I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

[bigdave117]

is there some kind of a trick that I'm just not seeing?? Every time I think it's a fastball, it ends up being a slider. Everytime I think it's a slider, ends up being a fastball. Trying to get the exact location of the ball is nearly impossible even when I do time it/read the pitch correctly


What's the trick here? Do you guys hit with plate coverage indicator on or off?? Do you try to follow the ball from start to finish or how the hell do you square it up/time it everytime like so many people on youtube are able to do?


I'm absolutely awesome pitching wise too - I can hit like 90% of my pitches right on the corner but hitting I just can't figure it out. It's so frustrating. I can dominate on any difficulty level and even against great players online pitching wise but I'm so bad hitting


edit: I use the strike zone camera

[kaybli]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

I agree. Its very tough to actually move the PCI to where the pitch is going. Most of the time I just keep the PCI in the middle and wait for my pitch there unless I see a pattern of a pitcher pitching down or up too much. I don't know how the youtubers seem to move the PCI to where the ball is most of the time. I think one think that helps is using the Strike Zone camera angle. Most youtubers I've seen swear by it. I personally don't like it because I like the aesthetics of the MLB Show 16 Cam but maybe I'd hit better in Strike Zone. What batting camera do you use?

[bigdave117]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

I agree. Its very tough to actually move the PCI to where the pitch is going. Most of the time I just keep the PCI in the middle and wait for my pitch there unless I see a pattern of a pitcher pitching down or up too much. I don't know how the youtubers seem to move the PCI to where the ball is most of the time. I think one think that helps is using the Strike Zone camera angle. Most youtubers I've seen swear by it. I personally don't like it because I like the aesthetics of the MLB Show 16 Cam but maybe I'd hit better in Strike Zone. What batting camera do you use?

I use the strike zone camera also

[kaybli]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

Yea. If you don't mind the aesthetics of it, a lot of people do say Strike Zone is the best camera angle for adjusting your PCI to the pitch. Just keep practicing in batting practice mode!

[Black59Razr]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

I use the strike zone camera also

I need Offset to help me see the 'pitch' of the pitch. Strike Zone view makes every pitch look the same to me. Offset is closer to 3D - you see an extra layer of depth or pitch. Try using custom view, edit to offset, then zoom in as much as it will let you - wont' be as zoomed in as strike zone though.

Once you start using offset, it's about repetition, just like real baseball. Eventually, you'll start swinging less at sliders that start down the middle and break to a corner for a strike, and you'll be like, damn how did I lay off that slider? You'll start noticing something didn't look right in the pitcher's release - it came out funny. This is why a heavy dose of curveballs are useless against good hitters.

You also have to walk in to every at-bat with a game-plan. If you don't have a game-plan, or don't understand what this means, just use the at bat to gather information about the pitcher's tendencies (only in online. The CPU pitchers are unrealistically random), and hope you get lucky and fall into a hitters count.

Use zone hitting as if it was directional. Meaning, don't move the circle around for a while. Also, make it invisible until you are really comfortable with the distraction of it. If/when a pitcher has established he's living on the corners, then you can start moving it based on his trends. Does he always throw off-speed low with 2 strikes? Does he like to throw high and in heat to start the at-bat? Does he like back door sliders? Once you have a profile on him, you can play guess hitting and move your PCI wherever you think he's coming. This actually makes your timing way better too, increasing the PCI size. Reason being, if you are sitting on his low and away slider, and you see the ball released in the area of a high fastball, you're swing timing is for a low slider and should be 'good' if it is, in fact, a slider. If you get fooled and it's a high fastball, so be it. You'll swing and miss and it's just a strike. It won't be a pop-up for an out. Don't get caught in between (too late for fastballs and too early for breaking balls). This is where most poor hitters get caught up.

If he's not predictable and all over the place, your best bet is to leave the PCI where it is and focus on good timing/increased PCI size.

Also, changing from a 50" top of the line TV to a 32" 1ms delay monitor will turn a .200 hitter into a .300 hitter - no joke.

Rant over. Bored at work lol

[nomo17k]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

I recommend reading the Hitting section of the in-game Strategy Guide for tips on the PCI placement. (Go to pause menu while playing a game, then Controls & Strategy -> Hitting).

If you are not good at moving PCI while the pitch comes to you (I'm one of these people), one thing you can do is to preload PCI near the place where you expect a pitch and only swing if the pitch comes near that zone and lay off if it's not in the zone.

[bigdave117]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

Do you guys have any advice for learning how to read, time and locate the PCI perfectly?

Any decent player is going to be extremely random so you won't be able to predict anything correctly. That advice is useless. You have to become like the guys on YouTube who can time and locate everything perfectly

[nomo17k]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

Do you guys have any advice for learning how to read, time and locate the PCI perfectly?

Any decent player is going to be extremely random so you won't be able to predict anything correctly. That advice is useless. You have to become like the guys on YouTube who can time and locate everything perfectly

Playing online against HUM is different than playing offline in sim-style.

I think the best online guys are capable of moving PCI mid-pitch and also time it correctly and it is an amazing skill (look at how someone like cardinalbird5 does it...), but one reason why they can do this is because the pitch speed for online games is rather slow.

Also, there's some patterns that a lot of online guys tent to fall into when pitching (overuse of high and tight fastballs, overuse of offspeed pitches, etc.), which makes it easier to read pitches if you play a lot of online games.

But If you play offline in a sim style, you have to make a compromise with pitch speed and PCI control with Zone...

