Alright so today I jumped into MLB The Show 25 earlier than usual, coffee practically cold beside me. Wanted to actually figure out this whole player ratings thing before diving into Franchise mode again. Last time? Total mess. Picked some overrated dudes who tanked my salary cap.
Starting With A Hot Mess
First thing I did was open up the rosters in Diamond Dynasty. Man, those ratings screens are packed. It’s easy to just see the big flashy Overall number and think “yup, that’s my guy.” Learned the hard way last week that ain’t the truth. That 85 OVR pitcher? Got rocked every single outing. His Velocity was pathetic. Shoulda looked closer.
So this morning, I told myself: Focus on specific stats for what you actually need. Not just the shiny OVR.
What I Was Hunting For
My goal was simple: Find decent players early on that don’t cost an arm and a leg. Guys who perform better than their price tag suggests. Needed contact hitters and pitchers who throw gas or have nasty breaking stuff.
Here’s basically what I did:
- Filtered like crazy: Went deep into the roster screen filters. Didn’t just sort by OVR. Pushed that aside.
- Contact over Power (for now): Searched specifically for guys with Contact vs RHP and Contact vs LHP ratings both above 70. Found a couple of shortstops under 5,000 stubs with contact ratings near 80! Power was like 50, but whatever. Need guys who get on base.
- Pitcher Focus: For pitchers, filtered by Velocity first. Found a few relief pitchers nobody talks about with Velocity sitting at 95+. H/9 and K/9 weren’t superstar level (low 70s), but for cheap bullpen help? Perfect. Their OVR was like 77-79.
- Young Guns & Cheap Vets: Scrolled through some of the lower-rated teams specifically. Looked for prospects with one or two standout ratings. Also checked older veterans on one-year deals. Found a backup catcher with 85 Plate Discipline for dirt cheap. Won’t play much, but useful off the bench.
Making Moves & Testing Them Out
Spent maybe 45 minutes just filtering and comparing. Wrote down a shortlist of maybe 10 names. Then hit the marketplace. Snagged a couple of those relievers and two contact hitters for less than 15,000 stubs total. Felt like a bargain hunter.
Had to actually test ’em out though. Jumped into a Play Now game against the CPU on All-Star difficulty. Pitched one inning each with the two new relievers. First guy? Okay, control was shaky. Walked a dude. Second guy? That Velocity lit up the strike zone. Struck out the side. Felt good!
The hitters? One went 1-for-4, solid single. The other drew two walks. Not setting the world on fire, but getting on base? Exactly what I wanted for the price.
My Big Takeaway
Don’t be lazy like I was. That Overall rating? It’s kinda useless by itself. It just kinda… averages stuff? You gotta dig. Need a guy who throws hard? Filter Velocity. Need a guy who makes contact? Filter Contact ratings. Ignore the OVR number for a sec. Found way better value that way today. Didn’t go chasing the big 90+ names that cost everything. Built some solid depth instead. Still figuring out defense stats tomorrow, but pitching and hitting felt much sharper once I ignored the hype and looked at the specific skills.
