Community Forum

I want to bring up something I saw posted earlier tonight over at youtube. I was watching Mr Hurricane's LPs and during it he was discussing about future players to bring up. In the comments someone mentioned how one of the players he talked bringing up didn't seem like he had the ratings for it but the game viewed the players ETA as READY NOW

https://youtu.be/vp10ldvihK4?si=GE5CtF5JAA7N6M7a&t=3742

It shows a catcher, Eduardo Tait. Young prospect and according to the TOP PROSPECTS page, he has a MLB ETA of 2027. That is the season that current LP is in.

Now this is the problem. I mentioned it before about how there seems to be a lot of low attribute players in the majors.

The player has

CONTACT v R 43
CONTACT v L 51
VISION 51
CLUTCH 48

If the game is viewing players with these ratings as MLB ready, that is a serious problem. I noticed it a lot in my franchises. A player with those ratings I would view as at least 2 years away yet the game is showing them with an ETA of the current season. Now I may be alone here but those offensive ratings scream AA first half/AAA send half until his contact hits at least the 60s.

@StinkyMcPooter_XBL said:

@VF1S_Rick_Hunter_PSN

Exactly. AFAIK, players have 3 years of professional service before they are eligible for the Rule 5 draft. There is absolutely no reason to place these players on the 40 man roster, unless you plan to move them to the MLB roster.

And to find a players service time, have to view their player profile, scroll up one and it shows it, instead of just having it listed next to their name in the upper RED BOX https://i.imgur.com/qVAi9qe.jpeg

Need some breaks between each team to make it more readable

Phils are just done. They missed their chance 3 years ago.

UI Changes.

In franchise, being able to see your rosters stats is pretty vital yet with the current UI.

https://i.imgur.com/qVAi9qe.jpeg
( yea its a screen shot of a video, it still works for my example )

For instance looking at your roster, you can only fit a 5 players on the screen and then its endless scrolling to the right to see their stats. Want the next 5 players? Scroll down and then back to endless scrolling to the right to go through their season stats.

IMHO This page should be a lot bigger. When you are at the seasons stats page for position players, R1 and R2 should be used to toggle between defensive, offensive and baserunning/misc stats. I should not have to scroll to the right through 30 stats just to find what i want.

• The whole player stats page has a lot of wasted space. There is no need for the top left ( RED BOX ) of the screen to be so big with how little stats it shows ( this should be customizable too or add OBS SLG OPS to that area too )
• In the GREEN BOX, make use of L2 R2 to have 3 tabs to go between for OFFENSIVE/DEFENSIVE/BASERUNNING stats. so we aren't having to spend extra time scrolling to the right constantly
• Minimize the RED BOX to to allow MORE players to be seen instead of just LISTING 5 players at a time. Should be able to fit at least 10 on there.
• Why is there only a season of minor league stats tracked? if I have two prospects that are similar in rating but i can't see how they performed the past 2 seasons ( unless i spend time actually having to WRITE down their stats before each the past 2 seasons end ) who do i call up?
• Why can't i go back and see how a person performed during ST while IN season?
• The ability to sort and lock one stat while being able to sort another stat at the same time. EG - Lock in HRs so i can sort it from most to least, to see who has 20+ HRs. Then lock in say Ks to see out of those 20+ HR guys, who has the most and least Ks

Same with free agency and all other sections. I shouldn't have to click and open each players profile just to see how they performed the past few years and then go back to the screen, rinse repeat.

The current UI design would work for all that online play but for franchise solo offline play, yea this is as bare bones as you can get and frankly a bit insulting

EDIT:

Just now advance to regular season from spring training and I'm at the FREE AGENCY screen because I need to fill AAA and AA and all it does is list

PLAYER, POS, AGE, OVERALL

That is absolute horrible. Why is everything that matters so minimal and basic? How did any of this make it out of testing? Its like this for a lot of stages of franchise.