[RockPowderDownLoL]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

pay attention to the pitchers front foot as the pitch is coming towards you while still focusing on the ball in righty vs righty or lefty vs lefty matchups.

[bigdave117]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

bump for more opinions

[sirjam]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

Strike zone cam def helps although I'm intrigued about off set after being mentioned in this thread. I keep it in the middle and then try to adjust with the pitch. Pay attention to your feedback so you know why you were off.

[bcruise]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

I recommend reading the Hitting section of the in-game Strategy Guide for tips on the PCI placement. (Go to pause menu while playing a game, then Controls & Strategy -> Hitting).

If you are not good at moving PCI while the pitch comes to you (I'm one of these people), one thing you can do is to preload PCI near the place where you expect a pitch and only swing if the pitch comes near that zone and lay off if it's not in the zone.

This is my approach before two strikes (at which point I will try to react to the ball to just get it in play) and it allows me to play effectively on HOF default.

As long as I'm focusing I'm capable of laying off anything that's going to move outside of my PCI (visible or invisible - I have a pretty good idea of what most of them look like on HOF, and how the opposing pitchers' ratings will affect their size), especially balls that will miss left or right. Up and down do fool me at times - but I see that as just a hitter getting fooled when he expected a fastball and the ball just dives out of his sight (or the reverse).

With this approach I will take many corner strikes. If I start to pick up on patterns then I'll start loading my PCI in a spot where I'm guessing the pitch will be going (but still not moving it during the pitch).

Aside from the obvious - not chasing after pitches that I'm going to make poor/no contact on - this approach gives me the advantage of being able to focus more on my timing in hitter's counts - and I can really do some damage if I time up a fastball heading straight into my PCI. I don't think I'd be able to turn on and pull fastballs with any other approach.

[sdatkins]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

I am by no means a zone hitting expert, but I hit fairly well on All Star. I always start with my PCI in the upper third of the strike zone, because I have a bad habit of moving my PCI down for everything. If I ever played online, which I don't, all a player would have to do is throw me up in the zone and I would hit fly outs and pop ups all day. Having my PCI up in the zone allows me to hit anything middle down very, very well, since I drop my PCI, so those are the pitches I swing at unless there are two strikes, then I just try to fight off anything up. I also struggle with pitches in, unless they are offspeed, so I look middle away as well.

As far as knowing what pitch is coming, it is all about repetition. Figure out what camera works for you and stick with it. I switched to strike zone last year and my plate discipline has gotten a lot better. The toughest pitches to recognize are sliders down, running away, I still chase those a decent amount, but for me the hardest is definitely the change up and splitter that are down in the zone. I for one still think the difference in speed between change up and fastball is far too great, especially for guys who have it as their 4th or 5th pitch. Anything up in the zone is usually pretty easy to read once you get the hang of it.

[Aviator87AC]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

I switched to directional hitting last year and never looked back. Zone hitting is what a lot of us grew up with playing baseball games but it just isn't implemented properly in MLBTS to be consistent or rewarding at the major league level on all-star or above.

That being said, the first and most fundamental thing I'd do is learn the different flight paths of each pitch type. Know the difference between a cutter and a 2SFB. What's a running fast ball and how does it differ? A curveball can look a lot like a slider until it breaks. Understanding these aspects of pitching will not only make you a better hitter, it'll give a greater appreciation to the experience of The Show.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, learn how much you need to pull or push the analog stick for zone hitting. I found myself popping out a lot and realized I had a habit of pulling the stick down at the last second as I went to swing. Start off by leaving the stick neutral (no input). Then try giving varied amounts of input as you choose.

Lastly, set your "swing area". Just because it's a strike doesn't mean you have to swing. This is perhaps one of the hardest and most important rules to learn, especially as a new player. It's unnatural to let a pitch go by for a strike. In fact, instinctually we always try to hit the ball. Set a swing area for yourself and stick to it. Then set a pitch type that you're looking for and stick to that. My two favorites are a breaking change up, up over the plate and a 4SFB slightly in. If the pitch isn't your type or in your area, don't swing. More times than not, it's called a ball anyway.

Once you identify these idiosyncrasies and establish parameters on when to swing and when not to, you'll build a solid hitters profile - especially for zone hitting.

[Bunselpower32]

Re: I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

It's going to sound trite and really cliche, but do batting practice. Just do it over and over and over. Pick a guy with a slider and no curve, and then a guy with a Curve and no slider. Learn those pitches. You have to be able to distinguish between those pitches and a fastball if you want any success, and trying it with a guy that throws both won't help.

I used to swing at every single offspeed pitch because unlike real life, you can't see the spin. But after taking Matt Carpenter through hours of batting practice, the difference out of the pitchers hand became more and more obvious. I'm nowhere near an expert, but I'm not terrible at picking out balls and swinging at strikes.

Something else that helped me immensely just this year was a quote I heard from Tommy Herr (For those that don't know, in 1985 he had 110 RBI on only 8 home runs). He said "An average major league pitcher will give you about one good pitch to hit during an at bat. As a major league hitter, it's your job to not only find it, but do something with it." What he meant here was that before you get 2 strikes, if a pitch isn't center cut or somewhere you like it, don't swing, even if it's a strike. There's a good pitch somewhere in there, and it may just be that it comes with two strikes, and if you swing too early and get out you won't even see that pitch.

As far as the PCI goes, that was another story, more practice and since I play offline with a higher pitch speed, I don't have time to place it perfectly, I just basically react.