CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 I reached my saturation point with 2k9 issues and not being able to find a "balance" between good gameplay and results. So, I popped in MVP08 and played 6 games of an Arizona Franchise just for something to do ... and now I'm hooked. I'm amazed at how great the gameplay is ... and realistic. My only gripes are that [1] I forgot how the pitcher in this game are more like hockey goalies, and [2] the range of 2B and SS is a bit too much. I chose AZ because of my relationship with Clay Zavada, and because of that I've followed their team all year. Obviously, everyone likes Webb and Haren (ex-Cardinal), but what I like the most is their team speed ... Lopez (90), Upton (88), Young (88), and even "Mr. Fake Hustle" himself, Eric Byrnes (92). I really like Mark Reynolds, but would prefer to see a little less "Jim Edmonds" in his performance (strike out 3 times, then hit a big HR that makes you forget about the hat trick). I came across a website called diamonback nation, and really liked the look of the site, and am basing my updates on those images. Here goes ... (I've played the first 2 series, COL & LAD) MVP 08 Mod KG's 7.1 Rosters 2009 Schedule Sliders - Hoops27 (I think) Difficulty - ALL-STAR Fielding - Manual Strikezone - Off Hot/Cold Zones - Off Pitch Cursor - Off Hitters Eye - Off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 I was in awe the entire game. At a big resolution (thanks resolution changer), this game looks pretty darn good. Fun, Fun ... challenging game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro23 Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Looking good. You know I'll be following. :hi: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 To go along with Hawpe robbing Tracy of a potential game winning HR ... Upton hit a foul HR in the 9th, that would have been a definite game-winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeRudi26 Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Awesome. Looks great, CC. Looking forward to following along. :good: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 Before this game, I was questioning my sliders. Turns out there's a big difference between Doug Davis and Webb & Haren. I haven't played many dynasties with cy young caliber pitchers. I will have continual division leaders and NL West standings in my updates following the Dodger series .... it was something I decided to do after I played the first 6 games. This franchise is different for me, because I have a personal interest with the team, and really like their players ... outside of Eric Byrnes ... but with a 92 speed and one of my dynasty goals being a league leader in SBs, he might have to stay ... besides, who wants "Flipper" for 11M/year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 Series #2 - The Rival Dodgers Come to Town ... Felipe Lopez is hearing it from the fans (at least the guys on the Diamondbacks Bullpen forum hate him). O-Dog robbed the DBacks of hit that would have won the game in the 10th, Pierre did the same in the 12th. Nuts. Great game. My 8yo was driving me crazy by providing more color commentary than Duane Kuiper. Reminded me of that muppet kid in the Kobe-LeBron commercials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro23 Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Series #2 - The Rival Dodgers Come to Town ... Felipe Lopez is hearing it from the fans (at least the guys on the Diamondbacks Bullpen forum hate him). O-Dog robbed the DBacks of hit that would have won the game in the 10th, Pierre did the same in the 12th. Nuts. Great game. My 8yo was driving me crazy by providing more color commentary than Duane Kuiper. Reminded me of that muppet kid in the Kobe-LeBron commercials. ROFL :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 I "cheated" in this game by [1] turning hitter's eye ON, and [2] using the left stick on occassion. [1] I strike out too much, even for the DBacks. Sinkers and changeups are a nightmare for me at this point. I will turn it back off when I get back into my 'MVP groove'. [2] With Drew, I pushed up on the stick to RF and waiting for an up and in pitch, and when I got ... MMMMMMM ... I GOT IT! Felt great, gone from the get go. I limit myself to one "left stick up" swing per at bat in situations when a 'power swing' is called for. To this point I had not used it successfully, with both of my other homers coming on a normal swing. I'll keep using it in moderation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 ROFL Yeah, it's hilarious ... until it hapens to you. "Do they