Need some tips on hitting Home Runs

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New baseball fan here who picked up mlb 2k12 here, I've learned the rules pretty quickly (not all of them obviously but enough to understand the game easily) and also learned the mlb 2k12 pretty easily, now got myself a pretty competitive slider set from operation sports to get some more realistic stats and jumped into franchise mode with Giants with 2016 roster. Now my only problem is that i have only 1 home run in 8 games so i need some tips on how to get those, i usually dont use the left stick to aim when AB but my only home run came when doing so (right handed hitter so i pressed my left stick to the left and i know if its left handed hitter you should press to the right), i dont use power swing so that might be the issue. My batting average is pretty high so far (28.3) but again i cant figure out how to hit homers, i didnt notice how bad it was when i just played play now games as i would get one or two a game every now and then but now that im into franchise and i can follow my stats i see how bad i am at that aspect. So any tips would be appreciated. 

 

TLDR; 1 homer in 9 games with Giants, need some tips.

Sorry for wall of text

Edit: i know people say that the easiest pitch to hit a home run from is a fastball in the middle but yet when i hit those it's usually a pop up or in some cases a deep fly ball, so what's the deal here ? is it because im not using left analog stick for aiming?

Edited April 15, 2016 by prev

[Yankee4Life]

Now I don't own 2k12 as everyone in here knows but what I do know is that the best way you can learn to hit and hit with power in 2k12 or in any other baseball game is to practice. When I first got Mvp 05 I used automatic fielding because I wasn't good at fielding grounders or going after fly balls. Now I strictly use manual fielding and nothing else. It just took practice. Same for hitting. I didn't start out clobbering the ball but now I am ok. Just give yourself time.

[Kccitystar]

location, location, location, and know which pitches you can put a solid swing on. A fastball will yield a better result than trying to swat a low splitter for example.

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36 minutes ago, Kccitystar said:

location, location, location, and know which pitches you can put a solid swing on. A fastball will yield a better result than trying to swat a low splitter for example.

by location you mean pitch location or left stick aiming location ? If you mean pitch location then which pitch locations are easiest to hit home runs from ?

Edited April 15, 2016 by prev

[Kccitystar]

The game is receptive to the direction of the pitch and where you're moving the left stick

[sask3m]

I thought 2k was strictly timing? 

[hin_kiagami]

just up power slide for user. I use 35 for user slide

[IhitThree43]

Don't the left stick only control the trajectory of the batted ball? Like pressing it up to get fly ball and down for ground ball and left/right to left/right field?( from the player manual) 

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18 hours ago, hin_kiagami said:

just up power slide for user. I use 35 for user slide

im already at 60. 

[Yankee4Life]

14 minutes ago, prev said:

im already at 60. 

How long have you been playing this game?

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1 hour ago, Yankee4Life said:

How long have you been playing this game?

9 days but again im not sure that's the issue though it could be, thing is that im getting bunch of hits most of my games and enough runs (not much but somewhere in the middle of the league) but no homers (well one in 10 games now), my batting average is around 27.8 so far (with SF Giants),  i tend to not strike at 12-6 curves and the rest of the hard pitches but again as i said it only leads to hits/runs and not homers but as i also mentioned earlier i wasnt using left stick to aim at all when hitting so that might be the issue too as i've read some threads on the net and watched few videos on youtube that said that using left stick to aim when hitting helps with home runs. 

 

I'm just a bit lost on getting the home runs part right now to be honest and that's it, not struggling at any other aspects of the game as i've pick up on things like that pretty quickly.

Edited April 16, 2016 by prev

[Yankee4Life]

Just now, prev said:

9 days but again im not sure that's the issue though it could be, thing is that im getting bunch of hits most of my games and enough runs (not much but somewhere in the middle of the league) but no homers (well one in 10 games now), i tend to not strike at 12-6 curves and the rest of the hard pitches but again as i said it only leads to hits/runs and not homers but as i also mentioned earlier i wasnt using left stick to aim at all when hitting so that might be the issue too as i've read some threads on the net and watched few videos on youtube that said that using left stick to aim when hitting helps with home runs. 

That is the issue. You don't just jump into a game and expect to master it just like that. Just keep practicing and learning from those videos and before you know it this no-home run problem you are having will be a thing of the past.

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1 hour ago, Yankee4Life said:

That is the issue. You don't just jump into a game and expect to master it just like that. Just keep practicing and learning from those videos and before you know it this no-home run problem you are having will be a thing of the past.

Yeah i get that but some pointers would be nice so i can work past it faster hehe.

[debsterfan]

Those sliders at Operation Sports are for people with good amount of time playing this game.

