One of my biggest gripes with this game is the lack of modes to use my top, hard-earned players. Unless you count conquest which is what, like 24 innings per program, the only place to use our "God Squads" is Ranked Seasons.

I don't always have the time, energy, or stress management levels to play a full game of zeroed-in laser-focus RS, but would love to get some practice or casual at bats in with my top players.

A simple fix seems to be having an "Event" style 3 inning mode with no lineup restrictions. Have rewards like you would each event, and let us get up to 50 wins per inning program for rewards.

That way people can choose if they wanna play the quirky event for the buffed rewards, or the "4th Inning Event" for lesser-ish awards.

This would also make prestiging players more feasible since I'd have to play about 120 more RS games to come close for Biggio....

Not sure how anyone could object to this, people would self-select which mode they want to play without being limited to full 9-inning RS games on certain difficulties.

Maybe they'd have a HOF and All-Star option so you could practice. Sucks that I have to switch between HOF and All-Star cold turkey here and there since I'm in Division Series and hover between the two.

I come from 2K, and their "Triple Threat" mode is similar to events, much shorter, fun to climb the ladder for rewards without the "all-or-nothing" sweatiness that's not always desired.

Edit: found one on Reddit. Wish I had this BEFORE I grinder the Belli lol

Source: @metskid22 on Reddit

Comprehensive Guide to RTTS/DD Ballplayer (CAP) Batter Loadouts/Positions

Ok onto the fun stuff, here is where each path leads:
(Note: I am fairly confident the diamond archetypes are the same position as the Gold ones and are the same name as well, just judging by the few Diamonds I have grinded to get, so you can safely assume each gold one is it's final preferred position)

Sparkplug

Bronze - Sparkplug - 2B

Silver - Slugging Sparkplug LF - Speedy Sparkplug - SS - Slick Sparkplug CF

Slugging Sparkplug leads to Gold - The Tool Shed LF and The Hawk SS

Speedy Sparkplug leads to Gold - Rawhide 2B and The Spoke CF

Slick Sparkplug leads to Gold - The Dewey RF and The Dart CF

Slugger

Bronze - Slugger - 1B

Silver - Sparking Slugger 1B - Speedy Slugger - LF - Slick Slugger 3B

Sparking Slugger leads to Gold - The Duke LF and Crime Dog 3B

Speedy Slugger leads to Gold - El Ambusador LF and El Nino CF

Slick Slugger leads to Gold - Yo Adrian 3B and The Showboat 3B

Speedster

Bronze - Speedster - CF

Silver - Sparking Speedster 2B - Slugging Speedster - LF - Slick Speedster CF

Sparking Speedster leads to Gold - Cool Papa CF and Man of Steel LF

Slugging Speedster leads to Gold - Sheff RF and The Winny LF

Slick Speedster leads to Gold - The Werth LF and The Lark SS

Slick Fielding

Bronze - Slick Fielding - C

Silver - Sparking Slickster SS - Slugging Slickster - 3B - Speedy Slickster CF

Sparking Slickster leads to Gold - The Wizard SS and The Mechanical Man SS

Slugging Slickster leads to Gold - Ironman 3B and El Mago SS

Speedy Slickster leads to Gold - The Belli CF and The Fly Chaser **2B

Below is a cleaned up view of all positions and their Gold/Diamond

Catcher (0) - NONE

First Base (0) - NONE

Second Base (2) - Rawhide/The Fly Chaser

Third Base (4) - Crime Dog/Yo Adrian/The Showboat/Ironman

Shortstop (5) - The Hawk/The Lark/The Wizard/The Mechanical Man/El Mago

Left Field (6) - The Tool Shed/The Duke/El Ambusador/Man of Steel/The Winny/The Werth

Center Field (5) - The Spoke/The Dart/El Nino/Cool Papa/The Belli

Right Field (2) - The Dewey/Sheff

Below are the boosts each archetype gives at GOLD. Diamond will increase the main ones a little bit more.
The below displays boosts in this specific order - Contact/Vision, Power/Arm, Speed/Stealing,

Rawhide - (+38)(+10)(+30)(+20)

The Fly Chaser - (+20)(+10)(+30)(+42)

Crime Dog - (+24)(+36)(+10)(+15)

Yo Adrian - (+15)(+36)(+10)(+25)

The Showboat - (+5)(+36)(+20)(+25)

Ironman - (+15)(+24)(+10)(+42)

The Hawk - (+38)(+20)(+10)(+20)

The Lark - (+20)(+10)(+46)(+30)

The Wizard - (+26)(+10)(+20)(+42)

The Mechanical Man - (+26)(+14)(+10)(+42)