wear different spikes with different uniforms?" "Why does he pitch like that?" "Dad, you swung at ball 4." " Manny's gonna take you deep." "Can I play now?" "When are you gonna warm up Clay?" " Ha Ha Pierre robbed you." "Can I play now?" "I like that catcher's mask" "He doesn't wear high socks anymore." "Can I play now?" "O-Dog used to play for the Dbacks, now he's your rival." "Luke and me are gonna play in the majors like the Drews and Uptons." "Can I play now?" (I just rented this dude MLB09). Having a baseball crazy kid who knows some stuff is a blessing and curse all wrapped into one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 Not quite sure what to do about BYrnes and the SBs. He has 6 in 6 games. The good is he'll likely lead the MLB in SBs, which is a dynasty goal. The bad news is he may do it with a ridiculous number. His speed rating is 92, which IMO is too high ... not that anyone can tel in MLB b/c all he hits are pop-ups. He doesn't start but AZ has lots of pinch-running opportunities anytime Jackson(Byrnes in LF rest of game), Clark/Tracy, Snyder/Montero get on base. He's 6 of 6, but my other guys are not as successful. The most reasonable thing to do would either be to wait and see if it levels off, or to lower him to 86-88 or something. I don't think he's faster than Lopez, Upton, Young. ----------------------------------------------------------- THe 1st thing I did after this series was look up baseball-reference.com and see if Doug Meinktiewicz (sp?) was still on the Dodgers, because this punk was killing me. He is. Darn. I need to change the year to 2009 using the year changer tool, and make all the MLB trades (McLouth, DeRosa, etc) ... although the way I'm going I'm not excited about helping the Cardinals against my 2-4 DBags (Yes, DBags). The Cardinals are listed as a rival (?), and one of my 3 year goals is to sweep a rival 4 times. Ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maestro23 Posted July 5, 2009 Share Posted July 5, 2009 Yeah, it's hilarious ... until it hapens to you. "Do they wear different spikes with different uniforms?" "Why does he pitch like that?" "Dad, you swung at ball 4." " Manny's gonna take you deep." "Can I play now?" "When are you gonna warm up Clay?" " Ha Ha Pierre robbed you." "Can I play now?" "I like that catcher's mask" "He doesn't wear high socks anymore." "Can I play now?" "O-Dog used to play for the Dbacks, now he's your rival." "Luke and me are gonna play in the majors like the Drews and Uptons." "Can I play now?" (I just rented this dude MLB09). Having a baseball crazy kid who knows some stuff is a blessing and curse all wrapped into one. LOL, that's good stuff CC. How come he's not playing The Show? I would have thought that would have kept him "busy" so you could play your franchise. *Oh yeah, don't pitch to Albert. -_- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 5, 2009 Author Share Posted July 5, 2009 How come he's not playing The Show? I would have thought that would have kept him "busy" so you could play your franchise. Yeah right .... I could be playing High Heat from 1999, and he'd wanna play (despite having 7 baseball games for XBOX, PS2, 360, etc). We have 2 PC's ... so I'm gonna set up MVP08 for him on the other one. That should keep him busy for 67 seconds. Truthfully though, he and I are connected at the hip. It's pretty cool to have your kid as your best friend. I don;t see many dads anymore taking their kids to the diamonds on a daily basis and then "spending time with them" without referring to it as "babysitting". We're to the point now with an 8yo baseball-fanatic, a 5yo in t-ball, and a 2yo that wants to do everything the 8yo is doing, going to the diamonds is a "family affair". That's cool with me. You know you're doing something right when your two boys want to watch 'The Sandlot' EVERY night when they lay down to go to sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Gonna try just some box score updates (Hey, I added some graphics!), and the 'Snake Bytes' as the series closes. Not that much happens day-2-day anyway. WTH with the Cardinals, Pujols and Ludwick are struggling, while Schumaker enters the series hitting .37 3 HR 6 RBI ... for the "team triple crown" (as a leadoff hitter no less). Only through 7 games though. All runs via Homers, luckily mine came with a runner on (walk). This image (below) could undertatingly be titled "Moment of the Game". