Hello folks! I've been playing MLB the show for as long as I can remember. I purchase the game every year and will typically put in a ton of hours into it. It's always been an enjoyable game for me, but there are a handful of things that consistently bother me, and this mainly has to do with the CPU AI in contrast to general/typical baseball behavior/trends. I'm sure a number of these have been discussed and I'm certain a number of you have experienced these, but as a baseball fan, I feel like these should be addressed/changed (hopefully!). These are all specific to offline play w/ default settings:
- Outfielders trotting in on flyouts to make a basket catch in front of their body: This just doesn't happen. Players make basket catches, sure, but not at the same frequency. And outfielders aren't going to casually trot in before making the catch in front of them like that, they will just get under the ball as they typically would. Dumb animation that is extremely common.
- Outfielders reaching up casually to rob a home run: The amount of balls hit to the warning track is already quite absurd, but the amount of times I've hit it to the wall only for the outfielder to just casually reach up his glove hand to snatch the ball is quite ridiculous. At the very least, add some more animations to this to make it seem more realistic.
- Damn near every foul ball is playable (and eventually caught): This is incredibly frustrating and has been an issue for many years. Just about every foul ball off the first or base side stays in play and hangs in the air just long enough for the fielder to get to it. This is also another case of the fielder typically coming in casually, instead of sprinting over to get it and getting into position like a normal fielder would. Almost every play near a wall is also pulled out from the crowd.
- Lightning fast reflexes on passed balls/wild pitches: Catchers react perfectly every time and play the ball off the backstop to absolute perfection. The pitcher also reacts perfectly. It's virtually impossible to take home off a passed ball or wild pitch against the CPU. There needs to be some randomness there; such as the catcher looking around or simply taking their time to react and get to the ball (same with the pitcher and their response time).
- Outfielders play the carom perfect every time: The outfielder positions themself to know exactly how the ball will bounce off the wall. The AI is aware of where the ball will go before it even goes there, creating an unrealistic and unfair advantage. Again, there needs to be some randomness in this, such as the outfielder being in the wrong position or not fielding the ball cleanly off the carom.
- The perfect pitcher pirouette: The amount of times I've hit a hard chopper back up the middle before the pitcher pulls off a blind spin move, snatching the ball out of the air, drives me absolutely insane! This happens way too frequently! Not only is it maddening, but this does not happen for human controlled AI; for example, if I have this same opportunity and I allow the CPU to take control of my pitcher, he will not make this same play. To go along with this, balls that are deflected off pitchers are typically fielded with perfection; no lag in reaction time from the other CPU fielders.
- Almost every throw from an outfielder is right on the money: This may be something that can be changed in sliders, but not sure how sliders effect modes like Diamond Dynasty (if at all), but almost every throw from the outfield to second, third or home is perfectly accurate. Whether it's on the bounce or on the fly, there is not nearly enough inconsistency with these throws. Very rarely do I see a throw that is off line. This is not realistic, at all.
These are all the examples that I can think of, at the moment. I'm sure some of these could potentially be changed via sliders, but it's unfortunate for a game that speaks on how realistic the simulation is can have so many apparent issues at default, such as those that I have listed. I am curious to get your thoughts on these and would like to know what other unrealistic scenarios you all have encountered. Thanks for reading!