Cannot Hit for my life

[laxdomination]

I guys I started my franchise for MLB the Show 10 and i did a fantasy draft. I have Albert Puljols on my team and i keep getting 0-4 games or 0-5 games with 3 to 4 strikeouts. I cannot seem to hit a decent ball and when i do it is either a ground out, pop fly, or fly ball.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

[jim416]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

What level do you play on and what options/sliders are you using?

[laxdomination]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

What level do you play on and what options/sliders are you using?

I am playing on Veteran or batting and pitching. The sliders i use are the downloaded ones from sportsconnect its like called realistic and its the number 1 downloaded slider

[Blzer]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

Chances are what happens is you begin by offering at what the pitcher wants to throw at you, meaning he is painting corners and you are biting. As a result you start with a few outs, and as their offensive team scores a run or two now you being pressing and try and eek your way out of your hole any way possible by hacking some more. The problem is that now the pitcher has a boatload of confidence and is able to nibble corners at his disposal, and it will take a while until you find your pitches or let the balls land in appropriate spots for you to reach base and score runs.

But I'll tell you now that even if a pitcher is full on confidence, every so often he will give you a pitch to swing at. It's all about the timing and it's never about "pulling a Pablo" so to speak (swinging early in the count in fear of getting behind). Wearing down the pitcher by working the count is an effective way to get to him, because like I said, eventually he'll throw you that one pitch that will start lowering his confidence.

The other thing which I haven't tried yet is just to turn off confidence. Maybe try that for a few games and see if it truly is a pitcher's confidence effect that is getting at you in games. If not, it still may have to do with you putting corner pitches in play far too often. Might I suggest you try out the Offset camera view as well. I believe that if you can get used to it, you won't go back. You will need to learn to acclimate yourself to outside/inside pitches, but here you can read the height and break(s) of pitches much more easily. This view is a godsend.

Maybe we can all invest in 3DTV's and the PlayStation Move someday as well to get much better depth in our pitches and we can react naturally with our hands. As a baseball player myself I don't think I'll have much trouble then!

[jim416]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

Okay, try this.

I'd do a bunch of exhibition games first.

Remember, sliders are good if you have the same ability/style as the person who made the sliders. Some sliders just won't work for everyone. Put the sliders back to the default settings, which would be in the middle (5) for right now.

Put the pitch speed all the way to the left (5 is default, so it would be -5)

Run your hit slider all the way to the right (+5).

Try just swinging the bat at first, not using the L stick, and see if you can get used to the pitches and making contact, any contact. Once you can judge the pitch speeds for all types of pitches you can move on.

Be patient. Perhaps take pitches until the CPU throws a strike. The CPU will figure you out. If you are swinging at all those balls in the dirt, the CPU will throw you....balls in the dirt.

Don't be afraid to drop down to ROOKIE. I was a HOF player with 08, AS with 09, and VET with 10.

[laxdomination]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

Am i supposed to pick a zone in the box and just sit and wait for a pitch in that zone? I saw someone post that on here?

[Blzer]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

Am i supposed to pick a zone in the box and just sit and wait for a pitch in that zone? I saw someone post that on here?

If you want to play like a real baseball player, here's kind of how you would approach each different count realistically:


Count 3 - 0: Take the pitch. That may sound clichéd, but a lot of people these days are now including an exception that is "unless it is perfect." Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what we do on "hitter's counts"? I'll get into those in a second, but basically there is so much going against the pitcher in this situation. He needs to throw a strike yes, but he has missed off the plate for three consecutive pitches so there is no guarantee that he will even heave it over the plate for the first strike. Let's look at my protegé Barry Bonds, a man who I consider to be very "approaching" at the plate and who sits on good pitches to hit. I can't get three-year splits with him anymore, but in 2002 he hit .250 on 3 - 0 counts, and counts after 3 - 0 (non-inclusive) he hit .667. What you have to remember is that even if you take a first strike, you are still in a hitter's count. It's just not worth hacking at a pitch that you have less than half the chance of earning a safe knock than it is to take the pitch. It's another pitch that you get to see and time well... watch it go by.

