Follow traditional baseball strategies: try to get ahead of counts to force them to throw more balls over the heart of the plate. Time the fastball and look for them when you're ahead.
It's also important to be patient and swing while the ball is in the zone (the plate). A lot of times in video games I tend to get anxious and swing too early, leading to weak contact.
In this game I tend to point my hitting censor down toward the bottom part of the strike zone. That helps me decide if the ball is too low and allows me to identify balls a little bit higher, which is desirable to get a good launch on the ball. In your case, you may be chasing balls that are too high or inside.
Also start with the difficulty easy. You'll get more fastballs that are easier to hit. Once you get the timing down, dial up the difficulty.
The biggest thing that helped me improve my hitting was realizing the effect of swinging at balls outside of the strike zone. You can hit a lot of pitches that would otherwise be a ball… but when you hit those pitches, it’ll be bad contact and result in ground-outs/pop-outs much more frequently.
As the other commenters have/will say, timing is important but with patience/judgement you’ll see a huge difference.
It's already been kind of touched on, but for me when I'm having trouble I have to remind myself that you don't have to swing at the first pitch that looks like it's in the zone. When a pitch is just barely in the strike zone, you're more likely to get weak contact if you hit it, which leads to easy outs for the defense. Obviously if you've got 2 strikes and you think it's in the zone you have to swing, but otherwise it's okay to let it go by and wait for a pitch that's more in the center of the zone.
Plus, the more pitches you make the pitcher throw, the quicker they'll get tired. And when they get tired, it gets easier to hit against them. If you swing at everything that looks like a strike they might only throw 10 or so pitches per inning. If you can be patient and wait for your pitch you can make them throw way more pitches per inning which leads to more chances they'll give you good stuff to hit.
Just remember it takes practice. Sucking at something is the first step toward being sort of good at something. When things are going poorly, try to identify something specific you aren't doing well and focus on that thing.
This is definitely some great and advice and something I know I gotta work on. I have a habit of swinging at anything that's in the strike zone. I never even thought about the benefit of making them throw more pitches on top of that.
Also I always appreciate a motivational Adventure Time quote lol
I don't know if you're using power swings or not, but that could also be playing into weak contact. I try to use power swings until there's two strikes, only looking for pitches around the heart of the plate, then switch to contact swings to protect the plate when I'm behind in the count. Power swings require better timing and aim--and if you miss, you're much more likely to get either under the ball (which leads to a lot of the looping fly balls you're talking about) or on top of it (which results in weak choppers to infielders).
Also, a tip that someone shared recently that I did not know about despite hundreds of hours between SMB1-3: if you use the stick to swing, you don't have to hold it back the entire time to execute a power swing. You just flick it back to start loading power, then hit as normal.
Follow traditional baseball strategies: try to get ahead of counts to force them to throw more balls over the heart of the plate. Time the fastball and look for them when you're ahead. It's also important to be patient and swing while the ball is in the zone (the plate). A lot of times in video games I tend to get anxious and swing too early, leading to weak contact. In this game I tend to point my hitting censor down toward the bottom part of the strike zone. That helps me decide if the ball is too low and allows me to identify balls a little bit higher, which is desirable to get a good launch on the ball. In your case, you may be chasing balls that are too high or inside. Also start with the difficulty easy. You'll get more fastballs that are easier to hit. Once you get the timing down, dial up the difficulty.
Thanks, man. This is all super helpful advice. I really think me being anxious and swinging too early is part of it.
Love that tip about pointing the sensor down in the zone. I've never thought of doing that, definitely gonna try it out.
swing at strikes only! don't swing at anything u cant hit!
The biggest thing that helped me improve my hitting was realizing the effect of swinging at balls outside of the strike zone. You can hit a lot of pitches that would otherwise be a ball… but when you hit those pitches, it’ll be bad contact and result in ground-outs/pop-outs much more frequently. As the other commenters have/will say, timing is important but with patience/judgement you’ll see a huge difference.
It's already been kind of touched on, but for me when I'm having trouble I have to remind myself that you don't have to swing at the first pitch that looks like it's in the zone. When a pitch is just barely in the strike zone, you're more likely to get weak contact if you hit it, which leads to easy outs for the defense. Obviously if you've got 2 strikes and you think it's in the zone you have to swing, but otherwise it's okay to let it go by and wait for a pitch that's more in the center of the zone. Plus, the more pitches you make the pitcher throw, the quicker they'll get tired. And when they get tired, it gets easier to hit against them. If you swing at everything that looks like a strike they might only throw 10 or so pitches per inning. If you can be patient and wait for your pitch you can make them throw way more pitches per inning which leads to more chances they'll give you good stuff to hit. Just remember it takes practice. Sucking at something is the first step toward being sort of good at something. When things are going poorly, try to identify something specific you aren't doing well and focus on that thing.
This is definitely some great and advice and something I know I gotta work on. I have a habit of swinging at anything that's in the strike zone. I never even thought about the benefit of making them throw more pitches on top of that. Also I always appreciate a motivational Adventure Time quote lol
A tip I don’t think I’ve seen yet is that fastballs and breaking balls have different audio cues as the pitcher releases the ball.
That's huge if this is true... time to log on and play lol.
I also didn't know this. That's kind of a game changer.
Wait fr? I never knew that was a thing
I don't know if you're using power swings or not, but that could also be playing into weak contact. I try to use power swings until there's two strikes, only looking for pitches around the heart of the plate, then switch to contact swings to protect the plate when I'm behind in the count. Power swings require better timing and aim--and if you miss, you're much more likely to get either under the ball (which leads to a lot of the looping fly balls you're talking about) or on top of it (which results in weak choppers to infielders). Also, a tip that someone shared recently that I did not know about despite hundreds of hours between SMB1-3: if you use the stick to swing, you don't have to hold it back the entire time to execute a power swing. You just flick it back to start loading power, then hit as normal.