Help with hitting offspeed pitches

[shegotgame]

I'm not a baseball expert. I just enjoy playing the video game. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Is there a camera angle that is better for gauging speed? I'm tying my batter up in knots trying to swing at pitches that are not crossing the plate when I think they are.

Any tips?


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[HartmanTeets6]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

My biggest advice, which is opposite to real baseball, is to sit on off speed and adjust if you see fastball. Also, try to get an idea of what the pitcher throws. Some pitchers throw half off speed stuff, and it makes it easier to let a fastball by for a strike.

[chuckm1961]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

One, find a camera setup that makes the pitcher appear larger on the screen.

Two, train yourself to watch the pitch OUT OF THE PITCHER'S HAND very carefully.

Three, go to Sliders and turn down Fastball speed and turn up Offspeed Pitch speed ... thus sorta cheating and decreasing the speed differential between those pitches.

Four, figure out what offspeed pitches hurt you worst and strategize to deal with it. For example, I'm a sucker for low curves and changes so I have my camera set up to prioritize reading low pitches.

[jada855]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

* Try the MLB 15 Camera

* Patience is what it's all about I play on HOF and I'm okay with striking out because that's what happens in real life not everyone can hit a 97mph fast ball. HOF feels very realistic in that manner.


* Adjust the timing slider to the right this might help.

* Adjust the pitch speed slider to the left will help you see the pitch better.

* Learn to look for the pitch break

* Adjust the difficulty or use dynamic difficulty

* I usually leave the sliders at default I believe in the out of the box experience.

My average with my created player is usually between 2.80 and 3.10 but I also played in real life. So I enjoy the HOF challenge.

Good Luck

[StevenSD]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

My biggest advice, which is opposite to real baseball, is to sit on off speed and adjust if you see fastball. Also, try to get an idea of what the pitcher throws. Some pitchers throw half off speed stuff, and it makes it easier to let a fastball by for a strike.

This is actually pretty sound advice that I've found work really well for me.

[Cito2009]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

Try using Retro camera. Zoom in some so that the top of the pitchers head (avg. Size guy) is centered and the strike zone is across the hat or top of the head. The picther is closer or bigger looking and it helps to read pitches coming out of his hand. I use zone hitting btw, on All-star and rtts for the most part.

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

My biggest advice, which is opposite to real baseball, is to sit on off speed and adjust if you see fastball. Also, try to get an idea of what the pitcher throws. Some pitchers throw half off speed stuff, and it makes it easier to let a fastball by for a strike.

Funny you say this because I have actually heard real MLB players say this is their exact strategy with 2 strikes. I can't remember who said it though. It sounds backwards but...

[shegotgame]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

Thank you everyone. I should have mentioned that this is for human vs human so I'm trying to leave the sliders as is. I hope your suggestions help!


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[Unlucky 13]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

I struggled badly with offspeed pitches, especially those low and especially low and outside, for many years. I've gotten a little better at not striking out so much lately though.

My method is to guess high fastball every pitch.

If that's not what I get on the first pitch, then the bat never leaves my shoulder.

I continue that until the CPU throws a strike.

With one strike on me, if I don't get the indication that the pitch is a high fastball, I assume that its offspeed, and do my best to not swing if its outside of the zone.

Once I get two strikes on me, I switch to only swinging using the circle button. Doing that gives you a larger area to make contact, and with a good hitter, you'll be able to get the bat on almost anything if you time it right. I can at least fowl a few pitches off if nothing else once I get into that situation. If you keep doing that, then sometimes the pitcher will eventually give you a pitch that you can do something with.

I've gone from striking out 10-15 times a game from when I started playing the Show in 2008 through around 2012, to now five or fewer most games since I started this method.

Now, if I face a pitcher who doesn't have a fastball, my goose is cooked. I'm horrible against them, and will often do my best just to use the circle button and try to put any given pitch into play.

[Gosens6]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

I go in expecting EVERYTHING to be offspeed. That's because to me, I can see a fastball very well in this game, and I can lay off or swing if it's in the right spot.

