[KBLover]

How I try to approach off-speed:

-Get a camera view that gives both good depth perception/where the ball is relative to the plate and lets you have a good gauge on high/low and in/out.

-Wait as long as you can. I have to tell myself, if it feels late, I'm probably on time.

-Pick a speed. Don't try to adjust to both. If you want to sit on off-speed and try to react to fastball, or vice versa, do one and be consistent, at least in that at-bat. If you flip flop, you might be bad at both plus the pitcher can get you in the rocking chair...i.e. looking fast and getting slow, then looking slow and getting fast. That's tough for a hitter. If you stick with one, you'll get better at it with practice and if the pitcher changes speeds, he'll come back to you eventually.

-Identify the pitch. Off-speed often has little tell-tale signs. Curves have "humps" in their movement. Change-ups sometimes do or appear to because of their slower motion and drop at the end. If you think curve and get change, chances are you'll still at least foul it off. Sliders can be the nastiest to identify. If they are slow sliders, they may look like sideways curves (the "hump" will be the start of movement a bit to the arm side of the pitcher - at least in appearances). Hard sliders...good luck and hope they hang. Nothing worse than 100 MPH fastball and 88+ MPH slider with movement. UGH.

One reason I like high (even maxed) pitch speed slider is I find these signs define themselves earlier out of the pitcher's hand, especially if they aren't particularly good pitches. Maybe it's just me, but I try to look for these "signatures" on pitches to give my timing an idea. On low pitch speed settings, everything just looks like whiffle balls (or knuckleballs?) to me. That visual difference in velocities and signatures helps me identify what's what, as long as it's not crazy - so maxing both gives me that.