MLB 14: The Show

Sorry Donan, I should have clarified, this is not return to the show mode. This is franchise mode and online leagues/exhibitions vs other human opponents. Im just a terrible batter and was looking for advice on timing or how to pick up balls vs strikes quicker. Some of the stuff i swing and miss out is just downright embarrassing.

I'd go with Donan's suggestion about relying on that contact button a lot. It also helps if you hit the select button before the bat to get a feeling for the type of batter you're using. If they have high CON ratings, using the circle almost exclusively tends to get you base hits more often.

As for picking up the balls/strikes, a lot of it will just be practice. I've been playing The Show since '07 and I still have trouble seeing the strike zone, especially when the balls are low in the zone. The thing that helps me is to simply just forcing myself to take pitches unless it is obviously coming right down the middle. I also think that AI starts to learn that you'll swing at anything after awhile and will just throw garbage the whole game until you start taking some balls.

Refresh my memory--the zone batting means you're controlling the yellow circle, right? That's probably the hardest thing to master, getting that circle in the right place. If you're off just by a little bit you'll pop it up or drive it into the ground. You might want to just switch to timing for a little bit so you can start figuring out when to swing instead of adding the worry of positioning the circle.

Also, I haven't tried playing an online game in a few seasons since the lag through the timing so off it made batting anything other than weak grounders basically impossible.

So basically the main three tips:

1. Maybe switch to timing batting for a few games
2. Use the contact swing as opposed to the normal or power
3. Do whatever you need to do to NOT swing. Maybe even going so far as to not swing until you're at two strikes for a couple of batters. At the very least you can concentrate on just watching the pitch/pitcher and get an idea of how the ball is going to move.

Is there a thread for the '18 version of this?

-BEP