My Little Guide to Super Mega Baseball 3 for New Players and SMB 2 Veterans

Super Mega Baseball 3 is an excellent take on the baseball experience with great on field mechanics and a deceptively complex and engaging franchise mode. It can be easy to get lost or overwhelmed while trying to learn these mechanics and I am still working on them myself (my batting ego will probably always sit at 52 because I stubbornly refuse to move the cursor myself). Hopefully this will be helpful if you're just picking up the game or getting sick of pennant and wanting to start your own franchise.

We'll start with new and updated mechanics and work our way down.

A Note on Mindset for Returning Players

Let's start with mindset. Real baseball is a game of failing upwards, even your best player will only be successful at the plate 40% of the time and even your best power hitter will have less than 1 RBI per game. Over a small sample size it can get frustrating to see your best hitter strike out 3 times, your first baseman drop 2 balls, and your best pitcher give up 4 runs. Over a small sample size weird things happen and the most important thing to remember is to look towards the next play, figure out the next out.

Same when you are on a huge run, smacking the cover off the ball and striking out 10 batters. Success in baseball is fleeting and the game will punish you as soon as you get too comfortable. Enjoy the wins, watch the home runs while slowly trotting around the bases, but keep in mind that you still have to make all your outs and everything returns to zero in the next game.

Have fun and don't have expectations. It feels good to dominate the other team but it also feels good to lose a heartbreaker then face them again and win a close elimination game. Take your lumps because they make it that much more fun to dish them out later, when you've figured out how to.

Finally there are 99 ego levels. If you just can't win at your chosen level, LOWER IT. I pitched at 74 ego on Super Mega Baseball 2 and have lost 20 points in learning this game (slowly inching it back up now). The computer will not judge you for not being super hardcore and if any of us do, that says a hell of a lot more about us than you. Pitching is a blast in this game but only if you aren't committed to frustrating yourself by playing at way too high difficulty. It's a different game from 2 and you probably won't be playing at the same level in your first week.

Pitching

There is a lot of frustration with the new pitching mechanics. Some of it is well founded (I would like to see more variation between AI hitters, such as guys with low mojo or younger players chasing and pressing more) but a ton of it are people assuming they can pitch the same way we did in 2 and expect the same level of domination. You can't, and it's a good thing. Hitter AI for this game was programmed off real life metrics and can be overcome using real life pitching strategies.

The AI will almost always take the first pitch especially early in games while it tries to figure out your pattern. Use this to get ahead in the count so you can force it to chase on strike 2. You can actually get through the first 2 innings pretty quick by being aggressive early in games.

Once each batter has seen you they now know what to expect and they're going to really start guessing based on past patterns. By inning 3 you'll start seeing more swings on the first pitch and, if you are still using the same sequences and situational pitches/locations you are going to start getting destroyed. This is when you need to start mixing in first pitch breaking balls for strikes. An inside curve or outside curve that catches the bottom corner of the zone is extremely effective. Changeup on the corner is a great strikeout pitch but if you throw it every time you're in a 2 strike count it's going to get a nice view from the stratosphere. MIX UP YOUR PITCHES. Go with what the hitter's showing you. If they're swinging at everything maybe a fastball in the zone is a bad idea, but one above or outside could elicit a weak grounder or whiff.

Each at bat is a puzzle. Think about how you got the last batter and know the hitter is now looking for that sequence. Predictability is a pitchers worst enemy, it wasn't thoroughly modeled into 2 and now it is.

The one other thing I would add for veterans of SMB 2 is that game trained us to not throw balls. My strikeout to walk ratio hovered somewhere between infinity and fifty something, and I'm sure that was the same for a lot of players. In this game you can't be afraid of walking opposing hitters if you get behind in the count because they're going to look for those fastball strikes on ball 3. In the last game success was almost entirely a matter of mechanical success, now it's as much a question of strategy and approach.

Pitchers do have increased stamina in all roles to make up for the more patient batter AI.

Normal Pitching vs Power Pitching

The power pitching mechanics have been completely reworked for this game. Rather than being a faster version of the regular pitch it is now a different class of pitch that trades accuracy for increased junk and velocity, a high risk/reward strategy that should be employed situationaly instead of as your main arsenal.

