MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

[jcar0725]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

Thanks for your response, Trojan Man. I think you're right -- I' m going to switch to DD and try to get the hang of hitting from there. I probably should have done that from the beginning, but I tried to get cute with the sliders, lol. I'll keep you posted on my progress. Thanks again for your response.

Trust me, it's where you are looking. You have to focus in on an area to get to learning how to read the pitches. I focus high in the zone, near the pitcher's release point and it helps me "read" the pitch.

I suggest using DD, lowering the pitch speed, and using batting practice to get used to it.

[nunogomes]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

In directional, where the reticle moves is based on the batter's vision. The player holding the controller does not move it.

HOWEVER, using directional WILL effect where your ideal pitch locations are. Pull hitting will bring ideal pitch location slightly to the inside. Push will push it slightly outside.

Influencing up will bring your ideal pitches slightly down (and can be good if the opposing pitcher has a good sinking pitch that you're struggling to hit)

Influencing down raises your vision and widens your ideal pitches in all directions, but has the biggest impact on power.

So your batter's vision CAN catch pitches outside your ideal pitch location, but the closer to the ideal pitch location for your influence the pitch is, the more likely you are to get solid contact.

Also keep in mind that a fastball down the middle is ideal for ALL influences.

Great explanation, i believe i understood all you wrote, except the underlined parts. That really messed me up...

Can you please elaborate a bit on those two underlined sentences?

Thanks!

[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

Great explanation, i believe i understood all you wrote, except the underlined parts. That really messed me up...

Can you please elaborate a bit on those two underlined sentences?

Thanks!

Sure! Directional hitting isn't like Hitting with the PCI. Your batter is trying to influence the ball to travel in the direction you pick.

When you influence up, your batter is looking to get UNDER the ball in order to hit it up into the air. Therefore, your ideal ball location is going to drop a bit. This is also why it's a great swing to use against a sinking pitch. Trying to get under the ball (just as you would when trying to hit a flyball) can help your batter adjust to that nasty splitter. This type of swing can also generate more power.

However, since your purposefully trying to get under the ball to hit it up, this can mess up the batters vision, and create more pop flys, especially on high pitches.

When you influence down, your batter is basically ignoring power and just looking to drive at the ball and get solid contact. It pretty much guarantees you won't hit a home run (I never have at least) but since this type of swing is JUST about getting the ball in play it can work well with leadoff type hitters and hitters with speed.

Since your only looking to get solid contact, it's also easier to check, and works really well in a situation where you still want to pull but are more concerned about putting the ball in play then any sort of power, like when you want to just advance a runner for example.

It's also a good swing for working the count, but be aware that it will produce more solid contact and therefore more balls in play. When trying to foul off and work the count back, I usually use a push swing for my power hitters, so I can see the ball a little longer and have more leeway to foul off late as opposed to hitting into play and risking an easy out.

Generally, you only want to use downward influence with speedy batters or when you're trying to do some situational hitting.

I talked about some of this earlier in the thread, so refer to that if you want more info. Something I didn't mention earlier though: Your influence will effect how easy it is to check swing (along with swing type). Pull and Up influences are harder, while Push and Down influences are easier.

[nunogomes]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

Sure! Directional hitting isn't like Hitting with the PCI. Your batter is trying to influence the ball to travel in the direction you pick.

When you influence up, your batter is looking to get UNDER the ball in order to hit it up into the air. Therefore, your ideal ball location is going to drop a bit. This is also why it's a great swing to use against a sinking pitch. Trying to get under the ball (just as you would when trying to hit a flyball) can help your batter adjust to that nasty splitter. This type of swing can also generate more power.

However, since your purposefully trying to get under the ball to hit it up, this can mess up the batters vision, and create more pop flys, especially on high pitches.

When you influence down, your batter is basically ignoring power and just looking to drive at the ball and get solid contact. It pretty much guarantees you won't hit a home run (I never have at least) but since this type of swing is JUST about getting the ball in play it can work well with leadoff type hitters and hitters with speed.

