Throwing Mechanics

Throwing is used while fielding to attempt to get the runners out.

## Controls

### Basic controls

When a character has the ball, tilt the control stick in the cardinal direction of the base you want to throw to (right for 1st base, up for 2nd base, left for 3rd base, down for home) and press A. When an outfielder has the ball, pressing A without a direction input will let the computer choose which base to throw it to. Usually, this is the cut-off fielder, but sometimes it will throw to the base to try to get a runner out.

### Throw to Cut-Off Fielder

When an outfielder has the ball, press L to throw to the cutoff player (the cut-off fielder is the infielder that isn’t covering a base, usually 2B or SS).

### Manual Cut-Off

When a ball is thrown, if there is another fielder in the ball’s path that is not the intended recipient, pressing A will make the fielder cut the ball off before reaching the original target. This can inadvertently occur when mashing the A button on throws.

### Smash Throws

Press A and the direction input at the same time. If performed properly, the throw will be faster, and will be indicated by a tail of light behind the ball.

## Chemistry

Players will throw faster to players that they have chemistry with.

### Anti-Chemistry Throws

If players have less than 20 chemistry with each other, there is a 20% chance that an anti-chemistry throw will happen, causing the throw to be inaccurate. Usually, the receiving player will have time to move to catch the bad throw, but sometimes the throw misses the player completely. Example: https://clips.twitch.tv/DarkDeterminedOxHassanChop-uryFOIbRr153f4bH

## Abilities

### **Laser Beam Ability**

Players with the Laser Beam ability throw home much faster than normal when there is a runner on third base or running between third and home. The speed-up factor is 1.3x. This likely applies to the throw's velocity, but this is unconfirmed. However, this means that the character's base throwing stats impact the throw home, so Waluigi has the weakest Laser Beam due to his lower base stats. These throws are indicated by the star trail they leave behind the ball. Chemistry and smash throws speed-up Laser Beams. One test showed that they each give the same amount of speed-up, but this is unconfirmed. Having both smash and laser on the same throw speeds the throw up even more.

Characters with this ability: Bowser, Donkey Kong, Pianta, Waluigi.

### **Quick Throw Ability**

Peach and Daisy have the Quick Throw ability which lets them throw the ball very quickly after after catching another throw (doesn't work on ground balls), whereas other players need time to wind up before throwing. For comparison, Daisy takes 10 frames to release the ball while Wario takes 30 frames. This lowers the total time it takes for the ball to reach its target compared to other characters with the same throw speed stat.

## Lazy Throws

When two fielders are close together or there is no runner advancing to the base being thrown to, throws will sometimes be much slower than normal.

## Throwing to an Empty Base

If there isn’t a fielder covering a bag when a throw is started, the throw will be slower to try to give another fielder a chance to run and catch the ball, rather than a full speed throw that will miss the base completely. If no fielder can get to the base in time, the ball will fall to the ground and be controlled by no one.

## Pickoffs

When pitching, press B to become a fielder and throw to a base to try to catch a runner stealing. If the control stick is in the direction of a base when B is pressed, the pitcher will automatically throw to the base without needing to press A. If a player started a steal already, they will start running once the B button is pressed by the pitcher.

## Throw Speed Algorithm

The following algorithm is used to determine the starting speed of a throw.

1. Obtain character's throwing power stat.
2. Round down to nearest 10.
3. Divide by 10.
4. 85 + 5 \* [result from step 3].
5. Divide by 200.
6. Multiply by corresponding factor in table below.
7. (unconfirmed) Multiply by 1.3 if laser throw.

Full flowchart showing all the details of setting throw speed type. This is the main function where this value is calculated, but there are other places where it can be set, so this doesn't show the full picture. Note, type 10 is possible according to the logic in the flow chart, but the game doesn't have a case to handle type 10, so it's unknown what would happen.
*Why did my fielder decide to lob the ball during an intense run-down?*

The main time this occurs is when all runners are 80% or more towards the next base during a run-down (very bottom of the flowchart). The game thinks this isn’t a stressful situation, and decides to make the character throw it slower. In terms of the table, it will be a type 5 (80% multiplier) for throws longer than 15m, and type 7 (30%-35% multiplier) for throws shorter than that. For context, 15m from each base is over half of the length between bases, as shown in the pic. This explains why running away from the baseline during rundowns helps avoid the super slow throws.

Note: setting characters to their superstar version adds 50 to their throwing power.

Throws slow down while the ball is in flight (formula still to be confirmed).

Shout-out to Roeming for this discovery.

## To be confirmed

* Exactly how chemistry throws are buffed by the game (multiplier?)
* How the 1.3x applies to laser throws. Is it throwing arm stat, velocity, something else?
* What the exact triggers are for lazy throws. Distance, out opportunity, rng?
* These values still need to be translated into frames/second.
* Ball speed slow-down formula.

1. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/628353660698624020/747305360255352832/969065297757753385
2. ↑ https://discord.com/channels/628353660698624020/628354009865912350/931245827744202812