MLB The Show - General Discussion

[Your Mom]

I should try that mode. I always just start my franchise every year and forget the rest of the game exists

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

1 hour ago, Justin Buschlander said:

In their defense, franchise is pretty solid as is.  Obviously there are things that could be tweaked, but at least the mode is playable.  Unlike some other games that just leave their franchise a broken mess (looking at you, Madden).

The type of overhauls that would make me run out to get the next game are things like what NBA2k did with their eras mode.  Imagine being able to go way back in baseball history and rewrite it right up to the modern day?  Or on the other side of it, being able to expand the league to 32, 36 etc teams.  I mean franchise mode in-game lasts forever but without the ability to evolve the league, you're just running in circles eventually.  Basically, think of OOTP but a playable version.

But considering these devs couldn't even add rotating year to year schedules in franchise, claiming that it would completely break their programming, it's all a fruitless pipe dream.

Yeah, anything that gets us closer to OOTP but you can play the games is my dream.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

This is cool.

 

[Gabriel]

The changes to free agency in MLB 22 make for interesting off-seasons.

As Oakland, we missed the playoffs in year one, lost the wild card game in year two and then lost the ALDS after winning the AL West in year three. As the team wins more, the budget expands, but it's still Oakland.

Off-season after year three, I have Lourdes Gurriel Jr reject his qualifying offer and my internal budget is totally capped out by the offer I make him. He gets a better offer from the Giants, and due to his importance to the team, I choose to trade away Matt Chapman to get some extra money to throw at Lourdes.

He signs with San Francisco anyways.

So, now I'm down both Chapman AND Gurriel, and I need to figure something out. Let's go look at the free agents left on the market...

Juan fucking Soto. After a spending spree by the league, Soto (at a 92 overall) is the top name on the board and fills the vacant outfield position for us. So what's the damage in terms of the offers he's sitting on? Just north of what Chapman was making and actually less than what I had offered Gurriel.

For shit's and giggles, I make an offer above and beyond what his top offer was, and it still falls well below what he was likely hoping to get, so I'm fully expecting to be outbid and have to move on... but that's part of my strategy as well, as a small market team, I like to make sure that other teams are blowing their budgets as best as I can.

Sim ahead a couple of days and... Juan Soto signs with the Oakland Athletics. So, now my outfield consists of youngster Chase DeLauter, who finished in the top voting for rookie of the year and mashed 13 dingers despite not being a huge power threat... Seth Brown, who regularly mashes and gets playing time at DH, first and the outfield... Cody Bellinger, who I picked up via trade (managed to ship out more dollars than I brought in for that one)... Teoscar Hernandez, who I scored when the Blue Jays offered me a deal for someone, and I countered with a starter, a prospect I couldn't fit on my 40-man and an albatross contract in exchange for Teo alone.

So I have four guys now in my outfield with 20+ home run power and a speedy young star in DeLauter. Brown gets the bulk of his time at first base, and Bellinger can spell him off there on occasion.

I am having great fun with this game. Developing my prospects has allowed me to fill my MLB roster with a lot of lower priced contracts, which has allowed me to surround those guys with bigger names as our budget increases. When I feel that budget crunch, there's always a younger and/or cheaper guy I can insert into a role which allows me to deal away some heavy dollars.

[The Buscher]

So here’s how the Mets’ giant new scoreboard looks in real life:

But MLB 23 based it off of a viral rendering that made it look way bigger than it was ever planned on being.

Thankfully they say they’ll be patching it before long.  I dunno if I can justify dropping the money for the newest version but I damn sure wouldn’t if I had to look at that monstrosity for 81 games.

[FLiam]

Anyone know if there’s been any changes to RTTS mode? 

[Gabriel]

14 hours ago, FLiam said:

Anyone know if there’s been any changes to RTTS mode? 

Nothing of any importance that I've seen... but they DID add World Baseball Classic jerseys and players to Diamond Dynasty!

Seriously, all of the little additions to Franchise each year are definitely things that I appreciate and notice, but they haven't done enough with it in years to get me longing for a day one purchase. I'm more than happy to wait until it's cheaper or free.

I get that Diamond Dynasty is where most of the money comes from, but I have zero interest in it and it pains me that this is where video games are. It's not about great content anymore, it's about how much extra they can pull out of the consumers.

I do believe with the new Social Media laws in Utah, and the video game related cases that have happened over the past few years, that the bubble will burst eventually and the monetization of games beyond the initial purchase will absolutely need to be toned down. Then... maybe then... they'll start making games again with people like me in mind.

