With MLB The Show 16 releasing on March 29, we have now seen SCEA's entire schedule of revealed features and updates. These reveals culminated with the introduction of two new modes that have generated a ton of hype, Battle Royale and Conquest.

Being a franchise guy, I was skeptical of these new modes at first, especially when I kept hearing "three innings, stubs and buy-in!" However, I did my due diligence and watched the stream covering these two modes, and I have warmed to the idea a bit -- they look like they will be fun.

But as fun as these new modes may be, they can be expanded upon and potentially turned into new modes and adjustments for an even better (don't laugh) MLB The Show 17.

So let's take a look at a few ideas -- you know, 12 months early.

Franchise Supremacy Mode (FSM)

In this mode, users would take their offline franchise teams online to compete against others in a tournament. There would be different tiers of tournaments based on the year of the franchise save file, among a few other criteria.

Buy-in for the tournaments could only be earned through played games with your offline franchise, so you wouldn't be able to just sim a bunch of games to gain entry:
 

An example using the chart above would be that during the 2016 season you could make three trades, but could only bring in one 90+ overall player. You could sign one 80+ free agent during the season as well (since there's no offseason that first season).

Looking at the chart above, we can also see the safeguards that would be put in place to prevent people from stacking a team via trades and then simply exporting. The franchise mode itself would hold trades to a (new!) strict and challenging trading system. By using this "fair-trades" trigger within franchise mode, team stacking in FSM could be policed. The option could also be turned off within a franchise, at the expense of not allowing the option to export that franchise team for tournament play. FSM would also take into account the number of transactions made on a per-season basis, preventing the chance to quickly stack a team for tournament play.

But what about people who might try and trade away their entire farm system for the best MLB players? At the start of a tournament game, users would have their teams randomly matched up at either the MLB level, or AAA or AA levels to create a MLB vs. MLB, AAA vs. AAA, or AA vs. AA matchup.
 

After team randomization is complete, backing out would result in an automatic loss.

Another way MLB club stacking could be prevented would be to have teams play a best of three series, with all three games being randomly selected between the MLB, AAA, and AA levels (only MLB would have the maximum chance of being selected for two of the games).

Online Franchise Needs a Reboot, Including a Battle Royale Draft Format
 

Imagine a draft in an online franchise mode where all 30 guys are drafting at the same time.(image courtesy of IGN/Operation Sports)

This requires its own article, but for now I'll just say that aside from porting the entire offline franchise mode and its options to online, one additional adjustment that needs to be added is the Battle Royale simul-user draft mode for both fantasy drafting at a league's inception and during the amateur draft.

Put the Fictional Back in Diamond Dynasty

Did you see how excited people got with the Reggie Stocker Easter egg during the live stream? The man's a legend, and it's not just because of that other guy. SCEA should give us an "All fictional rosters" option in Diamond Dynasty (again).

While they're at it, the developers could make it far more challenging to build up a great team so that deep into the experience I am still having to make roster decisions, such as keeping certain pinch hitters, defensive replacements, pinch runners and situational pitchers on my roster -- not just running the same nine guys out each time who are all rated 99.

But going back to that other guy concept again, what makes Reggie Stocker a legendary fictional character is that we all played with him in the stock rosters way back when. So to re-create that emotion there needs to be a way to create those "I know him!" sort of players in Diamond Dynasty, and with so many players playing this mode, one innovative way would be...

Diamond Dynasty Closed Channel Leagues

Everything great about Diamond Dynasty (with fictional players ONLY option), but a private/invite league that could host a group of players anywhere from four up to 20 or more.
 

If on a random night nearly 3,000 people will tune in for "Surviving The Apocalypse!", I think an officially endorsed Diamond Dynasty league stream would do fine.

To expand on how to create that Reggie Stocker exclusivity, SCEA could even connect corporate sponsors for certain top leagues to create hype, including having a tournament payout.

Imagine hearing, "Welcome to Diamond Dynasty Nike, with a payout of $100,000!" We would see Reggie Stockers again, and we would all know who they are when folks are winning live stream tournaments we could watch.

Honorable Mention Feature: 9 Innings Option Added to All Online Modes

Enough said, three innings is simply not enough time to let the cream rise to the top -- give folks the option to join online modes to play both three innings or nine.


So would these modes be good additions to MLB The Show 17? What additions or adjustments would you suggest adding to next year's game?