Help scoring runs in All Star Difficulty

[hyacinth1]

Seems like I can't win in this difficulty. I score zero or 1 run a game. I used all the different hitting modes.

Any tips ?

[a bit outside]

You might try reducing the CPU pitcher control in your sliders some. This should leave some pitches further off their intended mark and possibly leave you more over the plate. Be patient and try to get yourself into good hitter counts.

[TheWarmWind]

What interface (zone, directional, analog)?

[WaitTilNextYear]

Why can't you go down to Veteran?

[HartmanTeets6]

I have played about 145 games on this difficulty and I don't score a lot of runs. In the last 20 games or so, I'm scoring 3-4 runs a game, which doesn't sound like a lot but it is on this game. My biggest key, is to get in hitters counts. I take every first pitch unless it's a hanging curveball (that's what I sit on). I get 1-0 about 50% of the time. I then just sit fastball over the plate and try to put a good swing on it. Hitters counts is key.

[BlueJays_87]

I've been playing the game for a couple of months now and after some experimentation with hitting/pitching styles and respective difficulty levels, I've settled on All-Star directional hitting and HOF classic pitching.

Personally speaking and drawing from a 60+ game sample size, all-star directional hitting (default sliders) seems to best emulate the nuances and tendencies of hitting in real-life baseball (strike/ball ratio, pitch count, % of foul balls, hit-variety, etc). That being said, I haven't experienced a high degree of variance between games. Similar to you, my average run-output tends to be consistently low. Typically I'll hover around 7-10 hits, 1-4 runs per game.

I've found the jump from veteran to all-star to be pretty significant, particularly when it comes to the game's lack of forgiveness with any mistake made during an at-bat. It's especially frustrating when you've worked the count in your favor, have a strong hitter at bat with men in scoring position, perfectly time a pitch in the middle of the zone and simply pop up.

I'm thinking about going back to veteran, but tinkering with the sliders for a few games until I've reached a veteran +++ or "all-star light" difficulty level. I think this is probably the best solution if you want to see higher scoring games.

[TheWarmWind]

Quote: Originally Posted by BlueJays_87

It's especially frustrating when you've worked the count in your favor, have a strong hitter at bat with men in scoring position, perfectly time a pitch in the middle of the zone and simply pop up.

Just an FYI, raising solid hits will prevent that. I have solid hits raised for both Human and CPU. Makes the CPU more threatening and I actually give up walks now (I really didn't much before).

[bad_philanthropy]

I've found a couple of keys that have made my offensive ability just explode. In my franchise (on AS hitting) with the Angels I went from 29th in the league mid way through June to currently 12th in team average, and have been hitting with a .282 average for the past two months.

Learning to pick up the pitch out of the hand and develop the ability to know what a good hittable pitch looks like is an obvious key. The first thing you do is let it travel a touch out of the hand in order to judge the height. It should be at or slightly above the letters coming out of the hand.

It's just so essential to learn what those hittable pitches look like out of the hand. I know it sounds somewhat vague, but the pitches you're going to be able to hit well consistently have a consistent look. And you can build an eye for it.

The next thing is to learn how to divide the plate in certain counts. In hitters' counts you can look middle to in and with some exceptions on the first pitch you can do the same. If a pitcher throws a sinker or gets pumped up with the changeup or splitter you can adopt the same approach and swing timing as outlined in pitcher counts and swing timings.

Pitcher counts and most first pitch situations the pitcher is going to attempt to hit some spot on the outside of the plate (overwhelmingly they'll try to put it down and away).

Now, the second part of dividing the plate is learning the swing timings. A lot of my failure was not swinging with the correct timing on those middle to inside pitches. You need to swing early-ish. The idea is to get the head of the bat through the zone. When I struggle, my swings on those pitches are far too neutral, which still often gets labeled as "good."

On the outside pitches you want to stay on the ball longer and want to swing so the bat meets the ball.

Basically on either type of pitch you want to avoid those neutral swings or you'll tend to pop the ball up, or weakly flare it or ground out to an infielder.