The only thing offspeed that I can crush or lay off with consistency is the curveball. When I see a curveball coming, I lick my chops, I love hitting that pitch.

My approach to every at bat is the same, expect off-speed. I had to teach myself to stop being trigger happy and actually determine the speed of the pitch. Once I realized that the AI will take advantage if they know you're struggling to hit off-speed, if you go up there and expect it, you can have great success.

Be patient, WAIT for a pitch you know is coming in the strike zone and try to get wood on it. It might take you a few pitches to really get their speed down, but that's where the patience comes in.

Some people look for only fastballs, I look for only off-speed.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

I forgot to mention in my previous post that my method has also allowed me to go from almost never drawing walks (literally only a few a month), to often getting about two a game. The more pitches that you force the CPU to throw, the greater the likelyhood that once in a while they'll throw one thats way out of the zone when I already have three balls and I can lay off.

[chuckm1961]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

I have been playing The Show since 2006 ... so I know all the basics (change the sliders, use the right camera, bla bla) ...

Still, I cannot for the life of me lay-off the low curve/changeup. How do I 'read' the pitch out of the pitcher's hand? If it's the heat, I have a very short time to swing (even with the FB slider way down), so I tend to be very trigger-happy and swing early on low junk.

Here's a question .... if you use buttons to initiate the swing ... do you have your finger on the button when the pitch is thrown? Just off the button? Farther away from the button? Finger on the button and already applying light pressure?

I have gotten down to this level of analysis in my attempt to stop swinging at low junk and whiffing!

I am still looking for a camera that will maximize my ability to "read the pitch" out of the pitcher's hand. I find that if I am too zoomed in, I don't read pitch location well, and if I am too far back, I don't read pitch speed well.

[CanOfCornCobb]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

Try using MLB 15 The Show camera. Use this as a base and edit it. You want to edit it by moving the R stick up (I believe) to flatten out the angle. After you flatten out the angle you move the L stick down a little so that you can barely see both of your players' shoes. The goal is to line up the pitchers release point with the 1/3 of the strike zone. From an angle like this you have a very clear view of the bottom of the zone and can almost immediately see the downward break on the ball as it occurs. The only downfall to this view is that it will make a fastball at the very top of the zone look high. The problem with most of the default angles is that there is too sharp of an angle looking down and it hinders your ability to see any sort of downward movement until the ball is almost in the zone and you've already swung.

[Unlucky 13]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

I have been playing The Show since 2006 ... so I know all the basics (change the sliders, use the right camera, bla bla) ...

Still, I cannot for the life of me lay-off the low curve/changeup. How do I 'read' the pitch out of the pitcher's hand? If it's the heat, I have a very short time to swing (even with the FB slider way down), so I tend to be very trigger-happy and swing early on low junk.

Here's a question .... if you use buttons to initiate the swing ... do you have your finger on the button when the pitch is thrown? Just off the button? Farther away from the button? Finger on the button and already applying light pressure?

I have gotten down to this level of analysis in my attempt to stop swinging at low junk and whiffing!

I am still looking for a camera that will maximize my ability to "read the pitch" out of the pitcher's hand. I find that if I am too zoomed in, I don't read pitch location well, and if I am too far back, I don't read pitch speed well.

Unless I'm planning on taking the pitch (first pitch, 3-0 count, maybe 3-1), then yes, my finger is always on the button I'm going to use to swing. I've gotten gradually better at laying off the low and outside curveball, but I used to be horrible at it, and its still hard. For whatever reason, I'm much better at laying off when I'm hitting LH than I am RH, especially vs a RH pitcher. My biggest improvement was switching to just always using the circle button with two strikes, and then I can often fowl off the ones I don't hold back on.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Help with hitting offspeed pitches

Once your recognize it is a change up right out of the hand......let the ball travel.

Honestly it's really that simple.

First is recognition of the pitch and then let it travel to you. Be patient on the swing
Hit the cages and practice and you will be fine.