Is Directional hitting working properly?

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Ok I'm back today and with some Maths. Sorry but I just really want directional to work for me but my results so far have been atrocious. Don't get me wrong I am ok with the occasional chopper or flyout, but with the promise of precision input I thought directional would be the hitting mode for me this year.

I only recorded the results of pitches that were inside the displayed PCI AND I got "good" timing on. You know, something that HAS to qualify as a precise input.

I divided the results into three categories.

Positive = hard liners/hard fly balls/home runs

Neutral = Lazy but deep fly balls/hard grounders/foul balls/swingthroughs

Negative = Choppers/Popouts/lazy shallow fly balls

I got 6 positives, 6 Neutrals and 10 Negatives in the 22 instances that matched the criteria above. Notice that it wasn't about the end result (hit or out) but the quality of the hit off the bat. I'm glad precision input is working for those superhumans who can use zone hitting properly but for us mortals who have to use a different mode this is NOT precision input.

Oh, btw in case you are curious out of all of the results that didn't meet the criteria, only two positives, even when swinging early on inside pitches or late on outside ones. I was using Eric Hosmer (a guy whose swing I do relatively well with) vs Ervin Santana for this test.

[sink4ever]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Ok I'm back today and with some Maths. Sorry but I just really want directional to work for me but my results so far have been atrocious. Don't get me wrong I am ok with the occasional chopper or flyout, but with the promise of precision input I thought directional would be the hitting mode for me this year.

I only recorded the results of pitches that were inside the displayed PCI AND I got "good" timing on. You know, something that HAS to qualify as a precise input.

I divided the results into three categories.

Positive = hard liners/hard fly balls/home runs

Neutral = Lazy but deep fly balls/hard grounders/foul balls/swingthroughs

Negative = Choppers/Popouts/lazy shallow fly balls

I got 6 positives, 6 Neutrals and 10 Negatives in the 22 instances that matched the criteria above. Notice that it wasn't about the end result (hit or out) but the quality of the hit off the bat. I'm glad precision input is working for those superhumans who can use zone hitting properly but for us mortals who have to use a different mode this is NOT precision input.

Oh, btw in case you are curious out of all of the results that didn't meet the criteria, only two positives, even when swinging early on inside pitches or late on outside ones. I was using Eric Hosmer (a guy whose swing I do relatively well with) vs Ervin Santana for this test.

My bad if I've missed it, but have you mentioned what difficulty you're using (or any slider adjustments)?

[stevostl]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

TheWarmWind...

if Directional is causing you issues or if you're not satisfied with your results after ton of practice maybe you should try out Zone or Analog hitting even.

I haven't played MLB the show since 08 on PS3 and last night was my first play time with 16 ... ( 4 games vs CPU)

I was like you thinking Directional would be easier but for me but it's not.. zone is easier actually for me to get hits to be honest because the penalty on timing is less... that's mainly why I was tracking this thread to maybe understand the directional hitting better.

also.. here is a link of every hitting interface explained from last years game that helped me understand as well

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_7qTYeUt9R94uOhI9AoXcjKpbMYUEbd2

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Ok I'm back today and with some Maths. Sorry but I just really want directional to work for me but my results so far have been atrocious. Don't get me wrong I am ok with the occasional chopper or flyout, but with the promise of precision input I thought directional would be the hitting mode for me this year.

I only recorded the results of pitches that were inside the displayed PCI AND I got "good" timing on. You know, something that HAS to qualify as a precise input.

I divided the results into three categories.

Positive = hard liners/hard fly balls/home runs

Neutral = Lazy but deep fly balls/hard grounders/foul balls/swingthroughs

Negative = Choppers/Popouts/lazy shallow fly balls

I got 6 positives, 6 Neutrals and 10 Negatives in the 22 instances that matched the criteria above. Notice that it wasn't about the end result (hit or out) but the quality of the hit off the bat. I'm glad precision input is working for those superhumans who can use zone hitting properly but for us mortals who have to use a different mode this is NOT precision input.

Oh, btw in case you are curious out of all of the results that didn't meet the criteria, only two positives, even when swinging early on inside pitches or late on outside ones. I was using Eric Hosmer (a guy whose swing I do relatively well with) vs Ervin Santana for this test.

The one thing I see you mentioned is early with inside pitches...while I agree that you need to be a tad earlier on inside pitches to pull. The idea is to time inside pitches perfect and pull with the stick to rip the ball with authority. In Zone hitting you do not have a choice, you HAVE to be early to pull because how else would you influence ball? (in Directional Hitting thats what the stick is for, no option in Zone)

Thus an early swing in Zone is more forgiving than in Directional Hitting, because...

In Directional Hitting, Timing = Solid Contact and Left Stick = Ball Influence.
In Zone Hitting, Timing = Ball Influence AND Solid Contact in one

When Chris Davis or Jose Bautista pull a pitch they arent early on the pitches, they are right on time and using their follow through and violent power to whip that sucker to their pull field.

