Online Play Advice for a nOOb

[Nickstank]

I played my first online game today. It was a friendly against a guy from work. We played on All Star and I lost 3-1 even though I had the better team. The stuff I've read on this forum and others seemed to hold true:

-Hitting is much more difficult with this most recent patch
-Fielding feels slow and awkward. The fielders have very little urgency getting to balls or throwing them once they do, no matter the situation
-The PCI size is much smaller than it was, and good PCI placement isn't always rewarded i.e. "good" timing with "good" contact and the ball in the middle of the PCI yielding weak pop-ups.

For those who have played online a lot, are there any little tips you can offer a newbie that will help me overcome some of the growing pains of learning the online game? I consistently beat the CPU on Hall of Fame and Legend, but I know online is another animal and I wasn't very encouraged by my game this morning. Any tips are appreciated!