Seattle Mariners: Fan’s Review of MLB 17 The Show
By Nick Lee
One of my favorite things so far is when you play in Franchise Mode, you can pick and choose when you want to be in the “featured” MLB Network game presentation.
You can do it every game or just save it for special occasions. With the MLBN setup, you get new toys like “Statcast” for stellar defensive plays, displaying how many feet the player had to cover and how fast they threw the ball. Also, majestic home runs will now be tracked with exit velocity, launch angle and hang-time.
I have played the opening series with the Mariners against the Astros at Minute Maid Park. Nelson Cruz hit a ball into orbit, over the train tracks in left field. It was cool to see the Statcast analytics for the blast (465 feet with 117 MPH exit velocity and a 33 degree launch-angle for my not-so-humble brag).
Of course, this version should also be special to Mariners fans as it has our beloved son, Ken Griffey Jr., on the cover. He has not been on a cover of a video game since Ken Griffey Jr.’s Slugfest on Nintendo 64 and Gameboy Color in 1999. This also marks the first time in MLB The Show history that a former, not active player has graced the cover. That’s saying a lot for Seattle’s favorite Kid.