Is batting harder or is it just me?

[NEOPARADIGM]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

Not to brag but man I've been mashing. In 20 games Miggy, VMart and Cespedes have combined for 22 HR and we're 18-2 out of the gate. Ridiculous. (Patiently waiting for the other shoe to drop; I smell a 8-12 incoming for my next 20.)

In any event the #1 thing this year and every year is HAVE AN APPROACH. It doesn't even matter what the approach is, but you must have one, else you're just reacting to pitches as they come in and that's an uphill battle.

Have the hit in mind, literally visualize it, "I'm gonna rip the first baseman's head off with this," for example. Notice that even in reading that sentence you know where the pitch needs to be, what kind of pitch you want, and when you need to swing.

When you don't have an approach, or if you abandon your approach mid-pitch, "I'm gonna rip the first baseman's---oops I mean I'm gonna swing at that because it might be a strike" is a good way to pop out to the catcher. By having an approach you reduce the number of pitches that "look good" by about 80%, resulting in way more good takes and way more 5-8 pitch at-bats.

[Hoosierdaddy76]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

Not to brag but man I've been mashing. In 20 games Miggy, VMart and Cespedes have combined for 22 HR and we're 18-2 out of the gate. Ridiculous. (Patiently waiting for the other shoe to drop; I smell a 8-12 incoming for my next 20.)

In any event the #1 thing this year and every year is HAVE AN APPROACH. It doesn't even matter what the approach is, but you must have one, else you're just reacting to pitches as they come in and that's an uphill battle.

Have the hit in mind, literally visualize it, "I'm gonna rip the first baseman's head off with this," for example. Notice that even in reading that sentence you know where the pitch needs to be, what kind of pitch you want, and when you need to swing.

When you don't have an approach, or if you abandon your approach mid-pitch, "I'm gonna rip the first baseman's---oops I mean I'm gonna swing at that because it might be a strike" is a good way to pop out to the catcher. By having an approach you reduce the number of pitches that "look good" by about 80%, resulting in way more good takes and way more 5-8 pitch at-bats.

Nailed it. It's so fundamental to have an approach to every at-bat. I find that when I'm slumping with players, it only gets worse because I'm foregoing my approach that I use with the rest of the team. I tell myself "This guy needs a hit!" and find myself just reacting to (bad) pitches rather than reminding myself to stay back or looking for a pitch in a particular spot.

[mattnett1]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I usually swing at fastballs up in the zone. Since most of my Homers have been from up in the strike zone.

I'm right handed. I aim with directional hitting to the upper left corner. Since I wanna hit a home run. And I'd say 30% I get a hit. 60% a pop up. 10% fly out.

I have hits with muddle of the zone/ borderline with bottom of the zone. But those happen 45% of the time.

I'll try the timing thing out though. Not directing it. I use normal swing about 99% of the time.

Well... I'll post back to say if it worked or not.
I'm just guessing I'm using directional hitting wrong. But the ball is like a magnet sometimes to the outfielders lol.

[daddies3angels]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I play on HOF setting and I seem to get results. When I am patient I hit well like scoring 18 runs vs STL but like yesterday I was very impatient and CPU recognize and I scored 3 runs in 4 games. I do like how CPU adapts on how much I am swinging. Today I told my self to be more patient and I have scored 11 runs in 2 games today. Patience is the big key

[Tidefan22]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

not sure if your eyes can handle this but you can immediately tell the general location of a pitch immediately at the release point(then all you have to do is recoqnize what pitch.)

A pitcher has a general location as to where he releases the ball but you will notice there is a difference in location for lower and higher fastballs, as well as inside/outside.

Once you've trained your eye to do this. Look for fastballs!

you can tell if its a fastball by how fast THE pitch makes it past that first 5-20 feet.

I also draw a line from the top of the batters zone to the pitcher's release point. Then another line from batter's belt to release point. If that pitch starts above the top line all i gotta do is wait on a breaking pitch or watch the high heat above the zone.

If it goes below the belt line then I know I have more time to react and read the pitch. In addition, if the pitch starts away, you have a bit more time.
This is important to remember for a high fastball away(strike) and a good curveball which will start in that same location and will land low in the strikezone BUT you will notice it does not make it past that first 5-20 feet fast enough to be a fastball, meaning you don't have to panic and prepare to hit high heat.

Also take into consideration the height of your batter.

I hope being 13th in COTW is a fair credential (3,500 000)PSN = SaskatcheWHAT.

One of my main struggles in COTW and hitting in general is I tend to forget my approach mid at-bat.

If u don't mind can you elaborate a little more on what u mean. Are u say your drawing a line at the top middle of the strike zone and drawing it straight to his release at a angle? Also with the belt, are u drawing the line from the guys actual belt at a angle to the release point? Or belt high but in the middle of the strike zone and drawing the line from there to his release. I'm not quite getting what your saying. I'm not a bad hitter but I'm still adjusting to the no stride in pure analog and I'm early on pitches.

Sent from my DE Note 3

[majesty95]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I thought it was at first but now I'm getting the hang of it. I also like zone hitting better than directional.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ghyhtd]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I've been pretty awful at batting this year, but I think some of it comes naturally with getting accustomed to the new game. For instance, I'm waaaay out in front of change-ups now. Can't explain it, they just look different coming across the plate.

[HouseKeepinItReal]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

If u don't mind can you elaborate a little more on what u mean. Are u say your drawing a line at the top middle of the strike zone and drawing it straight to his release at a angle? Also with the belt, are u drawing the line from the guys actual belt at a angle to the release point? Or belt high but in the middle of the strike zone and drawing the line from there to his release. I'm not quite getting what your saying. I'm not a bad hitter but I'm still adjusting to the no stride in pure analog and I'm early on pitches.

Sent from my DE Note 3

Yes, I draw a line from the top of the batter's zone at an angle to the release point.

I draw a horizontal line from the entire top line of the batter's strike zone to the baseball as it comes out of the pitcher's hand and I even extend this horizontal line across the entire batter's box(across my screen) to account for breaking pitches that appear to start out high and away out of the zone but try to sneak back in.

If a pitch starts above that line, the only way it is going to make it back in is with some sort of breaking pitch. The taller the batter the less break for high pitches, sinkers are not really an issue here as they barely break when pitched that high unless it is going a little slower.

Envision the belt line the same way but instead when the ball appears below that line you know you have more time to react to the pitch.