Alright, so today I messed around with “stat padding” in MLB. Basically, I wanted to see if I could pump up some player stats in a way that felt, you know, a little sneaky.
First, I fired up my go-to baseball sim, it is OOTP Baseball, but you could probably do this in MLB The Show or something similar. I picked a player – let’s call him “Slugger Steve” – who was pretty good, but not quite a superstar.
My Game Plan
- Tweak the Settings: I dove into the game’s settings. Things like “batter contact,” “pitcher control,” that sort of stuff. I didn’t want to make it too obvious, so I only bumped things up a little bit.
- Favorable Matchups: I made sure “Slugger Steve” was always facing the worst pitchers in the league. I’d sim through games until he got a good matchup, then I’d play those games myself.
- Play Every At-Bat: During those games, I controlled Steve and only Steve. I wanted maximum control to rack up those hits, home runs, and RBIs.
- Manager Mode Shenanigans: When I wasn’t playing, I use manager mode. I put Steve at the top of the lineup. More at-bats, more chances for stats.
The Results
It worked! I managed to inflate Steve’s stats pretty significantly. His batting average went up, he hit more homers, and he drove in more runs. It wasn’t, like, record-breaking, but it was definitely noticeable.
The whole thing felt a little cheap, to be honest. It was fun for a bit, seeing those numbers climb, but it also kind of took away from the realism of the game. I ended up resetting everything back to normal after a while.
So, yeah, that was my little experiment with stat padding. It’s definitely possible, but it might not be the most satisfying way to play the game in the long run.
