Pitching against the AI in 80+ ego?

I play on 85 ego and my advice is to become good at power pitching and always pitch towards the corners of the zone. Don't always try to throw strikes - the cpu chases sometimes, especially with 2 strikes. Throw fastballs low and away or in and slightly above the zone. Curveballs low. changeups low. sliders away/ out of the zone.

I'm at 77 and i pitch with an S tier and still give up 3 runs a game. I'd love to know as well.

I feel the ai is at times, too disciplined as they will not swing at anything even barely out of the zone

I've gotten better at it overtime. It's really tough, all your pitches need to be on the edges of the strike zone and you can't pitch in the same location or throw the same pitch 3 times in a row either. I notice they're more likely to chase if you go to an opposite end. (Ex. Throw one low on the outside corner, they'll likely chase one that's now located in).

I'm sure you are already doing most of these things since you've made it 80 ego. They definitely work at 80-90 ego and above though. A lot it is just staying aware of what you know and trying not to go into auto-pilot.

Dot the corners. Don't throw the same pitch more than twice in a row. Keep track of what opening, midcount and strike-out pitches you are using.

Throw 75% of pitches low. Try to induce groundballs with low fastballs when there's a runner on first base to ground them into a double play. Or if there's multiple runners and you already have an out. Double plays = less pitches.

Look at the opponent's batting order. It may make sense to pitch around / walk a slow player with a scary bat, then try and get a groundball off the next guy for a double play.

Save your pitcher's best pitches for the opponent's best players. Take the opportunity to mix in high fastballs against weaker bats to throw off the AI's pattern recognition. Throw in high breaking pitches just above/on the edge of the zone VS players with abysmal bats and/or who are likely to bunt (pitchers). This will result in weakly hit shallow flyballs or bunts that pop-up and your catcher can dive for.

Forkballs, screwballs, curveballs and sliders-which-break-back-into-the-zone seem more likely to be crushed VS the AI. Be careful throwing them for strikes.

Exclusively use power pitching because it's not much more difficult than regular pitching. Dont be afraid to slightly overpower or miss the location of a power pitch. Just try to miss off the zone so it doesn't hurt you. It's not a wasted pitch if it helps throw off the AI's pattern recognition.

Use good relievers in high leverage situations. Try to get many innings out of your starters when you are clearly ahead, to let your relievers recover. In playoff games let your relievers recover if you're already 2-0 up in the series. Alternatively run a 3 man rotation, invest heavier in relievers and pull your starters at ~40% stamina to allow them to recover for their next game.

I've played on 85 but currently on 83 and win pretty consistently. Just paint the corners and expand the zone with put away pitches. Just like real life, keep breaking balls low and you can go upstairs with hard stuff. High breaking balls hang and belong in the seats.

Though sometimes the AI seems to just crush my pitchers regardless, and my offense needs to pick up the slack and make it a slugfest.

The AI is really good at getting scratch hits, IMO. If you are drilling the corners of the zone, they turn into Luis Arraez. The trick is figuring out how to keep them from doing that enough to score. Usually they don't get hard contact on me unless I miss my spot or forgot to check their traits.

The only change I know of is that hitters are supposed to have different approaches/varying discipline, which seems true, but I don't know exactly how that works.

You have to use a 2-strike waste pitch or two outside the zone. Preferably overthrown just a hair (small red target). 2-strike redballing gets me 8-12 Ks per game with a good pitcher, though I’m only at 75 ego.

I pitched briefly at 80 Ego, but after about 30 games, decided to drop it back down to 75. I think my ERA was roughly the same, but I was getting irritated at how many foul balls the AI hits at higher Egos; better plate discipline means more 3-ball counts, and more balls thrown at the corners (which get fouled off a half-dozen times per at-bat). My starters would inevitably have 90+ pitches in under 5 innings, and it just stopped being fun for me.

75 is the right setting for my skill level - I get a proper challenge where my aces still get rocked every so often, but both success and failure feels earned rather than cheap.

Someone posted a how to video, and it helped me out a ton vs the AI.

The most important points were:

1. Vary where you throw the pitches, always going to a different corner.

2. Vary the pitch types and don't get predictable with any order you stick with.

That helped me out a TON.

Quite different than trying to pitch against a human IMO.

There's been a lot of talk of pitching to the corners and throwing waste pitches, but even in counts less than two strikes, make sure you are throwing some pitches that are never strikes. You want them to entice some bad swings to actually get to two strikes, but you also want them to throw off the pattern. There's no more surefire way to give up great contact and extra-base hits than the CPU anticipating a pitch.

The only place I disagree with the one great wall-of-text above is I would do whatever necessary to have a decent fourth starter. While working with three might be viable, the first time you have two bad outings in a row, you might be on the way to four bad outings through fatigue... otherwise I agreed with everything he said.

I don't sign relievers with less than three pitches, and really not less than four when at all avoidable, and starters need four and preferably five to keep from giving up those anticipation shots.