I've been keeping my opinion to myself ever since the game launched, because I didn't dive into the online game modes right away. I usually grind some of the offline stuff first to build a somewhat decent team and that's exactly what I did. That meant I couldn't really give an objective opinion on the game since I didn't play online enough yet and for most of us this game centers around the online game modes.

Let me start of by saying that even though I consider myself an upper tier/elite player, this opinion is mine and mine alone. My opinion is not weighing heavier than any offline player or the more casual type of player whatsoever. You do not have to agree with anything I say, but I do ask you to respect my opinion as I will respect yours.

I can describe this game in an online environment in its current state as following:
I can not pitch.
I can not field.
I can not hit.
And yet somehow I can still win.

I throw so many meatballs and I can't control a single pitcher. Good releases sometimes lead to hangers down the middle. Horrible releases sometimes result in absolute dots on the black. Every pitch feels like spinning the wheel of fortune, I'm just lost when it comes to pitching, honestly.

When it comes to fielding, the obvious issue of outfielders not locking onto flyballs is a problem. I'm sure that will be fixed at some point. What annoys me way more is when the ball gets down and bounces off the wall, your outfielder is literally lost. There is no urgency to pick it up or throw it away quickly, you actually run past it often. Singles turn into doubles and doubles turn into triples because of this.

And the hitting.. I don't even know where to start. I struggle hitting fastballs, while I've always been a really good fastball hitter. Now I have to gamble and as a result that gets me out in front of almost every offspeed pitch. It only takes 1 inning for my opponent to figure this out. The funny thing is that an inning later I can be out in front on fastballs while I'm pretty certain that my reaction time is the same as before. It just feels off and inconsistent, I don't understand it.
I also tend to get under the ball a whole lot, while I'm not even slamming the PCI down. In my screen I align the ball in the middle of the PCI, yet the feedback says I got under it too much resulting in a good/okay flyout. This happens to me way too often.
The perfect/perfect idea is great. In reality only the perfect/perfect flyballs with power guys do real damage. I've lined out on perfect/perfect liners more often than not and perfect/perfect grounders are usually just groundouts or even double plays. You'd expect the perfect input would make you find the infield hole, which sometimes happens but not nearly enough.

All and all I'm just really disappointed more than anything. I was really hoping that we could leave 18 and 19 behind us and start moving in the right direction again, like a tweaked hybrid of 16+17 where the flaws of those games were fixed. But that's clearly not their vision for this franchise moving forward unfortunately.

For now I'll keep playing casually instead of competitively, hoping that future patches will resolve some of the stuff I mentioned, but I'm kinda pessimistic about it. Sorry. I usually quit playing ranked around Christmas, this year that might be a lot sooner.

@backerrrr44 said in Up and in Fastball:

If you result to the high and in fastball everytime you get into a jam.... I have no respect for you, that’s not how baseball is meant to be played

Sorry dude. If I notice you can't hit it, I'm gonna spam it until you show me you can. I couldn't care less about you respecting me or not, go practice on it and get better instead of crying about it here lol.

Decided to jump in some ranked today and 2 games in a row I play the most salty, toxic and miserable people in the community it seems.
Yes, I declined your friendly quit offer. You're looking for a game to play, so play.

Both these guys made it their mission to make my life miserable for declining the friendly quit. Taking minutes to wind up between pitches, pausing for a minute and a half every inning, stepping off, throwing over to first base 5 times in a row while I don't even take a lead. I don't know if these shenanigans ever work out for anyone, but if anything it only gets me juiced up to absolutely obliterate you. I honestly don't understand why people are so toxic, salty and miserable. Just play the darn game man. Such a turn off to play like this every single game.

Pitchers do tend to get upset if you watch your homerun from the batter's box. I think that's a better analogy than the one you used. But more on topic, I don't get upset at all when people want to watch their homerun. But better believe it motivates me and I will replay each and every one from that moment forward.

@KOTANK1334 said in compiling a list of dashboarders:

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever sen on this forum. They dashboarded. Gonna have to move on

I have to say I agree with this. As much I hate people who dashboard on my prestige eligible players, making a list of them to shame them later seems a bit extreme to me.

With the recent release of Madden 21 I once again came to the sad realization of how the sports gaming industry developed over the last 10 years or so. I haven't touched Madden (or any other EA Sports game) in years, nor will I ever again and it blows my mind that their business model is still sustainable because people just keep handing over their money like zombies.

MLB The Show is not as bad, for one reason and one reason only; you can earn the virtual currency by playing the game or working the market and therefore much of the content is not stacked behind a giant pay wall. Although it is for some people, like most of the casual players who have no time to grind the market. That isn't even my biggest gripe about these developments, it's the fact that developers have gotten lazy and the quality degrades every single year.

Make no mistake; MLB The Show has already cut online franchise because it wants to focus on Diamond Dynasty exclusively since that's where the money is made. And the quality of the game suffers because of it. Just look back at the last 5 editions of the game and ask yourself honestly how much of a (positive) change have been made. Almost everything is still the same, with minor tweaks and visual upgrades. Those are not significant improvements, even though they want you to believe they are. You could even make the argument it has gotten worse. And that goes against nature in a way; shouldn't a new game build on the good things of its predecessors and learn from the mistakes? The game looks and feels exactly the same since MLBTS 18. It plays different, due to minor tweaks and adjusted sliders, but are you telling me this is the best they could do in 3 years when 18 is generally regarded as the worst MLBTS game ever made?

Hell no. But as long as you keep playing DD/Ultimate Team and give them your money. This game could have been so much better by now, with all the technology and resources that are available. It's mind blowing and yet we keep accepting mediocrity and even pay a premium for a lazy unfinished product every single year.

