Best Pitching Tips in MLB The Show 25

If you’ve read our piece on the best hitting settings in MLB The Show 25, then it’s likely you’ve gotten better at hitting since you began playing the game. But what about pitching?

If you’re good at hitting, then you’ll be able to compete. But without any in-depth knowledge of pitching, you’re doomed when it comes to progression, especially if you’re an online player. In this article, we’ll go over pitching tips that will make you a much better player, from the perspective of someone who’s broken the 900 barrier multiple times a year on average.

Here are the best pitching tips for MLB The Show 25.

Best Pitching Tips In MLB The Show 25

Use Pinpoint

First, let’s knock some settings out of the way. When it comes to pitching, MLB The Show 25 offers the player a ton of variety when it comes to the actual mechanics of throwing a pitch. These are settings you can choose from:

• Meter
• Pinpoint
• Pulse
• Pure Analog
• Classic

If you’re an online player in MLB The Show 25, then using Pinpoint as your interface is an absolute must. For anyone who hasn’t used it, Pinpoint requires you to trace a specific motion with the right stick when pitching. The motions you have to do depend on which pitch you select. For instance, throwing a fastball requires the easiest motion — moving the right stick up and down before making a final motion for accuracy. Meanwhile, pitches like the knuckle curve or a splitter will require different, more difficult motions.

For one reason or another, Pinpoint provides the most rewarding results when it comes to accuracy should you get the motion down for each pitch. That said, it’s one of, if not the, hardest pitching mechanics to learn in the game. It’s also not universal as every pitcher in the game requires a different speed for the motion depending on their windup. It also changes when a pitcher is in the stretch, adding a sense of dynamism some players might not care for.

It will require some practice, but at the end of the day, Pinpoint is the way to go whether you play online or offline. To enable Pinpoint, do the following steps:

• Open the game and go to the Settings cog in the upper-right of the display
• Go to Control
• Select Pitching from the dropdown
• Change Pitching Interface to Pinpoint

As far as other settings are concerned, it comes down to personal preference. I personally prefer to use Pitch Trail as the Pitching Ball Marker gives me accurate feedback in terms of how the pitch will break and where it’s going via the Perfect Accuracy Region (PAR). If you’re in single-player and don’t care for this kind of static and accurate feedback, fair enough. But if you’re playing online, I can’t imagine you would care to use anything else.

If after a while you don’t enjoy Pinpoint, Pure Analog is a good option too. And according to some, the results are just as consistent (if not more so) than

Tunnel Your Pitches

OK, so you’ve finally mastered Pinpoint and are throwing much more accurate pitches. Now what? Well, it’s time to work on your actual pitching technique before advancing into the litany of game modes in MLB The Show 25, namely multiplayer. The key to doing this is learning how to tunnel your pitches.

To the uninitiated, tunneling pitches is a technique that involves throwing pitches that look the same out of a pitcher’s hand, only for them to break in a variety of different ways and disorient opposing batters. For instance, if the pitcher you’re using has a nasty fastball and you’ve just painted the inside corner, maybe it’s time to throw a sinker that will look the same to the opposing batter for a split second, only for it to break in on their hands and force either weak contact or a whiff. Or maybe you pull the string on them and hit them with a changeup off the fastball, or vice versa.

Obviously, you will have to change up your sequences as games evolve to avoid allowing any seasoned player to lock in. But tunneling is always a great method of keeping a hitter off-balance, and if you’re effectively changing up your sequence as games go on (like doubling up on a pitch), you’ll be racking up strikeouts.

Slow Down Their Bat

So let’s say you’re playing online and are using a pitcher that throws heat. I’m talking guys like Randy Johnson or a throwback Jacob deGrom — dudes with straight gas. If you’re playing against an opponent worth their salt, they know that the best pitch in your arsenal is that outlier fastball, and they will sit on it and attempt to react to anything off-speed. This is where you use their eagerness against them and slow down their bat.

To “slow down their bat” essentially means to throw off-speed pitches to batters when you’re using a pitcher known for throwing heat. As an example, whenever I’m bringing in Aroldis Chapman into a game to close it out, I know internally that the batter is likely aware that Chapman has one of the best fastballs in MLB history, and use that against them. So when he finally takes the bump, I immediately hit the batter with a changeup or a slider, then watch them hopelessly flail at it for strike one. It works almost every time.

Sometimes, I won’t even throw a fastball for multiple batters. And once I start peppering in those fastballs, my opponent’s timing has been messed up, and my pitch selection is opened up. Obviously, some opponents will be absolute goons at the game and will be able to adjust accordingly. But more often than not — especially on All-Star and Hall of Fame — you’ll find success with this method and make opposing batters look clueless.