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeRudi26 Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 How sad is it when walking him at this point probably isn't the worst thing you could do. ^_^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 Game 2 of the series (g8 on the season), the bats come alive ... for both teams. Pujols hit like himself this game, glad he didn;t last game. *whew* Ankiel's PH HR started a rally in the 9th. The bomb drew StL to within 3, and the game ended on a ground out to 3rd, with 2 men on base. In MLB, Qualls would have given up a 3-run HR .... to an Eckstein type hitter. The win guarantees the series to the DBacks, a sweep would be great (dynasty goals and pul closer to the Dodgers). AZ back to .500 (4-4). On consecutive at bats, Mark Reynolds got belt high inside corner fastballs, 2-run HR's each time. Sa-wheet. Other than that and a few other highlights, I'm doing JU10 a big disservice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 How sad is it when walking him at this point probably isn't the worst thing you could do. Literally, my first thought was "So, this is what 'Pitcher's Hell' looks like!" ... only Pujols has steroids and an aluminum bat ... and you're NOT Dan Haren. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 2 Things ... [1] Does anyone know how to get the team name font (St. Louis Cardinals at Arizona Diamonds) in the box score smaller so that it does not wrap around and end up behind the box score? I've seen it look "normal" on other guy's presentations, but it has never been "normal" in mine. [2] Ya probably notice I use DH in both leagues. While being a proponent of pitcher's batting in the NL in MLB, on video games, it gives an opportunity to get one (or 2 or 3) more position player a lot more at bats ... and progression ... primarily for developing prospects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 1st game with JR26's datafile & sliders. Pitch speed at 50 was a wake up call. For some reason Wellemeyer was dealing at 95mph ... if only he did that in MLB. My guy Clay took it on the chin. DeRosa had A DAY. I couldn't get him out regardless of approach. After the bomb, the wheels fell off. Buckner came in, got shelled, and got demoted. Thanks for trying out. Believe it or not, it was a 2-2 game in the 10th! My timing at the plate got much better later in the game, and should be pretty good in the next series ... against the Giants. Of my first 4 series, 3 are against rivals (LAD, STL, SFG). The one change to the setup that I did make was to turn the pitch cursor off. I like having just a "general idea" of where I think it's going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 This Week In Baseball (the theme song is my ring tone, btw) ... new feature following every 3rd series (roughly 9 or 10 games). Quick n dirty. ERA leaders are whack, but that'll straighten itself out. Around the MLB banner made by Chad0034 at 2k9 forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apocalypse Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 I love to read these season stories... keep em coming! ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoRedSox34 Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 Count me in as a follower. Your presentations are real fun to look at CC, good luck with the DBacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeRudi26 Posted July 6, 2009 Share Posted July 6, 2009 2 Things ... [1] Does anyone know how to get the team name font (St. Louis Cardinals at Arizona Diamonds) in the box score smaller so that it does not wrap around and end up behind the box score? I've seen it look "normal" on other guy's presentations, but it has never been "normal" in mine. CC, is this happening when you run the Boxscore Extractor? Are you editing it in any way afterwards? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 6, 2009 Author Share Posted July 6, 2009 CC, is this happening when you run the Boxscore Extractor? Are you editing it in any way afterwards? Yes ... I am using box extractor old (not, express). The only images I edit are the Gadwin print screen images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CircleChange11 Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Home runs all over the place. Thanks to the Giants for the 5 unearned runs. 'Preciate it. My bullpen is ensuring that I am nowhere around the league lead in fewest runs allowed. Chris Young is busting out in this series. Note: As a way to combat too many stolen bases, while still being aggressive on the bases with a speedy team ... I am now limited to a 1-step lead. It's not often that I quote a cheerleading movie, but "Max is the poop, take a whiff." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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