** · 03-22-2008, 12:58 AM

damn man, good info. this thread is amazing

augmental · 03-23-2008, 12:39 AM

Fielding Question -

I can't seem to get my shortstop or 1st / 3rd basemen to reach down and pick up the ball when it is rolling right under them. When the ball reaches the outfield the outfielder will reach down and grab the ball...but not the infielders. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks again!!!

Raider1one · 03-23-2008, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by augmental

Fielding Question -

I can't seem to get my shortstop or 1st / 3rd basemen to reach down and pick up the ball when it is rolling right under them. When the ball reaches the outfield the outfielder will reach down and grab the ball...but not the infielders. What am I doing wrong?

I find that the easiest way to avoid this from happening is to Press the base you want to throw to BEFORE you pick up the ball in the case of just trying to field the ball, (when you hit R1 (jump) or R2 (dive) to get the ball you have to wait to catch it or you may do an error).. Doing this causes the Player to go into an animation to make a great play because you are anticipating what to do when you get the ball. You can also do this with the Outfielders to throw someone out if you make a great play in the outfield.
If you still have trouble you can adjust the slider to the left to Lower the chances of a Player letting the ball go past them( I can't remember the name of the slider ATM, but its pretty self explanatory when you look at it.), but I have found using this technique you hardly ever miss the ball. (I've had like 3 or 4 go buy me in like 40 games.)

Good Luck!

03-16-2008, 06:27 AM	#31 (permalink)
Raider1one Banned Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: WEST COAST Posts: 418 vCash: 2702 Donate Rep Power: 0	Re: MLB 08 THE SHOW: Strategy: Tips on Batting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Fielding Tips to make a profit in Franchise mode: The best single tip I got is to take out a loan from the Roll? Bank. If you take a large loan over the max term of 15 years they offer, you can get serious, serious moolah from day one to buy all your stuff for your franchise before the first home game. You can add all the vendors and facilities you like, and your only going to be paying a 350,000 dollar payment at the beginning of each month. Not a bad deal! You can buy all the training and rehab facilities. I think they honestly only added in the transportation option as a money sink for the game to keep people from amassing far too much money. If your winning your players don't care about the transportation. But if you do change that option, you will watch your bottom line head south in a hurry. Hell I would put them on bicycles if I could. Also, if your one of those folks that likes to zip through seasons and sim most of the games...well if your any good at this game I wouldn't bother spending too much money on scouts (unless your say, simming the next two or three years with the royals/pirates/giants lol) because even when i TRY to suck it up so that I can see what it is like to draft a top 5 calibre player and watch him develop, I never can. Hell, usually when I get to the draft, all the players I spent all season scouting are worthless or already chosen....not always but normally. Others may have had different results, but when I spend top dollar on scouting, I always have a such low draft picks that my scouts pretty much say 'yep, these guys all suck' by the time my choice comes around. Good Luck GM's of the world.

