MLB The Show - General Discussion

[Gabriel]

17 minutes ago, Meacon said:

I like that even in a fantasy draft you still get a ton of Blue Jays.

I'm planning on doing a fantasy draft sometime tomorrow. I'm kind of thinking of including the legends just for a change of pace, and because this franchise is just going to hold me over until the OSFM rosters come out. 

I typically try to get as many current and past Jays as possible. I also have a tendency to bring guys back during my franchise games, whether they were past or current Jays in real life, or I've had them on my team before, I'm more likely to sign a guy that's been with the organization than anyone else, unless they don't fit what I need. In MLB 16, I wound up bringing Travis Snider back to fill my LF spot in Buffalo, and he ended up destroying AAA, before coming up to the Jays and slaughtering it during an injury to my starter. I had Snider for the next five or six years, playing regularly and batting third for most of his time. I like nostalgia.

I toyed with the idea of using the legends for fun, but I read that there are legends teams included now, so I assumed the legends roster would skew heavily in the favor of those teams specifically, and it put me off temporarily. I'll probably try it out another time.

[Meacon Keaton]

So I did my fantasy draft with legends. I ended up with the #3 pick in the draft, which is by far the highest I've ever had in a fantasy draft. Trout went #1, Kershaw #2, so I got the Babe at #3. I hit a home run with him in the very first game and I hear "And that's number 715 for Babe Ruth, moving him past Babe Ruth."

This is how my 25-man roster shakes out:

First - Jose Abreu, Second - Rod Carew, Third - Anthony Rendon, Shortstop - Zack Cozart, Left- Babe Ruth, Center - Johnny Damon, Right - Dante Bichette, Catcher - Tucker Barnhart.

My bench is Francisco Cervelli as back up catcher, Josh Harrison as my infield utility, Steve Souza as my back up outfielder, Marwin Gonzalez as my everywhere utility, and Carlos Santana as my C/3B/1B/DH combo.

My rotation is Ron Guidy (who was a reliever but I changed to starter), Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner, Orel Hershiser, and Zack Godley.

Bullpen has Fergie Jenkins, Brad Peacock, Tyler Lyons, Andrew Triggs, Alex Colome, Jake McGee, and my closer Billy Wagner.

I'm the Mariners and we beat the Indians on Opening Day thanks to two homers by the Babe. This is a blast.

[Maxx]

I’ll definitely have to do that, good idea for a time killer before the real rosters.

In RTTS I once again had to explain to my manager that I was a starter, not a closer.  Actually a long over due conversation considering I’ve been almost exclusively used as a middle reliever thus far.  He benched me, made me a closer, I saved two games and am now back into the role of a starter.  Speaking of roles, is obvious the manager now knows his.

[Meacon Keaton]

Here's a picture of the blast that ended up winning the game:

 

[The Buscher]

On 3/17/2018 at 12:29, Buschoru Suzuki said:

Oh, that's neat.  I'd like to think that you can use him as a two-way player much like how they created something for Pat Venditte, but I'd guess that's something they would've promoted if it were possible.

So they actually did make Ohtani a good hitter, good enough that you could totally use him. 

Except they of course didn't make it possible to insert him into a starting lineup.    So what the hell was the point?

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Okay, gonna run a 5 team Franchise where every player runs a different team in one division. Who's interested? @Meacon?

Once I have 5 people, I'll start putting some stuff together. We can vote on which division to play, whether to do a Fantasy Draft or use real times. I want to use OSFM rosters (which should be released during the first week of the season), so that should give me time to set some stuff up.

[9 to 5]

I will say yes but also put someone else in instead of me if it's someone more interested in the game than me.

[SeanDMan]

If you don't have to actually own the game to play I'd be interested. I don't have a PS4 though.

[Toe]

1 hour ago, Ms. Canadian Destroyer said:

Okay, gonna run a 5 team Franchise where every player runs a different team in one division. Who's interested? @Meacon?

Once I have 5 people, I'll start putting some stuff together. We can vote on which division to play, whether to do a Fantasy Draft or use real times. I want to use OSFM rosters (which should be released during the first week of the season), so that should give me time to set some stuff up.

Sure, I'd be interested.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

2 hours ago, SeanDMan said:

If you don't have to actually own the game to play I'd be interested. I don't have a PS4 though.

Yeah, you won't need the game to play.

[Gabriel]

I'd be down to play as the Jays. Are you just simming everything and allowing the players to make their trades and signings and shit? How are you working it?

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

1 hour ago, Gabriel said:

I'd be down to play as the Jays. Are you just simming everything and allowing the players to make their trades and signings and shit? How are you working it?

Yep. Will post semi-regular updates on their teams with stats and game results. People can try and negotiate trades and signings with the other teams. 

