How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

[plak89]

I've tried hitting without it using directional hitting and it's a no-go for me. I've always played with guess pitch on in past years and am thinking about doing it again (playing on Legend btw). I just can't react that quick unless I guess the pitch right. How do you guys do it?

[KBLover]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

I guess...just in my head.

For example, if I think fastball is coming, I'll gear myself up for it and if it's straight-ish and looks fast, I'll swing fast.

Of course, if it's a change-up...well...yeah. lol

But, if it is a change and I do recognize it, I'm not auto-penalized because it's not the pitch I guessed with the mechanic. Instead, I adjust like hitters can do. Depending on how well I adjusted, that's my result - just like baseball.

So, what I would do is every time you want to guess with the mechanic, guess in your head and trust your eyes and your hands. Play in Exhibition mode to get the hang of it first.

[takki]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

You won't want to hear this answer, but....it comes down to practice.

Set the difficulty to the online default (all star I think?) and head to the batting cage. Pick a pitcher who can throw heat and do the batting control drill. Make sure to choose a batter who the opposite handedness as the pitcher you chose (it's much harder to hit a pitcher who is same handedness as your batter and you simply want to practice).

In that drill, the CPU will always throw strikes. So ignore the objective and just practice hitting.

Yes, at first, those 97mph fastballs and 70mph change ups will make you look silly. But after doing the drill a couple dozen times, adjusting your batting camera to something that allows you to see the ball better, and more...you'll consistently get hits.

Guess pitch is a crutch. There's no shame in using it but if you actually want to improve your hitting, setting it to either no feedback or off is the way to go.

[AJRC323]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

it comes down to practice.

Yep. I was like you Play89, I used guess pitch (on the easiest difficulty on top of that) every season, but this year I wanted to get into Diamond Dynasty, so I had to learn to not only hit on higher difficulties, but without guess pitch. Takki is correct that the online difficulty is All Star by the way. Also, having an idea of what pitchers will throw on certain counts will make the transition easier. I've noticed that the game tends to follow real life trends in what will be thrown on certain counts. However, if the CPU gets you on a certain pitch a few times in a row, it will tend to start throwing that pitch almost exclusively.


Oh, and starting on Legend is almost narcissistic. =P

[jfen31]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

Hate guess pitch. I find it distracting, and become overly-jumpy when I know an off-speed pitch is coming.

[rjackson]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

I've tried hitting without it using directional hitting and it's a no-go for me. I've always played with guess pitch on in past years and am thinking about doing it again (playing on Legend btw). I just can't react that quick unless I guess the pitch right. How do you guys do it?

My first suggestion is to stop playing on legend difficulty when batting.

Second, realize how big it is to not get penalized when you recognize a hanging change/curve.

Third, you can still use guess pitch but sparingly. Like, when they only have one pitch they are throwing for strikes. Just like a real hitter, if you can't elimate something, you can't sit on something.

Hope this helps.

[plak89]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

Guess I'll just keep practicing without it...Do you guys recommend zone or directional hitting?

[KBLover]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

Guess I'll just keep practicing without it...Do you guys recommend zone or directional hitting?

Ultimately, do what's best and most fun for you.

However, starting off, I would say Directional and without using the influencing.

The main reason is I think this lets you just focus on thinking about your approach and seeing pitches and adjusting your timing if need be.

[DarthRambo]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

I used to play with Guess pitch 1/4 but no don't. Honestly it just takes practice but it's all about getting your timing and seeing pitches. Now if I try to play with guess pitch on it throws me off cuz it's one extra thing I have to focus on at the plate. It's now easier to me without it. Just focus at the plate, DON'T try to use directional hitting. I rarely if ever do, and when I do I mess up 9 times out of 10.


I'd also drop your difficulty setting Allstar at most, but honestly Veteran is not that easy with timing hitting.

[Syce]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

i cant stand guess pitch, because it just makes me tunnel vision and i hate that.

[brrmikey]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

Guess I'll just keep practicing without it...Do you guys recommend zone or directional hitting?

i use zone, no guess pitch. i would find it hard to believe anyone striking out on a regular basis using zone hitting (button or analog) with:
diff. = rookie
cursor = on
pitch speed = 0
contact = max
timing = max
etc...

have you already tried the above approach? pitch speed 0, rookie difficulty, and maxed out offensive sliders? ...as your starting point for adjustment as this may be way too easy at first

[plak89]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

i use zone, no guess pitch. i would find it hard to believe anyone striking out on a regular basis using zone hitting (button or analog) with:
diff. = rookie
cursor = on
pitch speed = 0
contact = max
timing = max
etc...

have you already tried the above approach? pitch speed 0, rookie difficulty, and maxed out offensive sliders? ...as your starting point for adjustment as this may be way too easy at first

I've played these games in the past (last had 13? i think) so I'm not a novice, but I need to practice more. I have been playing on HoF with zone and am getting better. I bumped pitch speed down 1 tick because everything I made contact with was the other way, it was ridiculous. Fastballs just seem so fast on this game.

