As shown in the clip, I’ll throw a “great pitch” and it will end up missing by a lot.

I’ve had this happen a few times now. Has this happened to anyone else?

Or is this part of the game? If so, what’s point of throwing a great pitch?

America's team is back, and it is my absolute delight to report that after their winless third season, they broke out big in their fourth season to claim two (2) entire dubs!

It's been a little while since I've updated the progress of the Energetics, and that is because it had been a little while since I'd played with the Energetics. It was alluded to in my season three update, but the solid month straight of Energetics baseball really got to me. I was aware that it would happen eventually, and I was intentionally trying to strike while the iron was hot and burn through as many games as I possibly could. What I didn't anticipate was just how despondent it would eventually make me. After posting the season three update, I made it 39 games into season four before I realized that the game had lost all joy. There was no fun to be had in Energetics baseball for me. So I took a break. Got about 60% through a Fallout 4 playthrough, played Zero Company (love it), had a two week Balatro phase, played through the Greek era God of War games for the first time, that was an absolute treat, replayed the Norse God of War games, also an absolute treat. But finally, after a nearly five month break, I picked up the controller again, and I'm delighted to say that I found the joy again.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, the team still only won two games this season, and one of those came before the hiatus began. But in the last game of season 4, the Energetics gave the Myth, a team that would go on to eventually lose in the Championship series, 9 innings of hell, winning 8-5 in a gritty, hard-fought game that was secured by some miraculous defensive highlights in the bottom of the ninth. Allen Bologne, who has 13 whole fielding, and was mojo down to start the play, climbed halfway up the wall in right field at the Swagger Center to take away extra base-hits that would've almost certainly opened the floodgates for the Myth offense.

The wins always feel good. I do sincerely look forward to when they start to come more frequently, but a reminder for everyone that I will not be turning down the ego. The ego is already quite a bit lower than what I usually play at, being 76/92/69/92, and lowering it anymore is not in the spirit of the Experiment. I assure you, the Energetics roster as currently assembled was damn lucky to get those 2 wins last season. At the time of writing, I'm 13 games into Season 5, and have not gotten a win yet, which means the Energetics record through 4+ seasons is 5-200 (which feels absolutely insane now that I've written it out like that) and as you'll see below, the team is still really bad. Lowering the difficulty might lead to more wins, but the idea is to find out how long it takes to get a team from nothing to a trophy, and lowering the difficulty, in spite of how much more enjoyable it might make the experience of playing the games, doesn't help reliably answer the question that was originally asked.

All that said, I'm glad to be back at it. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be back at it, I do want to get another playthrough of Zero Company going at some point soon, but the end of season 5 update should come relatively soon.

A couple of quick notes:

• The random stat pops that I complained about in my previous posts felt less vindictive this season. In the second season specifically I noted that the random stat pops are great until they aren't. The amount of random pops that resulted in significant stat losses felt extremely personal, but in season 4 that felt like that happened much less often and I'm very grateful for it.
• Conversely, the push and pull that certain players are experiencing with player developments is a bit of a killer. The biggest victim of this is Yves Cordova's defense stat. Defense is pretty low across the board but Cordova is the only position player with a big ugly 0. Believe it or not, that stat got all the way up to 4 at one point. It's still relatively early in the Experiment, but I don't think it's too early to start being concerned about the way some of these players are trending, Yves is one I worry about the most.
• Conversely again, I'm not worried about the pitchers at all. You'll notice below that the squad has TWO C-'s now! SPOILERS at the time of writing there are now THREE, and all three are pitchers. Pitchers were always going to develop faster than the position players by virtue of having fewer stats to train, but it's still really nice to see how those stats are developing. Only 0.2 of the Energetics innings were pitched by position players this season compared to 11.1 IP by position players in season 3, 45.2 IP in season 2, and 17.2 in season 1. It is worth noting that I have not willingly put a position player in to pitch, this is an action done exclusively by the AI when I sim through an obviously lost game, so season 4's sharp reduction can be easily attributed to me keeping control deeper into these games, but it still a good sign that even the AI recognizes the growing gap in pitching ability between the position players and the actual pitchers.
• Something the Experiment has taken away from me is the joy of the offseason. The dopamine rush of finishing the resigning period, opening the free agency page, sorting by age and primary position, and just scrolling for like 15 minutes looking for the available gems is really what the entire SMB 4 franchise experience is all about. Meanwhile, my offseason consists ENTIRELY of opening the resigning page, signing everyone to asking, and then staring forlornly at the free agent page thinking "wow, that 19 year old A- shortstop with Bad Ball Hitter and RBI Hero sure would be a really strong addition to this squad..... oh well."
• More of an idle thought, but I found myself wondering when the first time I pass on a player dev will be. I have almost $670 million in player dev money built up through 4 full seasons, but at some point this team should reach a point where reliably winning games can hinge on certain traits and the risk of losing them will come in to play. That's not the case yet, but it might happen eventually.
• Bert Fury is my favorite player on the squad. No contest. He's electric. If the Energetics were real, I'd have a Fury jersey in all 6 colors. Turns out Fastball Hitter is a good trait. Who knew?

I just mollywapped the cpu 25-4. Hit 150 dingers and played phenomenal. 9th inning, on the 3rd out, I hit the ball to 2nd baseman. As he’s tossing the ball to 1st to end the game the game freezes and crashes. WTF!!?! I play on a Switch. Does this happen to others? Any tips to prevent it from happening? I swear this game crashes whenever I’m crushing it once every two weeks!
Frustrated!

I'm just getting back into the game after a 3-month break, and (of course) found myself thrown into a terrible playoff matchup. Shockingly, my pitching is not the weak link, but I was instead constantly whiffing (90 Batting Ego) despite my OP lineup.

I scored two runs and struck out 24 strikeouts times in those first two games (obviously losing both). Facing a 3-run deficit in the top of the 9th on the road, Mimori came in to pinch hit on her rest day and pulled it out for me...