Hitting Help Thread

[shinderhizzle84]

Hey...so I'm not sure about all of you, but I am having an excruciatingly bad time with the hitting in this game.

To give you an idea about how bad and how desperately I need help with hitting in this game: I did a small test run in My Player mode by upping every single one of my attributes to 99 and starting out by playing in AA Minor Leagues with the game difficulty set to rookie.

Through 14 games now, my batting average is something like (I'm not looking right now, sorry, haha ) .175, with 0 home runs, 0 rbi's, and 8 strikeouts.

I am very very patient at the plate. I'm a big MLB the show player, and in that game it's completely vital that you pick your pitches and work the count. I rarely swing on anything aside from a two-strike situation or a big hitter's count, such as 3-1 or SOMETIMES 2-1. My eye is very good--but everytime I swing at a pitch, even if I get a tremendous amount of wood on it, it seems to always go down for a hard hit ground ball, RIGHT to an infielder--and I'm not exactly sure why.

So I'm wondering--what are your major hitting tips that helped you with hitting in this game? I figured it would be a good idea for anyone who's known to be good at hitting in this game to just share whatever tips they're willing to give, instead of people in need of help searching all over these forums.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's input!

[MarkB]

I can't remember what it's called right now, but there's a hitting option which allows you to guess where the pitch will be. If it's turned on and you guess wrongly, your hitting will suffer horribly. I was similarly terrible at hitting, then read a hitting review on one of the game sites (IGN, maybe) and turned it off. Batting average slowly crept up, and eventually got to around 80-90 points higher. Went from just above the Mendoza line (and below it, on occasion) to .280 just from turning that option off.

[shinderhizzle84]

I can't remember what it's called right now, but there's a hitting option which allows you to guess where the pitch will be. If it's turned on and you guess wrongly, your hitting will suffer horribly. I was similarly terrible at hitting, then read a hitting review on one of the game sites (IGN, maybe) and turned it off. Batting average slowly crept up, and eventually got to around 80-90 points higher. Went from just above the Mendoza line (and below it, on occasion) to .280 just from turning that option off.

Thanks for the speedy reply!!

Sadly, I've already had that off for quite a while. I really don't know what my problem is--i've tried so many various different settings within the game itself, yet I can't hit for my life. I can pitch great, but even when it appears as if I've gotten good wood on the ball, it still is just a ground out. When I influence the aim high and up in the air with my controller's left stick, that still doesn't do anything good--I just get a weak pop out fly ball to the infield or the shallow outfield.

[MarkB]

Well, I completely avoid using the up swing, even on 3-0 counts when I'm sitting on a fastball. When I played My Player, he was a contact hitter so I didn't want to use the up swing and try to hit for power anyway, but in my experience, it generally does just result in a lazy fly ball or a pop-up.

Given your patience, I take it you're doing the obvious stuff - slapping outside pitches and pulling inside and not vice versa, and not trying to hit curves in the dirt...I don't know what to suggest, man.

Hopefully a hitter will come in and offer some advice.

[shinderhizzle84]

Well, I completely avoid using the up swing, even on 3-0 counts when I'm sitting on a fastball. When I played My Player, he was a contact hitter so I didn't want to use the up swing and try to hit for power anyway, but in my experience, it generally does just result in a lazy fly ball or a pop-up.

Given your patience, I take it you're doing the obvious stuff - slapping outside pitches and pulling inside and not vice versa, and not trying to hit curves in the dirt...I don't know what to suggest, man.

Hopefully a hitter will come in and offer some advice.

I gave up using the right analog stick for hitting a long time ago, actually, lol. My average DID improve a slight bit with using classic hitting controls, but not by much. I guess I'll just keep on practicing, or at least stick it out and wait until somebody on here can give me some good advice.

Thanks man, it is definitely much appreciated, lol...:(

[Yankee4Life]

Off topic here, but what the heck is a Shinderhizzle?

[shinderhizzle84]

Off topic here, but what the heck is a Shinderhizzle?

HA! Long story short, back when I was a little tyke in my first year of middle school (Oh, the drudgery!!) I had a math teacher who thought he was cool enough to talk like snoop dogg.

One day, during attendance, he purposely mispronounced my last name, calling me "Da Shinderhizzle". Everyone laughed and pretty soon that turned into my nickname, so I use it on almost all of my online forum names.

[Yankee4Life]

Thank you! Enjoy the website and have fun.

[MarkB]

I gave up using the right analog stick for hitting a long time ago, actually, lol. My average DID improve a slight bit with using classic hitting controls, but not by much. I guess I'll just keep on practicing, or at least stick it out and wait until somebody on here can give me some good advice.

Thanks man, it is definitely much appreciated, lol...

Sorry I couldn't help more. :sad:

[SeveredSoulX]

With hitting, it's just a constant trend of hits and misses, you will go on cold streaks, hot streaks, just like in real games - if you are having issues, there are a few practice options and you can use hitters that are like your character, so if you hit for contact, someone like Ichiro would be good to use vs power and using Howard or Papi

EDIT

And someone who's good at both like Pujols ;)

[Vikrant]

In my opinion, the hitting dynamics in the game are as close to real life as you will get. Besides changing the difficulty sliders (contact/power)you must identify the pitch location as soon as it leaves the pitcher's hand. Focus on the ball's trajectory the instant it leaves the pitcher's hand. Pay attention to the "Fastball" or "Breaking Ball" messages and adjust accordingly. On certain counts, 0-1, 0-2, I decide beforehand not to swing. On other counts, 3-1, 2-0 I swing no matter what. Practice, practice, practice.