Since your only looking to get solid contact, it's also easier to check, and works really well in a situation where you still want to pull but are more concerned about putting the ball in play then any sort of power, like when you want to just advance a runner for example.

It's also a good swing for working the count, but be aware that it will produce more solid contact and therefore more balls in play. When trying to foul off and work the count back, I usually use a push swing for my power hitters, so I can see the ball a little longer and have more leeway to foul off late as opposed to hitting into play and risking an easy out.

Generally, you only want to use downward influence with speedy batters or when you're trying to do some situational hitting.

I talked about some of this earlier in the thread, so refer to that if you want more info. Something I didn't mention earlier though: Your influence will effect how easy it is to check swing (along with swing type). Pull and Up influences are harder, while Push and Down influences are easier.

Oh, i got it perfectly now! Amazing explanation!

Thanks!

[pozezanc]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

Oh, i got it perfectly now! Amazing explanation!

Thanks!

How does a hitter's vision rating affect their hitting ability? I interpret good vision as seeing pitches well and drawing walks, but if that is it, then it becomes a moot point with a human controller bat. Can someone fill in the gaps for me please?


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[jcar0725]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

How does a hitter's vision rating affect their hitting ability? I interpret good vision as seeing pitches well and drawing walks, but if that is it, then it becomes a moot point with a human controller bat. Can someone fill in the gaps for me please?


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I always thought "vision" was how well the batter gets the meat part of the bat in the right spot during the swing. I'm probably wrong though.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

How does a hitter's vision rating affect their hitting ability? I interpret good vision as seeing pitches well and drawing walks, but if that is it, then it becomes a moot point with a human controller bat. Can someone fill in the gaps for me please?

I always thought "vision" was how well the batter gets the meat part of the bat in the right spot during the swing. I'm probably wrong though.

You're both right... and you're both wrong. What vision does changes on your hitting interface.

If you're simming, vision combines with discipline to determine walks and pitch counts.

If you're using the PCI, vision determines the frequency of fouls vs swing and misses on pitches outside of the PCI when you swing. Timing is also a factor.

In directional and pure analog, vision is used to help determine the batters PCI placement, and is very important in the Directional interface. Again timing is also a factor, but batters can "adjust" to your mistakes using vision, again especially in directional.

So in directional, when you mis-time a pitch out of the zone, and your batter fouls it off, that's their vision at work. Then again, when you time a pitch perfectly right in your happy zone and the batter only does a weak pop up, that's your vision failing, so it cuts both ways.

Think of it this way: In directional, contact effects how large of an effective hitting zone a player can cover, while Vision effects how well they can adjust to different speeds and follow the pitch. Probably the most important stat in Directional.

Directional is my hitting interface, so I can't really speak much to the other ones.

[jcar0725]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

You're both right... and you're both wrong. What vision does changes on your hitting interface.

If you're simming, vision combines with discipline to determine walks and pitch counts.

If you're using the PCI, vision determines the frequency of fouls vs swing and misses on pitches outside of the PCI when you swing. Timing is also a factor.

In directional and pure analog, vision is used to help determine the batters PCI placement, and is very important in the Directional interface. Again timing is also a factor, but batters can "adjust" to your mistakes using vision, again especially in directional.

So in directional, when you mis-time a pitch out of the zone, and your batter fouls it off, that's their vision at work. Then again, when you time a pitch perfectly right in your happy zone and the batter only does a weak pop up, that's your vision failing, so it cuts both ways.

Think of it this way: In directional, contact effects how large of an effective hitting zone a player can cover, while Vision effects how well they can adjust to different speeds and follow the pitch. Probably the most important stat in Directional.

Directional is my hitting interface, so I can't really speak much to the other ones.

Good info thanks. I don't use directional but still helpful.

[BillPeener]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

In directional, where the reticle moves is based on the batter's vision. The player holding the controller does not move it.

Hey, thanks for the helpful info. Curious: How do you know the above is true? Are you saying that batter vision influences how big the invisible PCI for directional hitting is? And how does vision influence where the PCI moves to? Is it a thing where higher vision means the PCI will move closer to where the pitch is expected to go?