Counts 2 - 0, 3 - 1: These are those "hitter's counts," and this is something that I talk to my little sister about all of the time. Here is the basic premise on these counts: if you swing, you better crush it. In these counts, you shrink the strike zone to about the size of a softball. You look at less than a quarter of the plate (I think I'm being generous in saying that), and you're sitting on nothing but a fastball. In high school you may often hear people talking about "spitting on a curveball." What that means is if he throws it in there for a strike, you tip your cap at his confidence in the pitch in such a count and lay off of it. You are looking fastball and one spot (I favor the inside pitch), so you will not ever be late on this pitch and you will never be fooled. If it's on the corner of the zone or just not what you were looking for, so what? People tend to have a mindset that your at bat is destroyed once you get to two strikes, but gasp, you still actually have one more strike to work with... plus the pitcher still has three balls so you're just one pitch away from drawing a walk as well. I have more to say about this but I'm sure I could save that for a novel.

Counts 0 - 0, 1 - 0, 1 - 1, 2 - 1: Look at one half of the plate, have a pitch in mind but don't necessarily sit on it. I am okay at looking for the fastball on the inside and adjusting, but normally if it is not there I'm not going to swing at it. In real life I would consider myself a typical lead-off hitter where I continually draw full counts. I mean I do it very often. It helps me in the long run because the second and third time I face that pitcher I have seen him quite a lot and know what he throws. I normally don't end an at-bat on less than four pitches, so I see this count very often. It's kind of the different hit-and-run counts as well (though the best ones are 1 - 0 and 2 - 1, as I could explain to you later as well). Anyway, these are those counts where people may sit on a pitch that's not a fastball, like the curveball. It's not a good idea normally because it seems they like to go into "reactionary" mode and they'll swing at a fastball if it comes, but they'll be far too late by that time and foul it off down the line. That's the only reason why I say "don't necessarily sit on it" because a lot of people can't hold off swinging at something else when it's not in their benefit.

Count 0 - 1 or a 2 strike count: Your strike zone is now expanded to the actual strike zone and you're swinging at anything that is in the zone. But hopefully since you have already seen at least two pitches, then you know what each of his pitches do. Unfortunately you may have swung at them so all you know is how to adjust to what you have seen, but not necessarily look for what you have seen. In real life there is no such advantage to choking up here, playing protect mode (like swinging 60%) or anything like that. You're still in your at bat and you want to maximize your chances to get on base and a strike out may look worse but it is the exact same as a ground out with no one on base, so swing like you have but looking at the entire strike zone instead of just one pitch and one location. If the pitcher is smart, he will probably not throw a strike on an 0 - 2 or 1 - 2 count, and this game really does reflect that quite well. He may try and bite some black and hope that the umpire calls it, but normally this is where he wants a hitter to be vulnerable and chase a waste pitch, like a curve or change up in the dirt. That, or he'll completely waste it just to establish another pitch. So if he throws an inside fastball that brushes you back a step, he's setting that up for an off-speed pitch on the outside (or the other way around). The only real problem with two strikes is the confidence people have in themselves: they are so concerned about not striking out that they forget the little things about hitting and they panic, which is why even in this video game we are all so prone to swinging at high fastballs. I've had enough two strike counts in my life where they are just commonplace and are nothing out of the ordinary, though I've taken my share of third strikes (which were really balls) and don't regret knowing my own strike zone in taking the pitch. This is where you'll see most "reactionary" hitters. You know when coaches say "swing at anything close"? This saying was not invented because we as hitters can't trust the umpire, it's because we may not trust ourselves with reading the pitch correctly. It may bite the corner when we thought it was going to be a ball or it may break in there last second, so just never give up on the pitch. If it's off the plate, technically you're supposed to take the pitch because it should be a ball. I will leave calls up to the umpire, trusting he'll make the right call.



I know that is a lot of reading, but I really like how this game gets things down just like this. There are times where you want to read one half of the plate, and if you read the inside you really have to stay behind it to yank it. If you read the outside, you have to let that ball get deep so you don't roll over. People normally don't look at the top and bottom halves of the zone unless it's meant for situational hitting (like getting a sacrifice fly).

Hitting truly is a science, and as I said this game is reflective of this because of how accurate pitchers' tendencies are. If you watch the game in real life or play it and you take some notes, you may be able to find out a thing or two and figure this video game out.

Good luck!

[jim416]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

I'd concentrate on just making contact if you're new to the game. It can be a humbling experience if you're new to the franchise. The only time I use the L stick and sit in a zone is on low pitches. If I anticipate a low pitch I'll hold the stick down and swing.

