MLB The Show 22: Best Ways to Get Called Up Fast in Road to the Show (RTTS)

Long considered to have the best career mode of any sports gaming franchise, MLB The Show 22’s Road to the Show once again provides an in-depth and detailed career mode for gamers to enjoy. In RTTS, your player will always begin in AA and have to work your way up to the Major Leagues.

Below, you will find tips on how to quickly make the Major League ballclub. The goal of this will be to have you make it to the top club by the end of your second season, if not sooner. Of course, you could just increase your sliders to make it as video gamey as possible, nerfing your statistics to hit the Major Leagues even sooner. However, if you want a little more of a challenge, read below.

1. Maximize opportunities to increase ratings through Options

In RTTS, you will play as only your player in what The Show deems as Player Lock. You can, for example. turn off all fielding and baserunning options so that you only have to bat.

Here are the recommended options to maximize the number of opportunities you have to improve your player’s attribute ratings:

• Game Flow: Show Sim Screen so that you can keep track of the game. If you prefer a quicker pace, then have it set to sim to your next appearance.
• ShowTime Opportunities: On so that you can engage in ShowTime opportunities when available.
• Player Lock Infield Reaction: Assist so that there is a slight delay in time for you to react to the batted ball.
• Player Lock Button Mapping: Fielder inverts the buttons on Button Accuracy (Square is first base instead of third base, etc.), but you can leave it as the default setting.
• Player Lock Fielding Opportunities: All so that you have every opportunity to increase your defensive ratings (Reaction, Fielding, Arm Strength, Arm Accuracy).
• Player Lock Baserunning Interface: Analog uses the stick while Buttons uses L1 and R1 or LB and RB.
• Player Lock Baserunning Opportunities: All so that you have chances to steal if your Speed is high enough (at least 70+), which will also increase your Steal and Baserunning Aggressiveness ratings. There is also the potential to take an extra base on a wild pitch or passed ball.
• Player Lock CPU Teammate Hitting: All so that you can maximize the opportunities to steal a base.
• Player Lock Player Yells: On or off, this is entirely up to your playstyle.

These settings will allow you to increase your ratings faster than just waiting on training or solely from batting. The quicker you improve, the more likely you are to make the Major League club.

2. Create a pitcher or two-way player

If your sole goal is to make the Major Leagues as quickly as possible, then create a pitcher or two-way player, preferably a starter as you’ll see more innings than as a reliever. Ratings improve much faster for pitchers than hitters in The Show mostly because each pitch can add to the ratings whereas with hitting, it’s not as simple.

From previous gameplay experience, a created starting pitcher in The Show 20 jumped straight from AA to the Kansas City Royals before the Major League All-Star break! That is entirely feasible in The Show 22 as well if you pitch extremely well in AA.

If you’re a two-way player and dominating on the mound regardless of your hitting and fielding stats, don’t be surprised if you’re asked to go up sooner, but only as a pitcher. Again, it’s dependent on your playstyle, so make whichever decision pleases you the most.

For a position player, with opportunities on, the most attempts will likely come from second base, shortstop, and center field, with catcher being its own beast. These four positions are the premium defensive positions because they see so many balls in play, the double play opportunities at second base, the amount of outfield needing to be covered by the center fielder, the catcher’s ability to call a game and lead pitchers, etc.

There is also one other major factor that will determine your path aside from playing well…

3. Team selection will be crucial in determining your call up

In The Show 22, you can select the team you want to be drafted to, select the league, or leave it random. It may behoove you to peruse the rosters before you head into RTTS and target a few teams depending on your position.

For example, it’s going to be much harder to make the Los Angeles Dodgers at, well, any position than it will be for the Oakland Athletics. It’s going to be more difficult to make the starting rotation of the Milwaukee Brewers than it will be to make the team as an infielder. On the other side, it will be rather difficult to quickly make the Toronto Blue Jays infield than it will their rotation or bullpen.

If you know which position and team you want, then when prompted, tell your agent you’ve heard from that team more than others. Refer to the linked piece above for the best teams by position, and just remember that any of the lower-ranked teams will probably have quicker paths to making the top club than others.

4. Use equipment for permanent stat boosts

In RTTS, you can equip items to your player for permanent stat increases as long as the item remains equipped. There are 16 different pieces of equipment ranging from bats, cleats, fielding gloves, and more.

Early on, most of your equipment will probably be for slight increases (+1 or +2) unless you’ve grinded in other modes to collect gold and diamond equipment. Every little bit helps and when added together, you can greatly increase your stats with the combination of equipment.

At best, diamond level equipment can add ten or more points to Speed with cleats; add eight points to Contact, Power, or both with bats; or increase your Arm Strength and Arm Accuracy by six points with a ritual, among others. If you’re a catcher, prioritize the catcher masks, chest protector, and leg guards to increase your defensive ratings (particularly Blocking) and make corralling pitches in the dirt much easier.

Keep an eye on exactly which ratings the chosen piece gives you as some might not be apt for your player archetype. Still, you could look to shore up your weak spots rather than accentuate your strong points with equipment, such as a Power archetype adding as much Speed as possible.

If you’re not stocked with a lot of items, then focus on your archetype program as there will be equipment packs along the way.

5. Take advantage of the training options

Throughout the season, usually once or twice a week, you’ll have the opportunity to increase your stats through training. There are four different sets of workouts for each training session for you to look through, choosing one for a permanent increase.

