Does lowering pitch speed make hitting easier?

[Burgess]

Guys, I'm still struggling with this and it's driving me crazy. Does lowering pitch speed make hitting easier or does it just affect your ability to pull the ball more often? When I play with pitch speed at 5 I am satisfied with the number of hits and homers I hit, bit a large number of my hits are off field and my timing is always late. Even when I am expecting a fastball and get one, I'm still usually late. That gets a bit frustrating when you are hitting with guys like Duda and Cespedes. I have tried pitch speed at 4 and find that I do pull the ball more but also WAY earlier on off speed pitches. But I do make better contact with good timing more often. However, my last game with it at 4 I beat the Nationals 12 - 0 with 17 hits. Just a coincidence and it was just "one of those games" or does lowering pitch speed make it that much easier to hit? I appreciate ANY help as I want to get this settled in my head. I don't want to make things too easy for me as I want to feel like I've earned the homer and the win, but also want to pull the ball more often but not if lowering pitch speed makes hitting too easy

[nomo17k]

Re: Does lowering pitch speed make hitting easier?

Lowering Pitch Speed would make hitting easier in a sense that you have a tad more time to decide whether you should pull a trigger and also for adjusting PCI (if you use Zone-type hitting).

If you are happy with the ratio of pull/push, then I would say that's a good pitch speed to go with for you. If you feel hitting has become a bit easier, you could compensate it by decreasing sliders like Timing and/or Contact, to make it slightly tougher for your to square up.

But exactly what you might want to adjust may depend on which hitting interface you use.

[Burgess]

Re: Does lowering pitch speed make hitting easier?

Thanks for the response. I use timing hitting and A&S sliders that have hitting sliders at default except contact at 4. I'm pretty reluctant to start adjusting sliders too much if possible as I get a BAD case of slideritis once I start. And then I feel the need to start my franchise over every time I adjust a slider.

[nomo17k]

Re: Does lowering pitch speed make hitting easier?

With Timing interface, you don't have much control over PCI placement, so you might not need drastic Contact adjustment.

It might be enough to just use Timing slider, clicking down or two, to see if the game plays tighter for you.

I agree you shouldn't start worrying too much about sliders. The game usually plays well with default sliders, and more often than not you'd be fooled by placebo effects while adjusting sliders.

[Moonripple]

Re: Does lowering pitch speed make hitting easier?

If you are having trouble hitting, then the two biggest difference makers (in my opinion) are the pitch speed sliders and the batting camera. Finding a camera that allows you to judge pitches is the most important, but a pitch speed adjustment can help if your problem is consistently late swings. I would be careful and not lower pitch speed any more than you have to - too slow, and you'll find that you don't strike out enough to be realistic.

How I typically adjust my hitting using the sliders:

1. Adjust the camera till I can judge strikes and balls effectively.
2. Adjust the CPU strike frequency slider to get realistic strike/ball ratios.
3. Adjust pitch speed and the contact slider to get realistic hit and strikeout totals.
4. Adjust power, timing, and solid hits to get realistic doubles and HR totals (I don't worry about triples - if you get realistic doubles, then your fast guys will get their triples).