Late Wednesday night, MLB The Show's official X account posted that game update 7 was being released imminently. Updates are fairly common each game cycle, but rarely are they as impactful as this update will be.
First, here's the link to view the patch notes in-full if you're interested.
My personal biggest gripe with MLB The Show 26 so far this year has been the horrid strike zone in online gameplay. When I say horrid, I mean legitimately and excruciatingly bad to the point it caused physical pain.
Pitches clearly in the strike zone being called balls, all the while we're told that umpires were set to make "perfect calls." They clearly were not making perfect calls.
I couldn't quite understand the dissonance, as it just simply wasn't accurate to state that umpires were perfect. I suppose if the strike zone was simply just a cumulative hot zone of actual average MLB umpires it would make sense. Yet, it still fails to honor the label of "perfect" when the visual representation proved it false.
I digress.
While the actual ABS challenge system isn't coming to Diamond Dynasty play (boo!), SDS has stated that these "borderline" pitches will now accurately be called strikes (yay!).
Assuming it actually works as it should, this will drastically change online play. Pitching will become so much more consistent, which will have a direct result on offense. I have been absolutely loving the gameplay this year, and this will only serve to increase my enjoyment because this was my number one wish in terms of gameplay adjustments.
I have less skin in the game when it comes to the PCI shrinkage topic, but SDS used the patch notes to address a sore spot in the more competitive side of the community.
One of the biggest complaints from the competitive crowd in recent years has been excellent swings resulting in a smaller PCI, often resulting in sub-optimal results for the batter. During pre-release streams, it was stated by developers that this was being addressed in MLB The Show 26 and PCIs would no longer shrink on sliders down and away.
Well, that same competitive crowd has been voicing for a while that it didn't appear to have been adjusted at all. This topic gained so much helium that SDS commented directly on the topic within these patch notes.
It feels prudent to highlight this since SDS went out of their way to speak directly to this segment of the community. Essentially, before this year, hitters were penalized with a decrease in PCI size as a result of the pitch being a breaking ball, and being located down and away in the zone. This led to the initial outcry regarding then-unexplained PCI shrinkage. For anyone who may not quite understand the implication here, it means that batters had a significant disadvantage due to the smaller PCI. Yet, when optimal swings were taken (perfect/perfect, good/good) the batted-ball outcomes were often consistently in favor of the pitcher.
...if a pitcher hangs a curveball, your PCI grows because in real world baseball, that is a mistake and hitters will generally punish those pitches. Similarly, if a pitcher dots a slider down and away, that pitch inherently is more difficult to hit, hence, the slight reduction in your PCI size.
SDS is giving an in-depth explanation on the mechanic between pitching and hitting input here. Simply, if a player has bad input on a pitch, it results in the pitch hanging and the batter receives a boosted PCI. The inverse of this is a perfectly placed breaking ball down and away when pitchers have good input.
This makes complete sense to me. When you're on the losing side of RNG, it feels like dogshit. In literally any aspect of life. So, grounding into a double play on a good swing is never going to feel good. Which is probably why you see major leaguers routinely throw bats like Roman centurions when they do the exact same thing in real life.
If people want to disagree with the design decision, I'd say that's a fair conversation to have. But I think SDS has certainly gone out of their way to explain how the game actually works and it checks out with flying colors.
Pre-Register Opens for MLB The Show Mobile
Elsewhere, there's been an update on the mobile version of The Show announced last December. Very little outside of device specifications was announced at the time, leaving a cliff hanger on a rather unexpected leap for MLB The Show.
That changed this week with a new landing page for MLB The Show Mobile going live. Apple and Android users respectively can scan a QR code on the page to pre-register the game to install when available.
This screenshot highlights three different rewards that can be voted on to become additional rewards for those that pre-register the game. Each Friday, new cards will be posted and the winner of each vote gets added to the list of pre-registration rewards.
I am very interested to see what the mobile game looks like. I love competitive card games like Magic: The Gathering, so anything remotely in that lane involving baseball will certainly get some attention from me.
You can sign up for updates via email at the bottom of the landing page.
Headliners Pack 6
Standout Bobby Abreu is the featured player within Headliners 6 which is currently available in the Show Shop.
Abreu debuts as the #8 overall RF according to Meta Overall. Abreu brings high Contact/Clutch with solid Power against righties on a solid-fielding, solid-speed defender.
La Leche becomes a valuable piece on Philadelphia Phillies theme teams, while being a very viable option for everyone else.
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