Basically, when you aim a normal pitch you are picking the exact spot it will hit the catcher's glove, which will be slightly lateral or below to where it actually crosses the zone (which is important to know when you want to throw a breaking ball strike). Target a slider away for instance, and if you have it with about a third of the arrow outside the zone it will cross the plate as a strike. When you actually then throw it any amount you miss that lands along the arrow will cause it to break less, "hanging" the ball in the zone and making it a ripe target. Once you know what you're doing you can actually use this as a super effective strikeout pitch because the batter will assume it's going to break outside or inside.

A power pitch is more of a reticle with a random chance of landing somewhere inside the circle, based on accuracy and timing. If you try to use it like it was used in 2 you are going to either walk a lot of batters or get rocked. If you use it situationally to overpower weak hitters you'll have more success, and it can be useful in full counts if you have a high velocity pitcher on the mound to overpower the hitter. It's high risk because of the accuracy trade off and, if you're using it predictably, you are probably going to get hit a lot, but used sparingly it can be a nice tool.

Power pitches use the same stamina as normal pitches

Hitting

Hitting is one of those things you have to know what to do AND execute. I know what to do but I suck at doing it in this game, so I may not be very helpful but here are some tips for new players.

Take pitches. The AI does it and you should too. The count is the most important factor in determining how you should approach, with 1 strike or fewer you should really just be looking for meatballs and taking everything else. This is also a good count to load up on a power swing since you aren't going to be swinging at anything that isn't right down the middle (right?).

Once you're facing 1 or 2 strikes you should probably switch to a contact swing unless you've really mastered the power swing (more below). Keep in mind that timing is critical here, but there are actually multiple timings you want to figure out.

Early and late swings will push and pull the ball, knowing how to time them can help with learning how to foul off tough strikes while sitting on the pitch you want.

You can "sit" on certain pitches by pre-aiming the reticle over the part of the strike zone you're expecting the pitch to be in. This can be high risk because it makes it tougher to react, but if you notice the opposing pitcher is going inside a lot then aim inside and take them for a ride.

Power swing vs. Contact swing

This mechanic has pretty much remained the same.

A power swing is a preloaded swing that trades contact rating for a power boost. You can either pull back on the analogue stick and push up to swing or hold down the power swing button (x on the xbox controller) and release to swing. It's a very unforgiving mechanic and if the pitch isn't perfectly squared up on the bat you're more likely to pop it up a mile or pound it into the dirt, but if you do square up it's going to go really far. The numbers that pop up are the power boost and it's based on timing, I personally find the best results if I start loading the swing when the pitcher's arm swings around after starting the windup.

A contact swing uses the player's base stats and is more forgiving, but is more likely to create base hits and shallow liners. It's just one button press so it isn't a preloaded swing, making timing much easier.

I generally only use power swings with power hitters but that's probably the wrong strategy for this mechanic. That said, it's very skill and luck based and I don't have a lot of either of those so I tend to use contact and only load up a power swing against a bad pitcher and/or early in the count.

Ego

I mentioned ego above and it was requested I should include a blurb on that system. Ego is an extremely dynamic and powerful difficulty system that can be tailored in all 4 aspects of the game, with levels between 1-99. There are 4 icons in the bottom left of the screen: Hitting (bat), pitching (ball), baserunning (foot), and fielding (glove). You can adjust ego as a single, monolithic difficulty level that will keep all four aspects the same or you can tweak individual facets of the game to be harder or easier. Personally I usually having pitching above the other 3, it's my favorite aspect of the game and what I sink most of my focus into.

Super Mega Baseball 3 is harder than 2 in every aspect of the game. I am playing 4 points lower on all skills and almost 20 points lower on pitching even now, a week later. While I wouldn't presume to tell you where you should play I will put in some pointers.

If you're just starting out, start somewhere nice and low, 20ish for example, and slowly adjust based on the level of challenge you're experiencing in exhibition games (so you don't have the problem of mojo carryover). I would suggest giving it a few games once you feel like you're there to avoid statistical clustering.

While fielding, at all levels of ego you can bring the fielder to the vicinity of a foul ball and when he or she starts waving, let go of the stick and let them finish the play. A lot of people don't realize this but this mechanic acts as the fielding circle in other games and once you get used to it, it's super handy.

