Cubs 2014 OSFM

[MrOldboy]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

Knight asked me to finish up the faces for the Cubs. I have about 12 players left. I should be able to finish tomorrow.

Fantastic. Not not sure if Knight wants you to waste any time, but if you want to touch up any faces go ahead. I didn't create them so I have no personal feelings over their creation. If you do, one thing I noticed when copying faces over was that Neil Ramirez didn't have a beard, he has some facial hair.

[trackstar121388]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

Knight has my roster, a few notes.

- Barret Loux reportedly had TJ surgery. I opted to to replace him with Jeudy Valdez due to a lack of SS depth on the roster. I'll hopefully have Loux as an extra player post OSFM release since he's already created.
- I did not make Casper Wells as he is inactive and added Stephen Bruno instead.
- Torres and Jimenez are at 18 years old, you need to edit them back to 18 after one year in franchise. In RTTS and online franchise they'll just be a year older.
- About half the faces were created by authentic and other editors from past OSFM (edwards, Black, Ramirez), Bryant was a MLB 13 vault face that I edited a bit. I touched up a few as best I could, but I am not that great at editing faces. The rest are being handled by Knight or whoever he has create them.
- Only stance I am not happy with is Baez. Went with Adam Jones since it resembles his hand placement and leg kick, but no stance has anything similar to his timing mechanism/bat flick which is disappointing.

- Individual pitch ratings progress similarly to the /9 ratings so I had to drop them down a bit from what their actual current stuff is. This is to prevent someone like Neil Ramirez from having a 98-99 mph fastball a few years in with a 90 mph slider. So pitchers starting out should be a bit below what their actual stuff is, but will progress...probably beyond their current stuff since I probably didn't reduce them enough to start. But it should be more realistic than everyone throwing 3-4mph faster than usual a few years in with a 15 mph difference on their change.

- From what I have seen, potentials generally increase (about +0.4/yr POT). In a 4 year sim I saw several +9, +7, +6 and many +3-4 total increased over that 4 years. Only a few players dropped. Its nice that players will also drop in potential, but it felt very unbalanced in my sims. I'm not sure how the game handles this so maybe once the other OSFM players are in it will balance out.

- Overall rating calculations seem to be a bit lower, varying by position, this year compared to last. So a 79 player in MLB 13 could be 74 in MLB 14. Their ratings are identical, but the game calculates the overall differently this year and it seems universally lower.


This if my final roster I sent to Knight.

What site do you use for pitch speeds?

[MrOldboy]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

What site do you use for pitch speeds?

If they've appeared in spring training or a major league game, Brooksbaseball.

Otherwise I go off of scouting reports from reliable sites or specific blogs that cover the Cubs minor league teams, BA prospect guide, and just general writeups on minor league games. You'd be surprised how often you'll see something like "Blank was sitting 92-94 with his fastball with a firm changeup." For an article about a game the Smokies played on some random day. Takes some digging to find players mentioned like this.

Sometimes I can only find a fastball velocity, so I have to guess/base the other pitch speeds off of that. i.e. a pitcher with a 94 mph fastball will probably get a higher slider speed than someone at 89 mph.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

OK, I went back and forth on this, but I think I prefer Josh Hamilton's stance for Baez. It has a hint of a bat flick and isn't too far from his starting stance. Adam Jones has better hand placements and leg kick I feel, but I like the little flick of Hamilton's stance.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for Baez's stance?

[trackstar121388]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

what do you guys think of this lineup/roster?

S-Bonifacio CF
R- Castro SS
L- Rizzo 1B
R- Bryant RF
R- Lake LF
S- Alcantara 2B
R- Olt 3B
R- Castillo C
Pitcher’s Spot

Bench
L- Baker C (till replaced)
R- Barney- IF
L- Kalish- OF
L- Jackson OF

Pitchers
SP- Samardzija -R
SP- Wood -L
SP- Arrieta -R
SP- Hendricks -R
SP- Rusin- L
RP- Grimm- R
RP- Ramirez- R
RP - Rondon- R
RP- Rosscup- R
RP- Russell- L
RP- Wright- L
RP- Parker- R
RP- Vizcanio- R

Mr. Oldboy what do you think of the 25 man roster I plan on using? and thanks for answering my post about the pitch speed

[zippy2212]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

I just sat down to play a game. I will check it out.

Personally I like Hamilton's better. I have to agree about the little flick. Just reminds me more of Baez's real stance.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

Mr. Oldboy what do you think of the 25 man roster I plan on using? and thanks for answering my post about the pitch speed

There are a few issues, simply due to how the players are rated in the game. In real life that would be a good team, but unless you rerate some of the SCEA players in OSFM there will be better options to use.

Grimm, Vizcaino and Rondon are not rated very favorably and Grimm's stuff is pretty poor from what I saw.
Lake is less useful than he would be in real life due to his arm and speed being rated poorly.

So for example when I play in an online franchise those players will be much less useful to me because they are rated low in the base roster. So I won't use Lake the way you'd think to use him in real life.

For people using the Cubs I would recommend a few edits to SCEA players. These are edits I am going to make on my roster once OSFM is out until I wait for the hybrid roster or one with at least pitch edits.

