Strike zone tips

[strawberryshortcake]

Quote: Originally Posted by zpq12

I've been trying to play with the Red Sox. I have some maybe sorta handle on not swinging at pitches in the dirt or 3 feet out of the zone, at least half of the time. Your hall of fame suggestion cost me a controller. At this point when I do hit something in the zone, it seems and unrest able amount of those with good contact are weak groundouts or fly outs. I realize that baseball is a game of failure, but I'm hitting about .100 BABIP. I'm going to lose my goddamn mind. **** this game. I keep coming back because I know it's a good game, but it is stupidly impossible. The fact that I can't hit even on the difficulty meant for people with nerve disorders makes me want to scream.

I'm sorry. But you're suppose to take it easy going through hall of fame or legend setting. My intention was for you to see the pitches at a very fast pace, and once you get acclimated to the higher speeds, once you drop back down to beginner rookie mode, the pitches should look incredibly slow. It doesn't matter if you strike out 27 times on hall of fame, or legend. You're simply suppose to get your eyes acclimated to the pitch speed and not stress about not being able to hit a single pitch.

Are you also switching sides to hit for the other team? Doing so will give you more practice.

I am currently playing the Japanese Baseball game: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2015 and have for the past 2 weeks. I have not won a single game on beginner/medium setting. All my hits are infield grounds. I celebrate if I hit a pop fly to the outfield. I celebrate if I get a base hit, and I normally probably get at most 3 successful base hits a game if even that. My batting average in this game is probably 0.100 or worst. And I keep playing this game Pro Yakyuu Spirits because it's the best baseball game ever created.

Hear me out. Do you lift weights? Deadlift, Bench Press, or Squats, or Pullups, power clean, hang cleans? Everyone is familiar with the Bench Press. If someone hit 225lbx5, then drops the weight down to 135lb, the weight will be so light that she/he can push 135lbx30 times.

Say someone does 90% to max weight for their Deadlift lift (say 315x1 or 405lbx1), then when he or she decides to finish off his/her set with 135lbx30 rep, the 135 will feel light as a feather. That is my intention. You're suppose to use the "higher hall of fame or legend" setting to get your EYES acclimated to the pitch speed.



EDIT: Don't know if this makes a difference, but two weeks into MLB 16, for whatever reason, I completely stopped being able to hit left handed pitchers with left handed hitters, and right handed pitchers with right handed pitchers. I would completely struggle; I would swing at every single little thing, and not make contact. I tried doing everything. I tried not looking at whether the batter or hitter was lefty or righty. I even thought about covering the left and right side of my HDTV screen with blankets only leaving enough space in the middle of the screen to see the pitcher and the strike zone. so I didn't know whether I'd be using a left hand or right handed hitter. I actually didn't try that method but was very close. Watched youtube videos, don't remember what happened, but something clicked and I managed to get back into respectable range.

[zpq12]

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

I'm sorry. But you're suppose to take it easy going through hall of fame or legend setting. My intention was for you to see the pitches at a very fast pace, and once you get acclimated to the higher speeds, once you drop back down to beginner rookie mode, the pitches should look incredibly slow. It doesn't matter if you strike out 27 times on hall of fame, or legend. You're simply suppose to get your eyes acclimated to the pitch speed and not stress about not being able to hit a single pitch. Are you also switching sides to hit for the other team? Doing so will give you more practice. I am currently playing the Japanese Baseball game: Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2015 and have for the past 2 weeks. I have not won a single game on beginner/medium setting. All my hits are infield grounds. I celebrate if I hit a pop fly to the outfield. I celebrate if I get a base hit, and I normally probably get at most 3 successful base hits a game if even that. My batting average in this game is probably 0.100 or worst. And I keep playing this game Pro Yakyuu Spirits because it's the best baseball game ever created. Hear me out. Do you lift weights? Deadlift, Bench Press, or Squats, or Pullups, power clean, hang cleans? Everyone is familiar with the Bench Press. If someone hit 225lbx5, then drops the weight down to 135lb, the weight will be so light that she/he can push 135lbx30 times. Say someone does 90% to max weight for their Deadlift lift (say 315x1 or 405lbx1), then when he or she decides to finish off his/her set with 135lbx30 rep, the 135 will feel light as a feather. That is my intention. You're suppose to use the "higher hall of fame or legend" setting to get your EYES acclimated to the pitch speed. EDIT: Don't know if this makes a difference, but two weeks into MLB 16, for whatever reason, I completely stopped being able to hit left handed pitchers with left handed hitters, and right handed pitchers with right handed pitchers. I would completely struggle; I would swing at every single little thing, and not make contact. I tried doing everything. I tried not looking at whether the batter or hitter was lefty or righty. I even thought about covering the left and right side of my HDTV screen with blankets only leaving enough space in the middle of the screen to see the pitcher and the strike zone. so I didn't know whether I'd be using a left hand or right handed hitter. I actually didn't try that method but was very close. Watched youtube videos, don't remember what happened, but something clicked and I managed to get back into respectable range.

