Do you use the L-stick when batting?

[Braves Fan]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

Nobody said anything about the right way or wrong way, lol

The comment was made that if you don't use it you can't have a realistic batting experience.

That bugs me I'm sorry. First it was if you use guess pitch you aren't playing realistically now it's if you don't use the L Stick you aren't playing realistically.

[DJ]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

Let's keep it civil guys. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I've learned a lot by reading the different explanations as to why people do or do not use the L-stick.

It's interesting to read how many different ways people approach batting.

[Dean3790]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

I've never used it. Leaving it in the middle covers a huge part of the strike zone and about 75% of hittable pitches are in that PCI circle when you don't move the stick (I play on All-Star with Psycho Bulks sliders). The other 25% of pitches are either completely out of the zone and in no way hittable or just outside of the PCI, which means they are fouled off or occasionally kept in play. Psycho has made it a point himself to show that you can get great hits on pitches that are out of the PCI (you will occasionally hit a home run or something even if it is out of the PCI) so bothering with moving the stick is not all too important.

[Phoenixmgs]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

The comment was made that if you don't use it you can't have a realistic batting experience.

That bugs me I'm sorry. First it was if you use guess pitch you aren't playing realistically now it's if you don't use the L Stick you aren't playing realistically.

But if you are not using the left stick, it's not a realistic batting experience. That's just plain true. Hitting a baseball requires you to locate and time the pitch. So, if you aren't doing both, it's not a realistic recreation of the act of hitting plain and simple. If you don't have the hand-eye coordination to do both then, by all means, do what you have to do to hit at a realistic clip.

And, guess pitch CAN be extremely abused quite easily. Guess Pitch on anything but NO FEEDBACK requires a slew of house rules to NOT be abused.

[Braves Fan]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

lol no it does not. I play with guess pitch all the time and I don't need any house rules. If what you were saying were true and I was abusing it I would be leading the league in hitting. You can't abuse guess pitch, it's impossible. Even if you guess right you aren't guaranteed to get a hit.

[Phoenixmgs]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

lol no it does not. I play with guess pitch all the time and I don't need any house rules. If what you were saying were true and I was abusing it I would be leading the league in hitting. You can't abuse guess pitch, it's impossible. Even if you guess right you aren't guaranteed to get a hit.

Guess pitch can be easily abused. For example, you can guess fastball every pitch, the game tells you if you are correct before the pitch. So, even if you guess wrong, you know that a fastball isn't coming so you can wait back and not worry about being blown away with a fastball. Even when you guess wrong, you know way too much information about the pitch. That is why guess pitch-no feedback is the only realistic way to use guess pitch because you shouldn't be told before the pitch if you guessed right or wrong.

Also facing certain pitchers while using guess pitch is extremely broken. For example, Tim Wakefield is super easy to hit with guess pitch. And, any reliever with 2 or 3 pitches is extremely easy to hit with guess pitch.

If you guessed right, you should hit the ball hard. Hitting the ball hard is how you get most of your hits, the harder you hit the ball the less chance of a fielder gloving it. Therefore, you will be hitting the ball hard more often and your hit totals will be higher than if you didn't use guess pitch. That line of logic makes perfect sense.

[Braves Fan]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

You would be surprised how many times I guess right and time it wrong and hit a weak pop up or a weak ground ball. There are times I even thought I timed it perfectly and I don't hit the ball hard. It's not as easy as you say.

And just because you guess a fastball doesn't mean you know what's coming. In some cases you'll know it's an offspeed pitch but which offspeed pitch are you going to get and where is it coming? In other cases pitchers have 2 or 3 different fastballs. Some pitchers have a 2 seamer and a cutter so if you guess 4 seam FB you still could get one of the other two.

It's not as easy as you think, at least not for me.

And the bottom line is I want realistic results and to enjoy the game. Using guess pitch offers that to me. What good is it going to do me if I turn everything off and play "realistically" but I get unrealistic results? How would that be realistic?

[Phoenixmgs]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

You would be surprised how many times I guess right and time it wrong and hit a weak pop up or a weak ground ball. There are times I even thought I timed it perfectly and I don't hit the ball hard. It's not as easy as you say.

And just because you guess a fastball doesn't mean you know what's coming. In some cases you'll know it's an offspeed pitch but which offspeed pitch are you going to get and where is it coming? In other cases pitchers have 2 or 3 different fastballs. Some pitchers have a 2 seamer and a cutter so if you guess 4 seam FB you still could get one of the other two.

It's not as easy as you think, at least not for me.

And the bottom line is I want realistic results and to enjoy the game. Using guess pitch offers that to me. What good is it going to do me if I turn everything off and play "realistically" but I get unrealistic results? How would that be realistic?

Well, the experience would still be realistic. I played with guess pitch the first time I played this series and I saw how unrealistic and cheap it can be. The 4-seamer is the fastest so you can still wait back a bit on the other fastballs. It does make the changeup very hittable though. You guessed wrong on fastball and you see a straight pitch coming but think it may be the 2-seamer; well, you should still be able to make contact and pull that changeup foul. Whereas if you didn't guess, you would've thought it was a 4-seamer and swung just a touch earlier and completely missed that changeup.

[Braves Fan]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

Well I think striking out 13 times a game and having half your team hitting under the mendoza line is unrealistic.

I still strikeout about 5-8 times a game and that's a realistic amount to me. Swinging at balls in the dirt and having guys with 70 K's in May wasn't realistic at all to me.

And I use guess pitch differently now than I did when I first starting using it. I try to think along with the pitcher now (which I think is more realistic than seeing ball, hit ball) whereas before I was guessing fastball low in the zone just so I wouldn't swing at pitches in the dirt.

