Baseball Stars 2!

[cgun]

I really love this game and want to learn it better then i already do. I can´t find any faqs for it thought. I hope there are alot of fans here who could help me out.

First of all i´m wondering about the basics. Baseball is a very small sport here in sweden. I would like to know what all the stats and numbers mean.

Other then that som nice discussion on tactics and gameplay would be nice.

 

[ForeverSublime]

Statistics
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Pitcher
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ERA = Earned Run Average

This is how many points ("runs") the pitcher averages per 9 innings. The higher the number, the worse the pitcher.

Batter
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AVG: Batting Average

This is how many hits the batter gets to the amount of times he bats. If a batter gets a hit 300 out of a 1000 times, he has a .300 batting average. The higher the number, the better.

Basic Rules of Batting
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A "strike" is called if the ball is pitched over home plate.

A strike is called for any pitch that is swung at and missed.

A strike is called for each "foul ball" (a ball hit that does not stay within the field of play designated by two foul lines extending perpendicularly from home plate and intersecting with 1st and 3rd base), except the third strike (if you have 2 strikes against you already, you can foul off as many pitches as you want with no penalty... it is a VERY good strategy to tire the pitcher)

3 strikes and you're "out".

3 outs and it's your turn to play defense.

A "ball" is called if the pitch is not over the plate, and is not swung at by the batter.

If 4 balls are called, the batter gets to "walk". That means he may go to first base. Any walks do not count towards the batter's AVG (for instance, if he gets up to bat 5 times in the game, and gets 3 hits, 1 walk, and 1 out, his batting average is taken from 3:4 instead of 3:5)

If a batter is hit by a pitch, he gets to walk.

A batter may "bunt". This is when the batter simply holds his bat out and lets the ball hit it. Sometimes your fast players can bunt and try to get to 1st base before the defense can get the ball to first base. Bunting is also used as a strategy to "advance" a runner. For instance, you may have a runner on 2nd base and you want him to get to 3rd base so it is easier for him to score. Your batter can bunt the ball and hope the defense throws the ball to first base so the runner on 2nd has time to get to run to 3rd base.

If the batter bunts the ball foul it is a strike. If the batter has 2 strikes and bunts a foul, he is out!

Basic Rules of Base Running
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Batters run from 1st base to home plate in a counter-clockwise motion around the "diamond" (the shape made by the 4 bases starting with "home" at the bottom, and 1st on the right)

If a runner is on base and a "fly ball" (a ball hit in the air) is hit and "caught" (caught before the ball hits the ground) by the defense, that runner may not advance to any base until he "tags up". A tag-up is completed by going back to the base he was on. For example:

If you have a runner at 3rd base and the batter hits a fly ball that is caught by a defensive player in the "outfield" (the defensive area outside of the diamond), the runner may not advance to home plate until he touches 3rd base after the ball was caught. After the ball has been caught and the runner tags-up, he may attempt to run home.

A runner is out if:
------------------

He is touched by the ball a defensive player is holding while not on a base.

He is "forced out". A force out is created when a runner is not able to make it to a base before the ball is thrown to that base, and the runner is not able to run back to any previous base. For instance, if you have a runner on first and the batter hits the ball to the third baseman, the runner on 1st base must make it to 2nd base before the ball is thrown there. That runner must run to 2nd base because the batter who hit the ball must run to 1st base, thereby forcing the runner on base to advance. If the only runner is on 2nd base, and the batter were to hit the ball to the third baseman, the runner would not have to run to 3rd base because there is no runner on 1st base forcing him to advance.

General guidelines about your players:
-----------------------------------------

Your 1st batter is usually the fastest runner.

Your 3rd, 4th, and 5th batters are usually your strongest.

Controls for Baseball Stars 2:
------------------------------

Offense:

(batter)

A button: Swings the bat

B button (with D-pad direction): "Steal" (a runner may begin to run from one base to another before the pitcher even pitches the ball)

C button: Show Bunt

D button: "Pinch Runner" (select a faster person not already playing in the game to run for a person on base), "Pinch Hitter" (select a person not already playing to bat for the person who is batting), "Power Up" (This makes your character strong for his turn at bat! You could equate this to real life baseball as a "clutch play", when you REALLY REALLY need a hit and that adrenaline is pumping through the player's veins)

Running:

A button (with D-pad direction): Run to a previous base (used for tagging-up or keeping a runner at a base)

B button (with D-pad direction): Advance to base
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FAQ:

Q: Why is it I am out when I bunt with 2 strikes against me?

