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A New Attitude In Cleveland

We have turned the Guardians into the pivot point of baseball in only a couple short months.

Starting the season off with sweeps of Seattle and the Dodgers (is that even legal?) we nearly won every series in April except a disappointing showing in Toronto to end the month. During this time, Jose Ramirez has caught the attention of the sports world by breaking the record of 14 home runs through April with 19 of his own. Kyle Manzardo wasn’t far behind with 11. However, Ramirez also started stealing bases seemingly any time he got on base. He had 18 SBs at the end of April.

As we entered May, the Guardians had obvious needs at SS and in the corner outfield. We traded a group of players (Nolan Jones, Festa and others) to Cincy for RF/3B Rece Hinds and Connor Phillips. We continued with a trade of MLB ready players to Arizona for prospect projects Tawa and Lawler. We found quickly that Lawler wasn’t at all ready to play as a defender in any regard and his offense wasn’t much better. So, by May 10 we shipped him out for the first of what was a whirlwind week of blockbuster trades involving the same player.

Trout had been on the block for a couple weeks. The Angels were 15 GB by the end of April. We made the move, and he basically had a cup of coffee here in Cleveland. We didn’t have longterm plans for him even with our tremendous record of 34-6 through 40 games.

He showed quickly that the bat speed and arm are still viable and we sent him to another surprise contender desperate to show success and keep their young stars – Pittsburgh sent us an offer of Termarr Johnson (2B/3B) and another prospect. It was an easy decision as Trout has star power the Pirates need on offense and we desperately need to find the heir apparent for Jose Ramirez as well as a potential filler for the middle infield. Johnson filled both roles.

We are now 43-7 with a tough series against the Tigers to finish. Jose Ramirez is currently on pace to have the single greatest season in MLB history. He is batting .388 with 32 HR, 62 RBI, and 41 SB. Asked about his seemingly ‘take no prisoners’ approach this year he said ‘You know, I have been top three in MVP voting for a few years. I keep saying I should be MVP, but no one believes me. So, instead of saying it I’ll just do it.”

The rest of the team has taken notice and 43-7 isn’t just a one man show. Look for more updates soon.

Franchise Mode Updates

A few updates on Franchise Mode for MLB 26.

The trade block moves and changes through the year. It adds a lot of strategy to how you handle things.

Make your experience your own world. I have felt for a few years now that it was time to see Mike Trout get to leave the Angels and chase a ring. While many teams like the Phillies have been the rumored destination, I made a series of moves that got him to a first place team few would expect.

Hall of Fame difficulty might be too easy as it feels more and more like All Star used to. I may have to switch to Legend soon.

Scouting hasn’t changed much at all, hiring more efficient Scouts is always the play. Discovery is something I will try to utilize more in season 2.

MLB 26 The Show – How To Handle Franchise Mode

It’s funny – for years the biggest complaint about Franchise Mode was trade logic. Now that we have players that are untouchable or on the block people are still finding a way to lose their minds. So, if you are among the idiots on Reddit complaining about the untouchable status of players during the first season of Franchise Mode – eat a fat one, I have no pity for you. Go back and play MLB 25 and cry into your Gen Z socials.

Yes, some of the trade logic is still goofy. BUT… This version of the game prior to the first major roster update and probably a massive gameplay patch is a hell of a lot of fun.

Here’s how I recommend handling Franchise Mode if you are going to kick off your journey in the first weeks of release.

1 – Franchise Mode Trade Frequency Slider – Move it to the left (turn it down) by two or three segments. This will keep some of the stupid trades from the CPU from happening as much.

2 – Set your Trade Block – Also, only use the players on your trade block for trade offers and leave them on the block through the deadline.

3 – Select three players you want as well – but if you get an offer for them you have to take it.

4 – Play each game using quick counts to help you get through the season in a reasonable manner.

5 – Don’t trade anyone in the first month of the season. Get a feel for the team you have and allow yourself to see how you do with certain players. I made a trade early on in my first franchise file and regretted it.

6 – Speaking of a regrettable trade – pay attention to defense ability. It matters quite a bit and you will quickly regret trading for a player because he has a bit more power offensively as he muffs and bumbles the ball everywhere – looking at both of you, Jordan Walker and Noland Gorman.

7 – Don’t listen to the pissy childish complaints on Reddit or other forums. Franchise Mode is fun and you can have a blast with it. Let the rest of the haters do whatever they do.

Bamboozled By Activision – Call of Duty is DEAD

A few weeks ago we were able to bid PC cheaters adieu. Now, that has all changed in the most egregious way possible.

Not only are console players once again forced to play with PC cheaters. The PC cheaters are back with a vengeance. They can now spoof their consoles through a gato setup with a PC and use aimbot and walls with no recourse.

On top of that, Warzone has become a buggy mess and it’s polluted with the worst people left in the gaming world.

That said – I have uninstalled COD in all forms and have promised myself that I will not purchase another COD title from this point forward. Activision has become nothing more than a shitty content provider with skins and cosmetics that make 15 year olds steal their parents credit cards to spend $30 on a pay to win Terminator skin.

