I love baseball and when it comes to MLB presentation this game delivers, BUT as for actual gameplay............
Gameplay wise it is fun but very frustrating, now I'm a true baseball fan. I know the ins and outs, I play as reasonable as possible, I don't chase pitches outside the zone or in the dirt, I steal bases and apply sac bunts to move a player into scoring position etc. That being said I find it VERY HARD to win games in this game. I can lead the whole game but every single time the CPU digs deep around the 7th or 8th and takes the lead or ties the game. I don't use pitchers until they are out of energy, so around the 7th I put in relievers who always blow the game, never make thier mark. Also playing as the Phillies I have Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, and Cliff Lee, 3 elite pitchers but I find that they never make their mark often as well, I will aim a fastball low to the left side of the plate but it will somehow be up in the zone waiting to be crushed. (I've tried all the pitching options and even the classic setting does this) Now I know no one ever hits thier mark all of the time but it happens way too often. As for opposing AI, they hardly ever chase anything outside the strike zone, when feilding ground balls they always make a throw while stumbling or back pedaling because they are off balance but always make a perfect throw to beat the runner at 1st, now it happens in real life when a short stops feilds a grounder and makes an amazing throw with little room for error, but this is about every ground ball in this game.
Manufacturing runs is hard in this game, due to the batting. After each swing you get feedback, as too early of a swing, or if you chased it etc. I find that this doesn't matter, sometimes you'll have great location and perfect timing and contact and ground out or pop fly out, which happens, but in this game its very hard to get a base hit. And when I do, I end up stranding them because I cant get a solid base hit to advance them.
If you can put up with this then its a great game, I dont play many of the modes beside exhibition and franchise. But I bought the game 4 days ago, played about 6 games and haven't won one, because its the same outcome, either its close till the 8th or I'm leading till late and then the CPU makes everything happen and steals the game from me. So out of the 6 games I've played I finished 3 and the other 3 pissed me off and I turned it off.