What started off as a fruitful day ended up in a lesson exposing some needs in our lineup and a need to improve the pitching, which had been the teams strong point so far.

The Good

The Steemians are in the Pennant Race!

Sitting at 12-6, after a 3-2 night last night, we're doing pretty good with 2 more weeks to go in the season. The competition is getting stiffer as the Steemians move up the ranks, but I've learned a few tricks from some masters and hope to improve upon some errors I made in the last two games yesterday, mainly with pitching.

The Steemians batting average needs improvement, but a lot of that has to do with me playing the computer at the highest levels when I practice ... it's sort of like putting a donut on your bat and taking a few swings before facing teh humans. Stats are tracked for players during these games, but it does not effect your teams record. In the past people could inflate their teams W/L records by playing computer teams at lower levels.

The night started with the Steemians introducing a few people to Steemit.com in ways that assured they remembered the name. And what better way to help people remember your name than with a good ass whooping. :)

Dan Larimer went 2-5 with a walk and 3 Runs scored.

I picked up Buster Posey for 50,000 Stubs (the in-game currency), which was higher than I wanted to pay, but I really needed more bat out of the Catcher position. However, that ended up being a huge bust so far since he has 1 hit in 4 games, but the one hit was a very clutch hit that got us a win. So for now, he stays in the starting lineup.

I updated the uniforms to help the logo stand out a little better, adding an offset white background and lightening up the jersey and helmets a bit. I still want to tweak the colors a little because in bright sunlight the jersey's look a little too bright.

The Bad

The last game of the night was a learning experience. This person was the best player I've played against so far, by far. We both were randomly selected to start with Dallas Keuchel, only his DK was far better than mine ... and that's all on me I found out.

When the first two innings were over, I knew already my opponent knew far more about this years game than I. They kept pausing the game, making adjustments from the very first batter. Most people don't bother with this sort of stuff, if your lineup is set for righties by default, and you get a lefty as an opponent, most just go with it. This guy, this guy right here ... they stop the game repeatedly to sub in right handed batters ... in the first inning!

They've basically given away half of their bench and the game has barely started. So at first I'm thinking this guys an idiot. But man did it pay off and it paid off early. His batters excelled against left handed pitchers and they were up 4-0 before I knew what hit me.

Meanwhile, I was struggling with my left handed hitters against his DK and his DK was dominating my righties as well, which was odd ... until I figured out what they were doing. How could his DK be so much better than my DK when they both are identical?

Because I was using the older "classic" pitching (due to online lag) and they were using the new Analog pitching mode, which gives you far more control with your pitches. Using classic mode leaves it up to the pitchers stats to determine where a ball ends up, while with Analog pitching you determine where the pitch ends up, giving you far more control.

This explained why my changeups would hang more often than theirs, why their slider in on the hands was in just the right spot, while mine would sometimes linger over the plate. So now I'm practicing with getting the hang of Analog pitching and if I can't, then it's back to metered pitching, which offers the same control only with timed button pushes versus using the Right stick as with Analog pitching.

You can get by with classic pitching up to All-Star level on most players, but once you hit the Pennant Race it's time to step up your game and use Analog or Metered pitching.

@theprophet0 ... watch out for the Barcelona Girl Power team. :)