MLB 09 the Show: How to Distribute Your Points for Your Road to the Show Pitcher

One of the most daunting tasks when you are playing the RttS mode in MLB 09 the Show is figuring out where you are going to distribute your points from accomplished objectives. You have so many options to choose from. Do you go with one of the individual attributes? Do you go with one of the pitches? Do you add another pitch? Should you focus on fielding?

This tutorial is to give you some tips on how you can distribute your training points for your RttS pitcher in MLB 09 the Show.

Road to the Show Pitcher Points Distribution Tips: Setting up your RttS Pitcher

As you begin the process of creating your RttS pitcher, you should use your training points on all of the individual attributes. The reason you should use your points on these instead of the pitching attributes is because the individual attributes (h/9, k/9, bb/9, etc) are harder to increase than the pitching attributes (velocity, control, and break). You get more of a value by focusing on the individual attributes in this case.

You should still have training points remaining. I still do not recommend adding all the training points to your pitches because I feel those points are of more value to your fielding. Yeah, I sound like the Sony developers who made the MLB 09 the Show objectives deal with fielding and bunting. The point of this is so you will get less of those objectives for your RttS pitcher and you will be getting more pitching and in-game objectives. I will add points to velocity if I only need to add one or two points to increase it by 1mph, but that is it.

If you are struggling with what pitches to select for your pitcher, I have advice on that too.

Road to the Show Pitcher Points Distribution Tips: Year One of Spring Training

RttS Spring training is the time you get to rack up some training points before having to focus on using points toward training. Whether you play or simulate it is to your discretion, but I do suggest that with these RttS training points, you focus on the velocity of your pitches. Changing speeds is critical in this game, and you want to make sure that you have set up your fastball and change up to be at least 12 mph different from each other. If you picked a slider for your third pitch, it would be a good idea to try to get that right in between so you have three different pitches that move at different speeds. Regardless of what pitch you selected, make sure they all travel in different speeds. In addition, you do not need to get carried away with the fastball; 91mph will suffice, especially in AA.

Road to the Show Pitcher Points Distribution Tips: AA Part I of Season One
Now, it is time for business. You will be starting in the AA bullpen, trying to earn an AA starting rotation spot. How do you distribute your RttS training points in MLB 09 the Show?

The first word of advice for your RttS pitcher is that you should not burn your training points as soon as you get them. Save your training points until the deadline. You do not want to burn training points and realize at that deadline you did not do good enough to fulfill your training. Just save them to the deadline, then see if you can fulfill your objectives. If not, save them for the next rodeo.

The second suggestion for your RttS pitcher is that you do not need to fulfill the objectives of each training session. One must fail three consecutive training sessions before their RttS pitcher is demoted to the bullpen or a lower association. You can save your points for every second or third session and spend at will during sessions following them.

The third suggestion for your RttS pitcher concerns bunting. What pitcher would be wasting valuable pitching time bunting? This is why if you have a bunting objective, you should fulfill it in batting practice. Your pitcher during batting practice should take a couple swings to get one hit to stabilize his contact. After that, just bunt the rest of the at-bats. Boring, yes, but you may get out of having to waste any training points on bunting. Hitting should be the least of your RttS pitchers worries (until you fully max him out, that is).

My final suggestion for your RttS pitcher concerns adding a fourth pitch. It is not a necessity, but having four options does seem to help, especially late in the game. It seems as if a batter has not seen a certain pitch late in the game, he will struggle with it. Having four options makes this more possible than three. If you do add a fourth pitch, I would add a second fastball or a curve ball. If you add a curve ball, I would give it preliminary attributes of 15 velocity, 45 control, and 40 break.

Road to the Show Pitcher Points Distribution Tips: AA Part II of Season One
Assuming you have the velocity of your pitches set and if you added a fourth pitch, you are now set to figure out how you are going to distribute your RttS training points. Should you focus on one or two primary factors to max out, and which ones? Should you focus on maxing out your pitching attributes?

One idea is "Equal distribution." In this method, you attempt to make all of your attributes equally important. You do not focus on getting one maxed out before the others. By doing this, you are also making secondary attributes more of an important value. You would not be getting to a point where you maxed out an attribute, and then start working on another attribute but its secondary attribute is already maxed out. Basically, you should be able maximize your RttS pitcher's ability faster in this approach.

The next idea is "K distribution." It is not quite as straight forward as it sounds. Here, you would maximize your RttS pitcher's K/9 statistic. However, I do feel if you want to increase your ability to strike batters out, you also need to focus on his BB/9. Strikeouts seem to go up when the BB/9 attribute goes up. It will also help prevent pitches just hanging down the middle.

There is also "Pinpoint distribution." This RttS pitcher is focused on using his training points to become a Greg Maddux type of pitcher. This pitcher wants to maximize his BB/9 and his control attributes. Location is critical in MLB 09 the Show so this is a good approach to consider.

The final proposition is "Contact distribution." This RttS pitcher is focused on using his training points toward elements that would induce weak contact. This pitcher wants to maximize his H/9 and his HR/9 attributes in order to induce weak fly balls and more grounders. Someone with this type of strategy should strongly consider a sinker as his primary pitch but also have a fastball he can go up on batters with.

One final strategy in creating your player: "Copycat distribution." Build your pitcher in comparison to a pitcher you are good with in the game.

If there is one RttS attribute that I do not feel you should attend to as much, it is pitching clutch. My original idea was that it was helpful for when runners were in scoring position. Since then, I feel the pitching clutch rating is essential for when you simulate games. Part of that is it does not seem to effect much if you play with a low pitch clutch. It also feels as if players who have high pitch clutches accumulate better simulated statistics over those that do not.

You are Ready to Kick off your Road to the Show Superstar!
Do not get too carried away with the velocity; that is just icing on the cake. Hopefully, these suggestions will help you become a better pitcher in your RttS profile for MLB 09 the Show. If you get addicted to this game as easily as me, you may try them all!

If you want more tips on how to become a better pitcher overall, read this article here.

Found this article helpful? Check out my other pitching tutorials on how to pitch and create your road to the show pitchers in the MLB the Show section of my website.

REFERENCES
Joshua Huffman, "MLB the Show: Creating your Road to the Show Pitching Prodigy." Associated Content
Joshua Huffman, "Becoming a MLB 09 The Show Pitching Prodigy." Associated Content