Nothing makes fans think they're watching little league ball quite like seeing bad fielding on display. In MLB The Show 23, pop flies and lazy liners are supposed to be automatic outs. They are until the poor settings chime in and then, suddenly, the crowd starts to groan and jeer as the fielder falls over backward.
There are a few options for fielding in MLB The Show 23 but some of them are simply non-viable. It's important for gamers to use the settings that will work best for them and their squad so that getting easy outs becomes automatic instead of a needless chore.
Drifting Ball
- Recommended for novice or better gamers
- Great for teams with average or less defensive attributes
This setting will place an indicator on the ground that shows exactly where the ball will land. Defenses with lower fielding attributes will have a larger circle that gets small while elite defenders will be able to see exactly where the ball will land almost immediately.
This is easy to do even for those who only lightly play video games. Some of the best left fielders in the game aren't great fielders but this manual control makes it so that the player can move them around to compensate for their mistakes.
Track Ball
- Recommended for no one
In the past, this was still not ideal but it could be argued that it was somewhat useful for outfielders who wanted to see the line between the ball and the plate. Now, a yellow line already in the drifting ball setting already gives gamers the right place to stand to lean into the throw for more power.
Ultimately, this setting has no functionality. Every gamer would much rather know exactly where the ball will land rather than have an elongated area highlighting every place the ball could land. This setting leads to errors that might impact a player getting called up in Road to the Show.
Catch Indicator Off
- Recommended for no one
Even worse than getting an area where the ball could land is getting no area label at all. It's hard enough trying to rob a home run in the game, catching a pop fly suddenly becomes a terrifying and needlessly difficult task.
Some gamers may argue that fewer indicators on the screen make the game feel realistic but even this doesn't hold up as there will still be an indicator telling players generally what direction to run.
Auto Fielding
- Recommended for non-gamers
- Great for teams with excellent fielding attributes
For gamers that don't feel like moving toward the ball, the computer will handle these duties automatically. Keep in mind that this means the player will catch or drop the ball based on their fielding attributes; a bad fielder will drop balls that gamers using drifting ball would have caught.
Some of the best teams in the league put an emphasis on defense, however, and so there is often very little chance of seeing a ball get dropped. Auto fielding can remove human error from the game and a great team might never drop a ball even after hundreds of hours of gaming.
MLB The Show 23 is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.