03-21-2008, 12:41 PM	#35 (permalink)
Raider1one Banned Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: WEST COAST Posts: 418 vCash: 2702 Donate Rep Power: 0	Re: MLB 08 THE SHOW: Strategy: Tips on Batting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Fielding HOW TO BE THE GREATEST GM EVER IN FRANCHISE MODE: So this thread is intended to be more of a general overview of how to be successful at managing a franchise in MLB 08’ The Show rather than a detailed “step by step” of how I manage mine. My hope is that this thread will be updated and added to over time and will provide players with helpful information that may give you a better understanding of the mode (especially the financial aspects) so that you can find your own niche and make it your own. There are many facets to this mode as it is as comprehensive of a mode as can be found in a next-gen sports game. I think this may lead to many players being hesitant to starting one as it can seem a little overwhelming. I assure all who read this that once you get into it and get rolling that it becomes much less daunting and much more rewarding. Just so you know, I have two franchises running at the moment and my Mets franchise is still in year1 about 110 games into the season and is already turning a $5.5 million dollar profit at each regular season home game despite the fact that I am spending an insane amount of money on training, coaches, marketing, and player salaries. Like I said, there are many ways to do this although my personal route is the following: Spend Tons of Money = Make More Tons of Money =) Phase 1 - Startup Banking: So the first item you’ll need to take care of is a loan. If you play with a top-tier organization such as the Mets, Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, etc etc please understand that this process will take much less time to be successful than if you manage a lower tier organization. The idea is to secure a loan from the lowest interest charging bank possible. So if you are playing one of the top-tier teams, you will want to secure the largest loan amt. ($40million) from the first bank (not at home, can’t recall bank name) on the list. Now you’ll notice that there is an option for the duration of the loan - this is important. If you play around with the duration you’ll notice that there are “sweet spots” where the interest level does not increase by changing the loan from 5 years to 6 years (hypothetical) or likewise. If, for example, the interest rate is 4.5% over 5 years and remains the same at 6 years (4.5%), you will want to take the loan at a 6 year duration rather than 5. You’ll notice that if you jump up to 7 years, the interest may jump to 4.7% which is not a good deal. Now if you are playing with a team that is going to require a longer process to jumpstart (Marlins, Royals, etc), you will need to go to a larger bank for your loan because it is going to take a much longer process to turn your franchise into a hand-over-fist money maker. However, the idea still stays the same. You always want to take the largest amount available to you at that particular bank and find the “sweet spot” duration. Now once you’re walking out of the bank with bags of cash in hand, there are a few things you’ll want to take care of. First is advertisers – go ahead and secure your billboard and primary advertisers. Now understand that your initial offers are not going to be as good as your offers will be in a couple of years so don’t necessarily go for the longest offer at the highest pay. Try to find the “sweet spot” here too. Usually you can find advertisers who are offering a good contract over a year and a half duration. Once you have secured your advertisers, you are now ready to go on a shopping spree (yay!). The first item you’ll want is what is listed in your organizational goals. Likely an aerobic room. After that, you’ll need to secure team transportation. This is subjective to many people, but I have always found the Team Bus to be a solid investment for years 1-3. Relatively speaking, it doesn’t cost that much and it will keep your players fresh and marginally happy. I do not recommend purchasing transportation more expensive than the team bus in year1 or 2 under any situation. Next thing you’ll want to get out of the way is promotions since they are paid upfront. Now understand this about promotions. They are different from “Team” and “Player” marketing in the its really not that important that you spend a ton for it to be successful. Just make sure that you have a promotion scheduled for all 81 regular season home games (this is a must). I would recommend investing around $20-40k per promotion. Now there is one promotion that is different from the others. That is “Free Ticket Night”. This is one you can really use to your advantage. Say that you are playing in a 50,000 seat stadium and are only averaging about 35,000 attendance/game. If that is the case, you’ll want to dole out a bunch of free tickets since you won’t be selling those tickets anyway. Vendors make mad money in this game and giving out 5-10,000 free tickets is only smart business if you’re likely not going to sell those tickets anyway, right? right. So just pay special attention to this one as time goes by. There will be a time when you may not need to give away many, if any, free tickets....but in the beginning this can really be a help. Now in terms of Team and Player marketing I suggest investing heavily. Now don’t go crazy, but invest heavily. On the general marketing screen you’ll see fan comments. As with all things, these fan comments are the key to everything. They will tell when you aren’t spending enough. You never want your fans to complain about not enough. Marketing is something that will need to be increased as the season goes along. Again.........invest heavily as marketing has a direct correlation to how many fans come to your games. We need butts in seats to make money. Next is vendors. Wow.........can’t tell you how important vendors will be. Your first purchase needs to be face painting. Its only a $100,000 investment and it will pay itself off 100x over. It’s a gift to us from Sony. Next thing you’ll want to do is max out your $10,000 vendors. There are 3 of them and you’ll want to have 30 of each of them right off the bat. From there, its hard for me to say, since some people will have more money than others at this point, but let me say this loud and clear: Vendors are the lifeblood of your empire. They are heavy “fixed cost” investments meaning that once you buy them, they are mostly all profit from there on out. So its vitally important that you live on the edge financially in year 1 and 2 in order to purchase as many vendors, apparel, and fun zone items as quickly as you can. Now, I have to get back to work (I will continue adding to this later in the day and tomorrow), but let me also go back to my statement about how my Mets franchise is pulling in over $5.5 million in profit in each home game in year 1. Well also understand that even though I am generating that much revenue, I go into the red (negative funds) every single month. You will need to get used to seeing the notice that says “Your organization is dangerously low on funds.......”. Do not worry about this. It just means you are doing things right as long as you can be sure to end each month with enough money to make your loan payment. In the early years, you want to live on the edge. If you have free cash laying around, you are not doing a good job. The only stipulation to this is that at the end of the year (circa game 130), you will need to start stockpiling cash to prepare for your revenue sharing payment in the offseason. Ok, that’s all for now folks. If anyone has any specific questions or suggestions please feel free to add them and I will see you all later.suggestions please feel free to add them and I will see you all later.