Now, my way is certainly not for everyone, but timing first is really important, and with your hit sliders up all the way it will help you out a bit. You can always reduce those hit sliders later as you become more comfortable.

[Gagnon39]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

If you want to play like a real baseball player, here's kind of how you would approach each different count realistically:


Count 3 - 0: Take the pitch. That may sound clichéd, but a lot of people these days are now including an exception that is "unless it is perfect." Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that what we do on "hitter's counts"? I'll get into those in a second, but basically there is so much going against the pitcher in this situation. He needs to throw a strike yes, but he has missed off the plate for three consecutive pitches so there is no guarantee that he will even heave it over the plate for the first strike. Let's look at my protegé Barry Bonds, a man who I consider to be very "approaching" at the plate and who sits on good pitches to hit. I can't get three-year splits with him anymore, but in 2002 he hit .250 on 3 - 0 counts, and counts after 3 - 0 (non-inclusive) he hit .667. What you have to remember is that even if you take a first strike, you are still in a hitter's count. It's just not worth hacking at a pitch that you have less than half the chance of earning a safe knock than it is to take the pitch. It's another pitch that you get to see and time well... watch it go by.

Counts 2 - 0, 3 - 1: These are those "hitter's counts," and this is something that I talk to my little sister about all of the time. Here is the basic premise on these counts: if you swing, you better crush it. In these counts, you shrink the strike zone to about the size of a softball. You look at less than a quarter of the plate (I think I'm being generous in saying that), and you're sitting on nothing but a fastball. In high school you may often hear people talking about "spitting on a curveball." What that means is if he throws it in there for a strike, you tip your cap at his confidence in the pitch in such a count and lay off of it. You are looking fastball and one spot (I favor the inside pitch), so you will not ever be late on this pitch and you will never be fooled. If it's on the corner of the zone or just not what you were looking for, so what? People tend to have a mindset that your at bat is destroyed once you get to two strikes, but gasp, you still actually have one more strike to work with... plus the pitcher still has three balls so you're just one pitch away from drawing a walk as well. I have more to say about this but I'm sure I could save that for a novel.

Counts 0 - 0, 1 - 0, 1 - 1, 2 - 1: Look at one half of the plate, have a pitch in mind but don't necessarily sit on it. I am okay at looking for the fastball on the inside and adjusting, but normally if it is not there I'm not going to swing at it. In real life I would consider myself a typical lead-off hitter where I continually draw full counts. I mean I do it very often. It helps me in the long run because the second and third time I face that pitcher I have seen him quite a lot and know what he throws. I normally don't end an at-bat on less than four pitches, so I see this count very often. It's kind of the different hit-and-run counts as well (though the best ones are 1 - 0 and 2 - 1, as I could explain to you later as well). Anyway, these are those counts where people may sit on a pitch that's not a fastball, like the curveball. It's not a good idea normally because it seems they like to go into "reactionary" mode and they'll swing at a fastball if it comes, but they'll be far too late by that time and foul it off down the line. That's the only reason why I say "don't necessarily sit on it" because a lot of people can't hold off swinging at something else when it's not in their benefit.

Count 0 - 1 or a 2 strike count: Your strike zone is now expanded to the actual strike zone and you're swinging at anything that is in the zone. But hopefully since you have already seen at least two pitches, then you know what each of his pitches do. Unfortunately you may have swung at them so all you know is how to adjust to what you have seen, but not necessarily look for what you have seen. In real life there is no such advantage to choking up here, playing protect mode (like swinging 60%) or anything like that. You're still in your at bat and you want to maximize your chances to get on base and a strike out may look worse but it is the exact same as a ground out with no one on base, so swing like you have but looking at the entire strike zone instead of just one pitch and one location. If the pitcher is smart, he will probably not throw a strike on an 0 - 2 or 1 - 2 count, and this game really does reflect that quite well. He may try and bite some black and hope that the umpire calls it, but normally this is where he wants a hitter to be vulnerable and chase a waste pitch, like a curve or change up in the dirt. That, or he'll completely waste it just to establish another pitch. So if he throws an inside fastball that brushes you back a step, he's setting that up for an off-speed pitch on the outside (or the other way around). The only real problem with two strikes is the confidence people have in themselves: they are so concerned about not striking out that they forget the little things about hitting and they panic, which is why even in this video game we are all so prone to swinging at high fastballs. I've had enough two strike counts in my life where they are just commonplace and are nothing out of the ordinary, though I've taken my share of third strikes (which were really balls) and don't regret knowing my own strike zone in taking the pitch. This is where you'll see most "reactionary" hitters. You know when coaches say "swing at anything close"? This saying was not invented because we as hitters can't trust the umpire, it's because we may not trust ourselves with reading the pitch correctly. It may bite the corner when we thought it was going to be a ball or it may break in there last second, so just never give up on the pitch. If it's off the plate, technically you're supposed to take the pitch because it should be a ball. I will leave calls up to the umpire, trusting he'll make the right call.



