Ball Going Through the Bat

[canes21]

Has anyone else seen this issue? My friend and I are sharing a profile and do an offline franchise together that we share through the cloud. Same sliders, game settings etc. Every game he struggles to hit because at least once an inning he will see a player miss a pitch or multiple pitches with the ball going through the bat. Sometimes it's a little bit of the ball that I can understand happening from time to time. Other times it's as centered as a swing can be and it still goes through the bat.

I don't see this issue in my games and as a result I don't struggle to hit as much. And this isn't just his word. We broadcast our games every night and I see him show it off in replay mode over 5 times a game. 3-1 count fastballs down the middle to Jose Abreu and it's a good timing swing that goes straight through the ball. Instead of him raking in runs, he constantly struggles to score 3 runs a game despite an amazing lineup.

Its not a lack of skill or anything. We used the same sliders all last year with very even results. However this year, it's just ridiculous the amount of balls he is seeing that go through his bats. I'm not lying when I say it literally happens once per inning at the very least.

We both have digital copies. I can't imagine deleting and reinstalling the game would change anything, but is that a possible fix or just an idea that's ultimately a placebo?

[Jr.]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

It's just a visual issue. The game doesn't base contact off of the bat visually connecting with the ball. I'm sure they try to make it look that way, but it's just a visual quirk, like the ball going through a glove and player's limbs clipping

[canes21]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

What is frustrating for us is I'm not seeing it. If I get a 3-1 fastball down the middle with good timing, I drive it. If he gets it, 50% of the time it literally looks just like the picture. We see it over and over and over again in his game. If I swing and miss, I literally missed.

It feels like more than just a visual glitch. I have a hard time believing his lineup which is 5th in the league in contact is missing so many pitches and half of them are just visual glitches while my team is 2nd or 3rd in contact and I never see it. Never. The most I've seen is a seam clipping through the bat, not the entire bat and ball being centered like he does 6-7 times a game.

I can get 12 hits and 6 runs off of poor pitching. He can't even though he swings at the same exact pitches with the same exact timing in the same exact location. He could face a 60 overall pitcher with 25 K/9 and see mistake after mistake and this issue will happen over and over. I'll see better pitching and hit the mistakes every time.

If he had a bad lineup, I could believe it more, but it's a lineup full of 80+ contact hitters and he isn't chasing, he is being patient, he's only swinging at pitches I'd swing at, and we're getting completely different results. Something is happening.

[bigd51]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

Took a photo of this a few weeks back, so yes, I noticed the same issue after not being able to hit a certain pitch despite 'good'/'early' timing. This was a no contact miss, mind you. Quick look at the replay showed me this.

[Jr.]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

What is frustrating for us is I'm not seeing it. If I get a 3-1 fastball down the middle with good timing, I drive it. If he gets it, 50% of the time it literally looks just like the picture. We see it over and over and over again in his game. If I swing and miss, I literally missed.

It feels like more than just a visual glitch. I have a hard time believing his lineup which is 5th in the league in contact is missing so many pitches and half of them are just visual glitches while my team is 2nd or 3rd in contact and I never see it. Never. The most I've seen is a seam clipping through the bat, not the entire bat and ball being centered like he does 6-7 times a game.

I can get 12 hits and 6 runs off of poor pitching. He can't even though he swings at the same exact pitches with the same exact timing in the same exact location. He could face a 60 overall pitcher with 25 K/9 and see mistake after mistake and this issue will happen over and over. I'll see better pitching and hit the mistakes every time.

If he had a bad lineup, I could believe it more, but it's a lineup full of 80+ contact hitters and he isn't chasing, he is being patient, he's only swinging at pitches I'd swing at, and we're getting completely different results. Something is happening.

Oh, well then I don't know. I haven't gone in to look at replays like that this year. I know it was just a visual issue in the past and didn't directly affect gameplay.

It's just difficult to poinpoint because the PCI isn't a direct representation of the bat, so while you might have centered the pitch in the PCI, it doesn't mean you made contact.

[canes21]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

We're using Timing/Directional hitting. My players are doing exactly what is supposed to happen with good timing on mistake pitches. His players are missing them with this issue 50% of the time which kills his offense, dampers the experience of the franchise, and just leaves us confused. Why does my 77 contact player put evvery 3-1 fastball in play when I time it up, but his 88 contact player swings and misses half of the time when the timing is good?

[Jr.]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

We're using Timing/Directional hitting. My players are doing exactly what is supposed to happen with good timing on mistake pitches. His players are missing them with this issue 50% of the time which kills his offense, dampers the experience of the franchise, and just leaves us confused. Why does my 77 contact player put evvery 3-1 fastball in play when I time it up, but his 88 contact player swings and misses half of the time when the timing is good?

I couldn't tell you. I'm not seeing this in my game, so it's tough for me to understand why it could be happening. I swing and miss at pitches when my timing is good, but certainly not half the time. I can imagine how frustrating that must be.

[canes21]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

I would say maybe it's bad luck, but we're 100 games into the franchise and broadcast them all. After the first 30 ir so games he started going into replay to look at his misses and now he does just about every at bat and it's over and over and over. So it's not really bad luck, something weird is going on.

[dickey1331]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

From my understanding replay doesn't show every frame and that plays apart of it. I know a few years ago someone brought that up and that's what was discovered.

[KBLover]

Re: Ball Going Through the Bat

We're using Timing/Directional hitting. My players are doing exactly what is supposed to happen with good timing on mistake pitches. His players are missing them with this issue 50% of the time which kills his offense, dampers the experience of the franchise, and just leaves us confused. Why does my 77 contact player put evvery 3-1 fastball in play when I time it up, but his 88 contact player swings and misses half of the time when the timing is good?

Isn't there a rating for that? I believe it's Plate Vision?

I know Chris Davis is prone to that on my team even vs RHP where he has an 81 contact. Stanton also - and both have mediocre Plate Vision.

I play on Directional and I think of it like this (not sure if it's accurate, but it makes sense in my head):

Contact = BABIP/Likelihood of hard contact when he connects.

Discipline = Likelihood of chasing balls (and maybe pitches on the edges in general?)

Plate Vision = Contact rate in general.


So high contact and low vision would be a guy who hits its pretty solid when he makes contact, but is also prone to being fooled on pitches if the pitcher can set him up/has good movement/changes speeds, etc. Ex: Davis hit over .300 with 50+ HR for me, but also led the team in K's with 139.

Low contact and high vision makes for a guy who won't swing and miss much but that contact is probably not ideal. Choppers, lazy flies, routine grounders, etc. Ex: Hechavarria hits like a wet noodle, but he makes a ton of contact on my team. Has a garbage BA, a bad BABIP (.260) but doesn't K.

High contact and high vision is a scary combo. Puts the bat on the ball a lot and does so for good hits (line drives, hard grounders and good trajectory fly balls). Yelich is like that for me - had a .361 BABIP. Carlos Santana vs LHP has 99 contact now and it actually helped him hit more HR (ended up with 30) because his Vision/Contact combo meant that any time I timed it well, he was hitting the ball with force.


Again, not sure if it's accurate, but it seems to play out when I look at the stats.