Zone hitting strategy

[dougdfc]

How do you guys play with Zone hitting? I'm trying to get comfy with it, but I'm not sure if my current strategy of "Keeping the buckshot centered until 2 strikes" is very viable. some people online are stupidly good at painting corners. And after I get to an 0-2 count I'm just really, really bad at moving the PCI. I either go way too far and get weak contact, or I go in the wrong direction anyway

[Mbunn1993]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

I know you're asking for zone hitting advice, but as someone who struggled with moving his PCI too far down or not moving it up in time, I have mightly inproved my hitting both online and offline with directional, all stemming from the directional guide here. I threw out the whole "skilled players use zone" BS and went with what got results

If you don't find your zone hitting improving, I suggest reading this guide. Most detailed hitting guide I've ever read. I'm taking more pitches, walks, and producing more runs then ever.

http://forums.operationsports.com/fo...ing-guide.html

[dougdfc]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

I know you're asking for zone hitting advice, but as someone who struggled with moving his PCI too far down or not moving it up in time, I have mightly inproved my hitting both online and offline with directional, all stemming from the directional guide here. I threw out the whole "skilled players use zone" BS and went with what got results

If you don't find your zone hitting improving, I suggest reading this guide. Most detailed hitting guide I've ever read. I'm taking more pitches, walks, and producing more runs then ever.

http://forums.operationsports.com/fo...ing-guide.html

heh, Oddly enough I'm moving from directional because I was tired of all the popups and hard grounders to short

[bcruise]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

I've mentioned it in other threads but I'll go through it again - this is my general approach to zone hitting on HOF:

Early counts (0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 1-1): I pick a spot with the PCI and sit on it (depending on the patterns I've seen from the pitcher), and prepare to swing early to pull with most hitters. If I perceive the ball to be heading outside of the PCI, even if it's in the strike zone, I won't swing. Note the word "perceive" here - I am definitely not perfect at this (wouldn't be much fun if I was), and I'm pretty susceptible to stuff that breaks below the PCI. It's basically like guessing fastball and getting the change. But when I get that fastball where I want it, I can do some major damage.

Ahead Counts (2-0, 3-0, 2-1, 3-1): Not much different from early counts, except that I'll look more toward the center of the zone more often and mix in a power swing with certain hitters (usually those with a large PCI which cancels out the power swing penalty).

Behind Counts: (0-2, 1-2, 2-2? (not "behind" per se, but still two strikes)) Protect mode. That means attempting to move the PCI to follow the ball, make contact and put the ball in play. Nothing to say about this one other than practice - it's the only way you get better at identifying balls and strikes. The "Discipline" batting practice mode is well-suited to training the two strike hitting approach. I do not use contact swings here or on full counts - I use them very situationally such as trying to drive home a runner from 3rd with less than 2 out.

Full count: Basically the same as behind, but with a slight bias towards taking something that looks like it's heading to a corner. I still don't want to strike out looking, though.

[olig23]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

I went over to Directional for a little while last week. But it just felt wrong. So back to zone.

My approach is similar to that of bcruise. Except something tells me that he's better at this than I am.

I hit way too may fly balls. I definitely have issues pulling down on the stick. Also, I struggle top pickup high fastballs in time I think.

But I think if you can stick to some variation of what BCruise says you will see improvements. Ultimately, I just find Zone has more satisfying and realistic ABs personally.

My only frustration is when I am sitting early in the count, and looking for something low in the zone, then a guy hangs a high curveball and the commenators chastise my guy... It's annoying I miss those. But I still find it works better, for me, than Directional.

[bcruise]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

Here's a vid of me taking the above approach and putting it into practice in a BP Good-at-bat session. This round was kind of unusual in that I had 2 homers and also 2 walks.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_DcIx4H2lb8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Geronimo22]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

I use the same approach as Brcuise. The first part is the most important. Don't swing unless you know can get your PCI on the pitch, even if it's a strike. Wait on your pitch early.

