MLB 15 The Show: Franchise Mode Stream Full Recap/Notes

This week's MLB 15: The Show livestream was a long one, clocking in at 1 hour, 45 minutes, so if you don't want to sit through the whole thing, here are all of the highlights from Thursday night's Twitch show:

Year-To-Year Saves

• You will be able to use licensed equipment if you import your Road To The Show player from MLB 14.
• It only took four seconds to load an MLB 14 save into MLB 15.
• Save files from the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions of MLB 14 must be uploaded to Sony's cloud, and from there, they can be downloaded into your PlayStation 4 copy of MLB 15: The Show.
• All of MLB 15's new facial scans and skin tones will be automatically applied to imported MLB 14 roster files. Players' attribute ratings, though, will remain the same as they were on your old file.

Franchise Mode

• All teams' farm systems are randomly generated whenever you start your Franchise.
• You can still edit any player's attributes whenever you want from inside Franchise/Season mode.
• Any player's contract can be edited, but you must make your changes before you begin a Franchise or Season. You cannot edit contracts once a Franchise/Season is in progress. You are able to adjust contract length and contract value.
• You can no longer cheat the system and lock-up all of your young talents to cheap, long-term contracts. Young players will be expecting a significant pay raise in their prime years, if you choose to sign them to a long-term deal.
• All draft picks and minor leaguers can only be signed to one-year deals.
• You cannot extend a player's contract during the season. You must wait until the off-season to start negotiating.
• Your team's owner will now give you two goals that you must complete if you want to keep your job. The first goal is easier, and it will only focus on that particular season (for example, finishing over .500, or winning your division). The second goal is tougher, and it must be accomplished before your three-year contract expires (for instance, winning a Divisional Series, or capturing a World Series championship). Your owner's expectations will be based on the team's budget and roster talent.
• If you're importing a Franchise save file from MLB 14, then you'll begin in the first year of your three-year contract, regardless of where you're at on the 20XX calendar.
• Your GM Rating will always start at an average "C," and it can either move up or down, depending on your team's performance, and whether or not you achieve your owner's goals.
• If you perform well with a low-budget team, then a big-budget team might offer you a job at the end of the season.
• The contract system can be turned off entirely, if you prefer, which allows you to stay with your selected club for the entire length of the Franchise, regardless of your team's performance.
• Whenever you put a player on the trading block, a new "trade value" bar will show you how much each team in the league covets your player. Teams looking to make a playoff push will be more interested in read-to-play veterans, while rebuilding franchises will be looking to acquire promising young prospects.
• A new "suggest trades" button will make it easier to find offers that the game is likely to accept.
• The trade logic has been tweaked so that there are more straight-up, one-for-one trades and less lopsided, multi-player trades.
• Trades remain limited to just two teams per transaction. Three-team and four-team trades are something that Sony San Diego is considering adding for future editions of The Show.
• Simulating games on the calender is now significantly faster.
• You will see more performance-based player progression this year, but the system is still predominantly governed by a player's age and his potential rating. The potential rating can change slightly over time based on your on-field performance.
• The age point where players start to naturally regress has been pushed back for MLB 15, and you can even stave off regression for a bit by performing at a high level in old age.
• Teams' budgets will grow/shrink over the years based on each club's performance, but certain franchises that have a long history of being big spenders (like the Yankees) will continue to receive large budgets, even if they perennially underperform.
• Your team can accept performance-based sponsorships to increase its budget. The sponsors' logos will only show-up on the score tickers and in the instant replay banners.
• You can bring any of the retired legends into Franchise mode, if you want.
• 10 minor league stadiums have been added on PlayStation 4. These fictional, unlicensed stadiums previously existed on PlayStation 3, but they now look much prettier on Sony's latest console.

Radio Show

• The PlayStation 4 is the only system that will have the radio show this year, due to the huge amount of audio data it requires. There was not enough space to include it on the PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita.
• Radio host Justin Allegri broadcasts minor league baseball and college football/basketball in real life.
• Allegri mostly recaps box scores and stats, but he will also talk about any recent injuries, team transactions, career milestones, or impressive single-game accomplishments.
• The radio show will keep playing while you move through the Franchise menus.
• It will work in Road to the Show and Franchise, but if you listen to the radio show in RTTS, it will only talk about MLB events, and it won't mention anything that's happening in the minors.
• Your created character can be mentioned on the radio show, but the news won't be slanted to make him the primary focus; the show just treats him like any other athlete.
• Players without a recorded audio name are referred to by their jersey number, position, and team name.

Miscellaneous Notes

• You can now select a specific month and time of day for exhibition games. These settings will affect the in-game lighting.
• If you start a game at night, and it goes deep into extra innings, you will eventually see the sun rising in the A.M.
• Users will have more control over their fielders this year, as they won't be locked into catch animations until much later in the ball's descent.
• Starting pitchers' performance will begin to plummet at 20 percent stamina; relief pitchers start struggling at 40 percent stamina.