Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

[aliashecman]

I am going to stick to zone plus analog hitting this year. I used analog hitting last yr and got pretty good at it albeit on veteran. I am going with All-Star difficulty this yr. Thus far this new hitting feature in 12 has been challenging. I want some opinions on approaches to hitting using this hitting setting.

So far I am unable to just pick up the pitch and location as it comes in. I can do it sometimes but not consistently. The times I can do it if the pitch is high or low thus only moving the left thumb stick up or down. If the pitch is on the corners I'm screwed.

My approach right now is to move the zone to where I think the pitch will be based on the pitcher and the situation and if I get it there I swing, if I don't I take it. Other times I will use guess pitch to and pick a location in the strike zone and if I guess correctly it tells me where the pitch will be, if not I've eliminated the section of the zone and can look to the other areas.

I have some success at times and fail miserably other times. It depends on how disciplined and patient I am, not to mention having my timing right. Its tough.

Any other approaches? Better ones? Any one having success at a good clip?

[ILiveForThis]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

I got a few good ideas for you.

1) Lower the pitch speed until you can pick up the pitch out of the pitchers hand on higher speeds.

2) Take the first pitch. More than likely, it will tell the tale of that at-bat. Another rule on this, if you make a first pitch out, wait on the next two. It will help drive the pitch counts up, giving you better pitches to hit.

3) Check out the pitch confidence and notice trends. If your facing Strasberg and you are getting some heat alot, look to hurt somethinf that has some bend and lay off the straight ones. Don't be afraid to use Guess Pitch on obvious counts, where the opposing pitcher will throw that 'high' confidence pitch and you can crank it.

4) Take advantage of your 2-0's, 3-1's. Fastball counts are your best friend. Also, use the Contact swing. It really does do justice in making your 0-2 become a walk.

[aliashecman]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

I got a few good ideas for you.

1) Lower the pitch speed until you can pick up the pitch out of the pitchers hand on higher speeds.

2) Take the first pitch. More than likely, it will tell the tale of that at-bat. Another rule on this, if you make a first pitch out, wait on the next two. It will help drive the pitch counts up, giving you better pitches to hit.

3) Check out the pitch confidence and notice trends. If your facing Strasberg and you are getting some heat alot, look to hurt somethinf that has some bend and lay off the straight ones. Don't be afraid to use Guess Pitch on obvious counts, where the opposing pitcher will throw that 'high' confidence pitch and you can crank it.

4) Take advantage of your 2-0's, 3-1's. Fastball counts are your best friend. Also, use the Contact swing. It really does do justice in making your 0-2 become a walk.

Thanks. I will keep these in mind. I really dont want to lower the pitch speed yet but will if I keep struggling.

[saturn2187]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

i need to try these tips too. i'm hitting .184 as a team in my franchise this year. I'm utterly lost at the plate, flailing miserably. if the CPU was smart enough to throw just sliders or high fastballs, i'd go 0 for 27. I think lowering the pitch speed is coming soon. Haven't hit a homerun yet, in fact any hits I do get are going to the opposite field, so its clear i'm way behind.

[BezO]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

Aiming prior to the swing has been tough. On 2-0, 3-0 & 3-1, I'm trying to look for certain pitches in certain spots, aiming prior to the wind up. With other counts, I'm trying to stride, aim then swing and it's been tough.

Also, aiming gives me the urge to swing. Cool when the ball is still in the zone, but I'm swinging at a lot of balls, especially inside.

...Also, use the Contact swing. It really does do justice in making your 0-2 become a walk.

Hold up. There are contact & power swings with Zone + hitting? How do I contact vs power swing?

[Kernel Pie]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

I can see the pitches extremely well in this game after adjusting my camera lower, and moving it back a bit. This is imperative IMO, as I couldn't hit a beach ball on default cam.

I do leave the strike zone on and full pitch callout on, so I know how off the plate something was and what pitch it was/how fast it was right away. I leave the PCI off, as I feel it's unnecessary. I also don't move the PCI until the pitch has been delivered, because I don't want to miss a meatball down the middle.

I leave guess pitch off or on 'no feedback' and never use it, as I feel this does more harm than good.