03-21-2008, 12:43 PM	#36 (permalink)
Raider1one Banned Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: WEST COAST Posts: 418 vCash: 2702 Donate Rep Power: 0	Re: MLB 08 THE SHOW: Strategy: Tips on Batting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Fielding HOW TO BE THE GREATEST GM EVER IN FRANCHISE MODE pt2: Phase 2 – Moving Forward Before moving forward too far, I want to rehash that before playing a single regular season game you will want to spend an insane amount of money purchasing fun zone, food & beverage vendors, and “Jerseys & Junk” stores within the stadium. Think of it like this: Ultimately, in year 5, you will want to have the maximum number of “Jerseys & Junk” stores in your stadium as they are a kingpin moneymaker. Each one of them costs $10million to buy and they never get cheaper to purchase. So every single day that you do not have that maximum number, you are, essentially losing revenue. But this does not mean that you want to get the biggest startup loan known to man and buy up everything because in the early stages you might not be filling the stadium and your item pricing is still relatively low. But you want to purchase a handful of them early and continue to add them steadily throughout season 1. You will want to be sure and have every single fun zone item purchased before the All-Star break of season 1. No ifs, ands, or but(t)s. Preferably sooner, the better. Also be aware that in season 1, item pricing changes daily. You will need to regulate pricing a few times per week in season 1. You do not have to do the save, try, load, and try again method. I never, ever, ever, ever have to do that and neither do you. It’s a waste of your time. You just need to pay special attention to the Fan Feedback section; particularly the “Facilities” and “Fun/Value” section of the feedback. This will tell you when your pricing is off and when your fans are having a hard time buying all of the things they want to buy. This is important because this is the games way of telling you that if you spend another $10million on an 11th “Jersey’s & Junk” that its going to pay off bigtime. For the mostpart, if you manage pricing and marketing effectively in year1, you will be able to consistently raise your pricing enough that by season’s end, you will have maxed out each item’s cost ceiling. This is a great feeling because you now know you are able to bring in serious cash and you no longer have to pay so much attention to pricing. In other words, it becomes much less tedious and starts to generate much more revenue. Oh by the way, if you manage your franchise properly, you should never have to take out a 2nd loan. The initial startup loan should be all you will ever need. In the beginning, its easy to keep your fans happy if you are winning. Do not worry if your “Fun/Value” section of fan feedback indicates that fan morale is low in this area. It should reside at around 40% of the bar. This is the only one of these where it is not only ok to have a lowish bar, but highly advised. All other bars need to be kept high. Side note: I also suggest firing and rehiring the best coaches available, putting $70-80million in training, and firing and rehiring the best scouts possible. If you are running your franchise properly, you will be able to afford the best and it is very much worth it in the long run. If you are really winning and are able to pack out your stadium often, I highly suggest installing extra seating. In that section, you can see which sections have the highest percentage of filled seats. Once you have identified those sections, do not hesitate to add seating in year 1 as it is another “fixed cost” investment that will only provide revenue as time goes on. In summary, the key to the whole thing is year 1. The idea is to stay on top of marketing, pricing, and facilities investments with an eagle eye in year 1 to lay the foundation for your future financial giant enterprise. You will need to reinvest almost every dollar early on into extra vendors and only occasionally purchase a new spa or batting facility for your players to keep them happy. But the players’ items come in 2nd in priority due to the fact that there is no lost revenue by installing them later rather than sooner. I know people aren’t into franchise this much this year, but it really is one of the best modes you can find in a game, anywhere. I am willing to help anyone turn their organization into the new evil empire so please ask any questions you want and I will answer them as best I can.

