I want to start all this by saying I love MLB the Show and I’m very pleased seeing the brought back online leagues as in the past that was predominately all I played. I didn’t even buy in 19 because they still hadn’t brought them back.
Anyways so I just want to vent some of my issues with the gameplay as it is currently. For starters I think there are too many homeruns. Much too many. I get some players are better at the game than others but even players who muster 4-5 hits per game are having 2 or 3 of those hits be homeruns. Look at some of the players numbers you play against....9 home runs 16 RBI. 3 home runs 5 RBI. 27 Home runs 36 RBI. That’s just some of the numbers I saw from an opponent I just played. 27 homers with 36 rbi?!? That’s just crazy to me. I’m not sure what can be done to improve this, as I agree a perfect-perfect should be rewarded but maybe make perfect-perfect a little harder to achieve and expand the “squared up” range. I just feel like there should be some actual baseball involved in this 9 inning home run derby. Part of the fun of the game in the past was the battle between pitcher and batter and it’s 5 times more tense once you have RISP. I enjoy that aspect. But getting a runner in scoring position is almost a myth unless you single and steal a base. There are probably 5 times more homers than there are doubles and triples combined. I haven’t looked at actual numbers from MLB but I’d venture to say in real life there’s at least twice as many doubles as there are home runs. Not the other way around. Let’s bring some baseball back.
Okay secondly, the difficulty of hitting fastballs this year is ridiculous to me. This could be partially in part because I took a year off from the game, but after 150ish games or so I feel like I’d at least be close to what I was before. But I still can get to a fastball without sitting dead red. And if they throw any other pitch to any other location I’m still swinging because I feel like that’s the only way to hit a high fastball is to guess 100% correctly. This issue is less glaring than the previous because this could just be my skill level being up to par.
Next, fielding errors. Let me first say kudos on patching all the outfield fly ball issues. Much much much better in that regard. The fielding error issue now is just guys bumbling routine ground balls. Half the time it still results in an out so I don’t guess this issue is all that major but still I feel like the bobbling of simple grounders even from the likes of Ozzie Smith or Andrelton Simmons is a little much. Pull back on that frequency a little please.
Then, pick offs at second seem to happen much to often. It’s already a miracle that you’re on second base in the first place without walking the rest of the way following a home run. Let us have the base for crying out loud. It seems like about half time you take a one tap lead, even if you don’t touch L2 you’re getting picked off. I just know it wasn’t anywhere near that frequent in the past and I guess it’s something I’ll have to adjust to but I feel like without that 1 step lead off second even (the rare) base hit to the outfield that unless my speed is over 60-65 there’s a relatively decent chance I don’t make it home in time to beat a throw. In reality even Albert Pujols is scoring on a base hit if he’s on second base the majority of the time.
And lastly, bunting. It seems almost impossible to work a sac bunt. I had diamond Mondesi on first had a one tap lead, go to lay down a sac bunt (game was tied 2-2 I think in the 8th) and I get the bunt down (amazing it wasn’t a pop up in the first place) and they still get mondesi at second. Again it’s like they don’t want you on second. Maybe I just need tips on bunting but it’s not like it’s difficult. I pull back on pitches out of the zone and only try and lay it down when it’s in the zone. But I still feel like unless I’m stealing second while bunting, and risking a double play on the frequent pop up bunts, that the success rate of a sac bunt is roughly 10-20% which is absurd to me on what should be one of the easiest plays in baseball. With that being said I do understand in the past a lot of players would just bunt for base hits frequently so you have to have a fair medium here and I don’t know where the middle ground is there but hopefully someone can figure that out. Cause a sac bunt should be successful about 85% of the time when the bunt gets down, not the other way around.
Okay i know that was incredibly long winded but I needed to rant and hopefully it will be heard by those who matter. I know SDS is very active on the forums which I think is really cool of them. By the way, I’ll certainly still be playing this game. Just wanted to rant about some glaring issues. Thanks.