So basically, I use a pure read and react approach, and just swing at the pitches I like and take the ones I know are gonna be balls. I've gotten fairly good with the left stick on All Star and would say my PCI is over (or very near the baseball) probably 80% of the time.

If you're struggling with ZPA, I would suggest tweaking the camera and practice hitting with contact swing for a while. It should be easy to get your timing down like that.

Oh, and get in hitter's counts--can't stress that enough.

[The Commish]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

I find that I alway's want to challenge myself with hitting but after a few games of o'fer's I get sick of it and revert back to timing where I can at least get a few hits.

I like the idea of slowing the pitch speed down so that I can see the ball, but will that hamstring me to where I will always be stuck at that speed? Or is it you're experience that you eventually start seeing it better and are able to increase it again?

Also I am curious about the power/contact hitting with the analog as well. I didn't know that option exsisted, can you tell me where to adjust that, as I have not found it yet.

Thanks so much.

[starvenger]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

I approach it by focusing on getting my stride automatic first then worrying about the direction. I try to take a pitch the first time I see a guy in game to get an idea of how his delivery and release points are.

I don't move the PCI pre-pitch. I leave it at the center and try to move it right before or as I'm swinging. I feel like if I try to guess before hand and I'm wrong I have less of a chance to foul one off if I'm totally out of position. Plus, ideally I don't want to be swinging at pitches that I'd have to move the PCI around a ton for, unless I'm defending a 2 strike count.

The main problem I have and my main hitting focus right now is not over-moving the PCI. Sometimes on a questionable pitch my stupid brain will decide to swing and I'll jam the left stick too fast and far. I'm focusing on making smaller adjustments to make better contact on pitches that are clear strikes, but not meatballs.

EDIT: To the gentleman who was wondering how do do Power / Normal / Contact swings with analog + zone hitting, you hit [] for a power, X for a normal and O for a contact swing before you swing to change your swing mode, I believe.

[Kernel Pie]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

Also I am curious about the power/contact hitting with the analog as well. I didn't know that option exsisted, can you tell me where to adjust that, as I have not found it yet.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, I initially gave up on zone analog because I didn't know you could adjust for power/normal/contact swings.

Basically, you just hit square, circle, or x before a pitch, and the controller will vibrate once to indicate the change. It always reverts to normal swing for every pitch, so you have to adjust accordingly.

[BezO]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

The main problem I have and my main hitting focus right now is not over-moving the PCI. Sometimes on a questionable pitch my stupid brain will decide to swing and I'll jam the left stick too fast and far. I'm focusing on making smaller adjustments to make better contact on pitches that are clear strikes, but not meatballs.

I'm having the exact opposit problem. I turn the PCI on in practice mode. I can feather the LS, but 4 out of 5 times I intend to aim somewhere other than down the middle, I get no movement. I'm aiming after I start my swing apparently.

Striding, recognizing location & aiming, then swinging will take some getting used to. I only had the game since Saturday. Hopefully I get this sooner than later. I'm digging the Zone + hitting.

EDIT: To the gentleman who was wondering how do do Power / Normal / Contact swings with analog + zone hitting, you hit [] for a power, X for a normal and O for a contact swing before you swing to change your swing mode, I believe.

Thanks! I had no idea. Contact swinging behind in the count should help me a bit.

[mr9inchesbpel]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

Go into practice mode, spend alot of time their using timing, discipline, contact, and recognition hitting.

Don't really focus on open, or good at bat to much.

First go into timing hitting and just work on getting the stride timing down on a specific pitcher, then work on getting the stride timing and timing the swing. The pitcher will usually just throw a fastball down the middle or a breaking ball or off speed pitch over the middle so you shouldn't need to aim the swing.

If you feel like you can get the timing down for the fastball but your struggling hitting the curveball or the changeup and to out in front, go to recognition and learn how the pitch comes out of the pitchers hand, if you are good you can read whether it's a fastball or a curveball or a slider etc just out of the way it comes right out of his hand.

A fastball will usually come at you in a straight line, a curveball will have a loop up, a slider will come out to the side etc, a change up will have a slight coming higher out of his hand sort of thing as well but is probably the most difficult to notice. You will have to train your recognition to become good at noticing this.





Then do contact and discipline drills just so you can get better at laying off bad pitches and better at aiming the barell of the bat on the ball.




