I need Offset to help me see the 'pitch' of the pitch. Strike Zone view makes every pitch look the same to me. Offset is closer to 3D - you see an extra layer of depth or pitch. Try using custom view, edit to offset, then zoom in as much as it will let you - wont' be as zoomed in as strike zone though.
Once you start using offset, it's about repetition, just like real baseball. Eventually, you'll start swinging less at sliders that start down the middle and break to a corner for a strike, and you'll be like, damn how did I lay off that slider? You'll start noticing something didn't look right in the pitcher's release - it came out funny. This is why a heavy dose of curveballs are useless against good hitters.
You also have to walk in to every at-bat with a game-plan. If you don't have a game-plan, or don't understand what this means, just use the at bat to gather information about the pitcher's tendencies (only in online. The CPU pitchers are unrealistically random), and hope you get lucky and fall into a hitters count.
Use zone hitting as if it was directional. Meaning, don't move the circle around for a while. Also, make it invisible until you are really comfortable with the distraction of it. If/when a pitcher has established he's living on the corners, then you can start moving it based on his trends. Does he always throw off-speed low with 2 strikes? Does he like to throw high and in heat to start the at-bat? Does he like back door sliders? Once you have a profile on him, you can play guess hitting and move your PCI wherever you think he's coming. This actually makes your timing way better too, increasing the PCI size. Reason being, if you are sitting on his low and away slider, and you see the ball released in the area of a high fastball, you're swing timing is for a low slider and should be 'good' if it is, in fact, a slider. If you get fooled and it's a high fastball, so be it. You'll swing and miss and it's just a strike. It won't be a pop-up for an out. Don't get caught in between (too late for fastballs and too early for breaking balls). This is where most poor hitters get caught up.
If he's not predictable and all over the place, your best bet is to leave the PCI where it is and focus on good timing/increased PCI size.
Also, changing from a 50" top of the line TV to a 32" 1ms delay monitor will turn a .200 hitter into a .300 hitter - no joke.
Rant over. Bored at work lol