One of the most important things to have is this -
get rid of the stupid preset field placements that fielders can go in. I should be able to place the player ANYWHERE on the field of my choosing instead of the little dots they go in to.
And this is not gonna happen this game but for next game -
many, many, MANY more animations PER shot. It is stupid to see top player from Australia play a shot the exact same way as No. 10 from Pakistan or No. 6 from Scotland.
They need to focus on this. Get like someone x 20 (i.e. 20 people) super cheap and record them playing each of the shots. Then each player gets a range of those animations. The better the players skill, the more animation choices per shot.
And improving hit box means if you have more animations per shot, the more likely you will connect well with that shot. Win win.