[mlblover15]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

get rid of strike zone hot zones if you have them.. use Catcher 2 it gives you a good deep look at the pitch coming, slow down pitch speed until you can adjust.

also focus on the pitchers waist line area.. watch (dont try to follow) his motion and find his release point... once you find this and can consistently pick it up you have found the what i like to call the sweet spot...

now i dont walk a ton if at all ever... im a chaser but i have gotten better since adapting this approach... try TRY to not swing at balls low in the zone... it is hard... your eye and brain see the ball out of the hand, your brain tracks it coming in.. still hittable... by the time you say swing it is at your ankles...

i still struggle with this... maybe im not the best guy to give advise lol... good luck going forward...

[cmutat17]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

Hate guess pitch. I find it distracting, and become overly-jumpy when I know an off-speed pitch is coming.

Completely and %100 agree. The guess pitch throws me off. I try to go into an at-bat with no game plan. I just read the pitch and swing.


OP: If you continue to use guess pitch, practice hitting that change-up and if you know a trick, please share.lol

[Maxil]

Re: How do you guys hit without Guess Pitch?

If you just practice reading the ball as it comes out of the pitchers hand more, eventually you'll get to a place where you feel pretty solid with your decision to swing or not.

There's 3 main ways I've learned to do this, and I tend to alternate/use all 3 during the course of the game. Because handiness vs your batters handiness comes into effect, and the arm motion the pitcher uses, sometimes you have to switch this up. But as the game goes on you get a feel for what the ball is going to do.

The first is the obvious, stare at the ball the entire time from pre-pitch to swing. I've found this is good for getting timing down, but I swing on a lot more pitches on the edge/out of the zone than I should, and on a lot of low throws. You're focused on primarily the speed of the pitch and sometimes lose your place on where exactly the ball ends up in the strikezone. Needed mostly on super fastball throwers.

The method I use the most, is stare at the pitchers hand the entire pitch. After an inning or so you'll know at what point in the motion the ball leaves the pitchers hand. So when you focus on the pitchers hand, you begin to learn how the ball tends to curve and drop. As you focus on his hand, the very moment the pitch is thrown you'll get a sign of what is going to happen - if the ball immediately goes hard to the right or left of the hand you might want to lay off. If it drifts up, it's probably a curve, etc. I get a ton of walks using this, however deceptive pitches can be an issue, this years change up is especially deadly and you'll expect the straight fastball a lot with this method and it ends up dropping out at the end. You're timing will be from eventually learning to identify the speed based on the release of the ball, i.e. knowing the very moment its thrown if its a slider, fastball, or curve. Remember the key here is to stare at the pitchers hand, not the ball, on the pitch.

The third is focusing on the batters eye. That big box in the outfield behind the pitcher. I don't even directly look at the pitcher at all. This is a bit of both my first and second method. You get a good view on the angle of the pitch and how it will turn or arc. The goal here is to keep your eyes in a fixed position like my looking at his hand method, but this time you are looking "through" the pitcher. Because your eyes are in the exact same position every pitch, you create a strike zone in your mind and should immediately know based on what the ball is doing if it will be in that strike zone or not. And since you're "wide focused" and not closed in on one part of the pitcher or ball you still see the ball moving and can get a decent read on the pitch.

Problems with the last approach are pitchers with a lot of movement in their wind ups. A correctable problem is getting doubt with where you are staring, it should be at the same point every time. But if you begin to struggle you may move your eye placement to different parts of the box, causing the zone in your head to constantly change, not a great thing. Problems with all the approaches are odd throwing arms, it may just be me with these methods but I struggle specifically with underarm throws.



With all of these methods, until I get to 2 strikes, I create a smaller strike zone. Within the strike zone box I make a second, smaller box about half the size of the strike zone. I generally will not swing at all if the pitch is outside this smaller box. Leads to getting ahead of the count a lot, and some walks. When I try to teach friends how to play the show, the biggest issue nearly everyone has is seeing that the pitch will be a strike and they decide to swing, even though it's a pitch that is on the edges somewhere that they'll just barely get or pop out on. Learn to let these go. I've found that you'll pretty much always get 1 or 2 really good pitches to hit at every at-bat, sometimes you just have to work for them to get to that point though.