It isn't your fault that I broke it. A PS4 controller takes a ton of abuse before breaking, btw.

I appreciate the help, and I do get the weight lifting apology, I do lift.

You're crazy for continuing to play the Japanese game, with makes me think I'm crazy for continuing to play this. I enjoy one out of every 5 games at this point. It's so ****ing frustrating. I even quit playing for a stretch just to cool off and reset. I've watched every video in this thread. Re-read every post. I cannot get it. I cannot consistently pick up the pitch or ball off the pitcher. I have a pretty decent 50 inch tv, I even looked up my specs and it seems fine. Incidentally I had my eyes checked this week.

Sometimes I look at the strike zone during the pitch. Sometimes I looked at the ball as it comes from the pitcher. I'm much better with the wide angle - trying to watch the pitch from the pitchers hand I swing at literally EVERYTHING. I really don't know what to do.

[strawberryshortcake]

Quote: Originally Posted by zpq12

It isn't your fault that I broke it. A PS4 controller takes a ton of abuse before breaking, btw. I appreciate the help, and I do get the weight lifting apology, I do lift. You're crazy for continuing to play the Japanese game, with makes me think I'm crazy for continuing to play this. I enjoy one out of every 5 games at this point. It's so ****ing frustrating. I even quit playing for a stretch just to cool off and reset. I've watched every video in this thread. Re-read every post. I cannot get it. I cannot consistently pick up the pitch or ball off the pitcher. I have a pretty decent 50 inch tv, I even looked up my specs and it seems fine. Incidentally I had my eyes checked this week. Sometimes I look at the strike zone during the pitch. Sometimes I looked at the ball as it comes from the pitcher. I'm much better with the wide angle - trying to watch the pitch from the pitchers hand I swing at literally EVERYTHING. I really don't know what to do.

Pro Yakyuu Spirits
Why I play the game, and will forever own a PS3.

Spoiler

Even though I don't read Japanese, I find Pro Yakyuu Spirits to have much more organic gameplay with better animations. I find that I have more control with that game. Errors happen because of my own poor controller input. Things aren't based on diced rolls. I don't have to worry about fielders throwing nonchalantly or throwing the ball into the stands. Errors will happen, but it feels realistic (and that is the key word, it feels realistic). I can get fielders to throw with urgency all the time. I don't have to worry about outfielders doing the slow crow hop to get the ball back urgently into the infield. The ball-bat physics, ball-field physics is the best I've ever experienced. The dynamic camera angles, animation variety, the atmosphere, the commentary (despite not understanding what the heck they're saying) keeps the game fresh every single time I play the game.

MLB the Show is solid but with a lot of quirks that irs me. Pro Yakyuu Spirits takes the game to an epic level without any of those quirks. Yakyuu Spirits is just pure baseball.

MLBtheShow09 brought me back to gaming (I stopped gaming during the SNES era. Never bought the PS1, PS2 or XBOX360), and is the reason why I got a PS3. MLBtheShow's franchise is why I still choose Playstation over Xbox. Now, however, I will forever have a PS3 because of Pro Yakyuu Spirits 15. Don't know if they're releasing it for the PS4. I will buy two to three more PS3 as back up if it comes down to it if Konami never releases Pro Yakyuu Spirits on the PS4.

Don't let people's gameplay of Pro Yakyuu Spirits sway you one way or the other. Hitting may look easy based on the hitting mechanic, but trust me, it's not. However, you can also make it as easy as you would like, and make both hitting and pitching easy. You can turn the cursor completely off, and up the pitch speed to real, and ask yourself why are you still playing this game. You can also keep the screen as clean as possible compared to what you see in youtube gameplay videos.