[The Buscher]

Yeah, Madden was already a broken mess but they compounded it by deciding years ago that franchise-only players were irrelevant to them as tons of people were willing to dump more and more money into Ultimate Team.  So franchise gets minimal improvements and I've no reason to buy it.

MLB The Show isn't terribly different in that viewpoint, with exception that the game was already far, far better than Madden.  At least franchise in The Show is actually good, so if they're only making marginal upgrades they have at least a great base to work with.  But it's tough to expect people not interested in Diamond Dynasty to get it brand new every year.

As far as I can tell, the only thing they've really changed this year was scouting and the draft, but in fairness those changes seem pretty comprehensive and could be the kind of things that add a ton of long-term replay value.  But from watching videos on the changes I could also see how some of these changes could become unintentionally game breaking, which we won't know until people get deep enough into franchise to report problems.  They've also claimed that new trade logic was added but people have already been reporting that there are tons of ridiculous trades happening in franchise still.

So yeah, maybe this will be a cheap summer or fall purchase but I'm fine just rolling with what I have.

[Gabriel]

The more ridiculous trades, especially early on in franchise, tend to be because of unbalanced rosters. If a team has 11 CF's and 2 guys at 3B, they're going to be quicker to dump a CF to acquire more depth for the 3B position, even if it means giving up higher end prospects for career minor leaguers or bench players.

I found that the Operation Sports Full Minors rosters fixed that issue for the most part. Much better balanced than the roster out of the box.

Something else that helps is if you alter the positions of players on teams that are unbalanced. If you can spread the guys out more through all the positions, the CPU is less likely to deal away prospects because you've gotten rid of the perceived surplus.

[Toe]

This is my first time playing on XBOX Series S instead of PS4, and everything is just smoother. Animations, transitions, everything. 

[Not Henry Cavill]

With the companion app being updated on iOS I can give the whole facescan thing a shot. Might be cool. 

[The Buscher]

I'm still on MLB 22.  On one franchise mode I'm in the 2023 NLCS, Mets/Cardinals.  As deGrom I give up a 2-run first inning jack to Arenado.  Rebound with an RBI double by Alonso off of Jack Flaherty in the bottom of the inning.

There ends up being no scoring the rest of the game and I lose 2-1.  I mean on one hand, awesome pitching duel.  But the last seven outs I recorded were all off of perfect or near-perfect contact.  I think on three separate occasions it even flashed that I'd made perfect contact, and the others I was all right in the green zone with swing timing and location.  Multiple scorchers laced right at infielders, and like three or four hard hit warning track flyouts, one of which required a diving catch.

I love the variety of games you can get in the Show but man this one just felt like the computer flat out said, no, you're not allowed to win this one.

[Toe]

There's a voice clip from commentary that plays every game for me about that exact same thing. Same thing - "perfect perfect" contact, 110 MPH off the bat, straight to the second baseman. 

I find the new scouting system to be a bit tedious. I've already gone back to just setting it to auto. 

I went through a miserable first season with Oakland. Since all my prospects are still 2 or 3 seasons away (at least) I signed some decent vets on one year deals. I did give decent deals to Ian Happ and Amed Rosario since they were getting low-balled by their teams. Still entered the 2024 season with one of the lowest payrolls, but at least the team is fun to play with.

[Gabriel]

On MLB 22, I managed to win the World Series with the Athletics in 2027.

My internal budget would increase or decrease each year based on whether or not my team had a better or worse season than the one before. Once we hit spring training, I reset my budget to 0 for the season and the only way for me to add any dollars was to move dollars out, but I would only add half the value of the money moved to my internal budget for the season. Try to keep things relatively realistic on that front.

After winning the World Series, I went ham and decided that the story would be that the ownership group wants to keep winning, so I just re-signed everyone to whatever deals they wanted and my payroll skyrocketed with several arb-eligible players getting bigger money deals off the backs of a World Series season where they made less than a million each.

If we win the World Series in 2028, I'm going to do the same thing. The only money I shave off the books will be under-performers being traded out if I need to blow past whatever budget the game gives me to re-sign my winning players. If we don't win the World Series again, which I'm highly expecting, I will be tearing that shit down in typical Oakland fashion.

[Toe]

One thing I like about Oakland is the stadium. I know the Coliseum sucks in real life, but I love the batter's eye in the game. Arizona has a good one too.

[The Buscher]

I'm wrapping up the 2023-24 offseason.  Admittedly hitting the point where having Steve Cohen as an owner is basically a cheat code.

