@JediEl1823_PSN said:

It's right to call out SDS, especially the Finest drop.

No Finest collection, oh if you collect 55 of them you get 1/32 of Elly. Making the packs all choice packs, so Deluxe packs mean nothing. We did get some really good free cards, but man, the drop was bad.

I found out the painfully hard way. Didn't see the fine print that said this only gets you 1 voucher. Ouch. My only saving grace is the P5 94 Spotlight Elly is still great, and it's November!

No Finest collection, oh if you collect 55 of them you get 1/32 of Elly. Making the packs all choice packs, so Deluxe packs mean nothing. We did get some really good free cards, but man, the drop was bad.

@victoryphoenix_MLBTS said:

Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock thought about hitting first then getting on base first

Lou Brock maybe but Rickey is #2 all time in walks, it was a huge part of his game. Guys like Rickey and Boggs are where the Moneyball concept comes from. Boggs used to be criticized by some for his walks

@Player99_MLBTS said:

@Bridge-Piece_XBL EXCUSE ME SIR? YOU ACTUALLY LIKE THIS GAME? YOU MUST BE A SLOP ENJOYER. GET BETTER!

I’ve been called much worse for enjoying the game

Well, everyone is free to their opinion. Anytime I think my 62 year old self is too old school and stuck in my ways I appreciate someone showing me that I am not that bad yet.

I guess my question then would become "How do I turn the 'eye test' into a playable video game. How do you code that?

Oh, and I have feeling that Babe Ruth thought about launch angles but probably just thought of it as an uppercut swing. Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock probably both appreciated every walk.

It's not fear.

It's profits. This is what happens when the federal laws against monopolistic practices are loosened to the point where so few corporations exist that they can collaborate and divide up the market into exclusive shares. They choose not to compete directly against each other because by this agreement they each enjoy a monopoly within singular sports.

For everyone out there enamored by government control of the economy, this is a perfect time to comprehend how corporate control of even individual slivers of an economy results in lazy production and equally tone deaf refusal to work hard for customer loyalty.

@Blind_Bleeder_PSN said:

I loved the game in the past, but I'm not sure the frustration is worth it now.

Good to see you again (this is @arvcpa_psn ). IMO, this year has been a disappointment. My least favorite cycle since starting DD in 2020.

I'm curious because you have mentioned sabermetrics several times now as a negative of the game and insulted the devs for using it.

You mentioned launch angles. To me launch angles and exit velocities are much more than numerical mumbo jumbo. The two in conjunction absolutely determine the distance and trajectory of the ball. And while I have not looked closely this year, when I have looked in the past, the location of the hit was in line with statcasts results. Sure, there may be an argument to be made as to how the game determines those two values but the outcomes seemed correct

What else about their apparent use of sabermetrics are you against? How would it be done differently?

There are plenty of reasons to criticize this game but, honestly, your rants about their love of sabermetrics just confuses me.

I'm convinced the development team just sits around watching Moneyball clips on repeat. When Jonah Hill's accountant starts talking about walks being the exact same thing as hits, or Brad Pitt tells his guys not to steal a base, you just know the devs are sitting there fully erect. But putting their launch-angle, sabermetric obsession aside for a second, the fundamental content management this year is a joke.

They killed off The Show Live entirely. They bizarrely held back on releasing Reds cards, and when they finally threw us a bone with a 99 Elly, it was practically a mandate to either spend real cash or completely zero out your stubs. I’ve ground out over 2 million stubs through actual gameplay, yet I still can’t earn the Babe Ruth card because SDS decided it needs to be exclusively walled off for the online crowd.

On top of the content drought, the offline modes are fundamentally broken. I'd love to have the Run It Back Mini Seasons again, but I can't even trust the modes we do have. I quit the All-Star Mini Season because the game physically broke and got stuck on auto-repeat at Game 17. Why would I start another one when I know the same thing is going to happen? I play the WBC Mini Season constantly, and they still haven't bothered to patch the uniform bug in pool play.

Call my take on the SDS developers extreme if you want, but the reality is simple: a player shouldn't have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a game they already bought just to use the players they want. If you actually think SDS is listening to the player base or cares about consumer experience at this point, you're living in an absolute dream world.

@TheGoaler_PSN said:

I do want EA back into baseball. Triple Play/MVP games were good.

Counter point is that Madden was also great at that time. This is not the same EA.

Plus do we really want a system of combine 25 sets of common live series into silvers and then into golds and then into diamonds and then combine them with 5 rare round cards and a chase card and 50 moments tokens to get Finest Elly? But you only have one week to get those tokens by completing things like extreme 4 HR in one game on Legend difficulty off of '23 John Donaldson with '23 Kaiju Keith hernandez

This is what NHL feels like to me

@yanksthebest_PSN said:

@Bridge-Piece_XBL

I would be ok if they took next year off and I love baseball and play this game 80% of my gaming.

Which means it's not all that bad. Regardless of liking baseball, if you truly hate the game... you'd keep playing it?

I love Harry Potter, waited years for Hogwarts Legacy to come out... then never even finished it because well, I didn't like it.

I would be ok if they took next year off and I love baseball and play this game 80% of my gaming.

I agree, I loved MVp 2005. I don’t care who makes a baseball game, we need some options.

@NotesOfJohn_PSN said:

The SDS stans are taking over these forums lately.

Despite all the indisputable flaws and degradation within the game this year, they're still out here fighting the good fight for their corporate overloads, and doing so with verocity not seen in a while.

It's pathological and exhibiting elements of Stockholm Syndrome.

Come 27 the same people will be wondering why the game still sucks....

At this rate, watch SDS just say "GGs" and skip next year's game. I bet the loudest complainers would be the first ones begging for it back.

And yeah, I'm a certified SDS bootlicker. I actually like the game, so there's that.

@yanksthebest_PSN said:

In all fairness, it would be so great for another company to make a baseball game, then these lazy [censored] s at SDS would actually have to put some effort in, otherwise you get the slop that they put out with all there broken [censored].

I think people are scared to make a competing game these days.
It would have to have an Ultimate Team mode at this point.
Who has the balls? Maybe a company that has made UT games in other sports? Most of you wouldn't want EA to make baseball games again. I do want EA back into baseball. Triple Play/MVP games were good. 2K baseball got a lot right, but i doubt they come back. Those crooks still have NBA 2K26 in the PS store at full flippin' price!
I'm glad i experienced the era of at least 2 games available for each sport. We may never get that again.
It's a sad situation.