I honestly have no idea what baserunning ego does and usually just keep it even. I imagine it makes stealing easier?

Ego is a remarkably sensitive system for having 99 levels and once you reach your just right challenging, increasing it by 2 or 3 points will feel like a completely different game. It's honestly a remarkable achievement by Metalhead and one of the most powerful difficulty systems I've seen in a game once you figure out how to utilize it. Experiment and enjoy!

Note on hitting ego: 55 ego is kind of the cut off where you can bat without moving the cursor yourself. You have to get a really good eye with good timing and luck to hit effectively, but it can be done and I think it makes for pretty realistic stat lines. Once you get to 60 I feel like you have to be able to target the bat yourself. Anything below 55 is a good level to practice your timing and batter eye.

Franchise

New to Super Mega Baseball 3 is franchise mode! This has been a long requested feature and I would say they delivered in spades. Deceptively complex and a ton of fun, with a lot of freedom and some very good mechanics. Here are some tips if you're just getting started.

Roster Construction

The Beewolves roster screen (midway through a franchise season)

Teams have gotten a bit of a makeover in the new game, you may notice a lot of players in secondary positions, some teams lacking closers, and some teams with only 3 starting pitchers.

Pitching Staff

There are now 4 possible pitcher roles. SP (Starting Pitcher), RP (Relief Pitcher), and CP (Closing Pitcher) have all made a comeback but the game now includes an SP/RP (Spot starter/long reliever). This was a highly requested feature designed to add flexibility to bullpens in the event a starter is injured or you have used up your bullpen in extra innings. I'll say a little more about each role below but the most important thing to know is there's absolutely no limit in how you build out your pitching staff! You can do 2 closers, no closers, 6 relievers with 2 starters if you want to use them as openers. This opens the road for many different strategies to build out your bullpen. You now have 8 roster spots and the creative freedom to fill them however you want.

Let's go over the basics of each role to help figure out which approach is best for you.

SP: Starting pitchers are only comfortable starting the game, if you try to bring them out of the bullpen they will be downgraded one mojo level. They can typically go 80-90 pitches before their stats degrade badly, more with high mojo and less with low mojo. Look for starters with pitches that match their stats (high velocity should have access to fastball/changeup family, etc.) and at least 4 pitches but preferably 5. Remember earlier this game punishes you for being predictable and it's easier to mix things up when you have more pitches to throw.

SP/RP: These guys are awesome. They can come out or start without any mojo penalty and add tremendous versatility to any staff. The tradeoff is they are usually gassed after about 60 pitches and will generally have to be pulled in the 4th, 5th, or 6th inning if starting. I always try to pick up at least 1 of them just to have that versatility and ability to cover injuries. That said, they do tend to be expensive and rare in free agency.

RP: Dedicated relievers, these guys will take a mojo hit if you have them start and are generally good for about 30-40 pitches. One important thing I've noticed is bringing in a reliever seems to reset the AI's attempts to recognize your pitch patterns (representing a new pitcher giving the batter a "different look"), so if you're finding yourself getting rocked the 3rd time through the lineup then there's no shame in calling the pen.

For those new to baseball, a "pen" or bullpen is a small throwing area usually past the outfield where the pitching staff hangs out and warms up before being called into the game. It's baseball shorthand to call the relief staff as a unit the bullpen.

Try to get a good mix of right and left handed pitching in your bullpen, the game models matchups. Righties tend to match against right handed hitting and lefties against left handed hitting (the way I remember this is breaking pitches should break away from the hitter). Incidentally, screwballs are pretty effective as an opposite hand matchup pitch.

Though it's happened I think twice in the history of baseball, this game does not have switch pitchers.

CP: Closing pitchers are brought in at the end of the game in "save" situations. A save is a situation where your team is up by 3, or the tying run is coming up to the plate, or you have the lead with 3 innings left to go (as long as the same pitcher throws all 3 innings).

Closers are extremely situational. They will receive 2 mojo level downgrades if you try to start them and 1 mojo downgrade if brought in before the 7th inning. They also usually have just 2 or 3 pitches and will become exhausted right around 30 pitches.

