Checking in on The Show Live Mode in MLB 15: The Show

The Show Live in MLB 15 is not a new mode – it was introduced in MLB 13 – but it’s something that changes by the day. The concept is to offer up the current day’s slate of games (and those from earlier in the season) to play utilizing accurate lineups. There are also meant to be lines from the announcers during the games referencing their place in the season.

The mode has worked fairly well in the past outside of a few quirks and inaccuracies and that’s the case again this year. I monitored the mode over a three day stretch and observed what was functioning properly and where improvement needs to be made. 

When viewing The Show Live in the menus the current scores and situations are displayed for ongoing games. This seems to run a minute or two behind but it’s fairly close. Unfortunately it doesn’t display whether it is the top or bottom of the inning or the number of outs on the quick view side. You can find that info by scrolling to a game where it’ll detail the last play, who’s on base, who’s at bat, and who’s due up. Anyone who really wants to follow multiple games in progress closely will probably prefer to pull out their phone or check on them with their computer.

The lineups and starting pitchers for the games on Friday, checked early in the evening, were spot on. In previous editions of The Show when a player not on the roster on the video game was involved in the real games they were replaced by someone out of the free agency pool. This was especially awkward and confusing to those who didn’t understand why those players had been inserted on the team’s roster.

In MLB 15 the replacement is simply someone else from the roster. The Rays were the one team on Friday with someone in the starting lineup that that wouldn’t be found currently in The Show. Because of that Tampa catcher Bobby Wilson took the place of first baseman Allan Dykstra (missing from MLB 15’s roster) in their game against the Marlins. Those not on the roster in The Show are simply absent from games in The Show Live, leaving most teams with fewer than 25 players. Oddly some other players are missing as well without explanation such as Mariners’ closer Fernando Rodney.

Things were much more of a mess early Saturday before lineups were announced for that day’s games. It appears default LH/RH lineups are utilized for the teams until updated when official ones are set and games begin. That’s a fine way to go about it. What shouldn’t be wrong are the starting pitchers for the day’s games.

On Saturday morning out of the 30 pitchers slated for starts The Show Live had 22 of them wrong. Only 8 teams had the right starter in place!

There’s really no excuse for that. It appeared that maybe teams going back to their number one starter, because of a day off earlier in the week that allowed them to skip the fifth starter, skewed the expected starters in the game. That would imply though names were fed in several days ago, or it’s working off a 5-starter formula, rather than keeping up-to-date by having the actual expected starters inserted manually a day or two prior or automated through MLB.com. Besides that some games had the previous night’s starters. Giants-Padres was one of them with Friday night’s Tim Lincecum and Brandon Morrow listed for Saturday night.

Then there’s Sunday which was just completely off. A few hours before the games were to begin 29 of the 30 starters listed were wrong. Some of the pitching matchups were even from Friday and Saturday.

Interestingly MLB.com seems to be feeding in preview headlines properly despite the starters being incorrect. For instance on Sunday the headline under the lineups for the Royals-Angels game said “Wilson, Angels looking to ace Ventura, Royals” yet Danny Duffy and Andrew Heaney were listed as the starters. For the Nationals-Phillies game it said “Phillies eye sweep as Nats turn to Scherzer” despite Gio Gonzalez being displayed as Washington’s starter in The Show Live. The headlines from MLB.com were right yet the mode had all the wrong starters.

The commentary for games within The Show Live at least acknowledges a few things regarding the teams involved. That helps to differentiate them from just the typical “Play Now” type of game. Unfortunately they’re too few and far between and wrong at times as well.

In replaying the epic 19 inning Yankees-Red Sox game from Friday night, the announcers stated the Yankees were “fresh off their first victory of the season”. That was not true as they had lost their previous game. Same goes for the Red Sox who, it was stated, had been “handed their first loss of the season the last time out”. They were coming off a win over the Phillies. It’s as though the commentary was a day behind. No references to individual player performances were noted but it’s possible they’re still in there and just weren’t encountered yet. Either way more about how players and teams are doing in the season would be welcome.

The Show Live remains a much more engaging way to play one-off games against the CPU than the traditional “Play Now”. Because of the wrong starting pitchers being slotted in though it’s a mode that only makes sense to play once the actual games have started or any point after they’re finished. The Show Live hasn’t advanced much if at all since being introduced over two years ago but it’s still an intriguing concept worth exploring.