Judging Pitches: Please help.

[twthomas]

I searched around and found some threads about guess a pitch but nothing specific to Judging pitches period. If there are threads would someone please tell me?

What I am trying to figure out... well first let me say I must SUCK!

What I am trying to figure out is how to judge if a pitch is a strike or ball. I know many of you will think I am exaggerating but I seriously swing at every pitch because every pitch
looks like its in the zone. I just cannot figure out how to judge them.
I think my primary problem is that I cannot seem to see how a person can tell if a pitch is in the middle or way low or way outside and still hit the one in the middle.

It just seems that if I wait long enough to decide the ball is in the zone, its already in the zone and swinging becomes worthless.

Can anyone tell me some trade secrets on how to judge when a ball is going to be outside?
I am not looking for perfection, I just want to guess right 33% of the time.

Thanks and again if there are other threads please link them or tell me I ca find help.

[Gagnon39]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

First thing to do. Change the view to catcher 5. Then lower the pitch speed if you need to. I refuse to do this second part. Third, go into practice and go through the different modes. They help.

[eyeamg0dly]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

i wish the czarisode hitting vid was still around from '09.

anyways, like mentioned before. go into practice mode and just watch the pitches. dont swing at all, just watch them. take mentals notes on how the ball travels and whether it was in the zone. the more pitches you watch, the more comfortable you will be.

next part is patience, this is obviously the hardest thing to do. take pitches till you get the one you want in the location you want. for example if your hotzone is middle away, then dont swing at anything unless its a fastball mid away.

it will come to you, so dont be over eager. work the counts, take pitches till they start throwing strikes.

[DickDalewood]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

i wish the czarisode hitting vid was still around from '09.

anyways, like mentioned before. go into practice mode and just watch the pitches. dont swing at all, just watch them. take mentals notes on how the ball travels and whether it was in the zone. the more pitches you watch, the more comfortable you will be.

next part is patience, this is obviously the hardest thing to do. take pitches till you get the one you want in the location you want. for example if your hotzone is middle away, then dont swing at anything unless its a fastball mid away.

it will come to you, so dont be over eager. work the counts, take pitches till they start throwing strikes.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LPEyl1aAvCA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Whitesox]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

I searched around and found some threads about guess a pitch but nothing specific to Judging pitches period. If there are threads would someone please tell me?

What I am trying to figure out... well first let me say I must SUCK!

What I am trying to figure out is how to judge if a pitch is a strike or ball. I know many of you will think I am exaggerating but I seriously swing at every pitch because every pitch
looks like its in the zone. I just cannot figure out how to judge them.
I think my primary problem is that I cannot seem to see how a person can tell if a pitch is in the middle or way low or way outside and still hit the one in the middle.

It just seems that if I wait long enough to decide the ball is in the zone, its already in the zone and swinging becomes worthless.

Can anyone tell me some trade secrets on how to judge when a ball is going to be outside?
I am not looking for perfection, I just want to guess right 33% of the time.

Thanks and again if there are other threads please link them or tell me I ca find help.

Perhaps you should try some different camera views?

Also, go into batting practice and spend some time on the Discipline mode. It's made for people with this problem.

As for picking up the pitch from the pitchers hand, a tip I've seen is to watch the pitcher's cap and pick the ball up from there.

[twthomas]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

Thanks guys. I did catch the thread a couple of days ago about starting your stride when you see the pitchers hand on top (I though yeah right... until I tried it) and that helped my rhythm alot.

Appreciate the video too!

I will practice more and see what happens.

Any other suggestions would be awesome.

BTW Just nailed my first homer with Jay Bruce against the Brewers! So I am getting better at hitting, I just need to learn patience and ID'ing the pitch.

[pokerlife]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

have you tried switching your TV to game mode?
I sucked at the game last year to the point it wasn't even fun!

This year same thing again i could not hit to save my life.
Switched to game mode and hit 4 homeruns and 12 hits!

I may even have to bump pitch speed up because its to easy to hit now.

[twthomas]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

Don't think my TV has said 'Game Mode'.
At least I don't see anything listed in the guide or menu's.
Hmmm..

[Bellsprout]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

Catcher 9 has helped me go from "swings at everything" guy to "takes 30 to 40 balls a game and actually draws walks" guy.