All that said, they seem to be cheaper than other pitchers and I've found the AI's pitch recognition seems less tuned in to them (probably to make up for them having fewer pitches). Having an A overall closer who can come in and shut the door on an 8th inning rally can be absolutely invaluable.

Speaking of closer, there's another class of pitcher that isn't modeled directly but you can choose to designate a particular guy in this role, and that's 8th inning setup man. This is someone who is brought out in the 8th (or in the 7th to get out of a jam) and can be relied on to serve as a bridge to hold a narrow lead until the closer takes over. If you decide to roll with 3 starters, this is something you may want to think about.

Building your staff

This is really up to how you play, there are no limits on how many of each type of pitcher you can use. You can do a 5 person rotation if you want (though SP recovery is balanced around 4 games). You can have 2 starters and use them as 3 inning openers for your 6 player bullpen. You can rock all SP/RP if you want, or have 3 closers even though that'd be kinda weird.

If you find your starting pitcher getting hit around after the third time through the lineup then you may want to try decreasing your starters in favor of expanding the bullpen. Relievers seem to reset the pitch recognition system and mixing and matching relievers is a legitimate strategy.

Have fun with it, try things out in the customizer and play with it in exhibition as a sort of spring training to get used to different configurations and setups. There's no real limit other than the constraints of success.

Lineup

There are a ton of thoughts on lineup construction out there, all of them convinced everyone else is wrong. I'll talk here about the classic construction, the optimal construction, and my favorite way to do it. You can research the rest yourself.

Bear in mind that even the best lineup construction only results in 1 or 2 more wins over the course of a season.

The Classic, Old School Lineup

1. Lead off: Your fastest guy who can get on base reliably. In game terms that means speed over 75 and contact over 50.
2. Bat control guy. A guy who isn't necessarily your best hitter but can move the runner without hitting into a double play. This is one of the most controversial lineup spots.
3. Highest average hitter. Now that leadoff is in scoring position, this guy should knock him in.
4. Clean up: Your best power bat even if they hit low average to knock in whoever's still on base.
5. Put another power hitter here because why not?
6. Every hitter 6 and after should progressively be crappier
7. Worse than 6
8. Worse than 7
9. Worse than...oh bless your heart

The "Optimized" lineup (source. This site is generally awesome for brushing up on sabermetrics)

1. OBP. Speed doesn't matter as much as getting on base an extra 10% of the time. In game terms that means decent speed with high contact rating, but you should also focus on taking more pitches with this player and trying to draw walks.
2. Because this player will have the most RBI opportunities and come to the plate more than the 3 or 4 hitters, this should be your best overall hitter.
3. This is actually a less important spot because most of the time they're batting with nobody on and 2 outs (remember when I said baseball is a game of failing upwards?). It's ok to put a good but not great bat in this spot. Focus should be on power.
4. Best power hitter on the team, but this time that should come with decent contact. This hitter should face the most important situational hitting next to the 2 hitter (though fewer at bats) and should hit for power as well as decent average.
5. Your third best contact hitter, but if your third best contact hitter also has good power then put them at 3 and put your 4th best contact hitter here.
6. Your best base stealing threat should go here unless they also have high OBP potential, in which case they should lead off and your next best base stealer should go here.
7. Single hitter (high contact low power)
8. worse single hitter than 7
9. worse single hitter than 8

"Theoretically optimized"

In theory you just want to maximize plate appearances for your best hitters, so your best player should be leadoff and each successive batter should be a little worse. Kinda boring, no?

It should be noted I read about this idea years ago or possibly dreamed it during a particularly high fever. I can't think of any instances of it actually being used.

My Lineups

1. Leadoff: Fastest player who can get on semi-reliably.
2. I like to stick my best player at 2, maximizing plate appearances for them and getting 2 good baserunners on. When I say best player, this means I factor speed into the equation and don't always just go best bat. If I don't have a second fast option with a really good bat, I revert to classic lineup for the top 4.
3. Best remaining overall hitter without speed being a factor. 3 and 4's primary purpose is RBIs.
4. Best power hitter with contact over 45. Gimme those runs.
5. Now I either start over with the next fastest guy remaining, followed by the next best hitter, followed by my 2 best power options. Or I just go in order of best remaining hitters in sequence.
6. wannabe number 2 hitter but not good enough for 3.
7. good speed bad everything else.
8. High power low contact
9. 8 but worse

It should be noted that all these lineups are for DH teams. Non DH are pretty much the same but with the pitcher hitting 9th.

