high contact/low power hitters useless??

[SHootar]

so i'm in my franchise with my jays and it's becoming a little frustrating as all my bigger power hitters are also leading in batting average, OBP, counting stats, etc. guys with higher contact, but low power, ie. rajai davis, yunel escobar, are struggling around the mendoza line. it's frustrating b/c these are supposed to be my table setters, and guys like edwin encarnacion, with great power, crap contact, is hitting .350. diddo, bautista, diddo aaron hill, diddo lind. even arrencibia and rivera for heavens sakes, with decent power, i can hit much better with than escobar/rajai.

am i doing something wrong? i usually do power swings with even my weaker hitters.

another side note, i find it IMPOSSIBLE to hit homeruns with these weak power hitters, which isn't really realistic. yunel and rajai SHOULD be able to hit long balls every now and then. are other ppl finding it hard to hit even the occasional homerun with your weaker power hitters?

[peigone]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

You've identified a couple of problems that other here have mentioned. The low power guys just don't hit enough HRs, period. They do if you crank the power slider way up, but that obviously creates too many HRs from the high power hitters.

I have the PC version, and now that a global rating editor has been released, I've started to fool around with global edits might possibly help with this and some other ratings issues I'd like to fix. The problem with that though is that the power hitters specifically need their power ratings lowered. But then once you do that, it throws off the sim stats.

I've said it every year with this series: the player ratings in the game are programmed to produce realistic sim stats. Gameplay realism is secondary and suffers because of that. That's really the biggest issue going on here.

[SHootar]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

yeah man, it's def quite frustrating. i've played about 30 games in my franchise, so still quite early in the season, but yunel and rajai haven't even come close to 1 homerun so far. i was able to get an inside the park HR with rajai once after AI OF dove and missed a single lol, but other than that, nothing.

what about my other concern? just hitting for average with low power guys? both rajai and yunel are the 2 worst in BA on my team...they also have the worst power ratings. meanwhile high power guys with crap contact (bautista, edwin, etc) i hit .300+ with b/c i can rip liners with them. it basically deems the low power hitters completely useless, other than stealing.

am i not utilizing rajai/escobar properly? should i be contact swinging them, so maybe they'll start flaring singles in shallow outfield?

[peigone]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

what about my other concern? just hitting for average with low power guys? both rajai and yunel are the 2 worst in BA on my team...they also have the worst power ratings. meanwhile high power guys with crap contact (bautista, edwin, etc) i hit .300+ with b/c i can rip liners with them. it basically deems the low power hitters completely useless, other than stealing.

I personally don't see that as an issue, but I use button hitting. But from some of the responses I've read from people who use stick hitting, it sounds like the stick programming is somewhat out of balance this year. I know when I tried hitting with the stick, it seemed a lot easier to get wood on the ball. Meaning players' contact ratings might not mean as much when using the stick to hit. And because they're two different hitting systems, it's possible and even probable that they're programmed differently.

From what you're describing, it sounds like using the stick in combination with players' with high power ratings, adds a boost to those players' contact ability. That's entirely possible.

[SHootar]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

hmm maybe that's part of the problem then. i haven't tried classic hitting yet. and i had to turn my contact slider down to 35, and my power is about 55 or so. i had to turn down the contact slider otherwise my power hitters would keep getting 2+ hits a game, or more often than not. but yeah it's frustrating b/c i'll get 10 hits in a game, and most of the time the majority of them are coming from my power guys, not my weak power, high contact guys. maybe i'll try this classic hitting thing.

thanks for your feedback btw, very much appreciated.

[SynShadowzz]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

You need to contact swing with your lower power guys. You're going to pop out A LOT if you power swing all the time with low power guys. In my Rangers dynasty, I will regularly use the contact swing with Elvis Andrus and Julio Borbon. Andrus is hitting something along the lines of .275, while Borbon is hitting north of .300

I've had success with Davis and Escobar while using them in Play Now games.

I'm in the same boat as you with the HR's for low power guys though.

I get HR's from Hamilton, Beltre, Moreland, and Napoli... but other than, nothing. I probably don't use power swings enough though. Ian Kinsler, for instance...No HR's through 8 games, which is fine. However, 68 power against righties and (I think) 71 against lefties. Those ratings seem a little low.

[SHootar]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

You need to contact swing with your lower power guys. You're going to pop out A LOT if you power swing all the time with low power guys. In my Rangers dynasty, I will regularly use the contact swing with Elvis Andrus and Julio Borbon. Andrus is hitting something along the lines of .275, while Borbon is hitting north of .300

I've had success with Davis and Escobar while using them in Play Now games.