A: Bunting is easy. Controlling your bunt is a skill. If a batter had the power to bunt foul balls all day long he would tire out all of the defense's pitchers. It's important to note that baseball is an interesting game because the defense has the ball and it is NOT a timed game. Theoretically, a game of baseball could last forever. The out off of a bunted 3rd strike foul keeps the batter from wasting time, and keeps the game moving.

Q: Why do I have to "tag up?" Shouldn't I be "safe" if I am simply on a base?

A: This is hard to understand, but the explanation is perfectly logical (not often there is logic in sports). Like bunting, hitting a fly ball is very easy (it's controlling the fly ball that takes skill). If a batter were allowed to hit the ball in the air each at-bat and run to 1st base before the defense could throw the ball there, that would be very easy and take away from the skill of the game (it would also be a waste of time. Like I said before, there is no limit to how long a game of baseball can last). Just as the "3rd strike off a bunted foul" is a penalty against the offense, the "tag up" rule works the same way.

Also, think of it this way (Most importantly, THIS way): A batter is out if a fly ball is caught. A runner may not advance until the batter hits a fair ball. A ball is not considered in fair play until it hits the ground (a ball is considered grounded when touched by a player in fair territory, though. This is a penalty set upon the defense so if a fly ball is hit in the outfield with a runner on third, the defense could not purposefully 'create' a foul ball by knocking it out of bounds, thereby holding the runner at third). So, the ball is never considered "fair" and the player may not advance. This means "tagging up" is really "stealing" a base. It all goes back to the wonderful uniqueness that this is one of the only sports in the world where the defense has the ball.

As for the second part of the question, you aren't considered safe just by reaching a base. If that were true, the batter would be able to stay at home plate and keep batting until he got a home run. However, a rule stating "no player may bat twice in a row" takes precedence. Therefore, when the batter puts the ball in play he forces himself to attempt to advance a base.
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If there is anything else you need to know, we'll try our best to help.

<small>[ March 14, 2003, 03:17 PM: Message edited by: ForeverSublime ]</small>

 

[cgun]

WOW, thanks alot ForeverSublime.

You didn´t need to write down all that thought. What about the other numbers? Both batters and pitchers have two different paragraphs right?

And then there´s a glowing number (mostly -X) over the batters stats. What does it say?

I´m trying to learn how to steal bases. It´s pretty hard against the AI but easy to abuse in 2P mode.

Any tips on how to get good hits? Should i hit the ball with a certain part of the bat or such?

 

[Turbogfx]

Wow, this is an old thread. Still a great read for beginning players such as myself.
The reason why I'm digging up this old thread is because I have a gameplay question myself for all you Baseball Stars 2 veterans:

Now, I have no trouble pitching in this game, but I can't seem to get much better at batting. In fact, I'm terrible at it in this game.
Could you share some tips regarding on how to improve in batting? What to do, what not to do, etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to get into this game but my batting problem is ruining it a bit for now...

Thanks in advance for you tips.

 

[Comrade Porn King Mikhail]

The batting in BS2 is very fair compared to a lot of its contemporaries. Ken Griffey Jr MBL on SNES and BS2 both had very fair hit percentages against computer pitching.

All one can say is to line up in the middle of the plate, about 2/3rds of the way down in the batter's box. Look for pitches down the middle, hopefully with the sweet (fat) part of the bat on them. Swing so that the contact occurs right as the ball comes over the plate, otherwise it's a foul. If you're getting too many ground balls, you're not putting the middle of the bat on the ball. Popups are a matter of luck, even the best real life hitters only get about a .400-450 on balls put in play.

Of course the best way to go about it is to put the coin timer at the lowest setting, thus every time you time you continue you'll get three additional power-ups. These automatically upgrade your batter so he'll put something in play faster and stronger than a regular swing.