I wish I had resources like Elon Musk and take the industry head on. I would outbid EA Sports, 2K Sports and Sony for the licenses and create a whole new line of sports simulation games where game quality and realism would be the top and only priorities with content available to all, instead of milking its player base for every hard earned dollar they have. Developed and funded (!) by people who are passionate about sports and the gaming industry, not by suits who only care about quarterly sales and their fat bonuses at the end of the year.

These companies can make tons of money by just selling the base games. The exclusive single player story games have proven that, like God of War and The Last of Us. I wish the sport games industry did a 180 and went back to that formula where passion and quality overshadow greed, not the other way around.

If you have some extra time on your hands (it's a lengthy video), I highly recommend you watch our brother Angry Joe in his Madden rant and reconsider your own perspective on the industry as it is right now and actively keep in mind that every dollar you spend in this industry is a dollar spent towards keeping things as they are.
https://youtu.be/UX5_6M5LLwA

Making a player program with wonderful moments where you have to hit multiple homeruns with a 60s power guy. That's exactly what everyone was waiting for, and we absolutely love spending time on these fantastic grinds. Especially having to hit a bomb off of Andrew Miller with 61 power is such a delight. Kudos.

Everyone who's hating on the guy here knows very well themselves that sometimes you can sit on something, know it's coming and you still can't hit it. Give him a break, he makes a valid point.

Wouldn't that be my problem and not yours?

I hope so, that would save me a couple of million stubs.

@Kovz88 said in Go back to the 99 attribute cap - opinion:

The legends and top players don't feel much different than average players.

I use this very same argument as to why I think they should go back to the 99 scale. Because in reality the max 125 guys don't even stand out that much, so it would increase lineup variety if more players would be in that 90-99 scale. Not only that, but as I mentioned earlier the difference between 90 power and 95 power on that 99 scale WAS noticable, whereas I feel like 100 power or 125 power doesn't really matter. As long you get a perfect/perfect or pull the ball hard.

Opposite of the idea of going backwards, I would suggest to move forward (just like every other self respecting game developer) and introduce dedicated servers.

(Lack of) availability

@ZFree1122 said in Garrett Crochet:

@raesONE said in Garrett Crochet:

@ZFree1122 said in Garrett Crochet:

Man good thing you can run both.

Sure you can, but they're so similar.. is it worth it to hold on to Wagner while you could use that million to buy whoever else you want?

Tell me who to spend my stubs on bro. I have 2.5m with everyone I want. I don't have intrest in Alomar, tried Donaldson and resold, Have Feller. Have 30 prestiges. At this point I have Wagner because the best team possible has Wagner in the pen. I'm also a fan of the dude and enjoyed watching him pitch. I knew it was going to be expensive this year so he's in my pen because I planned for it. Just like im waiting on 99 chipper.

Well although there isn't much to spend on right now, there are still some cards coming. Like Griffey, Mays, Chipper, Foxx. I think they'll be expensive.

@ZFree1122 said in Garrett Crochet:

Man good thing you can run both.

Sure you can, but they're so similar.. is it worth it to hold on to Wagner while you could use that million to buy whoever else you want?

I think Gehrig is better than Ruth because of his swing. He is also 6ft which is a sweet spot for the strike zone in my opinion.

@TEXAS10PT said in Garrett Crochet:

@raesONE said in Garrett Crochet:

@dcmo3 said in Garrett Crochet:

Thanks for the heads-up. Still not getting rid of my Wagner; pen takes seven, you know. This is going to push off Rollins or Dibble though.

To each their own. I'm definitely getting rid of Wagner and use Chapman and McGee as my other 2 lefties along with Chrochet. Dibble is never leaving my pen.

Driving to work I always listen to MLB radio on SeriousXM. They were talking about that Crochet is like a Chris Sale with more heat. Same kind of arm slot. I didn't know it was the same guy until you said something about the free card. Thanks

I would encourage you to watch some White Sox recaps and watch him pitch in real life. Kid is unreal, throws 100+ with zero effort it seems.

@Boneman05 said in Billy Wagner buy orders:

@raesONE said in Billy Wagner buy orders:

@Boneman05 said in Billy Wagner buy orders:

@raesONE said in Billy Wagner buy orders:

Same thing happened with Harper in 17, I made so many stubs on that card it was unreal.

And those are most definitely 30 different people. Making stubs has never been easier than this year. Almost everyone I know who plays this game has a stub balance of at least a million, regardless of skill level.

I don’t have a million stubs highest I have had this year was 500k.

Then you're doing something wrong

How am I doing something wrong maybe I don’t get to play as much as I haven’t had a lockdown time like most people cause I’m an essential worker

Ah fair enough, what do you do for a living?

@dcmo3 said in Garrett Crochet:

Thanks for the heads-up. Still not getting rid of my Wagner; pen takes seven, you know. This is going to push off Rollins or Dibble though.

To each their own. I'm definitely getting rid of Wagner and use Chapman and McGee as my other 2 lefties along with Chrochet. Dibble is never leaving my pen.

@TEXAS10PT said in Garrett Crochet:

@raesONE said in Garrett Crochet:

@TEXAS10PT said in Garrett Crochet:

@raesONE said in Garrett Crochet:

Imagine having spent 1,000,000 stubs on Billy Wagner and then this rookie White Sox reliever who skipped the minor leagues and looked like an absolute stud in every outing so far becomes available FOR FREE.

Ok raes how do you get this card FOR FREE?

Free Topps pack in the store right now, go get it.

Dang I'm at work. Can I get it here through My Account?

Yes sir, go to games and then pick MLB20. Go to dashboard and then store. You'll find it there.