MLB 15 The Show: Directional Hitting Impressions

[cactusruss]

Quote: Originally Posted by nemesis04

Everyone is making this way more complicated than it has to be.

I think the confusion might come from past versions of The Show, where you had to pre-load your directional influence. Honestly, the confusion might go away if they were able to name this way of hitting "EA Sports MVP 2005 Hitting Style"

[nypresspass]

Quote: Originally Posted by cactusruss

It doesn't even sound like the reviewer knew what he was doing with directional hitting. He seemed perplexed that holding the stick up and in yielded a weak chopper on a pitch that was down and away. He then goes on to say that he doesn't like directional hitting because he was "always taught to hit the ball where it's pitched", which is exactly what directional hitting is.

How is that any different than zone hitting? I don't believe that's the case. With directional, you push the way you hope to hit the ball. The location of the pitch will influence that, but it doesn't meant that you have to absolutely match location with the stick direction. If that were the case, it would just be zone hitting, right?

[RLebron12]

Quote: Originally Posted by nemesis04

Everyone is making this way more complicated than it has to be.

I completely agree. I only played baseball up to 9th grade and even I understand what the directional hitting is used for.

Runner on first, you want to hit and run so you want to hit it between the 1B and 2B. You are a right handed hitter, before the pitch you would push the left analog to the right to cover the right side of the plate to push the ball that way. If the ball is on the inside of the plate you would either

1) Let the pitch go by and hope your runner steals the base successfully

2) Swing anyway and have a higher risk of a not as good contact swing.

But if the pitch is down the middle or towards the outside of the plate and you time your swing down you should have a higher success rate of hitting it to the right side.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cactusruss]

Quote: Originally Posted by nypresspass

How is that any different than zone hitting? I don't believe that's the case. With directional, you push the way you hope to hit the ball. The location of the pitch will influence that, but it doesn't meant that you have to absolutely match location with the stick direction. If that were the case, it would just be zone hitting, right?

No, you don't have to match the stick with the location, but doing so will give you the best results. You can just hold the stick up before the pitch is even delivered and try to hit a fly ball, but if the pitch is low, your success at getting the ball in the air is going to be lower than if the ball was up. Just like in real life... you can try to hit a fly ball on a low pitch, but it's harder to do than with a pitch more up in the zone.

I've never used zone, so I don't know how similar it is.

[cactusruss]

Quote: Originally Posted by RLebron12

I completely agree. I only played baseball up to 9th grade and even I understand what the directional hitting is used for. Runner on first, you want to hit and run so you want to hit it between the 1B and 2B. You are a right handed hitter, before the pitch you would push the left analog to the right to cover the right side of the plate to push the ball that way. If the ball is on the inside of the plate you would either 1) Let the pitch go by and hope your runner steals the base successfully 2) Swing anyway and have a higher risk of a not as good contact swing. But if the pitch is down the middle or towards the outside of the plate and you time your swing down you should have a higher success rate of hitting it to the right side. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But you don't have to hold the stick in a direction before the pitch is thrown... and that is where some confusion was coming into play in this thread. For your very specific situation of a hit and run, yeah you can do that, but if you're not in a situation where you need to make a certain type of contact, you can just move the stick with the pitch as it's delivered, and "hit the ball where it's pitched". 90% or more of at bats are going to be done that way, at least the way I play.

[raskal67]

My Impression

I like it, it feels natural to push toward Right Felt to try to drive/pus a ball to Right, Left field to try to Drive/push a ball to left. Similarly with fly/ground influences.

As far as MVP 2005 Loved it. This is not the same, similar maybe, but not the same. I could hit HRs at will with up/pull influence all day with Ken Griffey Jr.

[nemesis04]

It is coming to plate with a plan trying to accomplish something. People need to get the zone hitting approach out of their head of trying to move the direction last minute because the pitch is in a different location. For example, a last minute switch from trying to induce a fly and pulling it down just because the ball is low basically takes you out of your desired approach and could cost you by hitting a grounder.

[cactusruss]

Quote: Originally Posted by raskal67

My Impression I like it, it feels natural to push toward Right Felt to try to drive/pus a ball to Right, Left field to try to Drive/push a ball to left. Similarly with fly/ground influences. As far as MVP 2005 Loved it. This is not the same, similar maybe, but not the same. I could hit HRs at will with up/pull influence all day with Ken Griffey Jr.

As the person who brought up MVP 2005, I feel I should admit that I haven't played MVP 2005 in 10 years, so my memory of it isn't perfect. But I think it is a good comparison to quickly explain to someone how it works.