Also, I almost always take the first pitch. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say unless the pitch is a hanger or right down the pipe, don't even think about swinging until you have a strike on you.

[Whitesox]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

Catcher 9 has helped me go from "swings at everything" guy to "takes 30 to 40 balls a game and actually draws walks" guy.

Also, I almost always take the first pitch. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say unless the pitch is a hanger or right down the pipe, don't even think about swinging until you have a strike on you.

For the most part, I totally agree. There are a few times, though, where I would condone swinging at the first pitch.

The first of these times is when the opposing pitcher is laying in first strike after first strike. Continually going down 0-1 is never good, and is obviously going to lead to more strikeouts. I'd say look to swing on the first pitch if the pitcher is starting to take control.

The next is when a pitcher is rattled. When you start knocking him around a bit, the pitcher will begin to waver. Obviously, after falling behind 3-1 and giving up a 3 run homer, he does not want to do that again. So how does he try to avoid doing that again? By starting up 0-1. Look for an easy pitch over the middle here, commonly referred to as a "get-me-over" pitch.

The last of these comes into play later in the game. When the pitcher is tired, he begins to lose the ability to precisely locate. Ideally, he has been pecking at the corners all night long. But as the game wears on, he will have a higher tendency to let these corner pitches to drift into your wheelhouse.

I have had plenty of success when looking for first pitch strikes on these occasions. That's not to say you should be swinging all the time in these situations, simply look for it, and don't be afraid to swing once in a while.

[kvnm77]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

Catcher 9 has helped me go from "swings at everything" guy to "takes 30 to 40 balls a game and actually draws walks" guy.

Also, I almost always take the first pitch. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say unless the pitch is a hanger or right down the pipe, don't even think about swinging until you have a strike on you.

I tried Catcher 9 for two games after seeing this (I also have the swings at everything disease). I don't know if it has coincided with the fact that maybe I'm just starting to get it, but I also immediately saw a dramatic increase in balls taken - from about 10 per game to taking somewhere between 35-40 in both games. I was able to knock David Price out of a game early and even fight back from 0-2 counts to 3-2 twice. I walked once but more importantly only struck out 5 times in that game.

Thanks for the tip...

[TallyBoi7]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

What I did was lower the batting cam(I use Catcher 4) and use a lot of patience...after a while, you'll get a feel for what a pitcher's pitches look like and can adjust accordingly. Sometimes it's best to take a strike to see the speed and movement a pitcher has.

[jr86]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

I tried Catcher 9 for two games after seeing this (I also have the swings at everything disease). I don't know if it has coincided with the fact that maybe I'm just starting to get it, but I also immediately saw a dramatic increase in balls taken - from about 10 per game to taking somewhere between 35-40 in both games. I was able to knock David Price out of a game early and even fight back from 0-2 counts to 3-2 twice. I walked once but more importantly only struck out 5 times in that game.

Thanks for the tip...

Yep Catcher 9 is an excellent setup imo. It gives a great look at the pitchers release and massively helps judging strikes and balls

[Overhed]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

For me, the biggest factor in learning to recognize pitches was adopting a strategy that would allow me to see the release point of the pitcher. Specifically something that would allow me to consider the relative position of the release point to the strike zone. If you know where the strike zone is relative to the release point, it becomes much easier to determine, in a fraction of a second, if the pitch will end up in the strike zone or outside of it.

What I do is the following: I follow the pitcher's glove throughout the windup until a split second before he releases the ball (this is coincidentally about the same time that I start my back-swing). Just before he releases the ball (but before the ball is there) I look at the area of his release point (this doesn't have to be pin-point accurate, but the closer the better). At this point I am anticipating the pitch (I know it's coming in less than 1/2 a second) and also I'm looking at the release point (at the same time thinking about its position relative to the strike zone). As the ball is released I am able to pick it up immediately and identify the pitch type and end location.

Obviously this doesn't work 100% of the time, sometimes pitchers fool you, other times he makes a great, close pitch that is tough to judge, etc. But adopt this strategy and you'll see your hitting improve in no-time.

[Siddo4ty4]

Re: Judging Pitches: Please help.

anyone able to read side-armers well? I got tore up yesterday with a side-armer throwing sliders and curves low outside. I K'd on almost all of them...