Some are automatic upgrades. However, anything with a controller icon on the top right indicates one that has to be played by you for the boost. Most are fairly easy, and you can actually gain more of an increase to the chosen rating if you gain gold on the exercise. However, if you don’t do well, then you may gain less than what is listed! If you’re unsure of yourself, go for the automatic upgrades.

If you’re a position player, then prioritize hitting ratings like Contact, Power, Plate Vision, and maybe most importantly Speed as you’re more likely to be called up because of great offensive numbers than from being a Gold Glove-caliber defender. If you’re a starting pitcher, prioritize your Stamina and Strikeouts (K) per 9 Innings to ensure you stay in the game longer to strike out more batters. If you’re a reliever, forgo Stamina and instead add whatever is best for your archetype: Velocity for Velocity archetypes, Pitch Break for Break archetypes, Pitch Control for Control archetypes, and Pitch Control for Knucksie archetypes.

5. When pitching, prioritize whiffs and strikeouts!

As a pitcher, the best way to increase your stats is to throw strikes, cause swings and misses, and induce strikeouts. Each strike you throw that is either taken or missed by a batter will add to that pitch’s rating, dependent on the type of pitch. For most fastballs, the Velocity of the pitch will increase. This includes pitches like the four seam, two seam, and cutter.

For nearly every other pitch, the Pitch Break of the pitch will increase. If you’re player is a Break archetype as the one pictured, then ensure you have a pitching repertoire of pitches with movement. The pictured player has a cutter, circle change, knuckle curve, sinker, and 12-6 curve, all pitches with movement.

For Velocity, it’s recommended to have a four seam, two seam (or sinker or running fastball), and cutter with two off-speed or breaking pitches like a changeup and slider, both of which can be thrown with good velocity. For Control, it’s best to probably choose pitches with little movement or at least easily controllable movement like the four seam, changeup, and slider. For Knucksie, it’s really up to you how you want to supplement your knuckleball.

For every batter that you don’t walk, your Walks (BB) per 9 Innings will increase. Generally, this represents a pitcher with great control. If you induce weak contact, then your Hits per 9 Innings will increase. If you cause popups and weak flyballs, your Home Runs per 9 Innings will increase. Conversely, they will all decrease if the opposite occurs.

Lastly, when runners are on base, particularly at first base, control the running game with the slide step and pickoff. The slide step delivers the pitch quicker to the plate, but the accuracy may suffer.

Pickoffs attempts will keep runners from taking an extra lead. If you’re a lefty, it should be easier to pickoff runners. Still, it’s possible with a righty as pictured. You might not get any ratings increases, but with enough pickoffs, you’ll unlock the Pickoff Artist player quirk.

6. When batting, be patient and make solid contact!

Unless you are playing one of the lowest two difficulties, where you will mostly see fastballs in the strike zone, be patient while at the plate. Every ball you take will result in a boost to your Plate Vision attribute, as will solidly fouling off strikes (pictured below). If you successfully check swing on a ball, your Plate Discipline will increase, as will drawing a walk.

Plate Vision might be the most important hitting rating. The higher the rating, the larger your batter’s eye when hitting. It also means that you have a larger area to make better contact as well as reaching pitches you otherwise might not have with a lower rating.

Next, make solid contact whenever possible, otherwise you will see a decrease in ratings. If you want to improve your Contact Left and Contact Right, then use contact swings to ensure boosts to Contact. It will be dependent on the handedness of the pitcher you’re facing. With more righties than lefties, don’t be surprised to see your Contact Right outpace Contact Left.

Conversely, use power swings to ensure boosts to Power. Even if you select a non-Power archetype and have Power ratings in the 40s or so, don’t be afraid to use power swings to raise those ratings. Usually, power swings will have more exit velocity when struck well than contact swings. However, they also tend to shrink Plate Vision when swung, sacrificing vision and accuracy for power.

If you use normal swings, then the rating increase will be determined by the type of batted ball. A liner or flyball will increase Power while a grounder or low liner will increase Contact.

Your goal when batting is to hit a Perfect-Perfect ball. Perfect-Perfect batted balls have the highest likelihood of landing safe, with Perfect Liners and Perfect Flyballs a higher propensity to be home runs. However, don’t be surprised if these hits result in routine outs as well. Remember that player ratings will factor into the outcome!

Anything that hits 100+ miles an hour on exit velocity is indicative of a solid hit, and will result in rating increases. Any weak grounders, popups, or flyballs will see decreases in the associated rating. Just be patient and make good swings when you get a pitch to hit. Remember, even if you make an out, your rating may still increase.

7. When fielding, use Button Accuracy to always make strong, accurate throws

As a fielder, you can gain four increases per opportunity: Reaction, Fielding, Arm Strength, and Arm Accuracy. Blocking is specific to catchers. A quick reaction to a batted ball will increase the first, cleanly fielding will increase the second, and making accurate throws will increase the last two. Of course, the opposite will result in decreases.

When fielding, it’s recommended to use Button Accuracy to have the most control over your throws. With Button Accuracy, you hold the base button you want to throw to – or L1 if LB for the cutoff – and release within the green area for an accurate throw. Anything in the orange will be an inaccurate throw, the worst throws coming from the edges of the meter.

If you’re an outfielder, you’ll notice a gold bar in the meter, representing a perfect throw. Always aim for the gold bar as it makes it that much more likely that you’ll throw out runners from the outfield and hit the cutoff man smoothly. If you throw out a runner from the outfield, you will see big increases to both Arm ratings.

Now you know the quickest ways to improve your player and reach the Majors – aside from some fiddling with sliders. Which archetype and team will you choose, and how quickly will you reach the Major Leagues in MLB The Show 22?