MLB The Show Needs Consistency Rating - bxphenom7's Blog

bxphenom7's Blog

MLB The Show Needs Consistency Rating

Posted on August 8, 2014 at 11:41 AM.

First off, I just want to say MLB The Show has been my favorite sports franchise since MLB 2005 with Eric Chavez on the cover, a couple of years before The Show was added to the title. I could hardly find things wrong with it, until now.

MLB The Show needs a consistency rating, right down to it. Personally, I've always felt slumps were programmed into the game (some people say no) but this year's versions has slumps that are just brutal.

In RTTS, my guy has 92 OVR, 97 and 93 contact against RHP and LHP respectively, Plate Vision 92, and I went from a .317 BA to .269...Lately I haven't gotten a hit in about 20 or more ABs. So, having a frustrating time. Slumps are part of baseball, from the Mendoza line hitters to the best. However, batters do have control over these slumps, even if they feel like everything they hit gets caught. They wait on pitches, shorten swings, etc. In RTTS, your only hope is to play through it, which was fine, except now it's just gotten ridiculous. I've always played on All-Star and hit amazing. This year, I had to downgrade to veteran, then subsequently to Rookie, and yes, I dropped 48 points on BA on Rookie. All I could do was sit and watch as every good pitch connected with perfect timing went to a fielder's glove or got chopped for whatever reason, and just wonder what in world do I have to do to get a hit? Double A was easy, Triple A was another story, hitting .278, of course I only got called up for my OVR. I'm sure maxing out attributes would help but that shouldn't AND was never necessary to succeed. (The cynic in me says it's just another way to get you to purchase training points, but I've always had more faith in Sony San Diego than other sports developers, so eh)

Even more frustrating is how players nowhere near my player's ability are easily clearing .300 or pushing it, and mind you, this is well after the All-Star break, and simultaneously supposedly good hitters uncharacteristically struggling. (Adam Jones hitting .257...HA...Mike Trout hitting .220...what?)

Which leads me to Franchise mode. Essentially, you never know what you're going to get from your players for the most part, batters and pitchers. My top 2 pitchers, 90+ OVR had ERAs above 4.00 despite good H/9, HR/9, etc, while my fourth guy in the rotation, won the Cy Young.....he's a 78 OVR but finished 19-4 with a 2.16 ERA. Ummmm. And there's plenty of stuff like this every season. For hitters, it seems less unpredictable but when you ahve a guy you've developed with 96 and 94 contact, 99 Clutch, 95 Plate Vision, 92 Plate Discipline, and he hits .256 for the season, and .271 the next season, it really doesn't make sense.

MLB The Show would benefit from a consistency rating that dictates how likely one is to fall into a slump AND how quickly they can get out of it. This way, players don't perform unreasonably below or higher than expectations. This rating really works in NBA 2k, and I hope Sony San Diego fixes this because for now, I'm done with MLB 14. I don't know how many people experience this because i haven't heard a huge amount of criticism in this area, just a moderate amount, but it's pretty much broken the game for me this year. The user definitely needs some control over this situation, especially since those pre-game batting practices serve no purpose other than one to reassure themselves of their timing.