I have found this to be similar with other sports games such as MLB The Show, Madden, and College Football. They are all pushing out pay to win modes that add nothing original to gaming. I believe the developers would love to be able to be creative, but the suits in the C-Suites want revenue above all else. Damn the reviews – as long as money is coming in – THEY DON’T CARE!

It’s time to start speaking with our wallets and I am happy to lead that charge.

Dear PC Warzone Players

Wish I could say the last few years of forced crossplay with you has been a good time.

It hasn’t.

I am excited for the entire PC Warzone community to cannibalize itself.

Now you are on a level playing field and your kdr will drop like a rock.

Here’s to never playing in your lobby again!

Cheers!

MLB The Show 25 – Hopes, Dreams, and Screams Into The Void

If you’re new to NoobTubeTV you will soon find that the only aspect of sports games I really care for is single player Franchise Mode. So, Diamond Dynasty and Road to the Show are largely something beyond afterthoughts for me… Let’s call them after- tastes instead.

With that said, there’s been ONE announcement regarding franchise mode this year and that is revitalized Free Agency with risk/reward and strategy elements. Any sort of change would be better than what it has been. It’s been far too easy to sign top tier free agents as I found last year with multiple franchises.

Trades still need more depth. There should also be a way to implement machine learning/AI systems to track how CPU teams are performing and especially how the User is trading and trying to trade. I want to experience a game that is designed to challenge me in different ways. So far, franchise mode has been the opposite of that in the front office and elsewhere.

What is elsewhere? How about terrible bullpen management by the CPU. Setup pitchers don’t get enough simulated innings. Teams generally also have a 6th or even a 7th starter in the bullpen as a Long Relief pitcher. Those actually end up skewing the situation even more. This has got to be a tough thing to program as I can’t imagine the code this would take, but it’s also not my job – neither is writing articles on the internet, but here we are.

Next Up – Wishes

I can’t explain how much I’d love The Show to allow users to institute a salary cap if desired. Right now budgets can be turned off or left on and those ‘budgets’ are poorly structured and implemented. You can take the lowest payroll and win over a few seasons and magically the purse strings start to open. But I think there’s a setting that can be implemented in the future and that is to create a GM or Owner with different tendencies, attitudes and outlooks. With this and the implementation of AI that tracks your behaviors I also hope that the CPU will track your contract offers to players, if you simply always fill that salary meter until it just hits green, you should start earning the reputation of being a cheapskate. If you offer big salaries like the Dodgers or Yankees you should be a high roller. But, with the ability to implement a salary cap, this would become a fantastic mode that I doubt I’d be able to uninstall.

Let’s also consider player confidence. More- so than any other sport (OK, debatable), baseball is a game where you can get into your own head. You can also get out of it and recover. I’d love to see players have confidence ratings that change with performance. How would they change? Let’s create another rating that also gives players a mindset – erratic, stubborn, intense, loose cannon, chill, etc. I’d also like to see similar attention to team performance and player desires. Do they want to play for a contender? Are they happy where they are? Let’s bring personalities back to the front office decisions.

Next, let’s bring in house rules as a setting to speed up games and fix the quick sim issues while we are at it. I have had sets of house rules that are easy enough to manage, but quick simming has a problem with deleting stats from your live game in early innings. Hit a home run in the 1st and then a three run double in the 3rd? Sometimes, if you quick sim those are erased. I just want this aspect to work right. Is that too much to ask? But also, let’s have a deeper quick play setting system that presents you with the option to implement the house rules for a game. Third strikeout? Get a quick option to simulate batting innings until the 9th if it’s within 3 runs. Give up a home run? Get a quick option to simulate your pitching innings until the 9th.

Screams Into the Void –

WHY THE HELL IS SCOUTING PROSPECTS AND THE DRAFT SUCH A STALE SHIT SHOW!?

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, MAKE REBRANDING/MOVING A TEAM LESS CUMBERSOME!

LASTLY, WHY IN THE NAME OF CAPTAIN FU*KSTICK IS NINTENDO SWITCH ALLOWED TO HAVE THIS GAME AND HOLD IT BACK GRAPHICALLY?

We are only a few days from spring training. Let’s get amped, baseball is back.

Where’s the Tylenol?

Just in case you didn’t get the reference.

Reminder – TURN OFF CROSSPLAY

This is a reminder to all of you that the only way to avoid hackers is to play with crossplay turned off. When you get Black Ops 6 next week the FIRST thing you should do is TURN OFF crossplay.

PC players don’t simply have the easy ability to buy hacks, but they can also change the settings for anything like sound, shadows, window transparency, and other things. If you are playing on PS4-PS5 I implore you to turn off crossplay on every game you own for multiplayer (especially on First Person Shooters).

TURN OFF CROSS PLAY AND LEAVE IT OFF FOREVER

MLB 24 The Show – Franchise Mode Announcement – Stale, Uninspired, and Disheartening

If you watched the SDS stream or caught it on YouTube after it was over, you might have missed the Franchise Mode discussion which happens for about 9 minutes.

