Home runs with directional hitting

[Gagnon39]

I keep flip-flopping between zone and directional hitting with my Road to the Show player. I really like directional but I have a few questions that I haven't found the answer to in other posts/videos.

I'm left handed, so if I'm pressing up and to the right is doing so more conducive to pulling home runs? And for those who use this method, do you typically wait until the pitch is thrown or do you sit on a particular zone? I usually use inside or outside but rarely do I push up or down.

[Panopticism]

Re: Home runs with directional hitting

My experience has been that to push up at all will induce a popout without homerun distance most of the time. I only influence up like that if I intend to make a sac fly.

With directional hitting, they've clearly made the quality of the contact mostly dependent on timing. Hitting homeruns in directional is almost entirely the result of near perfect timing-- or so it seems. It's been harder to brute force a homer in directional than it is if you sit on a location with zone and get something fat.

With that said, I've had the most (objective) success by not using the directional inputs at all unless I actually want to induce a ground/fly ball for practical reasons. I also found improvements by using the contact swing when I have 2 strikes with runners in scoring position. I never use the power swing unless it's 3-0 or 3-1 and I get a good look at the pitch early enough to see that it's going to be very hittable.

[Benz87]

Re: Home runs with directional hitting

I've used directional hitting for the majority of my play in this years game, but recently switched to zone because I was getting tired of having "good" timing on a pitch right down the middle only to hit the ball weakly or miss completely.

I view directional hitting as a similar concept to MVP Baseball 2005, where if I'm holding up and in my batter will be attempting to pull the ball with an uppercut. I've hit plenty of homeruns doing this, but i've also hit plenty of infield pop-ups. I've done this with players of all power and different spray charts, even pulled some bombs with low power players like Scooter Gennett in my Brewers franchise.

I would also hold my input from beginning of pitcher wind up through my players swing.

[Madden's Jowels]

Re: Home runs with directional hitting

I've hit so many homers by guessing high inside fastball, and then using directional to hold up and in and turn on it when I guess correctly.

If you're not using guess pitch (I used to be a purist about guess pitch and never use it, but then I realized how fun it is to finally be able to turn on inside heat) then it might be different, because you won't know it's coming and your reaction time might be just a fraction too late, causing you to get jammed.