Edit: u/NickyDeeBag was kind enough to point out that I completely neglected to talk about batter handedness, especially embarrassing because hand dominance is a major part of my career.

Whatever lineup formula you subscribe to you want to ensure a healthy mix of right and left handed bats, and switch hitters tend to be worth an extra 5 or 10 power/contact attribute points just for being able to hit from either side of the plate. It is absolutely worth bringing a slightly worse hitter who provides a different look to the pitcher ahead of a better hitter in the lineup.

Some coaches go further with this. Joe Girardi used to really love alternating righty/lefty no matter who the pitcher was and I remember him putting out some truly head scratching lineups on this basis. Personally I think you should make a point to have at least one left handed bat in the top 4 if you can't get a 50/50 split, and 2 in the bottom 5 hitters.

If you were wondering, the reason for all the fuss with dominant hands is that hitters find it easier to hit when breaking balls come towards them instead of away, essentially the ball breaks right into the barrel of the bat instead of away from it. It's easier to see and to hit.

This is modeled with a small bonus in game terms, but it's important for you also to recognize which side of the plate you see the ball better from and build/choose your team accordingly. I tend to see better with left handed batters.

Free Agents

Game choosing screen with the adorable Blowfish mascot. You can see under the team name what they're good at and what needs may need to be addressed through free agency. In this team's case the bullpen isn't actually as bad as it looks, more on that later.

Every standard team and most custom teams have issues. Some of these aren't bad, like the Sirloins defense isn't great but it's definitely good enough given their offensive and pitching capabilities. Some of them need to be addressed directly, like the Sand Cats being assembled by a drunk toddler.

To address team needs, rebuild the pitching staff to your preference, or fire a player because their face is too punchable (looking at you Fabulo) you can go to sign and release. When a franchise begins free agents will be exorbitantly expensive and only worthwhile in extremely specific circumstances, but you can click the right analogue stick to favorite them, which will inform you in the news feed when their price comes down, if they get signed by another team, or if their stats develop or regress.

Here's a free agent list I was checking out for backup infielders. The gold star denotes that they've been favorited.

There's no limit to how many free agents you can favorite so it's a good idea before playing your first game to look at your roster, identify the moves you want to make, then identify the free agents that may fill those needs and start keeping an eye on them. It's also a good idea to "curate" this list as you play, some players who look bad overall are great when you get them in a game and some who look great never end up living up to their stats.

Which brings us to our next section.

Overall Grade vs. Value

How can a C+ overall outperform a B at the same position? Statistical clustering definitely can play a role, but there are deeper reasons and to really understand this question, let's consider some hypothetical players.

Let's pretend there are 2 first baseman available. One is a 10 million a year B overall with 60 power, 60 contact, 40 speed, 50 fielding, and 80 arm. The next is a 5 million a year C+ overall with 60 power, 60 contact, 25 speed, 50 fielding, and 10 arm. Obviously this is hypothetical and oversimplified, but because first base is a position your player will almost never throw from arm is basically irrelevant except to secondary positions. The first player could still have value as a backup at SS or 2B, but if you need an everyday 1B then save the money.

When shopping for a DH, provided you're covered for defensive backups it's fair to completely ignore fielding and arm and get some really good, really cheap offensive producers.

This is even more apparent with pitchers. 2 relievers, both throw 3 pitches. One has 90 velocity, 20 junk, and 40 acc and throws 4f (four seam fastball), CB (curve ball), and SL (slider). The other throws the same pitches with 30 velocity, 70 junk, and 40 acc. Both similar grades and salary demands.

The first guy may throw a nasty 4 seamer but they also have 2 breaking pitches that don't break. The second guy doesn't have the super high velocity but the pitches are much better suited to their skillset. The second pitcher is a much better value for the money and will put up better numbers in sim or when you're controlling them.

Overall grade is only part of the story with these guys. Know what you value in each position and shop accordingly.

