RBU Release thread

[JTommy67]

I've uploaded version 21.1 of the RBU file. The final release also includes the custom player calculator and spreadsheets with all career and seasonal ratings for MLB players.

***NOTE: You must have Microsoft Excel (desktop version) with Visual Basic and enable macros in the settings. The utility will NOT work with the online version.

Also: Unlike previous versions, you should NOT relocate the main RBU21v1 folder. Doing so will cause an error when loading pictures on the input screen. The main file (RBU21v1.xlsm), however, can still be placed anywhere you choose (as well as the Career/Season ratings spreadsheets).

Please note that 2019 is the latest year available. I'm a bit behind on updating records, but since this is a historical utility I don't see that affecting too many people. Hopefully in the future I'll be able to get caught up.

New additions:

1) Pitch ratings...all players now have pitch repertoires and ratings of break and control. Velocity for individual pitches is not available, but a top velocity is. This is a first attempt at this and the data is reliable for some and off for others. Also, pitch ratings are not multi-year weighted according to the values you specify - all pitchers have single year ratings for each season.

2) Expanded minor league options. You have the option of adding full (or near full) minor leagues (from about 1915 on). These are all real players, most of which never played in the majors. This will result in each team having way more than the 90 or so slots available, so I doubt most will take advantage of it, but there you have it anyway. You can also elect to forego minor leaguers or only include those that eventually made it to the majors.

3) The input helper screen has been redone...it now includes additional information such as salary, service time, hitting tendency and more. It also grabs a picture of each player as you cycle through them.

4) This is a bigger download (186 MB) since there is so much more info, and the main file size is a little bigger and slower since it's doing more. Keep that in mind.

--------Additional fixes and updates since beta release------------

5) Fixed a bug that was causing free agents to be omitted from the builds.

6) Added the option of using career ratings only for pitchers' batting attributes.

7) Added the option of using/excluding minor league years in final calculations.

8) Durability now reflects time spent on injured reserve/disabled list. So certain players who spent most of the year injured now have much lower durability ratings (like in the 20s or 30s).

9) Fixed a bug that was preventing weighted calculations from working.

10) Fixed the formula for service time (days, years) so it calculates correctly.

11) Added a player search bar on the input screen.

12) Added a check box to turn off pic loading for the input screen. You can use this if you have internet connectivity issues and players will not load.

13) Fixed power attributes so they now calculate correctly when using weighted ratings.

Link to .exe file (If you have difficulties with this link, then try copying and pasting into your browser's address bar:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/xosts...U21v1.exe/file

Please post any questions in this thread, as well as any bugs or errors you see.

JT

[Madden_17]

Re: RBU Release thread

Man ... Oh, Man ... What a gift you are to the MLB roster community. Thank you so very, very much for your time + commitment, JTommy.

[OldBaseballFan]

Re: RBU Release thread

JTommy---First, thanks so much for your RBU work. It is truly exceptional.

My question is if I rerate one of my Show 2020 Classic Rosters with your new RBU21v1 utility, how out of whack would the ratings be, and where might there be a significant difference in the ratings? (In my world, "out of whack" is a very technical phrase.)

I've generated a couple of Classic seasons with your new Utility and compared Overall Ratings with one of my old seasons which was rated with your RBU20v2. Many players have basically the same Overall ratings between the utilities. Others have Overall rating variations (plus or minus 10) with the RBU21.v1 utility. However, when I do some more in depth comparisons, I don't see that significant differences in their individual ratings.

I'm debating whether to completely rerate some of my Classic Seasons for Show 20 with your new utility or simply leave the ratings as is, and use your RBU21.1 to edit the pitcher/batter attributes.

Thanks.....and again, fantastic work!

[JTommy67]

Re: RBU Release thread

My question is if I rerate one of my Show 2020 Classic Rosters with your new RBU21v1 utility, how out of whack would the ratings be, and where might there be a significant difference in the ratings? (In my world, "out of whack" is a very technical phrase.)

I'm debating whether to completely rerate some of my Classic Seasons for Show 20 with your new utility or simply leave the ratings as is, and use your RBU21.1 to edit the pitcher/batter attributes.

Thanks.....and again, fantastic work!

If you are using MLB the show 20 then I would recommend you stick with RBU version 20 as well. The reason:

Games such as these use event probabilities to simulate outcomes. To oversimplify, the game engine is pitting the pitcher H/9 rating vs. the hitter contact rating...but these ratings by themselves don't give the whole story. At the same time, you need to account for the overall strength of the league (hitters vs. pitchers) and factor that in, which would be the league-wide batting average. These averages are obviously coded into the game and change from year to year allowing them to maintain consistent scales for their ratings throughout.