I'm in the same boat as you with the HR's for low power guys though.

I get HR's from Hamilton, Beltre, Moreland, and Napoli... but other than, nothing. I probably don't use power swings enough though. Ian Kinsler, for instance...No HR's through 8 games, which is fine. However, 68 power against righties and (I think) 71 against lefties. Those ratings seem a little low.

Thanks, I'm going to try that (contact swinging instead with those two guys). I think you're probably right though because I remember getting a couple shallow soft singles the few times I did contact with those guys, whereas I otherwise NEVER get those by power swinging with them.

And yeah the lack of HRs with the weaker power guys really sucks, but what can you do.

Personally I find I can get away with HRs with anyone with power 70 or over, because I know even with Arrencibia, who I believe has a power of 70, I can hit some bombs with him (mostly to right/left field, ie. not left-centre, to right-centre). But yeah Kinsler should definitely have more power than that, I agree (although he IS killing my fantasy team of late after that torrid start :P )

Anyway, think I'm going to re-start my franchise, and try to get rajai/esco better OBPs than .250!

[roethlisberger4pres]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

When I use the contact swing with a guy like Ichiro. I always end up
grounding out. Is this supposed to be part of the game. (I've never played last years) and are they going to fix it?

[SynShadowzz]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

When I use the contact swing with a guy like Ichiro. I always end up
grounding out. Is this supposed to be part of the game. (I've never played last years) and are they going to fix it?

It's going to happen occasionally, but a lot of it relies on your timing and how selective you are. Trying shortening your strike zone a bit. Instead of swinging at anything you think might be a strike, try waiting for anything that's pretty much coming down the middle of the plate. Study your batters hot/cold zones and get a feel for what you're typically going to hit and what you'll probably ground out.

[nflman2033]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

yeah I am not seeing it either, because I swing Contact with those guys. A guy like Scott Rolen has a much better batting average than Drew Stubbs, because I only power swing with Rolen when he is a head in the count early, and then i go for contact, where with Stubbs I always swing power.

[SynShadowzz]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

Funny note:

Hit a 3-run shot with Elvis Andrus last night. Surprised the hell out of me. Great stuff.

[SHootar]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

Funny note:

Hit a 3-run shot with Elvis Andrus last night. Surprised the hell out of me. Great stuff.

damn, very jealous lol. did you power swing? ahead in count?

also very dumb question, but where are you guys seeing hitters hot/cold zones. i've been playing this for a while and still haven't seen this

[SHootar]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

whooo!! tonight hit my first homerun (of the non-inside the park variety) with rajai davis!! it felt AWESOME. not only did i hit it with him and his 50 something power, i did it on a CONTACT swing, oppo field, and my power slider is only at 55. that being said, and i think this is the reason, he is "hot" right now, and his contact ratings have risen tremendously during this hot streak, it's kind of neat. i'm pretty positive thats the reason for the homerun. still cool nonetheless.

now i need to get escobar his first.

also it's weird, i'm in may right now in my franchise, and these hot/cold icons just started coming up now. i guess the measure for hot/cold hitters are fairly lenghty, over a month or so?

and yes, the advice to swing with contact swing with my low power guys has been AMAZING. rajai is hitting .320 something and has the most hits on my team. escobar started the year hitting .350 in april, but has been ice cold lately and is down to .260ish. but still extremely glad u can indeed accumulate hits/good BA with these weak hitters.

[PittPens1787]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

also it's weird, i'm in may right now in my franchise, and these hot/cold icons just started coming up now. i guess the measure for hot/cold hitters are fairly lenghty, over a month or so?

and yes, the advice to swing with contact swing with my low power guys has been AMAZING. rajai is hitting .320 something and has the most hits on my team. escobar started the year hitting .350 in april, but has been ice cold lately and is down to .260ish. but still extremely glad u can indeed accumulate hits/good BA with these weak hitters.

Yea, the hot/cold rating is based on the player's performance over the past four weeks, so basically a month.

[SHootar]

Re: high contact/low power hitters useless??

Yea, the hot/cold rating is based on the player's performance over the past four weeks, so basically a month.

hmm, think they should have went with 2 weeks at MOST personally. i mean if your going to bump down their ratings b/c of a bad month, for a whole month, i dunno, seems a little much. when in reality, a great week (or even a great series) could set a player right.

also where do you find hot/cold zones of hitters you're facing. probs very accessible and i'm an idiot...but haven't seen that yet.