Hitting Techniques
 

I'm just curious to know how everyone else approaches hitting in 09. Last year for me, I would guess the pitch but not the location, and use the left stick to aim to that part of the strike zone and time it. This year, I'm guessing the location and the pitch, and trying to time it together while aiming with the left stick, but have had terrible results. (less than .220 team avg with the Giants thru April)

How do other people hit in 09? Should I be focusing more on the timing of the pitch, and less of the aiming?

Any feedback is appreciated... Thanks

Re: Hitting Techniques
 

Relying on guess pitch will not make you a better hitter. What I do is sit on location until two strikes. For example:

XXO
XXO
OOO

OOO
XXO
XXO

etc.

Then once you get two strikes, you have to cover the whole plate. If you don't have two strikes on you, don't swing at a pitch you are not prepared to hit because you will more than likely swing and miss or make an easy out.

Re: Hitting Techniques
 

I have been playing this game since last years rendition. I would always guess pitch and location and struggled in a big way. It just seemed that I was so locked into what I was waiting for that my offense was terrible. About a week ago I stopped the guess pitch and location and just batted like you would if it were real life.
I look fastball now (without GP) until strike two and then go into defensive hitting. IMy hitting has increased to the point that I am trying to slow it down now. I went from veteran to HoF in a week and am adjusting sliders to slow myself down now. I went from 4-6 hits a game to almost 20. What sucks is that is waaaay too many hits and once again I am playing the slider game.

So just to make that clear, once I stopped the guess pitch and guess location options I broke out huge. Who would have thought that?

Re: Hitting Techniques
 

The timing slider is the key to lowering hit totals; contact, power, and solid hits don't do anything to lower hit totals. Try lowering timing to -3 (2/10) or less.

Re: Hitting Techniques
 

I think guess pitch makes hitters timid if you don't guess the pitch right. I just look at what pitches the pitcher could throw, usually take the first pitch, and based on the count, treat it like a real life matchup and what pitch I would throw in the situation to a CPU hitter. I usually get around 9-11 hits a game with a good mix of singles, XBH and every other game a HR. I play on all star with some slight modifications and no doubt find the toughest pitch to pick up out of the pitcher's hand, a change up. You can see a breaking ball coming for the most part, but a change up looks like a fastball.

Also I almost always keep the batting cursor low and usually outside on two strikes as the CPU will very rarely put a breaking ball high in the zone on purpose or a fastball in the fat part of the zone on 2 strikes either, something to keep in mind.

Re: Hitting Techniques
 

Phoenixmgs, Many thanks! I have been wasting my time on the wrong sliders.

Re: Hitting Techniques
 

for a long time I was struggling to put up 2 runs a game, even against scrub pitchers. i am finally finding my way, and now average closer to 4 or 5, and a realistic amount of hits.

so what are the keys?

1. Patience. this cannot be stressed enough. just like in real life, if you swing at everything, you WILL fail.

2. In MVP, you could just hold up on the L-stick and only focus on whether the pitch was left or right. in this game, it is crucial that you locate the pitch vertically too.

3. think. look at the pitchers pitches, and think in terms of real life situations. this is pretty obvious, but sometimes I forget to do it. In hitters counts, look fastball, and adjust to anything else (or just let it go).

4. be confident. this really makes a difference. this game is so realistic that when the other team has an ace going it can be intimidating. So when Harden blurs the first fastball by you, don't retreat in fear, just increase your focus and get ready to rake.

Re: Hitting Techniques
 

No problem.

Which is the exact reason why MVP was an OK baseball game at best, I really did not like the hitting system. The hitting was too dumbed down on the user control side. Too much of the result of a hit ball was based on the batter and pitcher attributes as pointing the left stick and timing the pitch was too easy. Plus, the pitching sucked, way too easy.