All Star Baseball '99 Create-A-Player FAQ
Version 2.0 8/31/02

This document is copyrighted in 2002 by Corey "FrenZy" Truglia, this document
is not free to reproduce, though if you would like to link it, quote it,
contribute to it, ask my permission via my email address
George_HW_Bush@hotmail.com, or my aol address Orotund5@aol.com, which won't be
around for much longer.
Updates for 2.0:
Corrected what a "tailing fastball" is
Included "Streak" and "Clutch" abilities

I was disappointed that the FAQ on this game barely touched the
Create-A-Player option, so I'll talk about it. I'll give you tips and help
you choose which abilities are most important.

Chapters:
I. Create-a-player abilities, and what they are ...
II. General Create-a-player info
III. Create a good hitter!
IV. Pitches and what they are (in this game of course)
V. Create a good pitcher!
VI. Create other stuff ...

I. Create-a-player abilities, and what they are ...

Welcome to my FAQ! I'll start it on what the abilites you have are!!!
You'll find these in the attributes menu
* = Pitcher only
You have a limit on how much ability you can give a player, "red stuff" is the
'stuff' that fills their ability bars. I may refer to it.

*Stamina: How long your pitchers last, if the guy's a starter, fill him up
all the way, if he's a reliever, a lot of stamina isn't a bad thing.
*Accuracy: Give your pitcher enough accuracy to though it in the strike
zone, plus in 2p mode you'll be unpredictable! :) But if you have a good
splitter or curve ball, and you want to hug the edge of the strike-zone, fill
accuracy up all the way.
Contact: Increases your chance of hitting the ball, low contact is useless,
unless it's a pitcher, you'll need your abilities elsewhere.
Power: If he doesn't have a lot of power, Homerun chances are good, but if you
fill the power up all the way. Any sinking pitch can go outta the park! (If hit
correctly of course)
Versus Right Handed Pitcher: The majority of pitchers are right handed, so fill
this bad boy up as much as possible.
Versus Left Handed Pitcher: Don't let the opponent's bull pen become your worse
enemy! This will increase your ability to hit against southpaws
Bunting: How good you bunt, relatively unimportant, unless you are creating a
lead-off hitter with speed. Even poor bunting ability is sufficient, it's
not like you'll need to bunt to win this game anyway.
*Versus Right Handed Batter: Determine how good you will pitch against
righties, most batters are righties, but good teams (like the Yankees) will
have plenty of lefties and switch hitters! Most hitters are righty, so keep
that in mind!
*Versus Left Handed Batter: How good your pitcher will throw against lefties
Speed: How fast you run on offense and defense, this is desirable for a
batter, especially a lead-off hitter, for pitchers you'll need to put your
limited abilities elsewhere.
Defense: How good your player can get balls going right at him. Flyballs are
easy to get no matter how little defense you have, so pitchers won't need it.
But if you want a pitcher which is good at grabbing balls going towards him
(like "The Boomer" David Wells. I call him fattie :P) Put the last of your red
stuff here!
Arm Strength: How fast and how far you can throw the ball on defense. Very
important for catchers and out-fielders, unimportant for pitchers and 1st base.
(If the ball even goes towards them, they'll have plenty of time to get it
anyway) Give this to your third baseman if you have friends that do the bunt
trick to get on base. (Tip: Hold Z and tap the base you want to throw to for a
faster throw! Very handy for outfielders, though not handy enough)
Clutch: How good a player is in a 'high pressure situation'. Like a no-hitter,
strikeout, grandslam ... The more Clutch a player has, the more 'miracles' he
can perform
Streak: How consistant a player is, if a pitcher has little streak, he'll be
giving up hits, a hitter will have less hits.

Now that we all pass the all star baseball create-a-player vocab test, I'll
tell you all the create-a-specifics!!!

II. General Create-a-player info

In the first menu you are allowed to go in, you can choose your player's
physical appearance, name, and what not.
You can make their first and last names, if you don't give them a name, the
game will give them a name! (heheheheh, rhyme!) Choose their height, weight
(100-250 lbs. no matter what), and ethnicity.
Next, you choose their number, any number will do, unless you are making a guy
for the Yankees, all the good numbers are retired!
Fun fact: The first catcher I created for the Yankees was given the number
'15', I watched Thurmon Munson's Yankeeography and found out my error! 15 is
retired! My bad, at least the guy I created had a .480 average.