El Mago - (+10)(+24)(+20)(+42)

The Tool Shed - (+38)(+20)(+15)(+10)

The Duke - (+24)(+36)(+20)(+10)

El Ambusador - (+15)(+36)(+30)(+10)

Man of Steel - (+30)(+15)(+49)(+10)

The Winny - (+10)(+24)(+46)(+20)

The Werth - (+10)(+15)(+46)(+32)

The Spoke - (+38)(+15)(+30)(+10)

The Dart - (+38)(+10)(+15)(+26)

El Nino - (+5)(+36)(+30)(+20)

Cool Papa - (+30)(+10)(+46)(+20)

The Belli - (+10)(+18)(+30)(+42)

The Dewey - (+38)(+15)(+10)(+26)

Sheff - (+20)(+26)(+46)(+10)

@themadhatter711 said in SDS did a great job with PXP:

Love how they did this! Last year I was always frustrated during events when you couldn’t use prestigeable cards, but this completely fixes it.

Also pxp encourages lineup diversity. It’s a win all the way around.

It’s definitely the best thing they’ve incorporated. Conquest doesn’t feel like a waste of time since I can just load up the players I wanna parallel.

They also found a nice balance with making it doable, but not super easy either. You can get to level 3 pretty quick but IV and V are longer, makig it feel like a real accomplishment. I’m about 200 points away from V trout.

Just played 4 straight event games that went into extra innings because no one can score.

80% of “good” contact is resulting in lazy fly balls.

There is no point in playing this game online right now. I wanted to go for some of the reward but playing online feels like you’re a hamster in a wheel - tons of effort but making 0 progress.

I could post the PCI screenshots etc, but we’ve all seen plenty of those and know how bad hitting is.

Thank god we get content on Friday so my offline XP can actually go towards something. I can’t blame anyone who wants to boycott online gameplay until there’s a patch. Otherwise you’re wasting your time w this slot machine / dead ball hitting system.

edit: 5th straight game went into extras. Took 6 innings but I finally won 1 of the 5 games. We need more line drives in this game. IDK why its so hard to implement.

This game is the most pathetic excuse for an online game. I’d rather play back yard baseball

Let me start by saying I know the man power / money put towards created stadium wouldn't have necessarily been reallocated to gameplay.....BUT

IF SDS delayed created stadiums another year and decided to put more effort and $ into gameplay, servers and bugs, would you take that trade? I WOULD

Full disclosure, I'm on PS4 so I don't have stadium creator but honestly I wouldn't have touched it more than once even if I had a PS5.

Ppl were creaming themselves over this thing and the first week and it was fun seeing what the YouTubers made. But who in the blue heII cares about your Jurassic Park when the gameplay only made a slight improvement from last year.

So my main point is IF you could trade in your access to stadium creator for gameplay where "user stick stills DO reign supreme", would you? My answer in 100% yes, I think SC is GOOFY and so unnecessary.

Let's get the gameplay IN BETWEEN THE FOUL LINES polished before we get into gimmicks and dinosaurs in the outfield SDS.

1. MLBTS '20 there was a retro mode XP "glitch" where people had 9 99's on their squad week 1 and a SH*t ton of packs etc.

2. '21 had the Ballplayer sim glitch and synced console glitches that had people getting all 600K XP for the innings programs in 2 days.

3. Today's "Market B.S" is apparently gifting hundred of thousands of stubs to lucky players who put their LS players up.

As I was grinding the event for a card worth a measly 10K stubs, the final straw broke on the camel's back. WTF is the point playing this gamester wheel slot machine game online to earn rewards the "right" way when SDS is too incompetent to protect against glitches that award massive amounts of packs, stubs or both.

'22 truly is a new low in every way imaginable.

The worst part is that he’s absolutely terrible online. He gives out free Homeruns on the event.

How ironic.

Played my first game in about a week and it went scripture to how it’s described by others on this forum.

Only runs scored are homers.

Hal pitched a complete game against me of course. Perfect perfect fly ball with Mickey Mantle dies at the track...

I’m genuinely curious for those that play RS as their main mode: HOW?

Do you just get used to the BS, the pitchers duels and Homeruns only?

Now that I have collections done and a lot of the offline stuff done I just want to enjoy my team, but I can’t do RS if it’s like this.

I have a nearly all 99 team, get perfect / perfect or good / good contact and they’re outs.

How do y’all get past this and enjoy it cuz I’m gonba be done w this game before quarantine ends at this rate.

Back back back

@dolenz_psn said in Trevor Story - May POTM:

Here are the top 5 by various categories in May (so far), just so everyone is on the same page.

