Timing analog hitting

[davewins]

Re: Timing analog hitting

I have decided that I am going to look for the pitch, and if it is in, I am going to swing at in, and if it is not, I am going to take it.

I hate to play the look-for-a-pitch game, but for now, I am going to concentrate on waiting for the pitch to drive, and then getting after it.

~syf

Go into batting practice mode. Pitch recognition where you get fastballs in. Use a right handed batter vs right handed pitcher. Now the goal is to only put fastballs in play. Every pitch is thrown inside so you don't have to worry about anything else. The idea is just to practice recognizing the fastball inner half. Keep doing this until you really start getting good at it.

Then when you feel you are ready take it to the game and look middle in fastball. Visualize every pitch before it comes in. Don't just sit there and wait for the pitch. Actually visualize the pitch coming in. Visualize YOUR pitch. The pitch that YOU know you can hit very good. Now when you get that pitch your eyes are going to light up and it's going to seem as if everything's in slow motion when obviously it's not. This is when you are locked in to your pitch and all you have to do is execute. This is what baseball players do. What separates the good from bad are the ones that can cover more of the plate. It's all about reactions.

Give this a fair shot and I will be surprised if you don't improve. What I do is look middle in fastball and if I don't get it my eye can still see that it's going to be a hittable fastball and I judge in a split second if I can time it good enough for a hit. Basically you learn what's hittable and what's not and you wait for these pitches.

You can only visualize one pitch at a time though. That's the whole trick. You can't visualize middle in fastball and away fastball and expect to hit either one. You have to pick one and really gear up for it. If you don't get it you must adjust accordingly. This is where discipline comes in. If you don't get it with 0 strikes you should just lay off completely even if you know it's going to be a strike. With 2 strikes or even 1 strike you must be able to not get your visualized pitch and still hit it squarely.

I had the most hits so far doing this. I had 17 hits and 10 runs as the Sox vs the Orioles. I won 10-5. Granted the O's left handed #2 starter isn't all that hard to hit. However, I knocked him out of the game by waiting for my pitch. I let him have his pitch. Let the umpire call a strike on it. No problem. Patience is so important. Trust your eyes. Trust the fact that your eyes WILL light up on your pitch and you will react to the pitch accordingly.

[stealyerface]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Okay Coach...

I am on it.

I will report in with my results after my big game tonight against Texas at the Fen.

Middle in... must... hit... middle ...in.

Thanks for the hints.

~syf

[davewins]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Yeah let me know how you make out. You have to be patient all around. Patient in practicing and then patient when taking it to the field. Patience is key. Always remember the best quote...

"Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical." - Yogi Berra

I truly think players get in slumps because they start pressing. They start putting too much pressure on themselves to get a hit. It's not uncommon for me to play with a national league team and go 3 for 4 with the pitcher and 0 for 4 with my clean up hitter. Why is that? Because I am trying too hard to crush one with my powerhouse clean up hitter. When my pitcher is up I don't try to do too much. I just try to make good contact.

[stealyerface]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Well, last night I welcomed the Texas Rangers to the Fens with high hopes of getting my first win under my belt, and I figured out the key to the sensitivity of the Analog Hitting.

When you decide to swing, you MUST commit to the swing, and leave the R-stick push up for the duration of the swing, and honestly, I left it there until the swing was totally done. I will refer to this as Follow Through. Finish the swing. Hmm... Seems like i might have heard that for 30 years.

Anyway, I was able to collect a very nice variety of 12 hits, including HR's from JD Drew who took a pitch on the outside corner and I went with it, depositing it in the Monster Seats, and an absolute b..o..m..b.. from A-Gon who hit the black tarps covering the seats in dead center 451 feet away...

Long story short, I won 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth on a passed ball that allowed Varitek to score from third with Pedroia at the plate.

Thanks by the way for the tip on the warmup pitches. I had skipped them previously, and my closers paid dearly for not being ready to go and with brimming confidence in at least their number 1 pitches.

Papelbon pitched a very tidy top of the 9th, so maybe the key is getting those warmups in there to raise the specific pitch comfort factor.

So, I am 1-8 so far with the new game, and tonight, I head to Palm Frond Park on the West Coast of Florida for an exhibition matchup with the Phillies.

Sure, I can roll up 10 hits on Tommy Hunter, but let's see what my team can produce against the Phil's studs.

~syf

[davewins]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Congratulations on your first win!

Another BIG thing in analog hitting is only moving the analog stick back a little bit for the stride. Don't pull it all the way back. This WILL make a difference. Moving the stick from this position is much faster. Your swing quickness will increase. You will not be getting fastballs blown by you nearly as much as if you pulled the stick all the way back. Same thing works for pitching. I just find it easier to control the stick when it's in the 40% range opposed to 0%. 0% meaning right stick all the way down and 100% all the way up. 50% being it's default middle position.

[stealyerface]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Totally. I realized that you need only to shift it back a tiny bit to get that stride started, and the flick and hold forwards happens a LOT faster, and with less lag than going all the way back.

Sometimes I practice the stride before the pitcher pitches just to remind myself of how little I actually have to move the stick to get it started.

I felt bad with my first win coming on a passed ball, but I played small ball to get there.

Varitek pinch hits for Salty in the 9th and lines one off the Texas closer. I love the animation where he hobbles around the mound after takling one off the ankle. Now comes the great part about the game. I want to pinch run for Tek, but I am out of catchers. So, if I do not score a run in the 9th, I have to catch someone who usually does not do so... And with the defense an important part of the game this year... I leave Tek out there.