Now you will get to the more important stuff. You can now choose what type of
position they are, an infielder? Outfielder? Closer, starter? Choose any of the
positions! If you choose a pitcher, a new menu called "pitch types" will be
ready for the editing! I will get to that later!
You must choose if the guy's "push, pull, or neutral" hitting. "Push" makes
balls tend to go forward (towards 'opposite field'), (Harder to get home runs,
unless you have loads of power, good for getting on base). "Pull" makes balls
tend to go foul, because if you hit a dinger, it is always near the foul pole
in a way.  Neutral is the best one to pick, good for home runs and getting on
base.  You can also choose if your player throws righty or lefty, then choose
if he bats right, left, or switch. 'Switch' of course gives you the greatest
advantage. For a pitcher, right is usually the best choice, because most
batters are righty, though some of the best batters (like Bonds, Tino, Griffey)
are lefty, but it doesn't really matter because of the versus LHP or RHP
abilities.
Now it's batting stance time. Choose any stance that looks cool to you, but if
you aren't going to pick a stance for how it looks, pick a stance where the guy
is practically crouching, the game will give you a smaller strike zone, giving
the opposing pitcher less room to work with. (Don't give a 7 ft. guy a Cal
Ripken stance, sure it's funny but it'll cost ya!)
Lastly, you can pick what state/country and town where the player came from.
You can create some funny town names like "Walla Walla, Cucumunga, and
Seattle!"
Man, that was a toughy, now lets get to the important stuff.

III. Create-a good hitter!

After you chose the guy's name, defensive position and what not, go to the
attributes menu and fill in his abilities with the red stuff, remember, you
have a limit, so use the red stuff wisely!
Lets say you named your player "Bob Hadababyitsaboy" (wouldn't fit :P) and he
was a catcher, (a catcher needs dynamic abilities), you'll need to know what he
needs ...
My personal suggestion is to make every offensive player you create a power
hitter, because this game gives up homeruns. Give your
catcher at least half a bar of power, so the guy can hit the long ball or force
the outfielders to work! If the guy has enough power, he can hit homeruns with
the contact cursor, better off using the power cursor though, less flyballs, or
flyballs that go REALLY far! (Homerun wise ;) )
He'll need a lot of contact, put this bad boy up all the way. You won't have to
squint when you try to hit the ball now!
Bunting abilities aren't really that needed for a catcher, (in this game of
course) and you should save your red-stuff for his defensive abilities. Give
him some speed and defense, he'll be able to get balls from behind the  plate,
arm strength isn't that important against a CPU opponent though. Save the red
stuff for his clutch and streak, this was my critical mistake!  Certain human
opponents can make you require some arm behind the plate. My advice, pull a
Mike Piazza, the catcher is there to hit, not throw out an
occasional base-runner.
His Versus RHP and LHP should be filled all the way, if you must take away from
one of them, lessen the LHP one, there are less of them in the game. :)
If you have extra red stuff left, fill clutch and streak equally.

Now if the guys an outfielder, arm strength will be more important. 1st base
doesn't need much of anything defensive, maybe some blazing speed! 2nd and
shortstop need some speed, not a lot of defense or arm strength (you'll need
arm in real life), but enough to get a grounder out. With extra red-stuff,
always fill in clutch and streak.
Always make a leadoff hitter a position which has to be fast, (2nd or SS) give
him all the way on speed, and give him bunting ability all the way if he has
little power. (I prefer power though)
Use common sense, you have plenty of stuff to make your players, if you want to
make them more realistic, only allow a power hitter half-way on power...
Stuff like that. Remember, base your players abilities on how they'll do in the
video game, not the real game!

IV. Pitches and what they are ...
Remember this, with a pitcher, always make you simulation pitches A+s (full bar
of 'red stuff') fill up two less significant arcade pitches.
3 pitches your pitches must have!
Fastball, Changeup, Curveball. Save the last one for your 'specialty' pitch
Good Specialty pitches: Knuckleball, Screwball, Slider

Pay attention to these symbols!
+ = good against cpu
- = bad against cpu
* = good against human opponent
/ = bad against human opponent

*Fastball: seems too obvious, but sometimes nobody expects the ball NOT to
move! If you have an A+ fastball, you can max the speed to 101 mph!!! If you
get a fastball to be as low as 58 mph, it'll be fouled easily and have great
movement! Most pitchers in this game have only one dependable pitch, which is
the fastball. Use it well.

*Change Up: While the cpu can expect it once a while, at times it'll swing at
it when it is an obvious ball. Against a human, who is used to fending off your
curveballs and sliders, a changeup will surprise them by not moving! Best off
making this pitch as fast as your curveball, and if you are experimental, make
it faster than your fastball. :) The ugly part of this pitch, it can be slammed
outta the park very easily or give up base hits when expected. I tend to use it
sparingly against human opponents, but when I use it its pure gold.

+*Curveball: The best pitch in the game IMO, it is even unpredictable when you
create it! With all the pitchers I made with the curveball, some dropped
quickly like splitters, others curve like sickles. The curve ball is also great
to keep the CPU going with, throw the ball on the edge of the strikezone and
it'll seep its way in!!! Against a human, don't hug the zone all the time,
they'll have to be surprised when you send the changeup down the middle! (The
Strike zone turns red when you are 'hugging' it) Give this pitch 70-85 mph TIP:
The delivery of this pitch (3/4 or overhand) determines how the curvebal will
move.