- Vizcaino's potential to that of a B and his K/9 up significantly to the high 70s or more. I'd actually drop his stuff down a bit since he'll progress past what he has in game if you give him a B potential.
- Lake's speed to at least mid 80s and arm to 80s as well, low accuracy still and mediocre baserunning
- Grimm's stuff to what you see in the bottom two rows on brooksbaseball
- Same thing with Rondon
- Vera's stuff down, decrease BB/9

Maybe a few others, but those are the main ones I do not like on the base roster.

[Eddie2288]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

Lake is less useful than he would be in real life due to his arm and speed being rated poorly.

Go figure they underrated Lake's cannon for an arm.. one of the best arms in the cubs entire system strength wise

[Ivanhoe]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

Fantastic. Not not sure if Knight wants you to waste any time, but if you want to touch up any faces go ahead. I didn't create them so I have no personal feelings over their creation. If you do, one thing I noticed when copying faces over was that Neil Ramirez didn't have a beard, he has some facial hair.

Thanks. I didn't want to say anything but I've already started touching up some of the previously created faces. Only 5 left. It should be complete today.

[Jr.]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

OK, I went back and forth on this, but I think I prefer Josh Hamilton's stance for Baez. It has a hint of a bat flick and isn't too far from his starting stance. Adam Jones has better hand placements and leg kick I feel, but I like the little flick of Hamilton's stance.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for Baez's stance?

I've been comparing Hanley Ramirez.. he's got the leg kick and hands are pretty similar... Hanley's bat flick isn't as dramatic though.

I'm going off of real life video which seems close, but I'm not sure how The Show replicates Hanley's swing

[MrOldboy]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

I've been comparing Hanley Ramirez.. he's got the leg kick and hands are pretty similar... Hanley's bat flick isn't as dramatic though.

I'm going off of real life video which seems close, but I'm not sure how The Show replicates Hanley's swing

Hanley is a bit closer to his hand placement, but I find his leg kick more dramatic/high than Baez's. Maybe with stride 2. So far I still like Hamilton the best since it has that little flick and I find the leg kick more in line with what Baez has in real life. Its just that starting out it's a bit open and his hands are too low.

[Jr.]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

Hanley is a bit closer to his hand placement, but I find his leg kick more dramatic/high than Baez's. Maybe with stride 2. So far I still like Hamilton the best since it has that little flick and I find the leg kick more in line with what Baez has in real life. Its just that starting out it's a bit open and his hands are too low.

I'll take your word for it that it's better in the game. Looking at recent video, Hamilton has a pretty minimal leg lift and the hitch in his hands is a drop, while Baez has a much more dramatic lift and his hitch is more of a wrap or coil like movement similar to it.

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KewXqBKCau8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5Y167PXv-b4" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Z_3gnSm6KEk" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

No biggie though, I can always change it myself if I want to.

[OhioCub]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

He is a career .265 hitter with a career .336 on base percentage (both are considerably better than he is doing this season), so not a huge on base guy. He only hit 8 home runs last year, the most he has hit in any season, so he is not a big power hitter either. All he is is a defensive catcher on a team that desperately needs run production. As far as the game goes, I can hit for good power with him, but I would look to upgrade to a more offensive catcher and retain Castillo as a backup (if I can afford it). Just my opinion though.

Sorry to bring this back up but I just wanted to take a moment to post Castillo's slash line. .300/.349/.525/.874 with 4 HR already. Are you still sticking by your statement that all he is is a defensive catcher? He's making himself more and more apart of our long term plans everyday.

[Figment]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

Sorry to bring this back up but I just wanted to take a moment to post Castillo's slash line. .300/.349/.525/.874 with 4 HR already. Are you still sticking by your statement that all he is is a defensive catcher? He's making himself more and more apart of our long term plans everyday.

I'm very happy that he is, but I still stick by my guns. Baseball is a weird, streaky sport and we are only a month in. It won't be until at least the all star break before I change my mind about him. I do hope he proves me wrong though, I like him a lot.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Cubs 2014 OSFM

I'll take your word for it that it's better in the game. Looking at recent video, Hamilton has a pretty minimal leg lift and the hitch in his hands is a drop, while Baez has a much more dramatic lift and his hitch is more of a wrap or coil like movement similar to it.

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KewXqBKCau8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5Y167PXv-b4" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Z_3gnSm6KEk" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="560"></iframe>

No biggie though, I can always change it myself if I want to.

Don't go off of players' real life stances, they can look completely different in game (i.e. not accurately created). I usually find a video watch it side-by-side with the in game editor. Once I find one I like I go into batting practice to test it out from broadcast view.

None of the stances have Baez's dramatic bat flick, that's what bothered me. Even the ones where they tried to add one to a stance in game (Cano, Lake), they look terrible IMO.

In game hamilton's bat flick is very minimal, but it's something at least and the leg kick is a bit more in line with what Baez does.

On another note the other stance I was having a hard time deciding on was Kris Bryant. I went with Elliot Johnson. The legs aren't spread out as much, but it has a little bat movement which Bryant has. The other option I liked for his stance was Kick Franklin, but I found it a bit too "stiff" and had no pre-pitch bat movement, but the legs are spread out more like Bryant in real life.

I may start a Cubs edit thread soon as I am going to go through the SCEA created players and match their stances. I typically do this before starting my franchise anyways so might as well post it.