After a couple days if you spend maybe a half an hour on hitting practice you should become a lot better hitter, be able to read the ball better out of the pitchers hand, chase less bad pitches, walk more, get better contact etc.




Also at the plate
1) take the first strike in the first few at bats or first time through the line up, at the start of the game the opposing pitcher might be wild and struggle to throw strikes so this can help get an easy walk, or it can help see how the ball comes out of the pitchers hand, the speed of it and see what pitch he likes to go with.

2) Remember that even if a pitcher has 5 different pitches he usually only throws 3 of it for most of the game, and rarely mixes in the other two. For example alot of pitchers throw a 4seam fastball, a slider, a circle changeup, a 2 seam fastball and a curveball.

This pitcher will probably throw a 4 seam fastball 50% of the time, a slider 25% of the time, a circle change up 15% of the time, and then the 2 seamer 5% and the curveball 5% of the time. Basically don't expect him to throw a curveball or a 2 seamer, expect him to throw the 4 seamer or the slider.

3) Be able to adjust and react at the plate, if you are getting fastballs thrown by you and you are late, start your stride earlier and you will have more time to swing and not be as late on it.

If you are chasing sliders outside of the zone or curveballs in the dirt, just lay off of a curveball or slider, if you see a big loop coming in then just lay off of it. If the guy misses you will get a ball and he will eventually come back to the fastball or a non breaking ball, if he keeps hitting the spot atleast you got to see the pitch and might be able to time it and hit it better the next time.


4) If you really struggle to get runs, try to manufacture a run, try to use drag bunts, sac bunts, and stolen bases and be aggressive when running the bases, you will get alot more outs but if your not getting hits and putting runners on base it's probably the only thing you can do to try and move the runners and over and get a run in. In a pitchers duel one run makes a huge difference.

[The Commish]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

wow, this is very complicated. Is this one of those things that becomes muscle memory after a time?

I really want to be good at this but I don't want to waste my time if it's one of those things you are either good at or you aren't.

[hoser]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

One thing I noticed is that hitting for power and extra base hits is much more likely on zone plus analog than it is on straight analog. I kept my sliders the same and tried multiple games using both schemes and I hit for much more power, and scored a lot more runs, using zone plus analog. I even switch in mid game from analog to zone plus analog because I couldn't hit a thing and when I switched I started ripping the ball for extra base hits much more frequently.

I think there's a bigger sweet spot or a bigger timing window in zone plus analog than there is in just regular analog. Even if you don't use the left stick to aim and just leave the zone in the middle of the strike zone I feel you will hit with more power and get more extra base bits.

[mr9inchesbpel]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

wow, this is very complicated. Is this one of those things that becomes muscle memory after a time?

I really want to be good at this but I don't want to waste my time if it's one of those things you are either good at or you aren't.

Yes you do become better, after a bit of time you will be able to tell if it's a fastball, curveball, slider etc just coming out of the pitchers hand because of the trajectory of the ball. You also become better at predicting at where the pitch will go or break after that it's just getting the timing down.

[beantownbruins]

Re: Hitting Approaches Using Zone Plus Analog

I was lost at first scoring 1-2 runs every game. I got used to using the analog from last years game so that wasn't my problem. The problem I was having was getting the PCI onto the pitch.

I went into practice mode with Pedroia and instead of moving the PCI all around I would simply do one of 3 things. For an inside pitch I would move the PCI left (not up or down), for an outside pitch I would move the PCI right (not up or down), and for a pitch over the plate I would not move the PCI at all. This helped me to learn how to track the ball. After about 5 sessions of practice (20 pitches each session) I was moving my PCI on the ball 15/20 times.

The best advice I can give is to really focus on the ball as soon as the pitcher releases it from his hands. The sooner you pick the ball up, the better chance you have at figuring out what pitch it is, and moving the PCI accordingly.

Also while in a game I always use contact swing with 2 strikes. It helps you foul off close pitches to stay alive and it makes it easier to check swing. When a power hitter is up I use power swing on 2-0, 3-0, or 3-1 counts.

Just go into practice and try these things. They seem simple but they helped me out quite a bit...I just scored 8 runs on 10 hits in my last game. Hope this helps.