Contact vs Power

[Griffey Jr]

When I sim games, people with not a lot of power hit occasional hrs, however when I play and swing with contact, they never seem to be more than soft line drives. Is a power swing the only way to hit home runs?

Also if someone has high power but low contact, does that mean that even when I am using power swing that they have less chance to make contact with the ball as opposed to someone with higher contact?

[Griffey Jr]

Re: Contact vs Power

anyone have some input on this?

[duke776]

Re: Contact vs Power

I'll throw my hat in the ring.

Personally, I used power swing just about every single time, besides 2 strike counts with contact hitters and situations that called for me to just need a base hit(say a runner in scoring position where I desperately need a run and shouldn't risk swinging with power swing).

It is possible to hit homeruns with contact swing, I hit probably 7-10 with contact swing in around 120 games in my season. I can't remember how many I had as a team, but I'd say I had probably 145-160 homeruns. So you're going to have to use power swing to hit a good amount of homeruns. I know I hit about 4 contact swing homeruns with Jeff Baker, and he has powers of 56 and 60.

Like you said a lot of the contact swings will result in weakly hit balls. That's why I mainly power swung, because I could hit line drives, doubles, triples and homers. I rarely every got extra base hits with contact swing.

The 2nd question I can't answer definitively. The devs said that that's what was supposed to happen, you'd have less chance of contact and more chance of power swinging with power swing. I can't really remember if that was the case for me or not(haven't owned the game for months now).

[Griffey Jr]

Re: Contact vs Power

I'll throw my hat in the ring.

Personally, I used power swing just about every single time, besides 2 strike counts with contact hitters and situations that called for me to just need a base hit(say a runner in scoring position where I desperately need a run and shouldn't risk swinging with power swing).

It is possible to hit homeruns with contact swing, I hit probably 7-10 with contact swing in around 120 games in my season. I can't remember how many I had as a team, but I'd say I had probably 145-160 homeruns. So you're going to have to use power swing to hit a good amount of homeruns. I know I hit about 4 contact swing homeruns with Jeff Baker, and he has powers of 56 and 60.

Like you said a lot of the contact swings will result in weakly hit balls. That's why I mainly power swung, because I could hit line drives, doubles, triples and homers. I rarely every got extra base hits with contact swing.

The 2nd question I can't answer definitively. The devs said that that's what was supposed to happen, you'd have less chance of contact and more chance of power swinging with power swing. I can't really remember if that was the case for me or not(haven't owned the game for months now).

Thanks for your input.

I have another question for you. What is the best way to recognize/hit curveballs and sliders? I feel like fastballs are so fast that I have to make a decision to swing in very little time and when a curve is thrown, I am always so far out ahead of it. Is there any way to get better at hitting off-speed in this game?

[duke776]

Re: Contact vs Power

Thanks for your input.

I have another question for you. What is the best way to recognize/hit curveballs and sliders? I feel like fastballs are so fast that I have to make a decision to swing in very little time and when a curve is thrown, I am always so far out ahead of it. Is there any way to get better at hitting off-speed in this game?

Hmm...that's a tough one. I really don't remember because I haven't played the game in so long. I do know that using power swing will give you more time to react because the swing is faster than contact swing. Sorry I can't provide a better answer for that one.

[l3ulvl]

Re: Contact vs Power

Maybe try tinkering with your batting camera to find an angle you like. I have the same problem though, I was struck out 10 times in 5 innings by Phil Hughes in my last game. I couldn't tell the difference between a knuckle curve and a fastball. The fastball comes so fast you have to decide immediately to swing or not, based on location. So when you see the location as a strike you have to let fly or get the "very late swing" message, but if it's an off speed pitch you'll get "very early swing" instead. It's frustrating but at the same time realistic.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: Contact vs Power

I'm going to throw out my take on this, which is radically different than Duke's, although, we are doing the same thing but from different angles.

I push the power slider up to 90-100. But I use the contact swing almost all of the time. I save the power swing for 2-0 and 3-1 counts. i will also use it if I have a power hitter up with 2 outs and no one in scoring position.

I like this because it keeps me thinking about working the count to my favor, and I get better games that way. Wit the power slider so high, I get random HRs from even the weak hitters, and pretty realistic totals across the board.

In order to get Duke's way to work, you will just be doing the opposite with the sliders, moving power down, and cranking the contact up. I think, depending on the individual, either way can work.

[duke776]

Re: Contact vs Power

I'm going to throw out my take on this, which is radically different than Duke's, although, we are doing the same thing but from different angles.

I push the power slider up to 90-100. But I use the contact swing almost all of the time. I save the power swing for 2-0 and 3-1 counts. i will also use it if I have a power hitter up with 2 outs and no one in scoring position.

I like this because it keeps me thinking about working the count to my favor, and I get better games that way. Wit the power slider so high, I get random HRs from even the weak hitters, and pretty realistic totals across the board.

In order to get Duke's way to work, you will just be doing the opposite with the sliders, moving power down, and cranking the contact up. I think, depending on the individual, either way can work.

Yeah, I didn't think to mention it, but sliders will effect things too. I had my power at I believe 40 or 45 when I played, so really you can do either. Play with power up and use contact swing a majority of the time, or use power swing a majority of the time and move the power slider down(although I had it at 50 for a while, until I got good enough to move it down). It's really up to personal preference on which you do, neithers right nor wrong.