Sacrifice with Lowrie and a perfect bunt. Tek to second one out. Ells hits a ball using the Contact swing, and does his job gettign it to the right side, Tek to third, 2 outs. I decide that I am going to have Pedroia take a strike before i swing, hoping to get the pitcher behind, and I can look fast ball. Ball one, ball two. Now I sit 2-0 and decide I am going to look for something and smack it. For wahtever reason, the Texas pitcher throws a slider that bounces in the dirt, and gets under the catcher's legs, and Tek wins the game standing up.

I loved the win, but felt i got cheated out of actually winning the game, but i did work smart to get Tek to third, and honestly, this was my most enjoyable game yet. Not because I won, but because I finally realized the key to the Analog swing, and actually had to tell myself to follow through and finish the swing...

Great game, and tonight after real practice, I'll fire up a game against the Phils, and see if I can keep the streak alive.

~syf

[davewins]

Re: Timing analog hitting

There are definitely too many passed balls/wild pitches in the game. I will eventually try to find a fix to this even if it means maxing out player ratings. According to http://seattlesportsinsider.com/news...s-wild-pitches the league average for 2010 was 11-12 passed balls for the entire season. They mention that wild pitches are 4x more likely. So I can see this happening with guys like AJ Burnett on the mound but I still think we see too many. Some balls just look like they could be stopped by the catcher.

[stealyerface]

Re: Timing analog hitting

This is a problem that gets compounded by the fact that with guys on base, I do not want to throw that slider/splitter/changeup anywhere near the bottom of the zone.

I am not sure that raising the catcher ratings will do the trick, but there needs to be an addition of a Passed Ball Slider.

I am seeing more balls blocked in the dirt, and this is a cool addition, but the fact is that there needs to be a way to tone these down.

In fact, given the choice of having 5 per game between both teams, or none, I would choose to see it removed. Except for this scenario.

If you are going to play with the API, and have the catcher call the game, if you throw a slider and he has called a fastball, the odds of the passed ball should increase exponentially. Never before has a game included the catcher getting mixed up, and this would be unprecedented in the world of the video game SIM.

If Tek wants a fastball knee high and on the inside black, and I decide to throw a curveball down in the dirt, there ought to be a penalty as such.

Otherwise, there are too many passed balls for Major League Catchers.

~syf

[davewins]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Very interesting point about catcher getting crossed up. That would be pretty cool to add.

Here are the stats from 2010. These are team stats. The most amount of wild pitches for a team was 82 while the least was 26. The most amount of passed balls for a team was 16 and the least was 3. I didn't feel like adding the actual teams together to get a realistic number so I just took the highest possible and lowest possible to get a general idea. So basically the most possible combination PB/WP for the 2010 season by team was 98 and the least combination would be 29. So round that off somewhere in the middle and we are looking at roughly 65. 162 games in a season % 65 and the approximate total of WP/PB per game would be 1 for every 2.5 games played.

Yeah I wish they would get some sliders that really do some serious tweaking for the sake of realism. So many people play the game different and have different skill sets and so many people's beliefs of realism/fun factor are different. I would welcome tons of sliders with a 100 point system. The more the better.

[mva5580]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Congratulations on your first win!

Another BIG thing in analog hitting is only moving the analog stick back a little bit for the stride. Don't pull it all the way back. This WILL make a difference. Moving the stick from this position is much faster. Your swing quickness will increase. You will not be getting fastballs blown by you nearly as much as if you pulled the stick all the way back. Same thing works for pitching. I just find it easier to control the stick when it's in the 40% range opposed to 0%. 0% meaning right stick all the way down and 100% all the way up. 50% being it's default middle position.

This sounds like it would definitely help me. I pull the stick all the way back every single time, I'm definitely going to try this tactic. Sounds like it would help. But for pitching, how is it effected by the line at the bottom of the bar? If you don't go all the way down, does it hurt the effectiveness of the pitch?

[Jgainsey]

Re: Timing analog hitting

This sounds like it would definitely help me. I pull the stick all the way back every single time, I'm definitely going to try this tactic. Sounds like it would help. But for pitching, how is it effected by the line at the bottom of the bar? If you don't go all the way down, does it hurt the effectiveness of the pitch?

I don't think so. As long as you pull the stick down past a certain point, it seems like it's no different than pulling back all the way.

[davewins]

Re: Timing analog hitting

This sounds like it would definitely help me. I pull the stick all the way back every single time, I'm definitely going to try this tactic. Sounds like it would help. But for pitching, how is it effected by the line at the bottom of the bar? If you don't go all the way down, does it hurt the effectiveness of the pitch?

No it doesn't hurt the effectiveness of the pitch. The effectiveness is determined by how fast you flick the stick back up. Of course the timing of the upward motion is important as well as the location of the upward movement.

[COMMISSIONERHBK9]

Re: Timing analog hitting

question when do you guys use contact power or normal when you use analog?

[stealyerface]

Re: Timing analog hitting

Situational.

I get up in the count 2-0, I might swing Power, and when I get down in the count, normal or contact.

Depends on the pitcher...

Like I said, Situational.

~syf

[[Icy]]

Re: Timing analog hitting

I'm really trying to enjoy analog hitting, but the stride is stressing me too much.

I pay more attention to get the perfect stride maximizing the yellow oval so i'm always late trying to recognize the pitch type and location, so i swing at everything.