Tips on How to Hit

[dvazquez190]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Close your eyes when swinging. Trust me. Surely you won't get any worse after that!

Well that's one way to improve. Become so bad all you can do is get better lol

[FSanchez12]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Any tips on why perfect swing timing is resulting in foul balls and pop ups? I don't think it can be entirely which direction I'm pointing the analog stick since every time I had "perfect" timing I had the stick pointed in the direction of where the pitch was located.

[slugga77]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

My advice is never use power swing. Takes away the foul tip factor as well as check swing. I never use power swing and hit a normal amount of homers on every version of the game.

[Braeden]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Any tips on why perfect swing timing is resulting in foul balls and pop ups? I don't think it can be entirely which direction I'm pointing the analog stick since every time I had "perfect" timing I had the stick pointed in the direction of where the pitch was located.

Maybe up the pitch speed a little?

Or try and swing the bat so the ball is hitting the "sweet spot".

[iLLWiLL]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

These are great tips in terms of strategy -- thanks


Can I get some tips on actual controller management though? Like, where do you position the PCI before the pitch? Dead-center, down & away, up & in, slightly off-center, etc etc.

Where do you keep your EYES set? Do you keep them wherever your PCI is positioned and just hope/wait for a ball to enter the area? Or do you actually track the ball's movement from the pitcher's hand all the way through the plate???


Just like an actual baseball player, I go through my streaks. I started the season at LEGEND (carried over from MLB14), then slipped a little, down to HoF. Was hitting pretty well for several games, thought I had it all figured out, but I've been on such a bad streak that I've dipped all the way down to All-Star. In my season mode, across my 3 teams (Phillies, Pirates & Orioles), I am batting .206, which waaaaaaay below the actual current MLB average of .245

[dvazquez190]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Ok i'll address a few posts i've seen. The first was based on timing.

You can have perfect timing even if the PCI is in a completely different area than where the pitch was thrown. Chances are you will either completely miss the pitch or hit it weakly. Having the PCI in the correct location is more important (IMO) than the timing. You can hit the ball with authority with Early timing, Late timing, and Good timing. You cannot however hit the ball with authority if the PCI is in the wrong location. Also your timing slightly shifts the PCI. Keep that in mind when hitting the ball. Where the PCI is placed in relation to the pitch location has a huge impact on how you hit the ball. If the ball is above the PCI you will pop it up. If its below you will ground out. If it is centered you will hit a line drive. Again timing also affects how the ball will be hit so don't take this as me belittling the impact of timing the swing. That said make sure you learn exactly how the PCI affects how you hit the ball.

Next thing i'll address is the power swing. It has it's uses. If you are comfortable only using contact and are successful do not change. As the old adage goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it. As for people who want to incorporate it just remember it does lower your PCI and it forces you to really center the ball. If you can do that you will be greatly rewarded. It's all personal preference.

Last thing i'll address is the poster questioning where you should look and where you should place your PCI prior to the pitch. The real answer to the PCI portion is wherever you feel comfortable. Personally I always leave the PCI in the middle prepitch and react. Obviously you will react to some pitches and locations better than others. I tend to struggle with hard stuff inside and high. Those are pitches I take unless i'm in protect mode. I would suggest not touching the PCI before the pitch only because it forces you to look for a pitch in a certain location. Normally you would think that's fine but the problem is if the pitch is close to that location you won't adjust which will either cause you to pop out or ground out. You won't hit it flush. Obviously you will get lucky at times but for the most part you will struggle. Also holding it in a certain zone will basically shut off every other zone. As for where to keep your eyes I can only tell you that I watch the pitch out of the pitchers hand. I have good enough reaction where I can put good timing on the ball while still making sure i'm not swinging at a bad pitch.

Hope that helped.

[iLLWiLL]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Also your timing slightly shifts the PCI.

I posted a thread on this a couple weeks ago ... it is the single thing that I hate about zone hitting in this game. Some have said this shifting was in previous versions, but I don't recall it being as drastic as it is this year. IMHO it adversely affects hitting too much. I still don't understand the need for it...

