Personal Catcher

[guidi2009]

Any young ladies here willing to be mine? lol

Kidding aside what's it for? why use it? how do I know the P preference?

[HoustonGM]

Any young ladies here willing to be mine? lol

Kidding aside what's it for? why use it?

It's pretty much just to give a backup catcher playing time (or a starter regular rest) without you having to do it manually (and to simulate real life personal catchers).

how do I know the P preference?

You don't, pretty sure this doesn't matter (as in, I don't think pitchers have a preference).

[Lex Logan]

Right, I forgot about Personal Catcher, I use it to split playing time. In a five man rotation I'll give assign the backup to two pitchers not back-to-back in the rotation. Or, if my backup bats L and my regular bats R, I put the backup as the regular vs. RHP and assign one or two of the pitchers to have the R as their Personal Catcher, so he starts against all lefties and some of the righties.

One drawback is that the AI reshuffles your batting order, even when both catchers should logically bat eighth. I wish it would make minimum changes but it's worth it to be able to sim several days and not over use your catcher. It would be nice to have similar control for all positions.

[gosensgo101]

how do I know the P preference?

While I doubt there's some formula in the game where a pitcher will prefer a certain catcher, there are certainly catchers who are better suited for catching one pitcher than other cathers.

For example, if you have someone with bad control on the mound, maybe someone with great handling will reduce the number of wild pitches he throws.

Likewise, you may want to have a better arm behind the plate when Tim Wakefield is throwing 75 mile an hour fastballs and 65 mile an hour knuckleballs.

And in general, your 5th starter could probobly benefit from having your best defensive catcher catch him.

And like HGM said, its a good way to make sure your backup is getting consistant playing time and that your starter gets consistant rest without having to platoon them.

[gosensgo101]

Right, I forgot about Personal Catcher, I use it to split playing time. In a five man rotation I'll give assign the backup to two pitchers not back-to-back in the rotation. Or, if my backup bats L and my regular bats R, I put the backup as the regular vs. RHP and assign one or two of the pitchers to have the R as their Personal Catcher, so he starts against all lefties and some of the righties.

One drawback is that the AI reshuffles your batting order, even when both catchers should logically bat eighth. I wish it would make minimum changes but it's worth it to be able to sim several days and not over use your catcher. It would be nice to have similar control for all positions.

I don't have the game yet, but it would be nice if the AI would just insert the backup into the starter's spot, or simple shuffle him down to where he belongs, without disturbing the rest of the order.

I too would like similar control over the rest of my lineup. For example, when I played with the 2008 Jays (I simmed a day at a time so I could control the lineup) I always started John McDonald at shortstop when Roy Halladay was on the mound because Halladay induces so many ground balls. (And with Halladay on the mound you wouldn't need the extra offense anyway) It'd be nice if you could do this without having to control the lineup every day.

[Lex Logan]

By the way, when you assign a personal catcher to a pitcher, does the text on the pitcher's scouting page still refer to the catcher? Or did that get fixed?

[HoustonGM]

One drawback is that the AI reshuffles your batting order, even when both catchers should logically bat eighth.

I'd post this in bugs or suggestions, since it should just place the backup catcher wherever the regular catcher is in the lineup.

[Joey_baseball]

I have never gotten this to work. I don't know what I'm missing here...

[Swampdog]

I don't always use the personal catcher option, but when I do it always works for me.

[Joey_baseball]

I click on the text saying click to toggle personal catcher, am I doing it wrong??? What am I missing here???

[Swampdog]

On the individual pitcher page, upper right area, there is an option to designate a personal catcher. Is that what isn't working for you? Because it's quite easy to designate a catcher for that pitcher by scrolling through the options.

Otherwise, I don't know. I just checked it again and it works for me.

[Joey_baseball]

Yeah I'm clicking where it say click to toggle personal catcher. It's odd when I do that and I'm in a game getting ready to play one, if I were to click there and leave the scouting report the catcher in the lineup gains focus but there's no list to change him. I mustn't be clicking in the right place or something. If you can direct me on what you're clicking on exactly that might help as of now not getting this list I should have when doing this.

[phills52]

You can't do it in game. Try doing it when they aren't playing.

[Joey_baseball]

Same thing happens whether starting a game or not.

[Joey_baseball]

Now it's my understanding that Clay is preparing a different way for me to be able to make use of this option for sometime in the not too distant future