Is batting harder or is it just me?

[HouseKeepinItReal]

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.

[Dolenz]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I am playing on Veteran + right now and 11 games into the season I am in the top 10 for BA. I still feel like I struggle though.

I think with directional hitting the count can matter. I seem to make better contact deeper into the count that I do early in the count. I was starting to explore this late in the game yesterday. But it is still hard to ignore a FB in the zone for strike one.

With directional hitting the timing window seems very small. It is rare to see a Good timing notification after I swing. I am almost always in the yellow early or late timing. And I still see an occasional red notification when I am really early.

The good news of all this is that I am having good close games and because of that I am using strategy far more often. Bunting runners over, use of pinch hitters and runner, lefty/right matchups out of the bullpen. Granted, my pitching difficulty is probably too low but with three extra inning games in the first 10 I played I feel the current balance is working out pretty well.

[mvp_status]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I just think power has been nerfed. When I'm hitting with power guys, bad pitches still end up as weak grounders. But putting the bat on the ball isn't so hard.

This is my feeling also. I'm scared to mess with sliders because I'm always afraid of affecting another part of the game. But having Miggy hitting .380 after close to 20 games with 2 HR's is getting ridiculous.

[PhilliesFan13]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

Kind of a Jekyll and Hyde type of start to my season through the first 8 games. I am 4-4 so far and I have walked a total of 40 times in those 8 games which is second in MLB to the Rays who have 41, but my strikeouts total is through the roof! I have never walked this much and never struck out this much in such a short span. These offspeed pitches in this game are enough to make me break my controller in half. It is beyond frustrating. On one hand, I love that I am walking this much (my last game I walked 9 times), but on the other hand these strikeouts are driving me insane. 6 of the 8 games have been double digit strikeout games.

11
4
11
14
9
12
11
10

I am just venting here, but this offspeed change this year has me fuming.

[Senator Palmer]

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.

Good advice. I've turned off all of the visual aids. I found they were just too distracting. For some reason, and it's probably just good old fashioned repetition, but I've gotten better at seeing the ball longer. That's the key I have found to avoiding those embarrasing swings at off-speed in the dirt -- picking the ball of as soon as possible. I can tell strike or ball pretty much instantly. Precision location to my sweet spot is what I'm still working on.

I'm going to give that bit about the line from the belt to the release point a try to see if I can lock in even more.

[Roonster]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I don't know if it's me getting older or the fact that I've been away from The Show for a couple of years. But I'm late on EVERYTHING!! I'd like to think its the latter haha. But I put the pitch speed down just one notch and everything is so much better. I'm finally able to hit to all fields and not just pushing everything.

[mattnett1]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I think so. I just dislike the directional hitting. On mlb 14 I loved the timing.

Now.... I all the sudden I don't get many hits. I did in the AAA. Is there a way to not direct the ball and just make it on timing.

I don't have the time To play a simulator game. I loved 14. It was simple and not complicated. I just want to kick back and play. Not a simulator game.

In 14 I averaged 328 average. And averaged a hit every 3 st bats.

Now... i can't hit in the mlb? I only have 3 hits out of the 17 ab. I was in AAA last year and I'm pretty much a bench warmer in mlb. I play for giants SS/2B.

I'm on beginner too. I time pitches darn well. But most of the time I get line drives to a glove ot a pop up.

Sliders help would be nice.

I play rtts all the time.

[mattnett1]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

Because even the sliders don't really help tbh. I wonder if they have toned down the power to reflect the real-life decline in power numbers?

I AGREE. I tried maxing sliders for human batting. Still the same result.

[Trigger18]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

It's about the same for me, but I play on dynamic difficulty so it's always changing

[Dolenz]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I think so. I just dislike the directional hitting. On mlb 14 I loved the timing.

Now.... I all the sudden I don't get many hits. I did in the AAA. Is there a way to not direct the ball and just make it on timing.

Simply swing without pushing the left stick in any direction and it is essentially timing.

That said, hitting is still difficult when you just swing. Through 11 games in Season mode on Veteran + hitting I am about 10th or 11th in the league for batting average. I have some guys that do really well and others that struggle.

I think I am actually getting worse the more I play. I was shut out last night.

[geisterhome]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I always used pure analog but this year I'm trying to switch to Zone Analog. I had some mixed results so far, have to keep going back to practice mode otherwise it's easy for me to aquire some bad habits. Always been hitting on AS now it has been Rookie + on dynamic difficulty for a good while...

[Hoosierdaddy76]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

I try to remind myself to stay back as often as possible. At worst, I'll miss or go opposite field when I'm late. If I intentionally try pulling anything, offspeed stuff kills me. I still end up fairly frequently pulling the ball by staying back on offspeed pitches long enough to get around on them.

[Trigger18]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

If there's 0 strikes I always take. If there's only one I will only swing if it's a fastball or a bad breaking ball. I'm actually in the middle of the pack for strikeouts and I'm I'm the top 8 for walks so far

[Smooth Pancakes]

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.

Damn this works! I had been struggling in AA with my RTTS player recently. I started watching the ball the entire time all the way from the pitcher's hand, not even looking at the strike zone, if anything only peripherally. I instantly could start getting a better feel for if the pitch was going to be a strike or a ball or right on the edge of the zone.

I went from averaging one hit a game in the series before I made that change, to having a couple games where I would get three or four hits in a game. One series I had three home runs in three games, which I had only had four on the season going into that series.

I appreciate that advice, it works like a charm!

[Smallville102001]

Re: Is batting harder or is it just me?

After like 12 games on DD I have gotten up to all star for both hitting and pitching so I may now put the slider down back to default that controls how fast you go up or down on DD as I have had it at 10 for all 12 games to try to get to around all star as quickly as I can.