 

[Turbogfx]

Thank you, Mikhail, for your advice. I'll try watching both the horizontal alignment of the bat and the vertical alignment of the batter. If that does'nt work I guess I need to work on my timing a bit more.

I'll share the results :-)

 

[Turbogfx]

All one can say is to line up in the middle of the plate, about 2/3rds of the way down in the batter's box. Look for pitches down the middle, hopefully with the sweet (fat) part of the bat on them. Swing so that the contact occurs right as the ball comes over the plate, otherwise it's a foul. If you're getting too many ground balls, you're not putting the middle of the bat on the ball. Popups are a matter of luck, even the best real life hitters only get about a .400-450 on balls put in play.

So as promised, some feedback. I gotta say somehow your advice worked out great, especially the first part about lining up "in the middle of the plate, about 2/3rds of the way down in the batter's box".
I guess before, somehow my positioning was totally off and just wrong. Thanks a lot for that! Now that I'm getting the hang of the basics, I can start delving a bit deeper into the gameplay and start thinking about strategy.

My regards,

Turbo

 

[Comrade Porn King Mikhail]

Let's see, my favorite strategy is to get the pitchers to wear out as soon as possible. Under the default difficulty level, the starters can only go about 20-25 pitches before being winded, and the relievers are at about 15-20. So I recommend working the count as much as possible. Try to wait out for several balls and a minimum of one strike before even swinging at anything. The sooner you get those guys out of there, the better you'll be in the last few innings when their bullpen is empty and you've saved up all your Power-Ups.

The computer will usually wait on switching out a pitcher until he has thrown 5-10 pitches while first becoming winded/tired, so those are the optimal times to use your hitter Power-Up. As for your own pitcher, don't try to fool the opposing batters too much, otherwise you'll run into the same pitch count issue. Try to get a couple of strikes on the outside of the plate, then always go for a slow pitch finishing move that starts on the most opposite side of the batter and curves in to the inside of the plate. For at least the first several innings this will yield a good number of strikeouts.

For batting, always lead off for every single runner already on base. As long as you have nimble fingers, the computer can never pick you off unless you start running in the wrong direction on a pick off attempt. Bunting is fairly useless so avoid it, unless you have 1st and 2nd with no outs. The game is very scoring heavy so no reason to play NL style (i.e. bunting for a single base). Save all of your Power-Ups for hitters in the 2-6 region, otherwise it's a waste. Don't use pinch hitters unless you know you'll be switching pitchers; they're on the bench for a reason, since they're not as good as the regulars in the lineup. Don't steal bases, but do always try to bait the computer by advancing past third base and forcing a throw home. You can regularly get an extra base from 1st to 2nd on this bait.

Lastly, since the game favors hitting over pitching, try to stick with a team that has hitting as its strength. Fielding should be of the least concern since balls-in-play are the most random element in the game.

 

[Anselm]

Something Mikahail didn't mention about wearing out their pitcher:

Never swing till you have two strikes, and stand all the way inside the plate. Try and get the pitcher to hit you. A lot of batters, especially batter #4, will run out to the pitcher mound and punch the pitcher. If you punch the pitcher, the computer will remove them immediately. Many times I have forced the computer to use all of their pitchers in the first inning.

Also, if you get hit while holding a power up bat, hitting the pitcher is automatic.

You can only have 10 power up bats, and you get 5 for each credit. On default settings, this means you can use a powerup bat every 45 seconds and never run out. If you don't swing till at least two strikes, this is infinitely sustainable.

I have beaten the computer 99-0. I have owned this game since the year it was released and still love smashing the computer.

~Anselm~

Edit: DO use pinch hitters. many of them are far better than the weakest hitters on your team. Once you find a team you like, You'll know who to swap out in the lineup. Also, ALWAYS steal bases with your leadoff hitter once the pitcher tires. You will win almost everytime.

 

[Arcade Magician]

I found this using the "nebula jukebox " (sound code 1858).... Never heard this effect in the game itself.
Only me???

Listen here:
Baseball Stars 2: unknown voice effect