But this is also why you can notice different results simming out the same rosters in different versions of the game. In certain circumstances the differences might be negligible and other times I've noticed more significant jumps. So every year I adjust my historical scaling based upon what I observe in the sim engine with a test roster. This is one of the reasons I release a newer version every year.

Hope this helps, and thanks for the feedback and compliments.

[bigdawg1690]

Re: RBU Release thread

Seems to be an issue with the power ratings when using weighted calculations, they don't appear correct. Everything else seems legit.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[JTommy67]

Re: RBU Release thread

Oh my goodness.

Thanks for pointing this out. I've fixed this and created a new link at the top of the thread. However, you can download a copy of the main file and replace yours with the following link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/af0x3...21v1.xlsm/file

You'll have to reload whatever year you're working on, though.

[Kenya1991]

Re: RBU Release thread

Oh my goodness.

Thanks for pointing this out. I've fixed this and created a new link at the top of the thread. However, you can download a copy of the main file and replace yours with the following link:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/af0x3...21v1.xlsm/file

You'll have to reload whatever year you're working on, though.

Thank you, JTommy67. Your RBU tool is exceptional.

Wanted to ask 2 Questions:

*Why on the page where you list the team roster for each season the players "body weight" appears as "#" ?

*Why on the page that has yearly player ratings for guys on 40 man roster can we not see the teams those players played with during particular season ?

[JTommy67]

Re: RBU Release thread

*Why on the page where you list the team roster for each season the players "body weight" appears as "#" ?

*Why on the page that has yearly player ratings for guys on 40 man roster can we not see the teams those players played with during particular season ?

I'm not seeing any "#" signs for body weight anywhere. What's the name of the sheet you're looking at? Can you maybe post a screenshot of what you're seeing?

As for the yearly ratings, I only included that sheet as a novelty. I've never received any requests to include team information. I'll consider adding it in future versions.

[Kenya1991]

Re: RBU Release thread

I'm not seeing any "#" signs for body weight anywhere. What's the name of the sheet you're looking at? Can you maybe post a screenshot of what you're seeing?

As for the yearly ratings, I only included that sheet as a novelty. I've never received any requests to include team information. I'll consider adding it in future versions.

Seasons listed in the "Data" folder that has individual results for each individual season.

[JTommy67]

Re: RBU Release thread

Seasons listed in the "Data" folder that has individual results for each individual season.

Try adjusting the width of the column.

[jackng310]

Re: RBU Release thread

@RBU, can you send/PM me the formulas for each attribute? im on a mac and can't use your excel sheet (wish i could). would be incredibly helpful. thanks

[Madden08PCgmr]

Re: RBU Release thread

There seems to be a pretty dramatic difference between HR/9 numbers between this version and the previous release.

For some pitchers, it leads to a 5-6 point overall difference.

Has anyone else noticed this?

[JTommy67]

Re: RBU Release thread

There seems to be a pretty dramatic difference between HR/9 numbers between this version and the previous release.

For some pitchers, it leads to a 5-6 point overall difference.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes, that's intentional. There are multiple reasons for this:

With each new version of the game, the sim engine calibration changes based on what's happened the past few years in MLB. This is done (I believe) to keep their ratings scales from shifting too much. There's been a significant uptick in HR numbers the past few years and I think this was finally reflected in the this past year's game, because the previous scale was producing way too few HRs in my 2021 testing.

My mind's not on it like it was when I made the adjustments, but I recall being very surprised myself at how low the HR ratings needed to be to reproduce the same outcomes as before. For some years, the swing was a many as 10+ points, and while this was alarming, when I created my 1983 roster based off the new scales, it worked perfectly in the sim engine, and the subsequent franchise season I played out was fine.

I test meticulously; when I create a test roster I will sim as many as 10 seasons and average out the results b/c there can be quite a bit of variability even between individual seasons. The whole thing is quite a headache. And I have no way of testing all historical eras at once, so certain years might be off, as I suspect the most recent seasons (2016+) probably are, but since my utility is primarily for historical roster makers, I'm not as concerned about that.

I would still recommend when you create a roster to sim out some seasons and note HR totals (I use avg HR per team as a metric) and compare with MLB totals for that year. If it's off you can add or subtract a few points from the HR/9 ratings.

All of this is one reason I have to readjust with each new game release, but is also why I recommend only using the RBU version that corresponds to game release you're playing.

[Madden08PCgmr]

Re: RBU Release thread

Not criticizing, just want to be clear on that!

This is one of the most amazing utilities I have ever used.

Hopefully, someday (if someone at SDS will pull their head out of....) we'll be able to port rosters directly to the game thanks to the data complied here.

[JTommy67]

Re: RBU Release thread

Not criticizing, just want to be clear on that!

I didn't interpret it as a criticism. It's a fair observation, and deserves an explanation. Thank you for the compliment.