I know that is a lot of reading, but I really like how this game gets things down just like this. There are times where you want to read one half of the plate, and if you read the inside you really have to stay behind it to yank it. If you read the outside, you have to let that ball get deep so you don't roll over. People normally don't look at the top and bottom halves of the zone unless it's meant for situational hitting (like getting a sacrifice fly).

Hitting truly is a science, and as I said this game is reflective of this because of how accurate pitchers' tendencies are. If you watch the game in real life or play it and you take some notes, you may be able to find out a thing or two and figure this video game out.

Good luck!

What he said.

Bottom line, practice. I still get SO unbelievably frustrated with this game, but it's because I swing at bad pitches. It is not the game, it's me. It took me a while to realize that but since I have I've really worked on taking better approaches at the plate. I used to strike out 20-25% of the time, now I'm down to anywhere between 10-15%. I don't think I'll ever be under 10%, which was my goal. I'm just going to have to accept that I'm not going to get there.

So again, the more you play, the better you'll get at batting.

[d-c_138]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

I had the same problem and it took me a good amount of games to adjust to both hitting and pitching and one of the mistakes I made was play without a strike zone for a more realistic feeling. I suggest just taking it slow and learn to just recognize pitches. Something I do is I observe the first inning with my first three hitters. I try to draw walks but if the count is a pitchers count off course I try to get the hit. I spend the first inning just studying and measuring the pitches and getting familiar with them.

Another thing I suggest is playing in the level above veteran at least for hitting not pitching because this one forces you to use the L stick. I always thought playing in veteran the L stick played a role but it doesn't, I still use it but plan on changing the difficulty as soon as I get on. With timing only you'll probably get too comfortable and it will be a hard transition. I still suggest to keep the pitching at veteran tho.

One last suggestion is to stay away from guest pitching! This will most likely cause you to swing at anything you guess right and it won't really help you recognize pitches. It's all about hitting and seeing and off course this is not THE way to get better, I'm simply advising against some mistakes I made.

[laxdomination]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

Thank you for all the advise. Now should i be using contact swing or the power swing?

[adembroski]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

Thank you for all the advise. Now should i be using contact swing or the power swing?

I kinda see the contact swing as surrender. It's "Yep, I can't hit you". But I do use it, tactically. I use it when I can use a "productive out". A grounder between first and second to move the runner to third, for example, or a 2 strike count when a strike out is the worst thing that can happen (bases loaded, no outs, for example).

[d-c_138]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

Thank you for all the advise. Now should i be using contact swing or the power swing?

I would say only use the power swing when there is a power hitter on the plate and with a hitters count, or if you are in need of a Sac fly.

[Blzer]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

I would say only use the power swing when there is a power hitter on the plate and with a hitters count, or if you are in need of a Sac fly.

I just wanted to clarify that the power swing has nothing to do with your bat angle, or should I say the way you influence the ball. This isn't similar to 2K's old "power swing" system which more or less mimics a home run swing, or at least an attempt to hit a home run. So if you utilize the power swing in this game (which is all-or-nothing by the way, no check swing available), getting over the ball would be getting over the ball, and you'll tap it somewhere just like you would with a contact swing.

The reason I can see you'd still want to use power swing with a runner on third though is to get everything possible behind that ball to muscle it out of the infield and then some. Getting it up the middle past the pitcher or out of the infield is the key, so the power swing may help. But it's much more important to look for a pitch up in this situation IMO, assuming you don't pop up while getting a hold of one.

[Gagnon39]

Re: Cannot Hit for my life

I use power swings on 2-0 and 2-1 counts. I quit using it on 3-1 counts because I was becoming WAY too aggresive and swinging at anything. I've drawn a TON of walks on check swings and there's no checking a power swing.