In franchise and just saw the CPU lose his bat during a swing and it went into the stands.

First time i seen that in the past 2 years of the Show

Disregard

Noticed even with trading set to manual, you will still get trades OFFERED to you, which is a good move

@GilesT7787_XBL said:

Are they going to fix this or should I get my money back?

Dont expect anything this year or even next

Adding some more thoughts.

A quality-of-life addition that would make a big difference in Franchise (and one that feels like it should already exist) is a proper in-game news and reporting section. Right now the ticker only shows so much and thats during gameplay, and the pre-game reports are pretty limited. It would be awesome to have a dedicated news hub accessible from the main Franchise menu or inside the Trade screen (maybe as an expansion of the existing “rumors” tab). Things like

• Trade rumors and grades/ratings from analysts
• Prospect and draft opinions
• Local beat writers commenting on lineup decisions (“why is X hitting in the 2-hole when his numbers suggest he should be lower in the order?”)
• Rotation and bullpen chatter
• Notes on available free agents that could actually help your team
• General league buzz around call-ups, demotions, and hot/cold streaks

This kind of content used to feel more present in older versions of the series (or at least the potential was there), and bringing it back in a more fleshed-out way would add a ton of immersion and depth without being overwhelming. It would also help make the CPU’s decisions feel less random — you’d actually get some context or “reporting” around why certain moves are happening, instead of just seeing them pop up out of nowhere.

Another big frustration in Franchise trades is how blind we often are when trying to make deals. The lack of a proper trade finder (or even a decent trade assistant) means we’re basically guessing most of the time.

When the CPU is offering or countering, it gives almost zero useful direction. It just lists something generic like “looking for young X position player” or “needs pitching help” at the trade screen.

• No breakdown of what they actually value
• No suggested packages / propsosed players on a counter offer

Just no clear indicators of what would make the deal appealing on their end. This makes every trade feel like trial-and-error, especially when you’re trying to stay somewhat realistic with CPU-controlled teams. You end up over-offering or completely missing what they want, and it kills the flow. A simple trade finder tool — or at least more detailed feedback from the CPU on why a deal is close/far off and what they’re prioritizing — would go a long way toward making trades feel smarter and less random.It would also help the CPU trades look more logical from the outside instead of the weird one-sided deals we sometimes see pop up.

@Barfy-Bad-Gas_XBL said:

I'm still in season 1.... are top prospects always locked down as well after season 1?

Most the time they are but i seen some that weren't locked, offered a trade and when it was rejected the CPU went and locked that player lol

NGL that is something that would have been good. AI generated feedback in game about "deals" but those type of "news" went away with the trade hub. A subsection in the franchise main menu or even in trade in addition to the "rumors" section would have been great.

The ticker in game only shows so much information. The "reports" pre game only show a tiny bit of info. A whole news section would have been nice to see when at the menu. Trade ratings, prospect opinions, draft opinions, etc.

See "local sports reporters" talking about why X is hitting in the Y hole when he should be down at the Z spot. Same with rotations, prospects ( why isn't X up in the bigs, so and so should be in the minors, nice FA on the market that would help, etc.

All of that stuff would have absolutely been a huge QoL and general depth addition to the mode

@Hooloo25_XBL

Those 3 seasons seem fine to me.

I think the issue was you had guys like that or all star type players that were below mendoza line for BA OBP SLG.

Like when i was doing RTTS, since some dumb reason your player isn't given off days, I would sim a week or two and id get a notification from the coach that my player was struggling and either hitting below 200, slugging under 250, etc. When all season he was sitting at + war type numbers. With 70+ contact, disc, power etc

Simming seemed to just ignore upgraded or improved attributes.

