Contact: The contact swing is great when you are down in the count and you absolutely need to put the ball into play to advance runners on base.This isn’t to say that you should avoid using contact and power altogether, but you’ll probably fare better if you save them for special situations. You can hit screeching liners, high smacks in the gap, and dingers that wind up in the back row of the bleachers. The normal swing is a jack-of-all-trades. Out of those three, you’re best served using the normal swing 90 percent of the time. How you use these swings is important, but not for the reasons you may think. You have three different swing options at the plate: Normal, contact, and power. Now, it’s hard to guess what pitch your opponent will throw, but knowing which types of pitches are possible certainly doesn’t hurt your chances. Depending on your settings, you can check the opposing player’s list of pitches by pressing R2. Check pitches: Each pitcher has up to five different pitches, from four-seam fastballs to curveballs to changeups to sliders, and more.Here, you’ll have to move the cursor towards where the pitch crosses the plate to make solid contact. This becomes even more important when playing in a match with one of the pitch guessing sensors on such as PCI. By watching the ball from the moment it leaves the pitcher’s hand, you’ll have a better chance of tracking it as it pummels towards the plate. Keep your eyes on the pitcher’s throwing hand to see the point of release. Some motions are elongated, some are abrupt, and many are in-between. Watch the windup: Each pitcher in The Show has a unique pitching motion.
Still, if you find yourself striking out a lot, you may want to take a step back and reevaluate your strategy. Since baseball is a game of reaction time and reflexes, there’s no better teaching mechanism than stepping into the box and swinging away. In order to score some runs, you will have to hit the ball. If you’re looking to hang some serious numbers on the scoreboard, here’s what you should keep in mind. While batting difficulty scales according to your skill against the computer, when facing a real opponent, it helps to strategize. Worse still if you plan to tangle with hardcore baseball fans in online matchmaking. Even with its pick-up-and-play identity, though, if you go into a game swinging away at pitches without giving it much thought, you’re going to run into some trouble with friends. SonyAlthough MLB The Show 17 is a serious baseball sim at its core, the game remains accessible to casual fans thanks to its refined, relatively simplistic control scheme.