Their focus is on Play Your Style which basically assumes that you aren’t going to play all 162 game and you will sim at some point. Fair enough – guilty as charged. This basically lets you set up and customize your critical moment opportunities. They continue to push the narrative that most fans want a faster experience. While I don’t mind the option, I believe the mode is suffering from something else entirely. I will get to that in a moment.

They also made some improvements to the amateur draft and implemented the Prospect Promotion Incentive (which is a fantastic addition to the – KUDOS TO SDS on this one!). I am still hoping that they track original draft teams in player cards and history of players with some narratives on transaction tracking.

The last addition is loading rosters with current injuries.

Starting with injuries vs starting on a custom date with proper injuries. The timing of an injury is as important (perhaps more important) than the injury itself.

If Ohtani gets tendinitis in late September in real life and I decide to start a new franchise mode from Opening Day with real injuries it will just mean that my season starts with him injured and plenty of time to recoup from potential losses. However, if he is hurt going into the playoffs that’s a different can of worms.

Madden and NBA 2K have the ability to start from specific dates. When will they be able to relate rosters and injuries to these dates? With baseball, I understand that the rosters are huge. We should have the ability as a community to create injured rosters with Franchise Start Dates.

Here are my suggestions going forward if SDS decides to jump into my little corner of the internet.

Trade Logic Fix Ideas

Commish Veto Setting – Users should have the option to approve or veto trades by the CPU. This would keep the CPU from making some of the more egregious trades like top prospects for middling veterans. If we were able to also edit these trades for fairness that would be helpful as well.

I would love to see AI developed to help the CPU learn where value lives and what makes certain trades fair (or perhaps more importantly, unfair) is the best way to do this.

As games are becoming more focused on being ‘always online’ one way to make this community driven is to have an option of submitting trades and trade scenarios for votes and selectable reasons for why it’s fair or not. A fair trade might not be as simple as equal overall ratings. If a team is in a pennant race and they need a relief pitcher, a new ace, or a power bat they’ve been missing, they might have to include a prized prospect to make that happen. Sometimes, that could be justified, other times it’s a non-starter.

A top prospect that struggles in the minors should lose value and see a decline in their effected ratings the longer they struggle. If a team wants to take a chance that they find the next Josh Hamilton (from top prospect to bust and back to all star – it was a great story at the time).

I just want more focus on the under the hood aspects of player and budget management. I doubt they have changed or updated any of the UI or visuals for contracts let alone any sort of budget fixes.

The game is coming out in the next few weeks. I plan on playing Franchise Mode almost exclusively as Diamond Dynasty is a grind-to-win/pay-to-win experience and RTTS continues to be boring.

MLB The Show 24 – Franchise Mode House Rules

MLB The Show desperately needs a few things to change and I fear that they will not have been touched this year (Trade Logic, Contracts, and CPU Trades).

You know… Basically, Franchise Mode itself. Franchise Modes need more imaginative developers and sadly – those don’t exist with the current corporate rules and efforts as ultimate teams continue to ruin sports gaming.

(It is my opinion that GMs in MLB The Show are weakly programmed compared to NBA 2K and in some cases, even compared to Madden)

RULE 1 –

Adopt a persona… IE – Treat Franchise Mode like an RPG where you are a character. Is your owner a buffoon like Roger Dorn on Major League 2? Is your owner a happy go lucky Cracker Jack prize geek like Bob Carson on Rookie of the Year? Is your owner George Steinbrenner-esque?

Trades – Two Types

1 – YOU ENTER THE TRADE TALKS MENU – You must set up the partner team’s offer first. You can then set up your offer. If the trade is not agreeable for the CPU, you can start the process over again ONCE. If it is declined you must wait until the next month to make a new offer. You can do this twice and then one final attempt at the trade deadline.

2 – THE CPU OFFERS YOU A TRADE – Simply put – you must accept or decline on face value. You cannot go into the trade talks menu and make a counter offer.

Free Agency and Contracts –

You can sign up to 3 Free Agents in your first spring training.

Subsequent seasons – Stick to your Owner and GM’s personality. Are you using a team with a huge budget? Go nuts like the Dodgers. Personally, I don’t find any aspect of that to be fun (in real life or in a video game).

Gameplay is simple – Play your game. Choose settings that give the game longevity for you. I have decided to use Timing for my batting as it allows the players to play more to their ratings in that way. I have also decided to use Quick Counts as they allow me to play through most games more quickly with added strategy.

Until the developers actually take time to make real effort for Franchise Mode, we will continue to need to make more rules to make the mode a good experience. Share your thoughts in the comments.

The Only Way To Avoid Warzone Hackers and Cheaters on PS4 and PS5

Turn Crossplay OFF!!!!

We can rally like-minded people to join us in this effort to save what’s left of Warzone.

Go to the Menu and click options.
Click on Settings.
Go to Account and Network.
Turn off Crossplay and cross-communication.

Matches will start more quickly as more of us turn crossplay off.
It’s time to take this game back from the cheaters and hackers.

TURN CROSSPLAY OFF!