Does it matter if you make solid contact on a ball, or are you more likely to get a hit if the pitch is going to be a strike?
As far as I know, if you make solid contact on a ball (which would pretty much have to be inside), it's hit just as well as if it was over the plate.
It's not so much the location of the pitch, as where on the bat you make contact
Whether or not the contact subtraction occurs depends on where the ball hits the bat. As far as whether the pitch is a ball or a strike wouldn't matter for that, though possibly would effect the locatoin of the hit.
I think it definitely effects the angle. I find that when I pitch a right handed batter a ball inside they usually foul it off or it hugs the left field line.
For some reason, whenever I hit with Hrbek I just wait to get jammed on the inside and absolutely crush it, this usually results in a series where Hrbek goes 1-17 with 14 Ks, and a BOMB in the late innings of a 9-2 loss
Hrbek is very very clutch and, like you said, if you pitch him inside he seems to jack it rather than pitching him outside.