25 small changes to improve gameplay and QOL in MLB The Show
The development cycle for 25 is over. We didn't get an overhaul to the hitting engine or ball physics, so I think it was fair to expect a large number of tweaks and changes to improve the gameplay experience, especially after the constant reminders of how they listened to us. Based on what they've shown us, we instead got a paltry menu of upgrades including an entirely unnecessary hitting guessing game, a tweak to the throwing meter, arrows and icons under fielders' feet, more jump transitions for middle infielders, and reworking a rob home run mechanic that will come into play maybe once a game on average. Aside from ambush hitting, these things are fine and will help gameplay a bit around the edges, but much more could have been done. Instead, dozens of legacy issues and neglected areas went unmentioned in either the gameplay deep dive or stream.
In the interest of fairness to SDS, I don't make these criticisms without bringing something to the table. Here are 25 improvements that are almost entirely on the level of the updates shown in the gameplay deep dive and stream that I believe would improve the game in 26 and beyond.
Pitching
Make pinpoint more risk-reward. Perfect pinpoint should put the entire ball inside the PAR. Missing a perfect pitch, even by a little bit, should have an increased chance of throwing a ball or a meatball compared to what it currently does. Besides giving the player more control over each pitch outcome, it would also increase the effectiveness of control pitchers since their smaller PARs would be a difference maker.
Properly scale stamina for starting pitchers. Stamina has been broken for years. A pitcher with 125 stamina should be able to go 100+ pitches in the green. Right now, you're getting about 80 pitches before you hit yellow, whether you've got 125 stamina or 100.
Remove pitcher confidence. It's an artificial mechanic with an outsized effect on gameplay that is based on metrics that remain unexplained. If a pitcher gives up a home run in real life, he doesn't immediately downgrade to the ability of a beer leaguer.
Make the edges of the strike zone consistent. In 24, there are times where pitches on the edges are called strikes when they are more than 50% outside the zone and the pitch feedback doesn't match where the ball passed the plate in live action.
Make any pitch that touches even one pixel of the strike zone a strike. The strike zone doesn't currently reflect how it works in real life, and it should.
Hitting
Make any swing with the ball entirely outside the outer PCI a miss - It's currently possible to foul a ball off even when it's entirely outside the outer PCI, which is one of several factors that leads to the ridiculous number of foul balls in game.
Drastically reduce the outer PCI on any ball outside the zone - This is another tweak that will decrease unrealistic foul balls on bad swings.
Increase hits when swing timing is late side of good - Late side of good is almost always death, even on a center cut pitch with a good PCI, and has been for years. It shouldn't be this way. It's still good timing, and the results should be generally more positive than they are.
Make the ground feel like ground - The outfields in this game are made of trampoline material, leading to a crazy amount of ground rule doubles.
Increase the gravity on liners - Line drives to the outfield hang in the air, turning tons of should be hits into outs. These should be finding grass way more often.
Fielding
Scale outfielder speed more realistically to the size of the outfield - Outfielders still cover way too much ground, to the point that even liners to the gap are often caught.
Nerf infield dives - Infield dives are OP in terms of the ground they cover and the success rate with which the ball finds the glove instead of merely being knocked down.
Scale the success of diving plays at all positions to the fielding attribute - Currently, bad fielders are no less likely to successfully make a diving play than good ones. A system where diamond defenders often successfully come up with balls on dives while silver and bronze defenders are more likely to just knock them down or miss them entirely would be more realistic and give added weight to fielding.
Re-work fielding on bunts - Bunt defense is an abomination. Even with bunt defense on or the entire infield in, your fielders' brains will still sometimes turn off when a bunt is laid down towards the first base side (one example: 1B inexplicably running towards a ball that the 2B should get, leaving 1B uncovered for a free hit.)
Make corner infield defense matter - The fielding attribute at 1B and 3B is irrelevant (outside of scoop ability at 1B). Defense at those positions is entirely animation based. You're just as likely to get a god-tier diving catch from a bronze fielder as a diamond fielder. Same thing with the slow motion ole move to miss an easily fielded ball.
Make outfield jumps on fly balls make sense - The current reaction system leaves anyone with sub-90 fielding and/or reaction consistently acting like they've never seen a fly ball before. The reaction/jump system for outfielders should work how they say it's going to work for infielders, scaling jump quickness to the players' attributes.
Increase fielding urgency - There are still way too many instances where there's a lack of urgency from fielders despite them saying they addressed this.
Fix tags - Players covering 2B on a steal sometimes miss on tags when the ball beats the runner there by a good margin. An evasive slide should sometimes be effective on a bang-bang play, but if the ball is there well in advance of the runner, he should be out.
Tear down the pitcher wall - Currently, every pitcher fields like an octopus Greg Maddux. Nothing gets by these guys. Almost every hard hit ball up the middle should get by the pitcher. If the pitcher is a good/great fielder, give them an increased chance of making the insane plays that all pitchers currently make routinely.
Make perfect throws actually perfect for catchers. When executing a "perfect" throw as a catcher on a steal attempt, the ball will sometimes end up at the fielder's chest instead of on the bag, regardless of the catcher's throw accuracy attribute. A perfect throw should be perfect for catchers just like it is at other positions.
Quality of Life
Add a park blacklist - Probably controversial, but allow us to eliminate games at a small list of parks of our choosing so we can have more control of our online experience. Tired of playing at max elevation? This is your chance to eliminate Shield Woods and Laughing Mountain from your online experience. Anyone who wants to play on the moon can still do so.
Downsize the Manage Squad UI - This area was two screens before MLB 23. It's now SIX. It's one of the most used functions in the game and it couldn't possibly be more annoying to navigate.
Fix the search function - After searching for a player by name on the market and selecting their card, you get sent back to the main community market page instead of to the results of the search you just did. Maddening.
Thoroughly test the new features you sell the game on - In 23, Captains didn't work as advertised the entire year. 2-way players were glitched at launch. When Season 3 hit, you could still use a full Season 1 squad in Ranked. So 3 of the new features they sold the game on didn't work properly. Then in 24, the 2-way player glitch returned! If you're going to sell the new game on certain features, they should be the most frequently and thoroughly tested parts of the game.
Game out content and the user experience - SDS should put real time and thought into how new features work from the player perspective. In 23, they introduced Sets and Captains simultaneously. That meant you couldn't use all the best cards for single-team theme teams together until all Sets were eligible, which is well after most people stop playing. That issue returned in 24. Also in 24, the first Season was so poorly paced that there were people with 200+ hours played who didn't hit the first XP boss until after a full TAs worth of free 99s was available. This stuff should never happen.
Feel free to disagree or add your own proposed changes to the list. Maybe they'll take at least a few suggestions for 26.