MLB The Show - General Discussion

[Gabriel]

Just now, Your Mom said:

Well I guess that's the decision made for me then. Will they be back with the new game though? Like can I go from 21 to 22 and so on?

There haven't been any announcements made in regards to the return of year to year saves, but I would be shocked if they don't try to make it happen going forward. It's a feature that really sells the game for a lot of people. They don't change Franchise too much, so not being able to carry over your game to get the other upgrades will probably stop a decent chunk of people from making the purchase this season... or at least delaying their purchase considerably.

I suppose it depends on the reasoning behind removing it this year. It's possible that the jump to the new consoles and/or new features would make it difficult to implement properly right now, but that it could return. Or maybe there's a larger issue at play.

There is a rumor out there that the reason could be that rosters have changed. We may have access to more than the 90 players per team that we are used to if the rumors are true. Whether or not that includes new playable leagues or just additional non-playable leagues like the Class-A system in the game already is up in the air, but there's a common belief among the community that 90 man rosters are a thing of the past, and that is likely why the year-to-year saves couldn't be properly implemented for MLB 21.

[The Buscher]

Yeah they've been overdue to expand rosters, and I don't know if it was space limitations preventing it or what but it was always odd having "Single A" just being a bunch of prospects not playing in any games.  If Single A is playable it would also make RTTS more realistic as basically nobody starts in Double A in real life, let alone 18 year olds.  If anything, it'd be closer to reality to start at Single A, move up to Double A and then jump straight to the big leagues if you're that much of a prodigy.

Another roster-related thing I've always called for expanded spring rosters so I can use veterans and prospects not on my 40-man roster.  Either expanded rosters or an option to just pick your gameday roster from anyone in your organization, which is how teams handle spring rosters in real life.  Personally, once I get to the regular season I don't want to take a break to play minor league games.  Having a couple weeks to try out my prospects in exhibition games would be cool.

I won't get my hopes up on that one though.  SDS have even said spring training in-game was never designed to be anything but giving you a chance to fine tune your sliders and settings before starting the season.  They've never added "roster battles" or anything like that because the majority of fans would rather just set their Opening Day roster and skip to the season.

[Gabriel]

I would really like expanded spring rosters. When I'm playing a single team franchise, I most definitely use the exhibition games to judge my talents. Some years, the obvious starting roster is what I roll with... but other years, I might have someone break out and force my hand into trading someone to make space... and if my team is tight to the budget, I'll usually use it as a way to see which players sink themselves throughout spring training so that I know who I'm willing to move throughout the season.

I feel like there are way too many quality players that get stuck in free agency due to whatever reason, and I'd love to see an expanded minor league system in place, with a non-playable Independent League for free agents. Makes it easier to kind of scout guys and see who may be a better option for your team when you need to sign someone... as opposed to just signing the highest overall, or youngest guy with good potential, or best power hitter or whatever.

[Meacon Keaton]

Spring training was always essential for me because there are many batting stances I suck with. I never traded for Mike Trout because I couldn’t hit with his batting stance. So I’d play in spring training and trade away guys with particular batting stances.  

[The Buscher]

I did my own version of "spring training invites" with my top prospects that weren't on the 40.  Basically I just added them to the 40 in lieu of guys on the back end of the roster, and played a few games to get a feel for them.  Then I wrote down their potential rating, changed their potentials down to nothing, outrighted them off the 40 (and they would never be claimed since the game thinks they have no potential), and once they cleared waivers I moved the potentials back.

A bit of manual work but it got me what I needed to do.  Hopefully spring invites are finally an option in the next game.

[Your Mom]

I just skip straight to the regular season

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

7 hours ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Spring training was always essential for me because there are many batting stances I suck with. I never traded for Mike Trout because I couldn’t hit with his batting stance. So I’d play in spring training and trade away guys with particular batting stances.  

An old roommate of mine and I used to play a Twins/Royals franchise. We would play all the games against one another. Sometimes we would make a trade if we couldn't hit with someone and we'd also pretend we are at the press conference like "Why did you trade away your leading home run hitter" and we'd respond, "well, he plays like crap against the Twins".

[Gabriel]

Something else I have been thinking would be a good addition to the game is some kind of Roster Usage options for franchise players. Not everyone plays every single at-bat in their franchise games, and the sim engine will quite often over-use certain bullpen arms, or not use guys enough.