I don't use left stick for batting, I rarely use the power swing when I am ahead in the count 3-0 or 3-1 with a power hitter. In my previous franchise, I was in the top 3 in the league in homers with 72 in 54 games. In this game to hit homers you just need to wait for your pitch and time it. Timing is the key to get homers.

To help you with that. BSUFan sliders has some good settings that will help you get more HRs without using the Power swing of the left stick.  I recommend you to start with User Contact 40 and Power 65 and see how it goes. If you get too many HRs then start lowering contact to something not lower than 25 then play with user power.

Edited April 16, 2016 by debsterfan

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54 minutes ago, debsterfan said:

Those sliders at Operation Sports are for people with good amount of time playing this game.

I don't use left stick for batting, I rarely use the power swing when I am ahead in the count 3-0 or 3-1 with a power hitter. In my previous franchise, I was in the top 3 in the league in homers with 72 in 54 games. In this game to hit homers you just need to wait for your pitch and time it. Timing is the key to get homers.

To help you with that. BSUFan sliders has some good settings that will help you get more HRs without using the Power swing of the left stick.  I recommend you to start with User Contact 40 and Power 65 and see how it goes. If you get too many HRs then start lowering contact to something not lower than 25 then play with user power.

I started using "50 theory" sliders from OS, not the most popular one for 2k12 (cant remember it's name) as i found the game way too easy like 2 days after i was playing and now it's a lot more interesting and i dont find too hard other than hitting homers as i mentioned few times already. However thanks for the pointers, i will increase user contact to 40 (currently at 35) and i changed power to 65 few games ago but im not quite sure on what you mean by "wait for your pitch and time it" . What pitch i shoud look for exactly? From what i've gathered by reading around it seems to be fast ball right in the middle or on outside middle part of the zone, sometimes middle up in the zone and outside up in the zone tend to work too i've noticed, is there anything else and how correct i am on this? But timing thing you mentioned confuses me more, by timing you mean swinging at the right time is that or ? In that case does that mean if you swing at some pitch just a little too early or too late it could be the difference between a home run and a pop up or a single hit ? Very interesting if thats the case. 

 

Also a bit off topic but i just wanna get this out: Baseball got me hooked hard, last time i was so addicted to a new professional sport that i started following was back in 07 or 08 when i started watching NFL, my Baseball experience has been great so far too in every aspect, watching games, playing mlb 2k12, talking with other baseball fans on reddit and some other sites, everything pretty much. Also long time fans seem to be very helpful and friendly, sport is insanely awesome for my taste too, i love it !

Edited April 16, 2016 by prev

[debsterfan]

When I say wait for your pitch, I mean waiting for a pitch that you Know it is in the strike zone not just swinging at anything you see, regardless if it is a fastball or a breaking ball. And "time it"  is as you think, swinging at the right time. Read the pitches and with practice you'll get the timing right. It's not something that will happen from one game to another. You will be hammering HR to all type of pitches.

Another thing is trying to lower pitch speed in order to get a better read of the pitches. With a better read you can make better contact when you swing at the right time. I used to play with Pitch speed between 75-85 and it was good.

Right now I am testing pitch speed 100 for both CPU and User. Trying to get used to this speed is tough but I am almost at it. In 2 games I am 1-1 with 0 HR, but with over 20 hits, including many doubles. So I'll play some more games with this setting and see how HR numbers come, if not so many I might try upping user power as my contact will get better as I get used to the speed.

[Kccitystar]

My hitting strategy is usually just looking for something in one of the 9 zones the game gives me to hit (the strike zone has 9 boxes, so that's what I go by). If I'm looking for something up in the zone that I can pull (meaning I hit towards the side I'm batting on), I know to swing early since I will make optimal contact by doing so. The hitting in this game can be a little stiff (sometimes good pitches and what looks like a good swing can = lousy contact), but in time you will start recognizing it's quirks.

[sask3m]

5 hours ago, prev said:

Yeah i get that but some pointers would be nice so i can work past it faster hehe.

 There is a slider that controls how often the text thing pops up telling you what pitch is coming, turn that up all the way then you'll know whats coming.

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Thanks everyone for replies, one last question: why am  i getting so many pop ups on fast balls in the middle of the zone? Is this saying that im swinging too early or too late ?

[aceshigh]

I wouldn't know how to answer that last question, could be just a matter of swinging at bad pitches really. Timing would have to do with the amount of foul balls you get, i imagine. Another thing you might wanna do to hit more home runs is to work the count. I have noticed that you can hit more homers if the pitcher gets tired in the AB (throwing at least 7 or more pitches). In this case contact swing helps to foul more pitches (right analog stick to the left or to the right). Yeah, of course that is a riskier tactic, since you will definitely be batting with a 2-strikes count, but pitchers can make more mistakes. Also power swing is important if you wanna hit homers, although there is obviously a greater chance of making no contact, however practice makes perfect!