Alright, so I decided it was time to switch things up with my pitcher in MLB The Show 24. My old windup just felt… I don’t know, stale? Like hitters were picking up the ball way too easily right out of my hand. Gotta keep ’em guessing, you know?
So, I dove into the pitching animation settings. Man, there are a ton in there this year. You got your legends, your current stars, all those generic numbered ones. It’s kind of a lot to sift through.
First, I thought, let’s try some legends. Maybe someone with a really funky delivery. I equipped a few, guys with those big leg kicks or weird arm angles. Went into a few practice sessions, then tried a couple of offline games. Honestly? A lot of them felt kinda slow, like the meter was dragging, or just plain awkward for my timing. Looked cool, maybe, but didn’t feel right for actually pitching, at least not for me.
Okay, back to the drawing board.
Next, I messed around with some of the current player animations. Picked a few guys known for being deceptive. That was a bit better. Some felt smoother. I played a few online ranked games with one or two of these. Did okay, but still wasn’t quite clicking. Sometimes the release point felt inconsistent, or maybe it was just in my head. Hard to tell sometimes.
Then I started looking at some less common animations. Maybe guys who aren’t superstars, or even some of the generic ones I’d ignored before. I was just scrolling, equipping, going into practice mode, throwing maybe 10-15 pitches, then backing out and trying another. Tedious? Yeah, a little bit. But I wanted something that felt comfortable and looked a bit different.
Finding Something That Worked
After a whole bunch of trial and error, trying animations I wouldn’t have normally picked, I landed on one. It’s not a huge name, maybe more of a veteran style. What I liked was:
- The way the glove comes set seemed to hide the ball just a little longer.
- The motion felt pretty quick and compact, easier for me to time my release with the meter or pinpoint gesture.
- It didn’t have any weird hitches or pauses that felt unnatural.
It just felt… smooth. Efficient. Less wasted movement. I played several games with it, both against the CPU and online, and it just felt better. My timing felt more consistent, and maybe, just maybe, it was messing with hitters’ timing a bit too. Could be placebo, who knows, but pitching felt more comfortable.
So yeah, that’s the process I went through. Didn’t really look up guides, just spent some time actually trying stuff out in the game myself. What works for me might not work for you, obviously. But if you’re feeling like your pitcher’s getting read too easily, might be worth spending an hour just cycling through animations and seeing what feels good for your own rhythm. That’s what I did, anyway.
