any tips on how to read pitches in The Show?

Well I don't know if you like to play with sliders or not, but I'll make the following suggestions that made hitting a lot more fun for me.

First, I'll assume you already know the basics of baseball and what pitches to expect on different counts.

As far as the sliders go, I turned down the slider that controls the CPU pitcher's ability to throw strikes in early counts. I also turned down the CPU pitcher's control and ball the ball speed. I increased the human power/contact slider a little along with the slider that controls foul ball frequency.

When I bat, I use the Zone batting scheme, I think. It's the one where you use the left stick to move the Plate Coverage Indicator (Yellow circle) and press Square, X, or Circle to swing.

When I'm about to bat, I look at the pitcher's current pitch count (balls versus strikes) and make a mental note if this pitcher likes to pitch out of the zone or in the zone more. I also look at his pitches and their relative velocities. You can also see the pitcher's k/9, h/9, etc... ratings, but that only really tells you how good of a pitcher they are and how likely you will make solid contact on them.

Next, when I'm at the plate, I look at the pitcher's energy, confidence, and individual pitch confidences. You can expect to see the more confident pitches more often, especially if you're ahead in the count. If you haven't already, turn on your hitters hot/cold zones. The CPU most likely will be pitch early on in those areas. I usually let one pitch go by, especially if the pitcher is primarily throwing balls over strikes.

If you adjusted the sliders like I said, then you have a little more time to make a decision about a pitch. Follow the ball through the pitcher's wind up and watch the ball as it leaves the pitcher's hand. If the ball looks level as it leaves the pitcher's hand, you are getting some type of low movement pitch (4 Seam, 2 Seam, sinker, RFB, cutter, splitter, change, circle change). If the ball seems to jump a little bit out of the pitcher's hand, it's a breaking ball. Unfortunately, the movement of breaking pitches varies by pitcher, but if you time a breaking pitch correctly and make solid contact, you'll get a great hit, only problem is knowing where to move the PCI.

I usually try to avoid breaking pitches since most of them land outside the zone. You should be able to work a count to 2-0 or 2-1 for most of your bats. In those cases, you can expect to see a straight pitch or a high confidence pitch. You just need to look at the pitcher's confidence ratings and pick one. If you guess the pitch correctly (usually fast ball most of time), you should be able to make great contact. I would also recommend trying a power swing (press square) when you are ahead of the count. If you guess correctly and make solid contact, you'll get a HR. If the count is tied or full, I would recommend pressing X to do a normal swing. If the pitcher leads the count, then press circle to do a contact swing.

As you adjust to the game, you can begin to relax the sliders and increase the difficulty if you feel you are hitting the ball too well most of the time. I would still recommend playing with the settings until you adjust though, it really helped me out when I was starting out.

Sliders and Curves are incredibly easy to pick up off the hand. And you can make a mental note of the movement on a pitchers breaking ball. If his curve ball is 12-6, you can see the pitch out of his hand and have some type of trajectory as to where it's going to cross the plate (ie, if it leaves his hand and it looks level with your waste, it's probably going to be in the dirt. If it's at your face it'll probably end up just above your waist.)