This is the video got me interested in Pro Yakyuu Spirits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp0n03xIiQU

MLB the Show 16
Change the batting camera to "fish eye." Drop pitch speed to zero. Change your approach to how you play the game (look to draw balls and walks instead of hits). My other suggestions are below: First, make sure to relax, relax, relax; video games should be a form of entertainment, and stress relief... keep this in mind always).

Look at the size of the ball.

Spoiler

(A1) Play the game to get walks, not hits.
(B2) Take control of the opposition pitcher and intentionally walk the bases load, then switch back to the team at bat with bases loaded. Reason: Pitchers are more likely to keep the ball in the strike zone as opposed to throwing balls. This should artificially make the pitchers keep the balls in the strike zone.
(C3) Alternate batters with "hall of fame," then back to "rookie," and drop the pitch speed to zero.



(A2) Approach each at bat with the mentality of getting a walk. You "win" when you get a ball and you get bonus points for drawing a walk. That should be your focus. Right now, you need to approach the game in a different manner just to train yourself to lay off pitches. That is your goal for the rest of the week. Take pitches, draw walks.

(B2) Load the bases with the opposition pitcher using the intentional walk, with zero outs. This should create an artificial situation where the pitcher is more likely to throw pitches in the strike zone.

(C2) Alternate batting difficulty....
1st batter: hall of fame difficulty.
2nd batter: hall of fame difficulty
3rd batter: rookie

4th batter: hall of fame difficulty
5th batter: rookie
6th batter: rookie.

7th batter: rookie
8th batter: rookie
9th batter: rookie

Rinse and repeat. 10th batter = 1st batter = hall of fame difficulty; 11th batter = hall of fame difficulty; 12th batter = 3rd batter = rookie, etc.


What's wrong with the controller? Don't throw it away, see if you can fix it. My day one DS4 I had thought kicked the bucket; I kept it around just for the heck of it. A couple days ago I decided to just watch some youtube videos and came across one that essentially turned my "on its last leg controller, and pretty much looking at the garbage can" back into a perfectly working controller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AkDIzKqmYY

.

[Bunselpower32]

It's funny, I was in the exact same boat last year. Couldn't hit to save my life. But there are certain things you have to keep in mind. I'm sure some have been mentioned, but they bear repeating.

1) Getting angry will never help. It's trite, I know, but I'm not exactly a patient person with a long fuse (translation, I'm a quick to anger guy). But I've been letting things go and the game is way more fun. When you're tense, you can't recognize pitches. It's a vicious cycle.

2) Don't set your pitch speed low. That will not help. Set it to what you would like to be able to hit at. I have so much more trouble hitting on the slower speed, I stopped playing DD Conquest in Veteran mode because it was fooling me so badly. For reference, I use 6, and I'm thinking about going to 7.

3) Don't overdo yourself on difficulty. There's no way I could've hit on Legend, probably not Hall of Fame, but All Star gives me about 7 or 8 hits per game on average, and I'm actually considering graduating to HOF now.

4) Accept that you will get fooled more often than not. I used to get anxious when I wasn't able to hit every pitch. There will always be mistakes, and you'll get your share of them. But if you're scared of missing a pitch (like I was) you'll never be able to hit a fastball.

5) Use situational hitting. The game uses situational pitching, so you should be using the opposite. If you're up in the count, 3-1, and you see a ball headed for the middle, swing at it like a fastball. If it's a change up, oh well, you still have another shot.

6) Look at the repertoire, but only so much. Get a general idea what the guy is likely to throw, and look at any pitches that have a lot of confidence, and weigh that against your situation. But really only do that every so often. I find that when I get wrapped up in overthinking like that, I usually am jumpy. Just see ball, hit ball.

7) Practice. Again, trite, but this year, the first thing I did while waiting on the Hybrid OSFM Roster was to take batting practice. Over and over again. find someone you like to hit with, and just restart over and over again until you can turn in good at bats.

8) Remember, you will go on slumps just like a player will. There will be games, pitchers, times, whatever the factor, that you will be just awful at hitting.