Where I Started This Mess
Okay, so I saw the buzz online about MLB The Show 25 player ratings. Everyone yelling “better” or “worse.” Figured, hey, I got the game right here, let’s dig in myself. Drank my coffee, turned on the PS5, and started scrolling through rosters. Main goal? See if this year’s numbers actually made more sense or felt different than last year’s junk.
Grinding Through the Ratings
First thing was booting up The Show 24 and The Show 25 side-by-side on my console. Felt a bit like a detective squinting at two case files. Started with the big names. Ohtani in 24 was a 99. Boom, still 99 in 25. Felt kinda lazy, like maybe devs just copied it over. Then jumped to someone like Juan Soto. He was 95 last year? Now he’s sitting at 96. Tiny bump. Okay, maybe they noticed something.
Went digging deeper, looking for guys who had big seasons or fell off a cliff. Found this rookie pitcher, James Wood. On the Nationals. Last year? Just a prospect number, maybe high 60s? Now he’s rocketed up to a 78. That felt more like it – actually rewarding new performance.
The problems started showing up fast though. Some veterans who clearly slowed down? Barely any dip in their rating. Felt like the game was playing favorites, ignoring real-life stats. Got annoying real quick.
Here’s the messy pile of stuff I noticed comparing the last couple years:
- Young Guys Getting Love (Sometimes): Saw a few rookies and breakout guys jump 8, 10 points. That’s good! But missed some obvious ones too.
- Old Dudes Stuck in Time: Lots of established players just chilling with the same rating as last year, like nothing changed even if they had a terrible season. Made no sense.
- Fielding Feels Weird: Focused a lot on hitting/pitching numbers. Fielding? Felt like an afterthought. Some guys with awful gloves barely took a hit.
- Overall Speed Slump: Top player speed seemed lower overall across the board in 25 vs 24. Felt slower, dunno if that was intentional.
What It All Actually Means (To Me)
Honestly? Kinda disappointed. After all that clicking and comparing? Most changes were tiny, minor tweaks. Feels like they focused way more on new animations or some new game mode nobody asked for instead of sweating the stats. The “big improvements” people talked about? Mostly hype. Seeing James Wood jump up was cool, sure. But then you see that aging slugger who hit .220 still rocking an 85 OVR? Yeah, nah. Numbers still feel cooked sometimes, like they didn’t watch half the games last season.
Is 25 “better”? Marginally. In some spots. But mostly? Feels like they just moved a few sliders randomly and called it a day. Same old mess underneath, just shuffled around a bit. Tired now. Been staring at numbers for hours. Coffee’s cold.
