While chicks love the long ball, teams have also been successful at being excellent at the small things, that if done consistently can have a real impact over time.
Is your pitcher throwing the ball immediately every pitch making him easier to steal on? Do you never throw to your cutoff man? These are chinks in your otherwise perfect armor that could cost you a run or two.
And in baseball when the outcome is so dependent on the pitcher vs batter matchup it’s one of the easiest sports to overlook stuff like that. So, here’s our Top Five Underrated MLB The Show 17 Tips.
Let’s get to it.
Don’t Panic If You Attempt To Steal Too Early
If you attempt to steal a base and you leave before the pitcher even starts his windup, it can be a big uh oh moment, but you don’t need to panic. When I was learning how to steal, I had a habit of leaving early a lot, but what I found was a lot of guys would throw to the bag I left to pick me off, because they assume I’m going to run right back, so after a while I just kept going.
So, what I’m basically saying is commit to your mistake guys, your opponent’s rely on your indecisiveness on the base paths. Because of having no shame that I left early, I racked up a bunch of unearned steals this way and still do on occasion. Now, as a pitcher, when your opponent leaves early, just throw to the bag he’s running towards immediately, so the only option the runner has is to go back to where he started.
Don’t Get Caught Sleeping
Beware when your fielding the ball and getting outs, guys will try and catch you slipping by being super aggressive on the base paths. Popular ones are guys who were on 2nd or 3rd run home on an out at 1st, a batter who just got the hit trying to stretch a double because he assumes you’re throwing home, or a runner taking off to 3rd on a short throw to 1st. Constantly check on what the base runners are doing because they won’t hesitate to take advantage of you looking down to eat your ham sandwich.
Stolen Bases for Beginners
If your struggling at getting good jumps with your base runner, a trick I do happens once I have a guy on base. The next batter, I would take a lead and see how fast the pitcher throws to the plate (to check if he’s looking at me).
Then on the 2nd or 3rd pitch, I would take a lead again and activate my practice swing. Which we know as a pitcher, when the batter does this, you can pick your pitch and decide where you want to throw it, but you can’t throw until I’m done. Then what usually happens is guys will throw the pitch as soon as my animation is finished, thus letting me time my jump with my base runner off my batters practice swing.
Speed vs Ground Balls
If you have a fast guy who has low contact, or even if its respectable, but has limited power, the worst thing a defense wants is for that batter to use his speed. Where once on base, it could get ugly. Which is why you’ll see a Billy Hamilton, Ben Revere, Dee Gordon get high fast balls, in an attempt to turn you into a fly ball hitter, which isn’t a strength to these type of players.
A counter to that is instead of trying to play their game and try and drive the pitch with your 50 contact or 25 power, you want to hit over the ball and drive it into the ground, shifting the advantage back to the runner, where barring your opponent has a Scott Rolen, Greg Maddox, and Ivan Rodriguez in his infield, you will beat out the throw every time.
Don’t Play the Back and Forth Game
When you have your opponent in a run down, don’t play the back and forth game with them. Simply run them down, because in situations like these there’s small chance their going to make it out of this, so the runner will attempt to cheat and start running the other way right when you begin your throw or when they think you’re about to throw.
Now, the only situations you want to throw ahead of the base runner first is when their running towards the better base, so if he’s going home and you’re on 3rd, or he’s running to 2nd and you’re on 1st. Don’t let your opponent get you with this move guys.
Alright Sports Gamers, I hope I helped you with this video to improve your MLB skills so that your even 1% better than before you clicked on it.
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