03-21-2008, 03:51 PM	#37 (permalink)
Raider1one Banned Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: WEST COAST Posts: 418 vCash: 2702 Donate Rep Power: 0	Re: MLB 08 THE SHOW: Strategy: Tips on Batting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Fielding Various representatives from SCEA have answered some questions on our forums. For those of you wanting some specifics on MLB 08: The Show I recommend you check this article out. Some of the topics include: whether to use guess pitch or not; what pitching meter to use and how the difficulty levels play; and much much more. SCEA has also been taking questions and we are compiling the answers that have been provided to get a more complete story for the beginning of next week, so expect even more information coming out of the forums very soon! This will be old hat for those of you that already caught it but for those of you that missed the thread in the forums, here are some highlights from his notes he passed along. Classic vs. Meter Pitching Both types of pitching meters produce consistent results when used by a skilled player. However, some players are better at one or the other (strategy vs. execution skill). Holding X down longer on classic will trade some accuracy for power. Difficulty Information Veteran: Considered the easy mode and best suited for beginners. It is also a good place to play for players who do not want tan All-Star Level Challenge which means losing about half of the time for average players. All-Star: Best for most non-beginners. If you need handicapped sliders to play on Hall of Fame, it's probably best to just play on All-Star. You will see a more realistic game on All-Star in that case. Hall of Fame: To play this mode and win even half the time, you have to be better than 90% of players. In SCEA's words, "HOF is for the best player out of 10, on OS that might be the best out of five players." Difference of HOF difficulty from All-Star is the actual difficulty, not AI intelligence. Guess vs. No-Guess The Pitch It does not matter whether you play with the feature or not, the game is designed for either case. You can also just do one or the other in terms of guess pitch type or guess zone. Guess Pitch helps beginners and those who are stronger at strategy than reaction, but it's balanced for a skilled user. The AI on veteran thinks like an intermediate-beginner. Modes of Guessing Here's the quote from SCEA on how the modes of guess pitch work: "The modes of guess pitch are: New, Classic 1/4, Classic 1/6, No Feedback, and Off. Within guess pitch you can guess both type and zone, only type or zone, or neither. "New" guess pitch tells you if you guessed location correct, without showing you the location. Classic 1/4 shows you the location. Classic 1/6 is the same but your guesses cover 1/6 of the strike zone. No feedback never tells you if you guessed correct. The bonuses/penalties are carefully tuned differently for every combination of usage and result (yes every combo), and each detail has been retuned from last year (mainly for realism/balance/challenge). Note that using the L stick you can always manually guess pitch (the old fashioned way in real life) but the full explanation is too large for the space I have." Learn to Work the Count The header says it all, learn to be able to lay off off-speed pitches early in the count. Before strike two you should only swing at good pitches because chances are even if a bad pitch is a strike before strike two, you will get a better pitch in the next 2-3 pitches. You also have to learn to time pitches based on location. So you have to swing a bit earlier on inside pitches and a bit later on outside pitches to put them into play. Learn to Own the Plate Here's another full quote from SCEA: "When you've gotten the hang of facing pitches down the middle, learn to use the L stick to cover the plate better. This is more important on higher difficulties and is not necessary for beginners. Even though pitches down the middle are the best to time/cover, the pitcher is trying to pitch around you. If you cover 2/3 of the SZ with the L stick (ignoring 3 other zones), you can improve your pitch recognition (ball/strike location, even guess pitch type) and narrow down your timing window (if looking in/out). This is manual guess