Our most recent MLB The Show 16 guide profiled how to make a hall of fame caliber position player, but provided little information on creating a pitcher. This guide will tell you all you need to know about creating a hall of fame worthy pitcher in Road to the Show mode. As with the last guide, we’ll start with the first feature you will encounter in Road to the Show mode.

Customizing and creating your pitcher

Road to the Show mode allows you to completely create a pitcher from scratch. You will be allowed edit a variety of things, including pant length, glove color, and more. But the most important thing you will do in customizing your ideal pitcher is to pick the pitches you would like them to throw.

Your first pitch should be a good old 4-seam fastball. Some of you may want some more movement on your fastball, but the dart-like 4-seamer will come in handy when you need to put a pitch right on the black.

Your second pitch should be some type of off-speed pitch such as a curve ball or a change-up. In order to make your 4-seam fastball a feared pitch, you must have a feared off-speed pitch to set it up. This will keep the hitter off balance and allow you to keep the advantage during the at-bat.

Your third pitch is your decision – just don’t choose a knuckleball because it is just too unpredictable. You will be able to add more pitches by using training points, but it’s best to stick to 3 pitches early on in year career mode. Too many pitches to focus your training points on will cause some of your pitches to be weak links. You should focus on having two dominant pitches.

Focusing your Training Points

 

There is no other way to impress the scouts other than to pitch well. We will get to how to do that in a moment, but first you must understand how to spend your training points.

You will see three different types of menus where you are allowed to upgrade your player. One section is fielding and base running – and you should completely ignore base running. Don’t completely ignore fielding, but it is not as important as your pitching statistics, obviously.

As much as it may hurt for you to do this because everyone wants to hit homers, you MUST ignore batting. Wasting your points to create a crummy pitcher who just hits well is not worth it and you probably won’t make it past the minors.

This brings us to the pitching menu, where you will spend nearly all of your training points. You will see things such as stamina, pitching clutch, HR/9 innings, and a couple of other specific attributes. You will also see your actual pitch statistics. This is where you will focus your training points.

4-Seam Fastball

Your best and most reliable pitch should be your fastball. There are 3 different fastball statistics to upgrade: control, velocity and break. Focus all of your points on the Velocity and Control attributes and DO NOT put anything into Break. This pitch is supposed to be the pitch you can locate anywhere and with good speed. You want to be able to control it and you want it to be at least 95 mph. 

Off-Speed Pitch

 Your off-speed pitch is the exact opposite of your fastball. You must focus your training points on Control and Break instead of Control and Velocity. The more break you have on the pitch, the more it will move, making it harder to hit. You should still use some training points on your off-speed pitch velocity. The faster you throw the off-speed pitch, the harder it will be to hit – especially if you have a lot of movement on it and can control wherever it goes.

How to pitch 101

Here come the tips that will allow your RTTS pitcher to be a dominant force in the big leagues. The first tip is to use the pitching meter display and keep the ball icon visible. This will make locating your pitches and as hard or as soft as you like. The ball icon when your pitcher is on the mound has the option to be visible, visible but faded, and not visible at all. Make sure you make the ball icon visible at first, because you will not be able to see where you are throwing the ball. You will only be able to move the analog stick to where you think you are throwing the pitch.

The next tip would be to throw to the corners. If you are up in the count 0-2 on the hitter, then your first obligation should be to throw a 4-seam fastball up and in. This is the hardest pitch to hit in the history of baseball and if you have pinpoint precision, you will start racking up strikeouts. Using the corners, you will be able to keep the advantage in the at-bat. Pinpoint your pitches on the corners of the plate and you will be golden.

The final tip is to develop a sinker. I know what you are thinking: “why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” Well, to be honest, I didn’t want this guide to seem like it was controlling every choice you made. You may have a phenomenal 3rd pitch and if you picked a sinker originally, then good for you. However, the sinker MUST be the first pitch you incorporate into your repertoire. The sinker pitch can sink from the middle of the plate to the left or right inside corner and is simply devastating. If you have the patience to develop a good sinker, then it will become your best pitch.

Conclusion

There you have it…apply what you have learned in this guide and you are more than on your way to the Hall of Fame. One thing I did not mention in this guide that was mentioned in the other and should go without saying is to use the perks system. The perks system will allow you to create situational advantages for yourself in a game throughout your career.

 To recap:

Use the pitching meter and ball icon display Pitch to the corners, 0-2 count is fastball up and in Develop a sinker pitch Use the perks system

MLB The Show 16 is out now for PS4 and PS3.