BY WAR

1. Betts - 2.0
2. Devers - 1.9
3. Judge - 1.8
4. Goldschmidt - 1.7
5. Altuve - 1.6

BY WRC+

1. Goldschmidt - 242
2. Devers - 238
3. Judge - 237
4. Altuve - 230
5. Martinez - 225 (Harper also has 225)

AVG

1. Martinez - .425
2. Anderson - .407
3. Goldschmidt - .402
4. Devers - .386
5. Marte - .377

HRs

1. Judge - 11
2. Betts - 9
3. Altuve - 8
4. Story - 8
5. Devers (and 7 other players) - 7
6. Goldschmidt (and 5 others) - 6

RBIs

1. Story - 28
2. Betts - 24
3. Alonso - 24
4. Goldschmidt - 23
5. Judge and Stanton - 21

Does fielding factor into it at all?

Story is a wizard defensively. Someone mentioned Betts has assists and I know judge is good on defense.

@dolenz_psn said in Trevor Story - May POTM:

There are 8 other players with as many or more HRs than Alonso. All but one of them are hitting for better average.
7 of them have a higher WRC
7 of them have a higher OPS

Power wise and RBI wise he is doing great this month but a POTM with a .229 BA? Do we really want a POTM card with 60 contact?

Alonso ??

Bumpppppp

Another 3 run jack today. That’s 6 in his last 5 games and 8 total in may.

Web gems in the field.

Bump for confusion.

@jkooch66_xbl said in Halladay stinks:

K/9 is bad, no velo, and I'm sure it's accurate but no slider (nor slurve, sweeping curve, etc) is a huge no go. I don't really care or mind, in fact when it comes to online I'd be happy to face him, and if people enjoy him that's great. But the general vibe seems to be excitement and this is not a particularly good card.

Halliday a WetAssPussy

@ericulous1_psn said in POTM Grind - Not Worth It:

@bjd10048842_psn said in POTM Grind - Not Worth It:

I’ve played about 10 mini season games and dozens of event games with the POTM players.

I’m still 2.5 PXP player grinds away from Dawson, then I gotta get 500 PXP with him to get Rizzo?

It’s straight up not worth it.

Would it be smart to “punt” on the monthly awards and just sell them / but cover athlete / Takashi cards!?

I rented all the cards and finished way faster. As soon as I got the 4 final cards I got to resell the 4 I bought and turned a small profit. I never had to do the Dawson mission because I had all the POTM missions. Pitchers knock it out quick.

Maybe I misunderstood. If I don’t need Dawson because I can complete all the POTM, then I could actually finish it tonight lol.

For some reason I thought I had to do both.

I’ve played about 10 mini season games and dozens of event games with the POTM players.

I’m still 2.5 PXP player grinds away from Dawson, then I gotta get 500 PXP with him to get Rizzo?

It’s straight up not worth it.

Would it be smart to “punt” on the monthly awards and just sell them / but cover athlete / Takashi cards!?

@king_lando112_psn said in Pitcher should never be a collection reward. Sorry for the essay in advance:

I have had collections done for over a month and only have Randy P3.. I don’t use him in conquest bc I don’t wanna face the best pitcher on each team, I don’t grind offline for him bc I work. Only time I play with him is when I play RS. The last 3 outings for Randy are, (Outing 1) 1 inning pitched struck out side in 11 pitches (opponent quit). Used all of energy have to wait 3 games to use. (Outing2) 1 inning pitched 14 pitches thrown, I hit get 3 outs, Top of 2nd opponent quits after 1 pitch thrown, loses energy can’t use for 4 games. Bottom 1 I throw 7 pitches in first inning, I hit get 1 run, bottom second strike out batter he quits, loses energy. I literally used the collection reward 3 times and only threw 37 pitches in the last 17 games played. Luckily I pulled trout and acuna day 1 and 2 but I literally grinding so hard to get the collection completed. I hate how people send friendlies or straight up quit when they see Randy or see that I have collections completed. What makes things even worse is that SDS programmed this game to allow the lower tier team to stay in the game with the better team by giving them flukes, better exit velo, pitcher accuracy, and more. Sorry for this long rant but I had to get this out my system.

You’re a Pus$yCat if the reason you’re not using him in conquest is because you can’t hit the opponents ace? Lame.

I actually like that they went with randy as the MLB reward. We already have enough hitters to fill 3 lineups, but I’m ALWAYS searching for pitching. You’re right, they should tweak the stamina.

When randy is eligible for an event - watch out! Ppl gonna be restarting their event runs every time to use randy over and over < that’s where his value will come in big time.

Take a DRINK!!!! May edition.