Hey everyone – MLB FE team here to bring you the first installment of the MLB 09 The Show blogs. For this entry, we’ll be talking about some of the details that have gone into the Franchise mode enhancements.
When we set out this year’s plan, one of our goals was to blow out the personnel aspects of the Franchise experience. Starting with the beginning of spring training, the rosters you will carry into spring will be those of their real-life counterpart, the long awaited 40-man rosters. Now you will have to manage your Spring Training roster a little more carefully to ensure your young players get the looks they need.
Moving on to the regular season, you will now be dealing with many of the various roster-related items all GMs have to deal with. You will be in control of designating players for assignment, waiver transactions, handling Minor League options, and managing your 40-man roster. Once in June, you will have the Amateur Draft to participate in. Along with drafting players, the Amateur Draft also includes Supplemental picks for those teams that failed to re-sign Type A or Type B free agents in the offseason.
Once your season hits September, your 25-man roster will expand to the full 40-man where you will then have to decide who get’s the call and who doesn’t. If your Franchise is successful enough to make the playoffs, you will have to manage your rosters accordingly, and will only be able to replace players on the roster between series.
The Offseason is where the real fun starts. We’ve changed the Offseason system so that instead of traveling from menu to menu, going in and out of various screens, now all of your responsibilities can be found within the schedule. There are several important dates for you to be aware of in order to ensure your rosters are setup for the next season.
- The 15th day of the offseason marks the end of exclusive free agent negotiating.
- November 20th is the final day to align your 40-man roster in order to protect your players from the Rule 5 draft.
- December 1st is the final day to offer arbitration to eligible players, or to offer any Type A or Type B free agent compensation.
- December 7th is the deadline for any free agents offered arbitration to accept or decline the offer. If a player accepts the offer, they will go back on your roster. If they decline, they will become a free agent and are allowed to sign with any team.
- Between 12/5 and 12/12, the Rule 5 Draft takes place.
- December 12th is the deadline to tender contracts to players or they will become free agents.
Arbitration hearings take place in early February. - After 2/15, any player with less than 3 years can have their contract renewed if they remain unsigned.
As you can see, a lot of focus has been placed on bringing increased depth to roster and team management within Franchise mode. But these enhancements aren’t limited to only Franchise mode, and the same depth can be found in Season and Road To The Show modes.
– Kolbe Launchbaugh and Aaron Luke
i am a big time baseball and video game head i hope the baseball hall of famers are still on here this is my first time i am going to play this on the ps3 so i hope some of the features from last year on the 2 is on this years on the 3 keep up the incredible work
Yes! Finally after 3 and a half months, baseball is back! I can’t wait until this game comes out. I hope they fix running the bases in career so that I don’t have to get picked off on purpose just to bat again.
Please comment. My e-mail address is tnchance94@aol.com.
I like there are some new improvements to the franchise mode and a lot of what actually happens in baseball is in this game. Definitely a day one purchase for me.
Will the contents of the 40 man roster be realistic and true to life or will the roster be the 25 man roster and then 15 made up characters?
Will MLB 09 have a roster update similar to the one found in NBA 2k9? It’s called the “Living Roster” and every week, a new roster is updated on your system mimicking the real life nba and this roster uploads into your dynasty so you don’t have to do all the mid season trades yourself. It’s really great, will MLB have it?
this is realy cool i just want to ask when are we going to be able to make up our own team with our own jerseys and fields and city we are from like cities states or even countries with out team and then be able to fantacy draft them to your team? but the rest is great
Will you be able to put a player’s overall all the way up?
Love this game. I’ve been buyin it since 06.
I was wondering if you offer the option to challenge and overturn homeruns as the baseball commision has decided to allow that last year.
This game is a guaranteed first day purchase for me. Can’t wait.
2 questions about the franchise mode: Can I continue my MLB 08 franchise in the 09 game? Second, are the financial details about your franchise presented better this year? In ’08 you could adjust vendor’s pricing and never have any idea if the change was good or not. These details were presented much clearer in the old MVP baseball series from EA.
expofan —
Your first question I’ve been asking that same question as well for a few threads but it looks like it has gone on deaf ears. Probably we cant import franchise saves from 08 -> 09 but maybe a mention that they’ll look into this for 09 -> 10 would be better (since it looks like there’s quite a lot of changes made in 09 Franchise that its better to use that as a baseline for continuing franchise across games). I don’t understand why not a lot of fans are yearning for this but instead would rather see the little details added in the game instead like player look, sunglasses, shadowing, etc. But I can understand that as well. I think the only irkiness is no acknowledgement from the SCEA developers about this feature.
Hey thanks for the update. Its a big help.Anyways, are we going to show the players ACTUALLY signing the contract like you see Mark Texeira signing with the Yanks… but if not think about it in ’10.Also, am i gonna be able to play in the first Yankee Stadium as a choice in exhibition or any other game mode.
P.S. PLEASE WRITE BACK!!!!
The detail you guys are putting into this game is incredible. Keep up the good work!