[dougdfc]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

It actually worked! It's tougher against craftier players though since they're not afraid to throw into your hot zones

[Bunselpower32]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

I know I've posted it before, but it bears repeating.

"The average pitcher will give you one good pitch per at bat. It's your job as a hitter to figure out which one that is and do something with it". -Tom Herr

It seems simple, but it is true. A pitcher may throw that one good one on the first pitch, or the 10th pitch. Once you understand that, it makes hitting a whole new experience because now you're not trying to hit every strike, but often letting decent pitches go to get a good pitch.

[S2S]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

It might just be me but I sit my pci up & adjust to the breaking ball. But an over confident & sometimes foolish player will bring in a reliever who throws hard & put fastballs up.. Example I was playing BR yesterday & the dude was down 1 - 0 & he brought in the new all star Kimbrel. I sat my pci up & waited on a fastball & ended up cranking one with Vogt.

[bcruise]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

I've mentioned it in other threads but I'll go through it again - this is my general approach to zone hitting on HOF:

Early counts (0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 1-1): I pick a spot with the PCI and sit on it (depending on the patterns I've seen from the pitcher), and prepare to swing early to pull with most hitters. If I perceive the ball to be heading outside of the PCI, even if it's in the strike zone, I won't swing. Note the word "perceive" here - I am definitely not perfect at this (wouldn't be much fun if I was), and I'm pretty susceptible to stuff that breaks below the PCI. It's basically like guessing fastball and getting the change. But when I get that fastball where I want it, I can do some major damage.

Ahead Counts (2-0, 3-0, 2-1, 3-1): Not much different from early counts, except that I'll look more toward the center of the zone more often and mix in a power swing with certain hitters (usually those with a large PCI which cancels out the power swing penalty).

Behind Counts: (0-2, 1-2, 2-2? (not "behind" per se, but still two strikes)) Protect mode. That means attempting to move the PCI to follow the ball, make contact and put the ball in play. Nothing to say about this one other than practice - it's the only way you get better at identifying balls and strikes. The "Discipline" batting practice mode is well-suited to training the two strike hitting approach. I do not use contact swings here or on full counts - I use them very situationally such as trying to drive home a runner from 3rd with less than 2 out.

Full count: Basically the same as behind, but with a slight bias towards taking something that looks like it's heading to a corner. I still don't want to strike out looking, though.

Wanted to bump this thread to mention a slight change to this approach which seems to be working pretty well for me. It's based off of the information in Hitting-Other Tips 2 in the in-game strategy guide:

I'm now playing closer attention to each batter's hitting tendency and slightly adjusting my swing timing and initial PCI placement to account for it. That means with whole field hitters I'll usually keep the PCI in the middle (and sometimes up or down) pre-pitch and just try to swing with normal timing - these hitters can hit the ball anywhere without much change in their swing timing window regardless of the user's swing timing. With pull and extreme pull hitters, I'll bring the PCI to the inner third before the pitch and attempt to swing early on the pitch as best I can. With these hitters, your timing window is larger when you swing early, which will give you a better chance to make contact. And moving my PCI to the inside pre-pitch encourages me to only swing at inside pitches with these pull hitters - which is, again, the best way for me to pull the ball and make hard contact.

The new stuff only goes for early and ahead counts - if it's behind or full, my approach doesn't change from what I said in the original post because at that point I can't be as picky about what I swing at. Also, how much I try to pull the ball depends on whether the defense is shifting for the hitter. They rarely shift when there are runners on base, so this is often my best chance to use a pull hitter to their best advantage.

[geisterhome]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

seems this year I'm hitting a ton but it's rarely anything else than singels? Am I'm the only one running into this?

SM-G955F

[wizfan2]

Re: Zone hitting strategy

Ok, I for the last four MLB the Shows always been an All Star/ zone hitting, contact at 5, power at 5, solid hits at 5 (using the Nationals) player in this years game thru 30 games I lead the MLB in doubles but only have 29 homers with no major injuries to power guys. I was thinking should I raise the power to 6 to get more homers. Thought I read somewhere on the forums that they nerfed the power in this years game.