This is where I say Zone and Directional are different. You need to have good timing most of the time, and it is hard to do, to influence your batted balls to the field you want.

If you just rely on timing than yes, pitches you are early on will get pulled more often than not. But if you really wanna pull a pitch time it perfect AND pull with left stick. Same with opposite field hits, time it perfect AND push opposite field. Anything you are late or early on will now decrease the chances of solid contact.

Like I said you will still get balls hit terribly on perfect swing, but I have been late or early and ripped balls in gap.

You also said you had either 12 positive or neutral hits out of 22.
Lets say 6 of your positive hits are guaranteed hits...6 for 22 = .272 batting average, higher than most teams bat for a whole season. Then lets say 3 of your neutral hits get through infield, or over OF head, or dunk in for a hit...you are now 9 for 22, thats a .409 batting average...then lets say you beat out a chopper...10 for 22, thats .454...in 22 ABs...you got 27 ABs in a game (at least)....

You are expecting get 11-13 hits per game?
Unrealistic if you are looking for sim experience.

The idea is to make the most out of the 6 solid hits per game you are guaranteed by being patient, working the count, using directional hitting to drive runs in or move runners over. Then capitalize on the 3-4 bad hits that get you on base as well...

With practice and better timing those 6 positives will turn into 7-8 per game, and come in a more timely fashion.

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

One thing I do notice is that it's like a plus to the hit trajectory. So what may have been a liner by, say, Chris Taylor (75/25 or something in my franchise - yeah he ended up better than he did in real life thankfully though he still K's a lot for a #1/#2 guy) ended up being a lazy fly (same ball by Chris Davis or Bryce Harper might have gone out...or been a towering deeper fly (good for sac flies at least - or if trying to hit the Monster in Fenway). However, if it's a low pitch, what might have been a grounder could end up a liner over SS and into the gap.

I feel I've LOST home runs by power guys sometimes by influencing up, if the pitch is high, especially. A level swing would still be likely to be under the ball and drive it up without adding too much high trajectory. It's like down would create a pop up, up creates a sky high flyball that wastes his power. So level would be the best case on high pitches? Fortunately, like you said, we can "adjust our swings" at the last minute with Directional. So if I see a high pitch, I'll let go and level (but power) swing with those power types.

It's a calculated risk like a lot of Directional is/can be. I'll do it with runners on 1st-and-2nd and a DP would kill the inning. I'd take that lazy fly with the chance a low in/near the zone pitch turns into a liner instead of a grounder. And if I hit a grounder anyway - well that was likely even without influencing so I see it as no harm done.

I do about half-and-half with influencing or not. For guys that show a definite tendency irl (like Yelich or Davis or the year I read Jay Bruce was trying to pull everything out of the park regardless of location), I will - usually just up or down (FB/GB) except in the Jay Bruce type scenario. For the others, including fictionals I "roll up" as having no strong tendency, I don't.

We seem to be on same page.

I play with Yankees alot, so if Ellsbury leads off and Gardner is next, I try line a ball to the outfield by pulling stick horizontally (not influencing up or down) to either pull or push depending on how I am being pitched. In this case I do not want to hit a grounder (Double Play) or a popup because Gardner is not a power hitter, so lining the ball is what I want more than anything, or hard grounder past IF.

However, if Ellsbury is on first, Gardner is out, and ARod or Teixeira are up I now rather to hit ball in air because it might carry for a HR, go over the fielders head on a ball to the wall, or if its mid-low in zone produce an uppercut swing that lines the ball.

If all above fails and I end up hitting a long fly ball, I still stayed out of DP. But with those power hitters I might run into one that I can get under and launch.

[benny15]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

I think it's just a design decision because I hit a booming HR with Dexter Fowler to centre field on a FB up and away in the zone.

[PredatorKingdom]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Honestly I've just using the steady simple pressing of the X button to hit it's been better for me and less complicated. Just press X and get the timing right.

I only use directional hitting for Home Run Derby because that's the only way to get the ball out of the yard more consistently it doesn't really work the same way in a regular game.

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Honestly I've just using the steady simple pressing of the X button to hit it's been better for me and less complicated. Just press X and get the timing right.

I only use directional hitting for Home Run Derby because that's the only way to get the ball out of the yard more consistently it doesn't really work the same way in a regular game.

Yes and no...

HR Derby is exactly that, HR Derby. You are getting BP fastballs in your wheelhouse, so pressing up and pull to hit HRs is what you do, even in real life.

In a game is not that simple....even in real life. You have to pick your spots.

[PredatorKingdom]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Yes and no...

HR Derby is exactly that, HR Derby. You are getting BP fastballs in your wheelhouse, so pressing up and pull to hit HRs is what you do, even in real life.

In a game is not that simple....even in real life. You have to pick your spots.

