Sony San Diego held another live stream on Thursday that dove into all of the changes coming to Road to the Show and Franchise Mode in MLB The Show 20. There was quite a bit covered in this developer stream, but if you weren’t able to watch it when it happened don’t worry. We got you covered.
You can watch the recap in the video above, and check out our quick-hit notes from the stream below. If you missed any previous coverage, check out the defensive and hitting improvements coming to MLB The Show 20.
MINOR LEAGUE ROSTERS:
- The team had been trying to implement since 2010. Teamed with RidinRosters to get it done this year.
- About 1500 total prospects added to the game for day one. AA and AAA rosters.
- Over 100 prospects have gotten face scans.
- Available in Play Now, Franchise Mode, RTTS, March to October, etc.
FRANCHISE CUSTOM TEAMS:
- First time in the game’s history. The base was there from Diamond Dynasty.
- Two ways to change team brandings.
- In offseason: During the first phase, you can select to rebrand the team.
- At the start of Franchise: Can replace any existing team.
- No expansion; 30-team league
- Can replace as many or as few teams as you want
- All created teams can be exported from Franchise for future use.
- Creator is similar to the Diamond Dynasty menu layout.
- Team Details:
- Location
- Choose any city in a long list of cities/towns; choose audio for location and nickname as well.
- It’s not a true relocation
- Change Colors
- Logos
- You can either create a logo or choose from the premade ones in the vault. Day one will have over 100 logos carried over from MLB The Show 19.
- Uniforms
- A 1-1 recreation of the Diamond Dynasty uniform creator. Caps, jerseys, undershirts, etc. all editable.
- Stadium Select
- 60 stadiums to choose from. However, they must be one of the already included ballparks from MLB, Classic Stadiums, Spring Training, and Minor League Stadiums.
- Location
- No mention of realignment if you change team location to a different region. i.e. moving a team from Seattle to the southeast would leave them in the AL West.
- Foundation for the future of the feature is placed; They spoke as though the more advanced versions of the feature will be in the upcoming releases beyond 2020.
FRANCHISE MODE ADDITIONS:
- Franchise Mode will feature the new rules making their way to the MLB season this year.
- 26/28 man rosters
- 13/14 pitcher
- 10/15 day injury
- Three batter minimum rule
- 2-way player
- Waiver trade period removed
ROAD TO THE SHOW
- Four new equipment sponsors, including Jordan.
- 58 either new or updated.
- 142 total items.
- 20 coming post-launch.
- 50 bat skins day one
- 21 new total
- 25 post-launch
- 75 total
- Audio chimes
- 91 total chimes
- 35 new
- Bat slams
- 80 total
- 30 new animations
- Player Relationships
- Making friends with players:
- Attribute boosts from positive relationship.
- This is how your player affects others and how they affect you. Other player relationships don’t matter.
- Position relationships
- a pitcher and catcher will build a different relationship than a first baseman and left fielder
- Overhead Icons
- Real-time bonuses as the play unfolds on the diamond.
- Have to play to get bonuses
- Boosted at-bats
- If a friend is on base in scoring position or whatever the situation may be, your player can earn a boost to improve attributes
- If player is on base, a friend can also earn a boost
- Making friends with players:
- Adding new pitches is easier this year as it happens using training.
- Boss battle challenges can lead to item rewards in Road to the Show
- Dynamic challenges can affect personalities
- Once you make it to majors, more spirited and directed commentary about your player.
General Announcement
- New Legends: John Olerud (Toronto Blue Jays) and Brian Roberts (Baltimore Orioles)
- Prospect Cards: Diamond Dynasty introduces cards featuring top prospects from all 30 MLB clubs.
What Wasn’t Covered
Where the MLB The Show 20 stream did let many down, including me, is the lack of Franchise mode talk outside of team customization and the new rules.
There was no mention of scouting within the mode, CPU AI, schedules or any other actual feature additions to the mode. Based on the Twitch stream schedule, it doesn’t really look like they plan to address those in a broadcast ahead of the game’s launch. So, maybe, we get at least a blog post from the team about some of the outstanding questions we have. If not, you can definitely bet that the fans concerned about the lack of love Franchise Mode gets will be louder than ever.
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