With sports video game franchises seemingly dropping off every year, its rare that we get a true cover athlete showdown. Thankfully, Major League Baseball has graced us with two top of the line players this year.
2K Sports has chosen Philidelphia Phillies ace and 2-time Cy Young Award winner, Roy Halladay to be their cover athlete for this years MLB 2K11. On the other side of the fence, Sony has decided to bring back Minnesota Twins superstar catcher Joe Mauer to be their cover athlete for MLB 11: The Show.
While waiting for the games to come out to decide which is better would be the logical thing, how bout we make a decision based on on the field results? So what happens when a 7-time All-Star and 2-time Cy Young Award winner faces off against a 4-time All-Star and 2009 AL MVP face off?
As the saying goes “good pitching always beats good hitting”. The good news is that with Halladay in the NL full time, Mauer won’t have to face him as often. Though, maybe Joe just needed more ABs against Halladay. Aside from Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson (.053), Mauer has a better batting average against any other pitcher he’s faced more than 18 times.
From these numbers is looks like MLB 2K11 has won the cover athlete showdown. The question is, will MLB 2K11 be a better game than MLB 11: The Show? We will find out soon.
MLB 2K11 comes out for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS and PSP on March 8th.
MLB 11: The Show comes out for PS3, PS2 and PSP on March 8th.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.