[Armor and Sword]

What never ceases to amaze me....is the wide differentiation of experiences we all get with the same game.

The last two versions of this game (18 and 19) have been nothing short of the best console baseball game experience I have ever had.....and yes there are some quirks here and there. But I am not feeling this review at all. Nor experiencing his frustrations. I love how fielders bobble more balls, misplay fly balls, but also are able to stick with the play and still throw guys out.

The past several years.....everyone was a gold glover. Now? You can clearly see and feel the difference between below average, average, good and elite defensive players. It is really nice to finally have that. And even the elite will make an occasional error. Like they should. I am not seeing a crazy amount of errors...not at all. I don’t get what the reviewer is seeing....because I am simply not experiencing that at all. I have seen comments about every diving catch in the OF is dropped.....ummmm no not at all. I have seen so many amazing web gems...and yes ones that are missed, smothered or dropped....as they should be. But let me put in this disclaimer.....I use auto fielding with manual throwing. SO my experience is certainly a lot different than the reviewer who is clearly using manual fielding. So I cannot really compare my experience to that of a manual fielder.


Hitting for me has been on point since day one. Not seeing or experiencing any frustration. The ebbs and flows of my offense thus far as been so cool and a wild roller coaster ride like IRL. My hit variety has never been better. Bloopers, liners, balls down the line and into the corner bouncing around, bleeders, nubbers, ball physics have never been better on any baseball game ever made. Another disclaimer....I use Timed/Directional which is far more ratings driven than the other interfaces so again....this is probably why experiences vary all over the board. Everyone plays with different interfaces, different levels, and of course I adjust sliders to enhance my playing experience along with a clean screen approach....so we are probably comparing apples to oranges.

Passed balls? Totally disagree with this notion they have reverted. Absolutely not. They are blocking much better, and reacting much quicker. In fact last night I threw out two runners who did not get great reads. One at second and one at third. It had me pumping my fist as I was able to get out of a couple of innings due to mistakes in base running by the CPU. That to me is a huge positive. Also balls back at the pitcher.....SO MUCH BETTER. I think in 70 plus franchise games now I have hit the pitcher 6 times. In years past it was all the time.


Stealing? I have Trea Turner and lead the A.L. in steals. I do not take any extra lead. I pre-load the steal then hold the L1 button and get great jumps most of the time. Counts, timing, pitch thrown, catcher throwing all factor into the results. But I have no problems stealing with real deal base stealers as well as good speed guys when I do it in the right situation. Again...I also tweak my sliders for base stealing (steal success to 6 every year for me and works like a charm along with the right approach and timing).

Seems like the reviewer is talking more about online hitting......I don’t bother with online as it is a totally different game online then offline.

If your an offline player, love baseball, love franchise mode (which needs a lot of love as we all know and don’t need to discuss here), love classic rosters....MLB The Show 19 is the best console baseball game you will ever play bar none.

I dreamed of a game like this back in 1987 as I played table top games like Statis-Pro and Stratomatic baseball with a bunch of my buddies as we replayed seasons together. Or when I was playing Baseball Stars and Bases Loaded on the NES.

This is console baseball nirvana man.


9.5/10 on offline gameplay (simply the best it has ever been)
9.5/10 on audio upgrades this year (amazing audio this cycle...really well done)
9.0/10 on Presentation upgrades (love the new score bugs, Hedi, dynamic storylines)
7/10 on Franchise Mode (this mode needs to be tuned and upgraded but is still functional with 30 team control. But it has been way too long since we got some much needed tuning).


8.75/10 overall. I can’t stop playing.