So, I figured something where we can set a player to be utilized in a way that develops them, protects the lineup, prefers favorable match-ups, provides veteran leadership or whatever... would be kind of cool. For position players, it would allow you to still set your stars as your starters in your lineup to ensure that they are happy, but the sim engine would take into account that maybe you've got a younger guy on your MLB team that you've set for Development and makes sure that he gets an appropriate amount of innings, even if he's set in your lineups on the bench.

Similarly, for pitchers, being able to set an innings limit would be cool. I wouldn't make it hard and fast, but if you've got two guys in your bullpen at full energy and one of them has hit their set limit, the sim engine chooses the other player to come into the game.

It's just really weird to see a guy throw 29 innings one year, and the next year, all of a sudden he's thrown 100+ from out of the pen while there are other guys who aren't even close to their previous season's total.

[Meacon Keaton]

Have you tried quick manage? That’s a nice in-between for now where you don’t have to play the games but your bullpen and bench will be used however you see fit. I tend to quick manage from August to the end of the season if I’m in playoff contention.

[Gabriel]

6 minutes ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Have you tried quick manage? That’s a nice in-between for now where you don’t have to play the games but your bullpen and bench will be used however you see fit. I tend to quick manage from August to the end of the season if I’m in playoff contention.

I'm going to give it a try next time I play a one-team franchise. I've heard good things about the mode.

I'm currently doing a 30-team control franchise... all "relocated" teams... and coming up on the end of year one. I've found that the CPU tends to favor using long relievers more than the middle relief or set-up/closers... so I have been adjusting bullpens using that knowledge to make sure that guys get the reps they need.

Teams out of contention, I'm favoring younger or controlled arms... and teams in contention, I'm looking at top performers in those spots. I'm also being anal about it though and making sure that guys who are well over their previous season totals in innings are not in the long relief slots.

[Meacon Keaton]

Damn it. I was going to pass on this years version but they’ve added create a stadium. I have to make my 250 ft fence that goes 40 feet high stadium.

[Maxx]

Haven't seen create a stadium since that EA college baseball game back in like 2006.  My stadium had fences that just shot in and out at weird angles at random.

Can finally give the A's the stadium they'll never get in real life.

[Meacon Keaton]

45 minutes ago, Maxx said:

Haven't seen create a stadium since that EA college baseball game back in like 2006.  My stadium had fences that just shot in and out at weird angles at random.

Can finally give the A's the stadium they'll never get in real life.

Yup, the college baseball game is the one where my Little League field but with a Green Monster wall wrapped all the way around began. I also recall making a field that was like 420 down the line but with three foot tall walls. 

[Gabriel]

I'm hoping there has been some work done on Franchise, as I probably won't have a PS5 until MLB 22 at this rate. Stadium Creator is a PS5/XBX exclusive feature.

I am hoping though, that you can create up to 30 stadiums for fantasy leagues... also, they should be available in a vault. So should "relocated" teams. We should be able to go in and download pre-made teams, uniforms and all.

[Meacon Keaton]

I didn’t realize it was PS5 exclusive...

Back to skipping it this year!

[The Buscher]

Yeah I probably won't be getting a PS5 until next year either.

One thing I'm hoping for now that there will be a Stadium Builder, maybe the door could be open to modify existing stadiums, even if there are minor changes.  Like one thing I'd really love:  most teams prominently display their league/World Series banners, etc. in the stadium.  Would be cool if new banners got added to stadiums as franchise progressed.  Just a neat little detail that would make it feel like the game world is evolving.  If there's a way to add retired numbers in your stadium that'd be cool too.

[apsham]

Well yeah, this feature was introduced by muppets so I'm in.

[Maxx]

Those are just puppets, pretty offensive Apsham.

[The Buscher]

They did their franchise stream yesterday.

-Budgets are now shown in terms of annual instead of weekly.
-Depth chart feature allows you to see what your organization will look like years into the future based on what players you have under contract, and that includes showing projected ratings years into the future.  Like the Rays depth chart was shown year over year and by 2025 they have Wander Franco at a 90 OVR, whether he actually ends up that good still depends on performance.  Conversely you can see when your older players are going to start declining, and can maybe try to hone in on when your "window" is closing.
-The ability to project future ratings spun a total revamp of logic across the board for trades, free agent signings, promotions/demotions, etc.

Overall, nothing that would change my mind and make me get the new game.  The logic stuff sounds cool and they said those logic upgrades set a framework for where they want to take franchise in future installments, but even then I'd sooner wait and see if people on OS are complaining about the logic right out of the gate before I just believe it's better.  As it is most of the franchise-only players on OS are also skipping the year, just not enough there to justify starting over.

[Bobfoc]

This is coming to Xbox Game Pass on launch day. Incredible news.