Last thing i'll address is the poster questioning where you should look and where you should place your PCI prior to the pitch. The real answer to the PCI portion is wherever you feel comfortable. Personally I always leave the PCI in the middle prepitch and react. Obviously you will react to some pitches and locations better than others. I tend to struggle with hard stuff inside and high. Those are pitches I take unless i'm in protect mode. I would suggest not touching the PCI before the pitch only because it forces you to look for a pitch in a certain location. Normally you would think that's fine but the problem is if the pitch is close to that location you won't adjust which will either cause you to pop out or ground out. You won't hit it flush. Obviously you will get lucky at times but for the most part you will struggle. Also holding it in a certain zone will basically shut off every other zone. As for where to keep your eyes I can only tell you that I watch the pitch out of the pitchers hand. I have good enough reaction where I can put good timing on the ball while still making sure i'm not swinging at a bad pitch.

You are right, holding the PCI off-center before the pitch certainly does cause me to look for the pitch in one location, or half of the zone even. Although, for whatever reason, I am a low-ball hitter -- I can't hit the high stuff, or the inside stuff -- so I tend to keep the PCI low pre-pitch. In that sense I guess that I "play to my strengths". But, man, I have a hard time keeping the PCI in the center pre-pitch, because once I react to the pitch, if I am not pulling/pushing on the stick even slightly in one direction, then my reactions aren't subtle and my PCI movement is not gradual, they are drastic and I end up moving the PCI to the extreme top, bottom, or corners....

[dvazquez190]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

I posted a thread on this a couple weeks ago ... it is the single thing that I hate about zone hitting in this game. Some have said this shifting was in previous versions, but I don't recall it being as drastic as it is this year. IMHO it adversely affects hitting too much. I still don't understand the need for it...


You are right, holding the PCI off-center before the pitch certainly does cause me to look for the pitch in one location, or half of the zone even. Although, for whatever reason, I am a low-ball hitter -- I can't hit the high stuff, or the inside stuff -- so I tend to keep the PCI low pre-pitch. In that sense I guess that I "play to my strengths". But, man, I have a hard time keeping the PCI in the center pre-pitch, because once I react to the pitch, if I am not pulling/pushing on the stick even slightly in one direction, then my reactions aren't subtle and my PCI movement is not gradual, they are drastic and I end up moving the PCI to the extreme top, bottom, or corners....

You aren't the only one. I have a tough time getting to what I call "Tweener" pitches. Pitches that sit between the middle of a Zone and the bottom or top of a zone. I'm either under or over the pitch. I get lucky that I foul a decent amount of those pitches off but most of my outs come from those pitches. Again you're going to get out. That is the way the game of baseball is designed. Being successful just means you fail less than other players. That said what has helped me is really looking in a certain zone and reacting to that zone early in the count. My success comes from hitting meat pitches and pitches in the zone I react best to. I try and lay off or foul off pitches as best I can until one of those scenarios occur.

As for the PCI thing they are correct. The PCI has always moved based on timing. I'm not sure if it's any worse in this game. I've always noticed the same amount of movement personally. It is unfortunate though. I get the fact that timing influences an untouched PCI, but if you are moving it than it shouldn't shift a manually controlled PCI.

[iLLWiLL]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

You aren't the only one. I have a tough time getting to what I call "Tweener" pitches. Pitches that sit between the middle of a Zone and the bottom or top of a zone. I'm either under or over the pitch. I get lucky that I foul a decent amount of those pitches off but most of my outs come from those pitches. Again you're going to get out. That is the way the game of baseball is designed. Being successful just means you fail less than other players. That said what has helped me is really looking in a certain zone and reacting to that zone early in the count. My success comes from hitting meat pitches and pitches in the zone I react best to. I try and lay off or foul off pitches as best I can until one of those scenarios occur.

As for the PCI thing they are correct. The PCI has always moved based on timing. I'm not sure if it's any worse in this game. I've always noticed the same amount of movement personally. It is unfortunate though. I get the fact that timing influences an untouched PCI, but if you are moving it than it shouldn't shift a manually controlled PCI.

Your advice about getting ahead in the count and it will bring you meat pitches has proven to be very valuable. I was finding when I got up 2-0 or 3-1, I was getting pitches right down the middle -- to where I didn't even need to touch the PCI! -- on several occasions! While on HoF difficulty last night, I took knocked out 4 homeruns using the Pirates. Unfortunately, they were all solo homers and I only got two other hits and I lost 6-4

Yeah, as I said before I absolutely hate the PCI shifting. I'm surprised there hasn't been more [negative] feedback regarding it ...