+*Slider: It can surprise your friends, but it won't stun them much, but the
computer is weak to a good slider. You can throw it outside the strikezone and
it'll give the CPU a good stunnin'. Good when fast or slow. You can give up
most of your homeruns with the slider, but you'll be dependent upon it. This
pitch should be 70-85 mph. A really slow one is easy to hit.

*Knuckleball: Your buddies won't know where this crazy ball is gonna go! It's
wiggle and change in speed in certain cases will stun friends. The cpu will
treat this pitch like an average curveball. Try to make the Knuckler very slow,
if it is too fast, it'll look and act like an average curveball.
-*Screwball: Humans can't get used to this pitch if use rarely. This pitch
looks like an out of the strikezone change up, then it curves down and stuns
who ever faces it. This pitch isn't as stunning when too fast or slow, in the
middle she's an untouchable! :) CPU opponents can hit this pitch like it's a
change-up!

-Forkball: A pitch with good sink against a friend, but an instant homerun
against a CPU opponent. This pitch is too easy for the CPU to hit, and it
doesn't offer too much more than the splitter. This pitch is surprisingly
effective when set to 101 mph against humans, though I'd prefer to save my
speed for a fastball, good for a lot of laughs and Ks though.

-Palmball: Aim it like a curve ball. Bit less predictable against a human (not
as many pitchers have a palmball) Computers won't totally destroy this pitch
like a forkball, but they hit it too easily.
Split Fastball: Average dropping pitch, its good at hugging the strike zone.
Nothing spectacular, but it isn't horrible against the computer.

-/Sinkerball: A devastating groundball pitch in real life (a Ramiro Mendoza
specialty, not in this game) It isn't great against humans, it isn't extreme
enough to rock their world, and it gives up homeruns to too much CPU batters.
It is convenient to too many hitters, it comes like a fastball and drop
conveiently enough to let you take advantage of your power! In real life, this
pitch leads to double plays, in this game it'll send your pitcher to the
minors. If you must use it, aim it near the bottom of the strikzone, get your
opponent (human or CPU) to chase low fastballs, curves, change-ups, and then
let this bad boy drop out of the strike-zone.

Spitball: Like a palmball or splitter, the announcers will call this pitch a
splitter. Not anything special, avoid it. (Once gave up 5 HRs in 2 innings
using it, ouch!)

Tailing Fastball*: Unable to be accessed by normal means. It is the pitch that
it originally was ... well ... you'll find out when you tinker around.
(Well, not really much tinkering to do :( )

TIP: All pitches are good in this game if used correctly.  If you would
'create' your whole rotation, you should not have the same pitch selection. 
Even a sinker could be effective, if you and your friends play on ALL-STAR mode
and actually do contact swings.  Also, if your opponent uses a contact swing
(not power swing) aim it in a blue or 'clear' spot, or try to aim it low for a
ground ball.  Try to do the same thing with a fast ball with this strategy if
you lack a ground-ball pitch like a splitter or fork-ball.  Your pitch
selection should reflect your style, high K, or infield outs.

V. Create a good pitcher

Do you want a Starter? Or a closer? Or a hitting pitcher?
Starter: All the way on, Clutch, Streak, Stamina, vLHB, vRHB. Give some red to
Accuracy (usually all the way), defense, and maybe speed (not that important).
Closer: Fill up Clutch, Streak, vLHP, vRHP, Defense, Give some red to
Accuracy (all the way if you like curveballs), a little to Stamina, put it in
the middle if you want an unheard of 2-3 inning closer. Give some red to arm
strength to make sure no lucky bunts go through.
Hitting pitcher: Half way clutch and streak, High to mid stamina (mid if he's a
middle reliever), good contact, some power (the amount depends on his speed)
Put other abilities in the usual areas. I don't suggest to create a hitting
pitcher, thought they are fun to play with!

VI. Create other stuff

Like doing things for fun? Create a hitting pitcher, create a 100 lb. 7'0 guy
and call him "skeletor", make that kid form that movie "Rookie of the Year", or
make your favorite rookies from this year and stick them on your outdated team
:) My personal fun favorites is "Lil' Leaguer" and my 'cat trio'. (I named my 3
most lethal pitchers after cats, and made their names spanish-like) You make
what you want, you can even remake Babe Ruth, though that'll piss him off!!!

Well I'd like to thank you for reading this faq, me for making it, and a friend
of my brother's who gave me an idea what streak and clutch were.

If you want to email me questions, comments, feel free to do so at
George_HW_Bush@hotmail.com