Hello,
I'm a player of The Show since the beginning and I'm one of those who isn't into using my controller skills to play the games, but rather, I enjoy building the teams and managing the full games, letting each player's attributes be the only performance factor, making in-game moves, and developing a sort of emotional relationship with the players... which triggers more than one trade. haha
Given that I watch every pitch of every game in a full season, I'll start by saying the overall presentation is amazing. Anyone who doesn't appreciate all the little things that make this game great, and the level of detail is truly spoiled.
I'm surprised MLB: The Show doesn't go after the Fantasy Baseball market and its millions of players to develop a fantasy baseball option on steroids where you have an online franchise option in manager-only mode, (which should go easier on the servers).
"Fantasy Franchise +" would be the ultimate in team-building/management if we could take it online and carry over our teams from one game to the next. Semi-frequent attribute updates would be a big thing as well... allowing us to get updated skill sets reflected from real-life play put onto our players as time goes by... and of course, adding in new players.
But enough of that... here are some things that, (given how great The Show is at providing so many options), are basically just common sense fixes/options that seem to have gotten missed.
- Forced runners don't run with two outs and a 3-2 count. When I'm in manage full game mode, the system is doing a few things automatically like defensive shifts, (which should pop up notifications on the screen)... but the runners don't run with a 3-2 count and two outs unless I give the steal command. Some may say this is up to the manager, but I say no. There's a runner who has played baseball all his life and a base coach I'm paying $900k per year to. Runners need to be on the move with the pitch in every mode in every instance.. without prompting from me.
-The jersey numbers seem broken. My 3rd base coach has the same jersey number as one of my players.
-Bullpen arms would seemingly warm up forever if I didn't switch them to "Ready and waiting". These are supposed to be intelligent human beings. Would they really just keep throwing warm-up pitches forever until their arms fell off if I didn't tell them to stop? Instead of the current options, there should be a "Get Ready, Stay Ready" option where they would pace themselves once they got to the point where they were ready to go. There could even be a little bullpen phone cutscene where we see the bullpen calling the manager to say a pitcher is ready to go. It would also be nice if you could use the "schedule to pitch" option on someone other than the first batter of the next inning. Time would be saved if you could choose to schedule someone to come into the game on the second or third batter due up. Even if you were already on defense... when you go into the bullpen screen, it would be nice to mark a pitcher as scheduled to come in when the number X batter is due up. Get it over with while you're on that screen, rather than have to go back in when that batter comes up.
-Players out of defensive positions could be cleaned up. First of all, the defensive substitution menu is clunky to get to... having to hit the options button or use a mound visit. It would be much cleaner in the same place as pinch hitters and runners. If you're in the defensive substitution menu, we get a warning about players out of position, but why don't we get them in the game screens? It's painful to pinch run for your catcher and then have to wait for an animation of your backup shortstop stretching behind the plate and commentators announcing him as staying in the game at catcher, then you have to hit Options at the right time and put an actual catcher back there. We should get a pop-up warning that someone is headed to the field out of position and a "Do you want to change players?" prompt that brings you to the defensive substitution screen quickly.
-In Manage Full Game mode on The Show 23, the pitchout command doesn't work. Your pitcher does not throw a pitchout when asked to.
-Batters never pull the bat back when asked to bunt. I have put hundreds of sacrifice bunt or "bunt for hit" commands out, and I have never once seen a batter pull the bat back on a terrible pitch. They will try bunt each and every pitch no matter how bad it is.
-This is more of a wish list item, but based in reality... In Manage Full Game mode, I would love to be able to mark certain players as allowed to "steal on their own"...or maybe we could just toggle that option on for the whole team. It would be nice to allow certain players to decide to try to grab a bag on their own if they were feeling it... especially when a lot of views don't allow us to see that the defenders are shifted away from the bag or whatever.
- I sure wish the CPU-controlled teams were better about managing their rosters. I get it that we download the "updated rosters" and they are set up with injured players like Trout or DeGrom in the minors. But what is taking so long for the CPU to move them to the majors? They have major stars available to them and nothing is done to bring them up for at the very least a month... sometimes more.
-Many have said it, but here's another vote for being able to edit the names and appearance of coaches in the same way we do for random generic players. I'm in Manage Full Game mode... I want to put myself into the game with matching visuals and audio.
-Since my love for this game is based on the romance of building a team and watching every single pitch play out. Watching the animations, remembering that time a certain player who may not be the greatest, hit a game-winning homer to beat the Yankees in the London Series, (LOL). I have to have the Sounds of The Show back.
It is such a difference-maker to have custom walk-up music, and traditional songs at certain points of the game... it just makes the experience next level. We had it. I spent lots of time getting it right. It went away. A heartbreaker. I know not many will go to the lengths I did for in-game music, but I also know there are plenty who want to inject their favourite music into the game while they are grinding away.
-I'd get more into stadium creator and build a stadium that caters to the style of play I build my team around, but bullpens on the field is a non-starter for me. I will not be responsible for a stadium existing that has bullpens on the field. haha
OK, it got long, but thanks for letting me get that off my chest. My franchise pet peeves, (some minor), have been brewing since the ultimate in team management went away, (MLB The Show '10).