That's exactly why I only use it in Home Run Derby because against real unpredictable pitching you don't have a lot of time to pull this ball one way or another. If you just swing and make contract you will notice how much easier it is. Even if you try to pull a ball to the opposite side it will still go the other side against real pitching so it's a waste of time and adding more thinking to a game where you're thinking 100% of the time why cramp up your brain even more? LOL!

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

That's exactly why I only use it in Home Run Derby because against real unpredictable pitching you don't have a lot of time to pull this ball one way or another. If you just swing and make contract you will notice how much easier it is. Even if you try to pull a ball to the opposite side it will still go the other side against real pitching so it's a waste of time and adding more thinking to a game where you're thinking 100% of the time why cramp up your brain even more? LOL!

I hear ya...but the main thing I have been harping on is using it in situational scenarios. If you got a guy on 3rd, with less than 2 outs, and infield is back, you want to make sure you hit that ball to right side OR in the air to OF. In that case use the stick to increase your chances. You get 1-2 runs per game doing that and that is usually difference maker between winning and losing, and sometimes keeping a rally alive.

[PredatorKingdom]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

I hear ya...but the main thing I have been harping on is using it in situational scenarios. If you got a guy on 3rd, with less than 2 outs, and infield is back, you want to make sure you hit that ball to right side OR in the air to OF. In that case use the stick to increase your chances. You get 1-2 runs per game doing that and that is usually difference maker between winning and losing, and sometimes keeping a rally alive.

I definitely understand you on that as it is helpful for that but just in my past experiences it works for me like 30% of the time. I can still get done what I need to get done on the simple swing technique. My guy has really great contact and power attributes as well which helps so I can get the ball somewhere where the runner can still score.

I would still recommend directional to anybody who wants to control those type of situations though but just know in advance it may not work well for you.

I used zone and directional more in my minor league days then once I got my ratings up I didn't have to use it anymore and I think that's the difference too is ratings can influence your success rate.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Well I managed to solve my own problem guys. I've spent most of the afternoon in batting practice, finding a way to make directional hitting work for me, and I found the secret sauce to make it all work out. The key was aggressively changing both difficulty and sliders.

I was trying rookie directional and not getting the results I wanted.

Now I'm on veteran directional and it feels a lot like center swinging with zone felt in 15, but without being as overpowered. 9 out of 10 "good" swings in the pci result in positive WHEN the direction you've picked matches up with the pitch and timing.

eg. when I time a fastball down the middle or a little inside with a power pull hitter AND I have the direction as pull, odds are I'll hit either a homerun or I'll sting the ball into the pull field.

I still get choppers and popouts, but only on pitches that I SHOULD when I swing at it.

I used to play rookie zone in MLB 15 and just center swing.

My point is Directional is now everything I dreamed it would be when they talked about precision input. Like the post or respond if you want me to post my sliders.

[KBLover]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

I divided the results into three categories.

Positive = hard liners/hard fly balls/home runs

Neutral = Lazy but deep fly balls/hard grounders/foul balls/swingthroughs

Negative = Choppers/Popouts/lazy shallow fly balls

I got 6 positives, 6 Neutrals and 10 Negatives in the 22 instances that matched the criteria above.

I don't know the ratings of the players involved or your sliders. But if we use FanGraphs style reckoning where Positive = Hard contact, Neutral = Medium and Negative = Soft - that's way too much soft contact.

But later, you mention you got 90% hard contact on good timing after some tweaks.

That just seems like one extreme to the other...that's a little concerning to me. At first you were getting much too little even medium contact and now you're pretty much getting hard hits most of the time?

Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you're reporting. Sounds like, basically, we you do everything right, you get 90% hard hits.

I don't know, maybe I'm thinking in terms of what someone like Miguel Cabrera or Giancarlo Stanton could do with 90% hard hits!

[KBLover]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Honestly I've just using the steady simple pressing of the X button to hit it's been better for me and less complicated. Just press X and get the timing right.

Reminds me of hitters who say they are just trying to hit line drives and if they happen to carry out - so be it.

Try to time the pitch and put a good, even stroke on it.

[CanOfCornCobb]

Re: Is Directional hitting working properly?

Honestly guys I started this thread because Ive been able to successfully play HoF default with Directional hitting that past 2 years competitively and played 15 the same way up until release. After about 3 hours of bat control practice with various hitters I realized that this interface on HoF was almost impossible to use with consistent, reliable success throughout a 162 game season because even getting good timing with hitters would result in either a foul tip or miss if the pitcher located the ball correctly. I would say less than 10% of the time on a ball on the corner and ''good" timing did I actually square up on the ball well enough to maybe get a base hit. I dont even want to tell you the results if you didn't get "good" timing. It's a little disappointing, but luckily im a jack of all trades and still play on HoF with either zone or analog. I would like you guys to go into bat control on HoF default with an average hitter and tell me the results without worrying which field you need to hit the ball to. Shout out to El Mayimbe for his great advice and insight, but honestly I just want to play HoF and hit "x" without having to worry about pushing or pulling every pitch, but rather rely on my ability to time pitches in correlation with my players' ratings