Note on free agent demands!!! Free agent salary requests will come down over the course of the season. In my experience they start to become "reasonable" (though still high) right after a third of the way into the season, and that's when other teams start signing and releasing. Let an agent sit too long on the market and they will probably get snapped up.

For the record, I define value as averaging 130/21 (130 being salary with 10 million in cap space, 21 being total roster spots). So an average player right around B overall should cost around 6.2 million (7 million if you're desperate) for the free agent market to be considered "open".

Player Development

Development funds are paid out per game and equal to remaining cap space divided by total number of games in the season. This means a team playing 16 games with 10 million in cap will make about 1.6 million per game to put towards development. Each opportunity has a chance to expire after a certain percent of the season has passed (in a 100+ game season opportunities will generally cycle about every 15 games or so in my experience).

Personally I like to focus development on 3-4 players, usually the youngest who I feel have the best potential as role players or future stars. A pitcher with 1 good stat who needs to bring up one of the others to really be good or a great defensive player who needs to raise offensive stats.

In my Sand Cats Franchise the best examples of this were Super Sampson, Beebee Takabasei, and Trey Mondo. Mondo may have low ratings but with 5 good pitches to choose from he can be absolutely unhittable, so his stats don't really need to go up that high for him to be your ace unless you're planning on simming.

Do bear in mind that you can ruin players with bad traits, but if you're willing to stick with them you can also get opportunities to remove those traits. It's a risk/reward system.

Speaking of risk/reward, players can also decide to leave or retire when they're young though it's less common than older players. I got to watch and laugh as the Heaters released their best pitcher in Elmo Slayer then Der Neverwocker, their best reliever, retired in the off season.

Just go into player development understanding that some of your projects won't pan out, but more will and it can be highly satisfying.

Buying or Selling

I'm the Beewolves in this one (a sim franchise) around mid-season. Look at the right then go really far down the list.

So you're in a season and things haven't really gone your way. Maybe you're still hovering around .500 (winning 50% of your games), maybe you're just getting rocked and in the bottom of the league. In Super Mega Baseball 2 the latter was generally cause to sim to the end and start a new season. Now you still get to make some choices and in some ways it's even more exciting.

Let's take the example where you're at the back of your division with no hope of making the playoffs. You can just sim to the end but if you do, you are potentially missing out on a ton of development opportunities and more importantly, money.

You see, because player development is based on cap space, you have an opportunity to release your most expensive players to collect development funds and build for the future.

It's the Sirloins!

Here's a Sirloins roster. Let's assume they're 13-13 at midseason. Now you can just keep everyone and hope for better luck next year or you can accept the very real risk that most of this team is going to want to test free agency or retire. I haven't seen Hammer Longballo stay on this team past the first year in any franchise so far.

By midseason you can generally find C overall players for 4 or 5 million, so moving Hammer for a C overall Right Fielder that costs 5 million will save 8 million against the cap, which if done at midseason will provide 4 million more in player development funds over the course of the season.

Moving Longballo is almost a given in that situation since he's so likely to leave anyway, but what about a guy like Manny Kays? He's a dynamite starting pitcher and more importantly he's only 26, so he's very likely to want to stay another season. On the other hand you can probably release him and pick up Chance Lotterbury for 1.8 million, putting 5 million into player development. You just have to hope you'll have the opportunity to re-sign Kays in the offseason.

So there's a complex algebra even for a losing season. Who do you want to lock in (as much as you can)? Who do you want to release and hope to re-sign, even if you end up paying more next year?

Now imagine you're only a few games back and have a chance to make a run at the wild card. Are you willing to give up all your development money to bring in some big name, big pay free agents? Can you work your cap to get some high value contributors and role players? At what point do you decide you did all you can, let's just burn everything to the ground?

Only you can decide.

Conclusion

Hopefully this is helpful to new players or returning vets. The game is really what you make of it once you understand the mechanics and it definitely requires a different approach.

What this was not is a commentary on existing bugs or balance issues. I generally agree that catchers and 1B's drop the ball a bit too often and lineout double plays are way too common, for example, but I'm also very confident these issues will be ironed out and I don't find they make the game unplayable. It's baseball, boneheaded errors do happen and when they do it's sometimes in bunches.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or feedback.