MLB 09 training vid preps for the season

Baseball season will be starting up again in a few months, and along with it comes another annual helping of SCEA's MLB 09: The Show. Before you plan on heading out to that baseball diamond for the big time, you'll need to dust off those cleats and put in a little Spring Training. The Show 09 has you covered, as its "Road to the Show" career mode has been revamped with newly designed training schemes.

As seen and explained in a video clip after the break, there are two training modes this year: Batting and Base Stealing. The latter is all new and depending on the actions you make, characters can increase stats in Base Running Ability, Base Running Aggressiveness, and Speed. Batting practice has also been revamped from previous versions to reflect this freeform 'level up' system – it's no longer subjected to the coach's discretion. You can choose whatever sort of area you want to focus on. The only downside? There's no Pitching or Fielding training this year. Those skills will, however, be worked out in MLB 2010. Um ... great.