Button accuracy question

[MrGamebred]

I just switched over to this and is there something special I have to do when picking off? It didn't make me use it a few times I'd just have to press the button but I ended up throwing 3 balls away and each time the meter popped up for me. Just wanting to know if I'm missing something or just had a really unlucky game and lost it because of 3 "random" terrible pickoff attempts to someone who got an early/rolled over hit for 2 RBIs, and I won't get into the rest of the game, just my 4 warning track shots.