In 2022 most of my dollars went toward locking up Alonso, McNeil, Nimmo, and Diaz in August, before the latter two could hit the market and a year before the former two would be even more expensive.  But with Cohen's wallet and following a playoff appearance, I did have enough money for one major splash anyway.  I tried for Judge but he turned me down for the Astros.  Got Trea Turner instead which might be a better fit anyway, plus even though he's making big money he ended up being far cheaper than Judge.  Turner mans 2B and McNeil shifts to more of a corner OF role.

In 2023 spring training I lock in deGrom because I'm not about to let him go in this game universe.  At 35 years old he's still a 99 so frankly I don't care about the regression, he's too fun to pitch as.  But I effectively play the season out with the same roster plus Turner, using cheap bench and bullpen guys I feel comfortable with.

Late in the season I finally call up my big two prospects Alvarez and Baty.  Alvarez because I was getting terrible production out of my catching, Baty because I had some injuries in the OF and he has LF as his secondary position.  Thankfully, I find that not only do they perform well in sims, but in the games I play I actually can rake with them.  Especially Alvarez.  Both guys are great in the playoffs, Baty doesn't relinquish the starting spot even once Canha and Marte get healthy.  I win the whole thing.

Offseason rolls around.  My already really high budget went up even more after a title win, plus I'm losing three expensive veterans in Escobar, Canha, and Carrasco so that's even more money freed up.  Escobar I actually did really well with, but I play so well with Baty and I know it's gonna be a crowded free agency.

So of course I go hard for Ohtani.  Offer him 10/350, would've given him more years if he wanted.  Don't care at all about regression, the game is supposed to be fun, and I doubt I'll play franchise long enough to see him reach the point of regression anyway.  He takes it, even turning down a few 12-year deals.

Even though I have some more cash to play with I feel more or less set.  But then in mid-December the White Sox decide they want Starling Marte who is an 85 OVR but 35 years old now and had been relegated to the bench in my playoff run.  Trading him frees up $16.5 million on the 2024 books and gives me money to make an unexpected splash. 

I look at free agency and for some reason Boston not only didn't offer Devers a QO, but his interest meter in the deals he's offered is miniscule and I have no idea why.  He's a 27-year old, 93 OVR player getting offered stuff like 7/70.  I offer him 5/75 which still seems insanely low and yet it's by far the best deal he's been offered.  Sorry Brett Baty, you're now permanently a left fielder!

2024 projected regulars:
C Alvarez
1B Alonso
2B Turner
SS Lindor
3B Devers
LF Baty
CF Nimmo
RF McNeil
DH Ohtani

The very definition of a video game lineup.  I know I should pick a small market team for a bigger challenge but I think I'd quite like to play a year just murdering the baseball first.

[Twist]

Out of interest how much do you sim against playing?

[The Buscher]

I'd say it probably averages out to playing one game per series and simming the rest.  Not a hard and fast rule though.  I generally like to play at least one game per road series because I like taking in the environment of different parks.  If I'm on a roll with a certain pitcher I'll go out of my way to play all their starts until my luck runs out, etc.

When I sim I use Sportscast manager so I can at least be in control of my in-game decisions.  The only time the CPU really takes over is if you suffer an injury in-game, it'll automatically sub in the replacement which means for pitchers it's at the mercy of the CPU bullpen management.  Annoying but happens infrequently enough that I can deal with it.

At one point I had a starting pitcher get hurt and his replacement call-up actually went on a good enough run that I didn't feel right sending him back, so I went with a 6-man rotation for a while.  Of course, this means the 6th dude is listed as a long reliever and one time the game subbed him in after an early injury.  I quick simmed the game right then and there, saw the injury and timeline.  Then I backed out of the save, went back in and simmed again, taking the pitcher out at the same time he got hurt the first time (but now I controlled who replaced him) and then I manually gave him the same injury.  Felt like the most "fair" way to handle it.

[Your Mom]

I play every game. Too much of a control freak. I actually came in to post this though  

 

 

[Gabriel]

I made my annual Black Friday purchase of The Show, after getting 20 or so years into my Athletics franchise on 22.

I started with a Road to the Show, but thought I'd switch it up and do some hitting this year. So I'm a 2 way player, but I can't seem to figure out how to get my guy to run through a bag. I mean, I just hit what should have been an easy double, but the motherfucker always stops at the base before I can press the advance button to move him to the next one.

So, what am I doing wrong and how can I be better? Other than to just hit dingers to avoid running altogether.