MLB The Show 25
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Let's see. I think it will be Elly, same answer I have given in the three or other threads about guessing the 25 cover athlete. Here are two of the more active ones.
https://forums.theshow.com/topic/73426/cover-athlete-for-the-show-25/37
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I say Lindor, Witts Jr or Soto
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If only mods were in here … There is literally a thread in the top 5 stating this. This is so bad … Thanks @Dolenz64_XBL
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cover athlete probably wont be revealed until february. its gonna be Elly, though.
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Why even consider Elly De La Cruz for the cover athlete? He's a sub .260 hitter who strikes out over 30% of the time and he can't play defense.
Bobby Witt Jr. is a much better choice.
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Can't play defense, you say?
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@The_Joneser_PSN said in MLB The Show 25:
Why even consider Elly De La Cruz for the cover athlete? He's a sub .260 hitter who strikes out over 30% of the time and he can't play defense.
Bobby Witt Jr. is a much better choice.
The better player is not always the better choice for a cover. Sometimes the player who deserves it gets the cover (Ohtani, Judge, Harper, etc) and sometimes not (Chisholm, Puig). One thing to note though is that even those that I mentioned that deserved it came from 3 of the biggest markets.
There is a decently long list of MVP winners over the last decade that have never been on the cover (Acuna, Goldschmidt, Freeman, Abreu, Trout, Bellinger, Yelich, Betts, Altuve, etc). It is hard to say that they did not "deserve it"
It'll be whoever SDS feels like will sell copies.
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@SaveFarris_PSN, that's pretty funny... and very true. Unlike De La Cruz, though, Jeter was a pretty phenomenal talent, offensively, for quite a long time. Elly hits the ball hard, but struggles to actually hit it, and is off to a far worse start to his career, defensively, than Jeter.
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@Dolenz64_XBL said in MLB The Show 25:
It'll be whoever SDS feels like will sell copies.
I don't think this is true at all. Do you really think that the cover athlete sells copies? Fans of baseball and video games will buy this game regardless of who is on the cover, and someone who isn't into baseball video games isn't going to buy one just because their favorite player is on the cover. I doubt that the cover athlete choice moves that metric one bit in either direction.
The cover athlete is an honor bestowed on a player by however many people at Sony/SDS are involved in that decision, and there are probably as many reasons for that decision as there are people making it. It might be to honor a player from a previous season who had a career year, or to highlight the best player on an exciting team that will contend, or it might be to "call their shot" as to who the next big superstar will be (and this might be why someone would erroneously choose De La Cruz because he's flashy), but it isn't to sell copies of the game.
I don't disagree with what you said about those who are "deserving" or not as it certainly doesn't go to the best player, necessarily; I'm just saying that it shouldn't go to someone who will likely just be a flash in the pan... even if he can do exciting things because of his raw athletic ability. De La Cruz has yet to show his modest improvement in plate discipline will be something he sustains (nor do I think he'll sustain a .359 BABIP in the majors), he's yet to get a handle on his abysmal strike out rate, and while his athleticism allows him to make amazing defensive plays when he's lucky, he struggles to make the routine plays.
I guess I'm just tired of everyone being so anxious to anoint the next best thing, rather than giving the due respect to players who are actually good right now.
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@The_Joneser_PSN regarding the first paragraph … If that would be true, then you do not need marketing and/or advertising … WE buy the game no matter (and we only debate about this here not knowing why), that is true though
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@The_Joneser_PSN said in MLB The Show 25:
I don't think this is true at all. Do you really think that the cover athlete sells copies?
For some people? Yes.
For you and I? No.
How much of a difference a cover athlete makes would be an interesting question to see an actual answer to. I have to believe they make a difference though, otherwise why would all these games MLB, Madden, NBA2k, NHL2k continue to pay these athletes what is probably a sizable amount to put them on the cover.
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I think the reveal may be some time this week!!!!!!!!!!!!! They teased it on their social media!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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@YOSHI24_XBL, yes. I am definitely being too literal, here… every product will and must employ some marketing campaign to, at the very least, let people who aren’t aware of it know it exists.
But I don’t think the cover athlete matters (I do concede I may be incorrect). Nobody buys Apple products because they like Bella Ramsey, but the fact that her commercials tell them that there’s something shiny and new that their friends have and they don’t moves product. The marketing helps.
So, yeah, if we’re talking about the cover athlete as the face of a larger marketing campaign, then what they do may drive sales… but sports video games don’t sell like a box of Wheaties where a young Coco Gauff fan pitches a fit until mom throws it in the cart; I still don’t think the choice of cover athlete will move the needle.
But you’re right… me basically saying that the game sells itself is not true.
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@Dolenz64_XBL, well, I still don’t think Elly’s picture on the box generates sales in and of itself, but, yes, like I said to Yoshi24, perhaps as part of a larger marketing campaign (and why these games pay athletes a lot of money); I was being too literal in limiting it to the cover itself.
I’d also be interested to see data on how many sales game companies attribute to marketing efforts as opposed to, say, having a monopoly on baseball video games.
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Judge, Sale, or Skubal.
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Has there ever been a pitcher on the cover? Aside from Ohtani, of course. I can't remember ever seeing just a pitcher. Someone like Skenes could be the first.
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@SchnauzerFace_MLBTS no pitcher. I agree that skenes would be the first.
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@The_Joneser_PSN Good post … I am 90% on your side. I do not care who is on the cover … but the fact, that we have 20 threads (I am overexaggerating for the cause of this post
) is telling enough 
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@SchnauzerFace_MLBTS said in MLB The Show 25:
Has there ever been a pitcher on the cover? Aside from Ohtani, of course. I can't remember ever seeing just a pitcher. Someone like Skenes could be the first.
I think Marcus Stroman was on the Canadian version of the game's cover.
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I will be very upset if Elly gets the cover. LED the league in strikeouts, sub .260, not even top 30 in every major stat besides stolen bases. It’ll be another Jazz situation. They just pick the “flashiest” players that deserve none of the hype. Really disappointing.
