What slider set and other adjustments have you made? I agree with most of what you said. There are a few irritations left though. The CPU still pulls pitchers on its own and will sometimes do the same with position players. This is not nearly as bad as in 12 but still aggravating. Sometimes the game will not let you bring in relief pitchers who are warm. You're only option is to sit him down. I have found a way to SOMETIMES fool the CPU but I shouldn't have to do it at all. The scouting interface is very confusing to me when trying to assign scouting in different regions. I have pretty much given up on it. There are a lot more half swing bloopers in the infield and balls still occasionally bounce of of the pitcher and across the diamond - the ball is then thrown to first and the pitcher is still good as new. The resetting issues with defensive positioning are there as well. By the way, I am a franchise, manager only guy.
None of this will drive me back to MLB 12. I am hoping that the patches will fix some of this.