[Unlucky 13]

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.