[Timmoru Suzuki]

As it's the time of year where I try and get into Baseball, I brought The Show 17 (it was around £16 not £40 for the newest one). Have played it for about 2 hours so far but have spent most of the time choosing which control scheme to use (so far Pulse pitching, zone batting, everything else CPU) and creating a guy to play through RttS with.  Chose pulse pitching beccause I don't like meters and classic seemed a little risk free and pulse just seemed better for me than analogue. Pure analogue batting seems like something I'd have to get used to the game to use first, and I had more joy with zone over directional batting while still finding it a challenge.


Really impressed with the level of options to tailor the game to your own strengths/wants and the depth of customisaton options and game modes, it feels really "all in" in those respects.

Anyway, for RttS I created a starting pitcher. Just got taken by the Yankees. Here we go.

[Meacon Keaton]

9 hours ago, Ms. Canadian Destroyer said:

Okay, gonna run a 5 team Franchise where every player runs a different team in one division. Who's interested? @Meacon?

Once I have 5 people, I'll start putting some stuff together. We can vote on which division to play, whether to do a Fantasy Draft or use real times. I want to use OSFM rosters (which should be released during the first week of the season), so that should give me time to set some stuff up.

I'm in like whoa. 

[The Buscher]

On 3/25/2018 at 15:10, Meacon said:

So I did my fantasy draft with legends. I ended up with the #3 pick in the draft, which is by far the highest I've ever had in a fantasy draft. Trout went #1, Kershaw #2, so I got the Babe at #3. I hit a home run with him in the very first game and I hear "And that's number 715 for Babe Ruth, moving him past Babe Ruth."

Funny enough I got the exact opposite.  Willie McCovey laces a double and they talk up him getting his first major league hit, complete with the graphics and visuals of the ball being thrown into the dugout.

[The Buscher]

My fantasy drafted team actually ended up being very similar to @Meacon's, probably because the same players are always available in the late rounds.  I also remember from prior games that there was always a huge run on RPs in round 9, so I used my picks in rounds 6-8 to take the top three RPs while also kicking one (Jenkins) into the rotation.  I also always remember that there are good CPs left for a long time because once a team drafts a CP they don't bother again.  All the more reason that the distinction between RPs and CPs in this game is dumb, usually when I do my real franchise I convert all of the CPs to RPs.

I used the Astros and picked smack dab in the middle at #15.  Naturally I took Piazza first.  I took great liberties with players' listed secondary positions and just tried to build the most fun lineup I could to pass the time before OFSM drops.  We faced the Rangers and Chris Sale on Opening Day so my batting order was based on their hitter ratings against LHP:

1. 2B Paul Molitor
2. CF Charlie Blackmon
3. 3B Miguel Cabrera
4. DH Ryan Braun
5. C Mike Piazza
6. 1B Willie McCovey
7. LF Yoenis Cespedes
8. RF Matt Kemp
9. SS Brandon Crawford

Like Meacon I have Francisco Cervelli as my backup catcher and Josh Harrison as a utility guy.  Jay Bruce is Kemp's platoon partner and will start in RF against RHP.  The last bench spot went to Rajai Davis and even though I didn't really need another OF-only guy, I wanted him as a pinch run specialist and he was the fastest non-fake player available.

Fergie Jenkins got the ball for Opening Day and also in the rotation with him are Max Scherzer, Cole Hamels, Andrew Triggs, and J.A. Happ.

I've got a killer bullpen to help offset a somewhat weak back end of the rotation.  Dennis Eckersley, Darren O'Day, Alex Colome, Arodys Vizcaino, and Brad Brach from the right side.  Andrew Miller and Ryan Buchter from the left side.

[Bobfoc]

As someone who bought a couple of the previous versions in this series and played Road to the Show almost exclusively, does this game offer anything significantly new? The last one I played was 16.

[Toe]

There are certain little things I really enjoy in MLB 18. There used to be little "hitches" between animations, like when a player would make contact with the wall, or at the end of the an inning where the players would just stand there for half a second before leaving the field. Those hitches are mostly gone or at least minimized. The game just runs smoother. I wonder if it would be even better on a PS4 Pro.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

20 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

As someone who bought a couple of the previous versions in this series and played Road to the Show almost exclusively, does this game offer anything significantly new? The last one I played was 16.

Did 16 have a story mode type thing? 17 might have been the first year. They also changed the point system so you earn points differently. If you hit a home run, your contact and power goes up for example. 

[Meacon Keaton]

Is anyone aware of the roster issues they're having over at Operation Sports? Apparently their OSFM rosters are in jeopardy, because the game has some kind of glitch that makes it impossible for other people to download the rosters, or something? I don't know. It's a long thread and I admittedly only read the last three pages, but it sounds like it was an issue toward the end of '17's run and it's carried over to '18.