[Phoenixmgs]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

Well I think striking out 13 times a game and having half your team hitting under the mendoza line is unrealistic.

I still strikeout about 5-8 times a game and that's a realistic amount to me. Swinging at balls in the dirt and having guys with 70 K's in May wasn't realistic at all to me.

And I use guess pitch differently now than I did when I first starting using it. I try to think along with the pitcher now (which I think is more realistic than seeing ball, hit ball) whereas before I was guessing fastball low in the zone just so I wouldn't swing at pitches in the dirt.

That's exactly what I mean, guess pitch needs house rules. Hitters do need to be able to see ball hit ball to a degree. However, you have to go up to the plate with a plan. The strike zone is too big to try to cover it all, and you'll end up hitting a pitcher's pitch and making an easy out by trying to cover the whole plate. I look in certain locations before 2 strikes and let every other pitch go.

[Braves Fan]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

I don't consider that a house rule though, I mean I still will look at pitches low in the zone, just not all the time now. And you are penalized for guessing wrong so I try to not guess wrong if I can help it.

Let me ask you this, how far do you take this realism stuff? Are you against lowering pitch speed as well? Because if you want to get technical that's not realistic either. Major league hitters can't adjust sliders to make it easier for them but we can. Are you against adjusting sliders to improve your hitting? Keep in mind not everyone's skill set is the same. Are those people playing unrealistically? I hit from pitchers cam, is that unrealistic as well? I guess so seeing as how batters don't hit from that angle in a real life.

Where do you draw the line? This is why I think this realistic stuff is so silly. I think this game gives you a realistic experience no matter how you choose to play.

[Phoenixmgs]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

I don't consider that a house rule though, I mean I still will look at pitches low in the zone, just not all the time now. And you are penalized for guessing wrong so I try to not guess wrong if I can help it.

Let me ask you this, how far do you take this realism stuff? Are you against lowering pitch speed as well? Because if you want to get technical that's not realistic either. Major league hitters can't adjust sliders to make it easier for them but we can. Are you against adjusting sliders to improve your hitting? Keep in mind not everyone's skill set is the same. Are those people playing unrealistically? I hit from pitchers cam, is that unrealistic as well? I guess so seeing as how batters don't hit from that angle in a real life.

Where do you draw the line? This is why I think this realistic stuff is so silly. I think this game gives you a realistic experience no matter how you choose to play.

If you look at my slider topic, you'll actually read that I say to adjust pitch speed and user contact (it's just a check swing slider) to your preference. I think it's silly to still be batting like we did on the first Nintendo system like 20 years ago.

This is a quote from me from this thread:

the only way to tweak you own hitting ability in the game is to tweak the user timing slider or pitch speed. If you find hitting too easy or too hard no matter what you do with timing or pitch speed, you have to change the hitting difficulty level. And, pitch speed and timing will vary for pretty much every person as we are all differently skilled at hitting.

For the hitting camera question, you should hit from whatever batting cam you can see the ball best.

[REDRZA]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

Do you use the L-stick when batting or are you a timing-only guy?

I am timing-only. I try and use the L-stick, but I'm terrible at it.

This is the one thing i HATE about this gm. On all levels ABOVE rookie you are supposed to use the left stick to cover certain zones of the plate. Says so right in the in gm instruction manual. The fact that any bum can dumb hitting down to a single button press kills the challenge of the gm.

Newsflash, major league hittters cannot cover both sides of the plate when a pitcher is changing locations and speeds. Good hitters spoil good pitches by fouling them off. If you want an easy, dumbed down hitting experience play on rookie. Nothing more frustrating than seeing solid contact when you check the swing analysis and see the pci never touched the ball.

I really hope they fix this next year.

[Phoenixmgs]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

This is the one thing i HATE about this gm. On all levels ABOVE rookie you are supposed to use the left stick to cover certain zones of the plate. Says so right in the in gm instruction manual. The fact that any bum can dumb hitting down to a single button press kills the challenge of the gm.

Newsflash, major league hittters cannot cover both sides of the plate when a pitcher is changing locations and speeds. Good hitters spoil good pitches by fouling them off. If you want an easy, dumbed down hitting experience play on rookie. Nothing more frustrating than seeing solid contact when you check the swing analysis and see the pci never touched the ball.

I really hope they fix this next year.

I play on Legend and don't even strikeout much because the game is so lenient with stick placement. I'll seriously press down and away on the left stick and foul off a high fastball, it doesn't make any sense. And, I also get too many outs because of the left stick leniency. For example, I'll hit a weak pop up on a pitch my PCI was completely under when I look at my swing analysis. That should be a swing and a miss, not an out. And, I very much doubt that they'll fix it, it's been like this since at least 06.

[Braves Fan]

Re: Do you use the L-stick when batting?

This is the one thing i HATE about this gm. On all levels ABOVE rookie you are supposed to use the left stick to cover certain zones of the plate. Says so right in the in gm instruction manual. The fact that any bum can dumb hitting down to a single button press kills the challenge of the gm.

Newsflash, major league hittters cannot cover both sides of the plate when a pitcher is changing locations and speeds. Good hitters spoil good pitches by fouling them off. If you want an easy, dumbed down hitting experience play on rookie. Nothing more frustrating than seeing solid contact when you check the swing analysis and see the pci never touched the ball.

I really hope they fix this next year.

Why? Why not leave as many options in the game as possible so everyone can play how they want and enjoy the game? Why does something have to be fixed so everyone has to play like you do? Makes no sense.