The latest, and FINAL UPDATE to TotalMinors '04 has been released for MVP Baseball. It's been a ton of work (those of you who know my methods know the detail that goes into these).
V4 is now available at
www.rosterdevelopmentgroup.com. It will also be sent to MVPMods and to BBSC.
VERSION 4 REVISIONS:
__ Minor league reliever staminas have been adjusted relative to major league staminas to better reflect the number of pitches they would throw and represent their value according to the MVP engine. I did this with the major leaguers in v3, but the problem was since I didn't do it across the board in the minors as well, minor league relievers were essentially getting a ratings bonus for having better stamina. Unfortunately, in sims, the PC STILL uses its bullpen horribly. Regrettably, that's a game engine issue I really can't address.
__ Young major leaguers have had their star ratings redone. Guys like Victor Martinez, who are great players of the future but not still holding "prospect" status were given no stars by EA, meaning their development curve will essentially crash, ruining their careers. That won't happen anymore.
__ Free agent pitcher staminas were also adjusted (they got caught up in the MVPEdit glitch where a global AA edit also grabs the FAs).
__ Steal aggressiveness ratings were tweaked to bring total team SBs up to real life. It had been the main base stealers would steal but nobody else would ever try. That's been adjusted a bit.
__ Baserunning ratings were also adjusted, as it seemed runners were making too many mistakes. This also affects runner aggression, which seems more realistic to me now. It's a subtle change, but it helps, IMO.
__ A series of ratings adjustments for many players. Small things usually, but guys I saw who were a bit over/underrated got touch-ups.
__ I raised the floors on movement for major leaguers, which cuts down on quick minor league callups and also cuts down on pitchers with astronomical ERAs. My fear with pitchers always lies with overrating the top and underrating the bad. Upon review, I think I was still guilty of this to a degree, so I tried to adjust it.
__ I raised the floor on plate patience also because some guys were just getting killed by poor patience ratings. In sims, I've concluded the plate patience rating is a HUGE impact, not just on walks, but on average as a whole.
__ GLobal touchups to bring down the offense as a whole. Too many 5+ ERAs before.
__ I raised major league closer stamina by 50%. Closer ERAs seemed too high. This is mostly due to the fact that the game engine's whole roster management AI is completely flawed, particularly the bullpen management. But this at least helps a bit.
__ I added 10 players who had played in the majors this year but were not in the set yet. Falkenborg, Parra, Little, Villacis, Kroon and some others. They are on the free agent list.
__ I did a ton of work with pitching prospects. Because the game rates star rating so strongly into current overall rating (which is incredibly stupid), minor league pitchers were getting called up well before they were ready. The result is them staying on the roster and getting shelled. I boosted them a bit to counteract this. Though they still get to the majors more quickly than they should, they perform like decent 4/5 starters, which I can live with. No more 7+ ERAs.
__ Star ratings were adjusted for major leaguers, particularly relievers. Relievers tended to get low star ratings, which makes the computer more eager to replace them because of the foolish way the game engine ties star rating into current value. Also, increasing the star rating counters the drops in ratings some had mentioned.
__ After a lot of research I determined the game's park factors are fine. I have no idea how they implemented the ratings, and they don't really make much sense to me, but the numbers look more realistic with them than with my revised park factors, which seemed to cut offense too dramatically
__ Tied into the above, I am not releasing a progress.big file right now. However, I will release one shortly. I just want to look over progression items a bit more to get this set. I expect it in a week or so. But I ran Bill Harris' v2 progression through and saw none of the drastic changes some had mentioned. I also urge you again though, LOOK AT RESULTS, NOT RATINGS!!! There's a reason guys are rated as they are...I promise. Play them out and you'll see the numbers, more often than not, are on target.
Hopefully you will enjoy the rosters. I will post my sliders (I play on All-Star) sometime in the morning, but I'm exhausted.
GH