Player/Team Ratings are up!

[NoSkillz50]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

Pujols is the best hitter in the league though. I think the way the overall ratings are calculated are a little off though. He should probably be like a 97 and A-Rod should be like a 95.

[gamerk2]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

...As a Yankee fan, i want to know how in gods name they can still have the best team. 2k must REALLY like our young pitchers i guess...

[Alliball]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

Since they are young players who just last year finally have matured and had a chance to play fully I won't use career numbers. Kotchman I believe will improve more. He is one of the rare players that actually walks more than he strikes out. Now that doesn't mean much towards scoring runs, but its an excellent indicator of discipline and usually players who walk more than they strike out understand the strike zone incredibly well and are usually the last players you want to write off as flukes... Usually.
Gonzalez
.282/.347/.502
Kotchman
.296/.372/.467

15 points of OBP is roughly equivalent to about 23 points of slugging if you want to weight it. So offensively they are very similar. If Kotchman wasn't hit in the head when sliding into second by a pick off, and needed to get stitches in his head after that, or if he didn't miss two stints due to HBP's, he probably would have done even better. He had a 2 week slump coming back from his concussion.

Plus Kotchman was rated the 2nd best defensive first baseman in the Fielding Bible. He got 2nd place votes from Bill James (the greatest person to ever live) and Rob Neyer.

I have a near obsession with Kotchman though and am a very critical pessimistic Angel fan, Kotchman is the only guy that I absolutely love on that whole team besides Lackey and Escobar. Not for no reason though, I've been following him for like 5 years and for good reason, the guy has an amazing understand for the strike zone, has a nice swing, and is the next Todd Helton with the glove.

I'll put AG's glove up against any 1B in baseball. The dude had 140 assists last year. He gets to balls that many 1B wouldn't even try to go after.

[NoSkillz50]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

I'll put AG's glove up against any 1B in baseball. The dude had 140 assists last year. He gets to balls that many 1B wouldn't even try to go after.

The Fielding Bible speaks for itself.

1.Pujols
2.Kotchman
...
6.Gonzalez

He is good.

Not that the crux of my argument is rooted in fielding or anything though.

[Alliball]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

The Fielding Bible speaks for itself.

1.Pujols
2.Kotchman
...
6.Gonzalez

He is good.

Not that the crux of my argument is rooted in fielding or anything though.

Says who? If it fits your argument, sure it does.

[NoSkillz50]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

Says who? If it fits your argument, sure it does.

Actually Gonzalez is no.9, but I digress.

To answer your question, says Bill James, Rob Neyer, Hal Richman, John Dewan, Joe Posnanski, Joel Kammeyer, Matt Olkin and Mike Murphy.

Read The Fielding Bible. Its people that are qualified, not beat writers or people ESPN deems qualified to speak on their television shows. It doesn't need to be like it is with the mainstream media as far as sports go (ESPECIALLY baseball), but its like politics sometimes where if you want actual good info you gotta dig for it. There are a ton of good sabermetric papers out there, and publications if you look hard enough.

[DSheppard]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

a-gon's defense has been highly rated by scouts, fans, and media since the day he was drafted. not the creation of espn analysts.

[NoSkillz50]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

a-gon's defense has been highly rated by scouts, fans, and media since the day he was drafted. not the creation of espn analysts.

Is being ninth best bad? I'm just going by the most reliable source (which is comprised of very well respected scouts and sabermetricians). I never said he wasn't a good fielder. Again, I feel this is kind of a waste of time because playing a good first base can only make up so much ground. If we completely disregard fielding I think I would still take Kotchman.

[LanteriX]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

Looks like I'll need to rerate yet another 2K game's rosters.

Can't say I'm surprised.

[totalownership]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

how do you think i feel...we WON the WS and were #3!

I have a question for you. The Giants won the Superbowl, should we be rated number 1 in Madden 09? Of course not. Boston really is a number 3 or so team but they have been getting the job done.

Also people need to keep in mind that there are a whole bunch of other hidden factors in this game so team ratings will carry so much. It's going to be that "clutch" rating that will make all the difference. The "behind the scenes" rating

[LanteriX]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

I have a question for you. The Giants won the Superbowl, should we be rated number 1 in Madden 09? Of course not. Boston really is a number 3 or so team but they have been getting the job done.

What? Really a #3? How exactly do you figure that? They won the WS and are returning basically everybody. They were the #3 offensive team in the AL, #1 pitching by a significant margin (13 ERA points) and the #1 fielding team.

They actually underperformed in the regular season as the Pythagorean W-L Record was projected out to be 101-61 and they finished just 96-66.

Just curious, how they wouldn't be #1 that's all. Is there really another team that was/is better all-around?

That being said, the team rankings are a joke in general. How is Arizona down at 22 when they were a playoff team last year AND added Dan Haren?