I am getting transaction notifications for teams I don't even control

TBH i stopped playing RTTS until this was addressed, just been doing franchise so can't confirm nor deny

@HuskiesSP_PSN said:

@Christuffer9917_PSN Kind of crazy how baseballs games in the early 2000's were so in depth in career/franchise compared to now. Devs only care about modes that you buy [censored] in.

unfair to say "devs", thats more of the investors/shareholders/upper management

@DatDudeDan__PSN Didnt even notice there was a patch

sigh

It feels like there are only a few paths for a ball in play to take, least on defense it feels that way.

A quality-of-life feature that I swear used to exist (or at least felt possible) in older versions of the series

• An option in the Tasks / Front Office settings to let the CPU handle only intra-minor league roster moves (promotions/demotions/shuffling between A, AA, and AAA) while keeping full manual control over anything involving the MLB roster / 40-man / call-ups to the big leagues.

Right now, even with everything set to Manual, the CPU still occasionally makes unwanted moves that bleed into MLB (especially during sims, spring training → regular season transitions, or September).

Or if you turn roster-related tasks to Auto, it takes over way too much. It would be awesome to offload the tedious minor-league depth chart management without risking the CPU burning options, calling up the wrong guys, or messing with my 26-man/40-man decisions.

Anyone else or @sds_joek_psn remember this working more cleanly in older titles (like pre-22 era)? Or found a solid workaround this year? Would love to see this added — it feels like a simple toggle that would make Franchise way more enjoyable for people who want to GM the big club but not babysit every level of the farm system every single day.

We cant even get minor league stats on players information yet lol

I do wish there was a "ghost player" option for the minors. At least AA ball.

Meaning if I only have say 7 players total that i want to develop, "ghost players" would be used to fill in the other spots of the AA roster and would be replaced when you sign more players for the roster if you want

I've been running a mostly hands-off Franchise save where I only handle scouting and staff hiring/firing, letting the CPU manage the rest. ( really wish there was an option to actually be the SCOUT or Minors manager and work your way up ). The overall CPU logic for roster building and promotions still feels significantly flawed. Specific examples I'm seeing:

• Way too many sub-70 overall players (players with contact in the 50s ) making it to MLB rosters and getting regular playing time across the league.
• Pitchers with low overalls or mismatched attributes routinely cracking major-league rotations and bullpens.
• My own team was in "playoff push" mode, yet the CPU traded away our best middle reliever: a 31-year-old LHP with B potential, sub-1.00 WHIP, and 1.3 ERA. In return, we got a 19-year-old C-potential SP who had a broken arm and was out for 2+ months. He was literally traded with a broken arm. This happened despite the team being in contention.

It seems like the AI heavily overvalues raw youth/potential while under-valuing proven performance, current stats, and immediate team needs. This leads to:

• Diluted talent across the entire league after 1-2 seasons.
• Broken-looking rosters with too many marginal big-leaguers.
• Unrealistic and slower prospect development when minor-league depth gets stretched.

I know the devs talked up smarter GM behaviors and lineup/rotation logic for 26, but in practice (especially with CPU roster control on), the league quickly starts feeling unrealistic.

• Has anyone else run into this heavily in their saves?
• Does it get worse deeper into long-term franchises?

Suggestions for improvement

• Tighter minimum thresholds for MLB call-ups (better "readiness" checks).
• Better balance in trade evaluation so contenders actually buy win-now pieces instead of flipping veterans for injured lottery tickets.
• Optional sliders for promotion tendencies or CPU roster strictness.

I had to drop trade frequency to 3 during the offseason and July and 0 during the rest of the months to stop some of these trades from happening.

I do hope the patch this week, like we were told in another thread, addresses some of the low numbers being put up in sims. Which seems to be actual attributes not being fully recognized for sims. Seeing 90+ contact guys hitting sub 200, 70+ power guys with sub 250 slugging, etc )

Edit:

Another thing, why is a players minor league stats NOT shown on their player card? This seems like a pretty big oversight for franchise. Do stats just matter? Is it all about ratings? Are there chances of players out performing their ratings? How would you know if you can't see a history of that prospects minor league seasons?