[dvazquez190]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Your advice about getting ahead in the count and it will bring you meat pitches has proven to be very valuable. I was finding when I got up 2-0 or 3-1, I was getting pitches right down the middle -- to where I didn't even need to touch the PCI! -- on several occasions! While on HoF difficulty last night, I took knocked out 4 homeruns using the Pirates. Unfortunately, they were all solo homers and I only got two other hits and I lost 6-4

Yeah, as I said before I absolutely hate the PCI shifting. I'm surprised there hasn't been more [negative] feedback regarding it ...

Sorry about the close loss. Sometimes I can pitch Gems, others I get rocked on HOF. That's why i'm giving tips on hitting because I need to hit a ton if I want to win lol.

As for the PCI it's a pain but I understand the logic behind it. The middle is suppose to represent the bat head. So your timing is always going to change the way the bat goes through the zone and strikes the ball. In that sense I can see why the PCI would move just based on your timing. That said it still gets annoying when it causes you to miss a pitch lol.

[dvazquez190]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Funny I thought about this thread last night while I was playing RTTS. I was facing a sinkerball pitcher and he hung a sinker right in the middle of the plate. Didn't move the PCI at all and swung out of my shoes. Grounded out to the SS. Frustrated when I came up next time I checked my timing and PCI for that pitch. They moved my PCI up and to the right. Not slightly either. It was a fairly big move. I was so pissed lol.

[iLLWiLL]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

They moved my PCI up and to the right. Not slightly either. It was a fairly big move. I was so pissed lol.

I just don't get the reasoning behind it. I wish there was some kind of official explanation for why it behaves in that manner, it just seems to be an equalizer that keeps my team batting average around the league average, ~.250 or ~9 hits per 9 innings ...

[dvazquez190]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

Just to show you how far it moved here is a pic of it. I had to Screenshot it and send it to a friend when it happened. Just so you can see the pain I went through lol.

P.S. I was wrong I thought it was a sinker but it was actually a cutter.

[HuPeRcHiLd]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

I'm using direction hitting this year and have been fairly disappointed with it's effectiveness.

In RTTS, my hitter is a lefty. The only direction that seems to produce any positive result is high/outside. Everything else ends up being a soft grounder, a double play (9/10 if a guy is on first, which really irks me), or a high pop fly. What makes it even more frustrating is that my character has 90+ rating on all hitting categories, and the timing is almost always good (and even when I use guess pitch successfully).

Someone mentioned it earlier in this thread, about how the game is trying to keep the team's average (at least in RTTS) to a certain level......I can believe this, because my character will go into long slumps for no good reason. I vary strategies but keep my timing good but it doesn't have any affect. And no, that's not realistic, it's just frustrating BS! .....

[dvazquez190]

Re: Tips on How to Hit

I'm using direction hitting this year and have been fairly disappointed with it's effectiveness.

In RTTS, my hitter is a lefty. The only direction that seems to produce any positive result is high/outside. Everything else ends up being a soft grounder, a double play (9/10 if a guy is on first, which really irks me), or a high pop fly. What makes it even more frustrating is that my character has 90+ rating on all hitting categories, and the timing is almost always good (and even when I use guess pitch successfully).

Someone mentioned it earlier in this thread, about how the game is trying to keep the team's average (at least in RTTS) to a certain level......I can believe this, because my character will go into long slumps for no good reason. I vary strategies but keep my timing good but it doesn't have any affect. And no, that's not realistic, it's just frustrating BS! .....

I dabbled with Directional Hitting for two reasons. It was new, and there was a trophy tied to it. I used it for about a week. Didn't like it, never used it again lol. I found I was a much better hitter with Zone hitting. My advice would be to get away from it. I know with zone it takes some time to get use to it. But in the long run you have more control with zone and you can do everything with zone that you can do with directional. If you insist on sticking with directional than I can tell you a few things that helped me. I only influenced where I wanted to hit it in certain situations. Most times I treated it like timing. Again I wasn't the most successful with this style but the times I did well that was my strategy.