1. Boston Red Sox
2. Detroit Tigers
3. New York Mets
4. Cleveland Indians
5. New York Yankees
6. Los Angeles Angels
7. Los Angeles Dodgers
8. Chicago Cubs
9. Colorado Rockies
10. San Diego Padres
11. Toronto Blue Jays
12. Atlanta Braves
13. Philadelphia Phillies
14. Milwaukee Brewers
15. Arizona Diamondbacks
16. St. Louis Cardinals
17. Chicago White Sox
18. Tampa Bay Rays
19. Cincinnati Reds
20. Seattle Mariners
21. Oakland Athletics
22. Minnesota Twins
23. Houston Astros
24. Baltimore Orioles
25. San Francisco Giants
26. Washington Nationals
27. Pittsburgh Pirates
28. Texas Rangers
29. Kansas City Royals
30. Florida Marlins

This is how the list should look more like.

[perezh]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

What? Really a #3? How exactly do you figure that? They won the WS and are returning basically everybody. They were the #3 offensive team in the AL, #1 pitching by a significant margin (13 ERA points) and the #1 fielding team.

They actually underperformed in the regular season as the Pythagorean W-L Record was projected out to be 101-61 and they finished just 96-66.

Just curious, how they wouldn't be #1 that's all. Is there really another team that was/is better all-around?

That being said, the team rankings are a joke in general. How is Arizona down at 22 when they were a playoff team last year AND added Dan Haren?

1. Boston Red Sox
2. Detroit Tigers
3. New York Mets
4. Cleveland Indians
5. New York Yankees
6. Los Angeles Angels
7. Los Angeles Dodgers
8. Chicago Cubs
9. Colorado Rockies
10. San Diego Padres
11. Toronto Blue Jays
12. Atlanta Braves
13. Philadelphia Phillies
14. Milwaukee Brewers
15. Arizona Diamondbacks
16. St. Louis Cardinals
17. Chicago White Sox
18. Tampa Bay Rays
19. Cincinnati Reds
20. Seattle Mariners
21. Oakland Athletics
22. Minnesota Twins
23. Houston Astros
24. Baltimore Orioles
25. San Francisco Giants
26. Washington Nationals
27. Pittsburgh Pirates
28. Texas Rangers
29. Kansas City Royals
30. Florida Marlins

This is how the list should look more like.

Personally, I think the Phils and Dodgers should switch places in your rankings (and this is coming from a Mets fan). Also Seattle, especially if they finalize the trade for Bedard will be a top 12 or so team with that pitching staff and closer.

[Pineiro3k38]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

Rivera is higher than Putz, thats total bs. Rivera had a 3.15 era while Putz had an era around 1.

[Real2KInsider]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

I don't think anyone here has noticed, but other than a few small increases/decreases these ratings are exactly the same as 2k7's.

First Base for instance

First Basemen
100 Albert Pujols
92 Ryan Howard (-3)
92 David Ortiz (-3)
90 Lance Berkman (-1)
90 Mark Teixeira
89 Travis Hafner (-1)
89 Prince Fielder (+3)
88 Carlos Delgado (-2)
88 Justin Morneau (-1)
88 Paul Konerko
88 Derrek Lee
88 Todd Helton
85 Jim Thome (-1)
84 Adrian Gonzalez (+2)
84 Carlos Pena (+1)
84 Nick Swisher
84 Mark Sweeney (+1) (FREE AGENT)
83 Kevin Youkilis (+2)
83 Jason Giambi (-3)
82 Nomar Garciaparra (-2)
82 Nick Johnson
82 Richie Sexson (-1)
82 Lyle Overbay

Nobody in the top 20 went up or down more than three points.

Part of this is because 2k at least understands that baseball stats are fickle. Rating guys solely based on the previous years stats is not the best idea because things like injuries, teammates, ballpark, league, so many factors affect baseball stats.

Carlos Delgado and Jason Giambi were terrible last year and certainly not among the top 20 players in baseball. However both dealt with issues last year that affected their production, and assuming they are healthy and everything, they should perform to where they're rated. And if they don't, 2k has shown that they aren't afraid of changing ratings in their online updates.

A lot of Robinson's critiques of the ratings were stat based. Who cares that Rivera's ERA was the highest it's been in awhile, he is still a top 5 closer and I'd certainly take him over Billy Wagner.

And for his note about Ellsbury being lower rated than Coco Crisp, well no kidding, Ellsbury played half his season in the minors and is not the first rookie to hit well after being called up. Crisp is a ML player and there's no telling whether or not Ellsbury will hit close to what he did last year now that pitchers have had a look at him. Ellsbury is getting better anyway, players get better as the season progresses, which makes it fairly obvious that Ellsbury would overtake Coco shortly (not that it would matter since Coco is going to be traded anyway).

[Real2KInsider]

Re: Player/Team Ratings are up!

Rivera is higher than Putz, thats total bs. Rivera had a 3.15 era while Putz had an era around 1.

Putz has been a closer all of two years. He had a 3.60 ERA and poor BB/K ratio as early as 2005.

Rivera posted his highest era ever last year after posting FOUR STRAIGHT SEASONS WITH ERAS IN THE ONES.

Gee, I wonder who I would give the benefit of the doubt.