pitch, which has been around a hundred years in baseball." Stay Ahead of the AI "When you've gotten the hang of facing pitches down the middle, learn to use the L stick to cover the plate better. This is more important on higher difficulties and is not necessary for beginners. Even though pitches down the middle are the best to time/cover, the pitcher is trying to pitch around you. If you cover 2/3 of the SZ with the L stick (ignoring 3 other zones), you can improve your pitch recognition (ball/strike location, even guess pitch type) and narrow down your timing window (if looking in/out). This is manual guess pitch, which has been around a hundred years in baseball." Use Power Swings In a Hitters Count Using the power swing button is best when you are using it in a 2-0 or 3-0 type of count. SCEA brings up the point that on some teams and in some situations some batters aren't even allowed to swing on those counts. On power swings you get a moderate power bonus, you are fully committed to swinging and your timing window is a bit harder. You also can't make adjustments that easy (chasing pitches outside of the zone). SCEA recommends if you don't know what you are doing, you are better off not power swinging in the long run. Pull/Push Hitting SCEA puts it best: "Player strategy has a big influence on results. For example, batting opposite field like Derek Jeter or Ichiro and gaining contact at the cost of power. These players will tend to do that naturally, but you can choose to shift every player in that direction to some degree by choice. By swinging later on pitches, you gain pitch recognition (type and location) at the cost of some power (pushing vs. pulling). Power strategies work the other way and require excellent pitch recognition without hesitation. The most powerful swing requires you to be slightly early (P for perfect in pitcher/batter analysis) - obviously trajectory plays a dominant factor. In the game, contact strategies tend to be optimal for contact hitters, and power strategies tend to be optimal for power hitters. But it's a minor factor that only matters in HoF level play, because there are much more important skills to focus on like taking pitches well." Strategic Bias SCEA points out that players who try biased strategies will get biased results within the game. Your results will only be realistic if you play a realistic game. Statistical Streaks and Anomalies SCEA talked about how some players will get weird results: "There are 30 teams in the MLB, but perhaps a million people who will play the game. Every person will get different results and different streaks. Let's take the Red Sox in real life and their first 5 games of 2007 (April 2nd-7th). They hit 1 HR out of 5 games. This isn't enough to draw any broad conclusions about MLB or the Red Sox's power. If I pick another team, there will be another stat I can focus on. If 1 team out of 30 had this kind of streak, imagine the variety in a million people. I've found that it takes 10-20 games before most stats will stabalize, and in multiple runs there will eventually be a set of 10-20 games that strays from the trend. You can see this in a good/bad month for a team. In internal development, I never hear anything from the 90% of people getting expected results, just the 10% who get the unexpected."

03-22-2008, 12:58 AM	#38 (permalink)
Chubz Who's The Boss Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Toms River, NJ Posts: 6,007 vCash: 4087 Donate My Blog: The Chubzone XBL Gamertag: xXchubbzillaXx PSN Gamertag: Chubzilla Blog Entries: 3 Rep Power: 100 Awards Showcase Total Awards: 2	Re: MLB 08 THE SHOW: Strategy: Tips on Batting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Fielding damn man, good info. this thread is amazing __________________

03-23-2008, 12:39 AM	#39 (permalink)
augmental PGP Batboy Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 2 vCash: 2500 Donate Rep Power: 0	Re: MLB 08 THE SHOW: Strategy: Tips on Batting, Pitching, Baserunning, and Fielding Fielding Question - I can't seem to get my shortstop or 1st / 3rd basemen to reach down and pick up the ball when it is rolling right under them. When the ball reaches the outfield the outfielder will reach down and grab the ball...but not the infielders. What am I doing wrong? Thanks again!!!