[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

Hey, thanks for the helpful info. Curious: How do you know the above is true? Are you saying that batter vision influences how big the invisible PCI for directional hitting is? And how does vision influence where the PCI moves to? Is it a thing where higher vision means the PCI will move closer to where the pitch is expected to go?

To answer your questions in order, I don't really know if anything I said is true, but I've spent a lot of time with directional hitting and I'm pretty good at picking up on tenancies an patterns. As I stated earlier in the thread, my info is in no way official.

No, vision does not effect the PCI size, only the movement (which is invisible to the player) The PCI shown on the screen shows total potential plate coverage, not actual PCI placement. Actual PCI size is determined by contact rating and the opposing pitcher's H9.

Yes, vision effects how likely the player is to follow the pitch and square up the ball. There are no guarantees, even at 99 vision, that the player will square up the pitch every time, but higher vision players are more likely to get more solid contact. They are also more likely to foul off as opposed to swing and miss on mis-timed or difficult pitches.

[COMMISSIONERHBK9]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

so how far up do you put the reticle ?

All of this is my opinion, I can't prove it, but I'm pretty good and have years of experience with this setting. So, if the ball is centered between top and bottom of the zone, it will give you a line drive trajectory. If you want to try to a home run or a sacrifice fly, you're better served to try to place the ball toward the top of the zone, because you'll get more air under it. If you're trying to advance a runner with a ground ball, you want to try to place the zone on, but shifted slightly above the ball so that the ball is hit toward the bottom of the zone.

Left to right, you generally want it to be centered. If your zone is inside the ball, so for a lefty, you have the zone more to the right and the ball appears on the left side of the zone, you're moving toward slicing the ball into left field. And vice versa. If the ball is inside and your zone is more outside, you are going to pop the ball up more often or pull it foul. In both instances, you're more likely to foul the ball off as opposed to having a centered ball.

[Juve]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

So if the pitcher keeps throwing low balls, should I be pulling the left stick down to swing, or up?

Also, when are the ideal times to differentiate between using the regular swing, contact and power? Other than obviously when a batters stats heavily favor one over the other..

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[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

So if the pitcher keeps throwing low balls, should I be pulling the left stick down to swing, or up?

Also, when are the ideal times to differentiate between using the regular swing, contact and power? Other than obviously when a batters stats heavily favor one over the other..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Is this still directional? If it is then both will actually work. When influencing up, you're trying to get under the ball and get it up in the air, so it can help with those low pitches. Whereas influencing down will get your batter to "attack" or "drive at" the ball, eliminating a lot of power but making solid contact more likely for any pitch location.

Use normal swing when even or ahead in a count. Use contact swing when you're down two strikes and you want to work the count and foul off. Don't use power swing.

Seriously, power swings are for those 9th inning two out situations where you NEED an extra base hit to survive. 99.9% of the time it should be ignored. It's basically throwing your bat away. The risk it adds is not worth the reward of power it brings. Use a pull or up influence (or both) if you want a little more pop in your bat.

[Juve]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

Is this still directional? If it is then both will actually work. When influencing up, you're trying to get under the ball and get it up in the air, so it can help with those low pitches. Whereas influencing down will get your batter to "attack" or "drive at" the ball, eliminating a lot of power but making solid contact more likely for any pitch location.

Use normal swing when even or ahead in a count. Use contact swing when you're down two strikes and you want to work the count and foul off. Don't use power swing.

Seriously, power swings are for those 9th inning two out situations where you NEED an extra base hit to survive. 99.9% of the time it should be ignored. It's basically throwing your bat away. The risk it adds is not worth the reward of power it brings. Use a pull or up influence (or both) if you want a little more pop in your bat.

Thanks man
And yeah, it was for directional

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[jcar0725]

Re: MLB The Show 17 Teach Me/Strategies Thread

Thanks man
And yeah, it was for directional

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I never use directional because I'm really bad at it. After reading this, I think I've been doing it wrong. I thought I'm supposed to move the stick to the location of where the ball is pitched, plus swing the bat. Which I can NEVER do. But, that's not how it works?