Yo,
So I've been having trouble hitting the long ball. I play with the Giants, and aside from Bonds, who hits one out just about every third at-bat, I haven't managed to crank one by another player in 50 games played.
After fly-out upon fly-out, I decided to find out if it was even possible for my non-Bonds players to hit HRs. I set-up a two-player exhibition game (Yankees-Giants) and pitched meatballs to myself to work on the timing.
Basically, I would quickly press a pitch button on the pitching controller (not holding it down and not pressing again in the green zone), thus resulting in a mistake pitch. Then, with my batting controller, I'd try and jack it.
This was fun, and I learned a lot about the game:
1.) Power hitters get more "mistake" pitches over the plate. When you throw a mistake, you'll either groove it or throw an obvious ball. To Bonds, nearly every mistake is right over the plate; to Ray Durham, nearly every mistake is a yellow X.
2.) Hold the left-stick up and to the left (for a rightie) or up and to the right (for a leftie) and you'll have much more success. Just pulling straight left or right often isn't enough, and straight up leads to a lot of CF fly-outs.
3.) You've got to swing early. I was consistently swinging too late in my regular games, and even with the stick pulled to the left or right, couldn't ever get enough muscle behind it. Anticipate and swing early and it'll go.
4.) It's pretty difficult (for a non-power hitter) to take a non-mistake out of the park. Bonds, however (and most of the powerhouse Yankee lineup), can jack anything, including yellow-X mistakes.
Most importantly, though, this little exercise let me work on my timing. Kinda like the missing BP game mode. In my first game back in Franchise mode, Ray Durham (leadoff man) was the only guy to get a mistake pitch in a hot zone, and my timing was flawless -- I yanked it into McCovey Cove for my first non-Bonds HR.
Sounds like a lot of people are doing fine on the HR part, but if you're not, I recommend pitching to yourself in exhibition mode. I switched pitches up (not just fastballs) so I could practice jacking changeups and curves, and it was generally a fun nine innings (Yankees won 26-23, but Bonds' 6-6, 6 HR, 7 RBI performance got him the player-of-the-game nod). Plus, Barry took one over the scoreboard at Shea Stadium, which was impressive.
Y
So I've been having trouble hitting the long ball. I play with the Giants, and aside from Bonds, who hits one out just about every third at-bat, I haven't managed to crank one by another player in 50 games played.
After fly-out upon fly-out, I decided to find out if it was even possible for my non-Bonds players to hit HRs. I set-up a two-player exhibition game (Yankees-Giants) and pitched meatballs to myself to work on the timing.
Basically, I would quickly press a pitch button on the pitching controller (not holding it down and not pressing again in the green zone), thus resulting in a mistake pitch. Then, with my batting controller, I'd try and jack it.
This was fun, and I learned a lot about the game:
1.) Power hitters get more "mistake" pitches over the plate. When you throw a mistake, you'll either groove it or throw an obvious ball. To Bonds, nearly every mistake is right over the plate; to Ray Durham, nearly every mistake is a yellow X.
2.) Hold the left-stick up and to the left (for a rightie) or up and to the right (for a leftie) and you'll have much more success. Just pulling straight left or right often isn't enough, and straight up leads to a lot of CF fly-outs.
3.) You've got to swing early. I was consistently swinging too late in my regular games, and even with the stick pulled to the left or right, couldn't ever get enough muscle behind it. Anticipate and swing early and it'll go.
4.) It's pretty difficult (for a non-power hitter) to take a non-mistake out of the park. Bonds, however (and most of the powerhouse Yankee lineup), can jack anything, including yellow-X mistakes.
Most importantly, though, this little exercise let me work on my timing. Kinda like the missing BP game mode. In my first game back in Franchise mode, Ray Durham (leadoff man) was the only guy to get a mistake pitch in a hot zone, and my timing was flawless -- I yanked it into McCovey Cove for my first non-Bonds HR.
Sounds like a lot of people are doing fine on the HR part, but if you're not, I recommend pitching to yourself in exhibition mode. I switched pitches up (not just fastballs) so I could practice jacking changeups and curves, and it was generally a fun nine innings (Yankees won 26-23, but Bonds' 6-6, 6 HR, 7 RBI performance got him the player-of-the-game nod). Plus, Barry took one over the scoreboard at Shea Stadium, which was impressive.
Y
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