Just beat the Nationals 4-3 on a walk off 2 run double by Alex Gonzalez before losing 11-10 to the Rays on a walk off 2 run single by B.J. Upton. I was the Jays both times.
I have yet to fiddle around with the sliders and have focused on getting used to the default settings and veteran difficulty. I do admit that the fielders' reaction times seem oddly instantaneous, so I plan on lowering those somewhat for realism's sake... at least until I improve quite a bit more. I think if I were playing on All-Star difficulty then the default reactions times would maybe seem reasonable.
My biggest problem still isn't hitting the ball -- I had 29 hits and 5 dingers in those two games combined (mostly grounders/liners up the middle) -- it's taking walks, basestealing, baserunning and situational hitting (ie. sac bunt / sac fly, staying out of the double play), that is taking a lot of time for me to "get".
Also, my fielding is still quite sub-par, so I have experimented with "Auto", "Assist" and "Manual" fielding assist toggle options. I'm quite comfortable with "Assist" and am working towards mastering "Manual" (the default setting).
Pitching seems hit and miss for me. I'll have four straight shutout innings, and then get into all sorts of trouble when the batters start laying off the bad stuff, the ump squeezes me out of a couple calls, and Evan Longoria steps to the plate and cranks a pitcher's pitch (practically in the dirt) out of the ballpark. I guess that's how it goes sometimes. I have noticed how important it is to stick with your bread and butter (best 2 pitches) when things get dicey, especially limiting your 4th and 5th pitches to favourable counts that will have the hitter off-balance. Everything seems to spiral even further out of control when I try to spot that #5 pitch on the outside corner, because it just isn't a very good pitch for that pitcher. It's either left near the middle of the plate, or goes so wide the catcher has to dive to keep it in front.
Overall, this is such a fun game.
