Allstar level

[The_Sandman]

I play Allstar and was wondering how many people play with the hot & cold Zones for pitching ? I like to play with it off just wondering......

[cheez]

i think after a while pitching gets way too easy with the hot/cold zones on

[pfunk880]

I pitch from view 5 (reverse), strike zone and hot/cold turned off.

[kwikpoppa]

Strike zone and zones off,looks and feels more realistic.Also i see the ball better when hitting with them off.

[five]

Also i see the ball better when hitting with them off.

Same here, that's my reasoning behind turning them off too.

[RsCamaro8]

Strike outs are way too easy with hot zones on... I used to get at least 10 per game, and not with the best pitchers either... since i've turned them off and stepped up to mvp level, i'm luck to get 5 k's in a game, but it makes for a more exciting game.

[GalacticMonkey]

Does turning Hot-Cold zones OFF mean:

1. Turning off this function for all batters in the game?

OR

2. Disables only the visual display, so human players can't see, while it is still active?

[Jim825]

The Hot / Cold setting only affects whether the Hot / Cold zone grid is VISIBLE during the game, both for you and the CPU. It does not affect the actual hot / cold zone functionality (i.e. the zones are still there for both you and the CPU -- you just can't see them).

If you throw a meatball to a CPU batter in his hot zone (or the CPU throws one to your batter's hot zone), when you have the Hot / Cold zones turned off, you will see a red dot when the pitch is coming. If the ball is in a cold zone, you will see a blue dot. If it's in a neutral zone, you will see a grey dot. This is similar to when you throw (or the CPU throws) a ball that is out of the zone and the yellow circle with the crosshair is displayed.

Also, like the balls thrown out of the zone, the hot / cold / neutral indicators are not displayed on every pitch.

Like some others, I also play with the hot / cold zones turned off and the strike zone turned off. I found that this has helped me the most when I'm batting. I can do better judging where the ball will be with nothing turned on. When I had the strike zone turned on, I relied too much on it and got fooled too much on pitches. I found that I would see a ball start in the strike zone and not be able to judge whether it would drop or curve up or out of the zone.

As far as pitching, I just memorized where the strike zone is by noting where the corners of strike zone box are in relation to my catcher (I pitch with the "Behind the Pitcher" view). For example, with Jorge Posada (I play as the Yankees), the lower right corner is just on the sweatband on his left wrist. The lower left corner is just outside his right elbow. The upper part of the strike zone is just under the top of his face mask (the upper corners are straight up from lower corners.

By having this mental picture of where the strike zone is, I can do a much better job of pitching. I still use the ball cursor when I pitch, since all of my pitches are to the corners (or just outside the corners). Plus, my gamepad doesn't have a rumble pad, and it's too hard for me to estimate where the zone is if I turn off all indicators.

Hope this helps.

[five]

If you throw a meatball to a CPU batter in his hot zone (or the CPU throws one to your batter's hot zone), when you have the Hot / Cold zones turned off, you will see a red dot when the pitch is coming.

Which is the way it should be in my opinion. In real life a hitter knows when it's "go time."