Fictional Roster

[SonnyWest]

Re: Fictional Roster

I got a lot done today, and despite it being incredibly monotonous I find it enjoyable and luckily the game's menus are pretty fast.



So, I likely won't be able to have players in the 50 ratings, or as many 60 ratings on ML rosters, as all the AAA guys are basically rated in the 60s as well, and I don't have the time or desire to re-rate every single minor leaguer too.





That being said, I've already drastically dropped the # of players in the 90s, and 80s, and there is a lot more 70's and some 60's too with the base ML rosters. That leaves the league looking a lot less like a collection of all-star teams, which I prefer a little more balance.



I did also get rid of all the $45-million players ...



I've also already added service time and contracts to half the team's ML rosters thus far. I'm being a bit conservative with these, leaving a lot of guys set to hit free agency, and those I do tie up long term only using 2 to 5 year contracts, as I feel like people prefer to make their own decisions on payroll and contracts whenever possible, versus inheriting a team or player where you're tied to an 8, 9 or 10 year contract. I think generally speaking team payrolls will still likely be pretty low for each squad to start.



I did sim into one free agency as a test with half the league having real contracts, and with actual good players hitting free agency the AI has ZERO problem offering huge value and term contracts, so it should be interesting. Hopefully I'll be able to strike a good balance.



I should be able to get this done by next week.



If anyone has any tips or advice, I'm all ears. As I'm relatively new to mass roster editing in this game. But having a complete fresh start league with 100% fictional/generated players and teams has always been what I've been wanting, so I'm happy to put the work in with the base you've provided here.

I have started the same thing. Trying to mirror a ML roster with ratings, potentials and real life budgets. The base is awesome work. Glad someone did that and kudo’s to the creator.

I have completed Baltimore as a test. Put them as a decent team. 1 90 player… couple 80… most 70’s. Rest are 60’s and 50’s. I gave a few of them 2 year deals. 1 big contract to the 90 player. He got $27 a season over 4 years. 31 years old.

This will occupy my time until Cy releases his roster because SDS absolutely dropped the ball this year with the rosters and now no roster update today is a joke.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[jkarp86]

Re: Fictional Roster

I have started the same thing. Trying to mirror a ML roster with ratings, potentials and real life budgets. The base is awesome work. Glad someone did that and kudo’s to the creator.

I have completed Baltimore as a test. Put them as a decent team. 1 90 player… couple 80… most 70’s. Rest are 60’s and 50’s. I gave a few of them 2 year deals. 1 big contract to the 90 player. He got $27 a season over 4 years. 31 years old.

This will occupy my time until Cy releases his roster because SDS absolutely dropped the ball this year with the rosters and now no roster update today is a joke.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

I never use the SDS roster since the AI is so bad at setting lineups and making trades, etc. I can't get on board when some star player is platooning because some random bench guy has a super high contact against LHP.

Excited to see what you guys can do with the ratings to make it more realistic.

[bigjdotcom01]

Re: Fictional Roster

I got a lot done today, and despite it being incredibly monotonous I find it enjoyable and luckily the game's menus are pretty fast.

So, I likely won't be able to have players in the 50 ratings, or as many 60 ratings on ML rosters, as all the AAA guys are basically rated in the 60s as well, and I don't have the time or desire to re-rate every single minor leaguer too.


That being said, I've already drastically dropped the # of players in the 90s, and 80s, and there is a lot more 70's and some 60's too with the base ML rosters. That leaves the league looking a lot less like a collection of all-star teams, which I prefer a little more balance.

I did also get rid of all the $45-million players ...

I've also already added service time and contracts to half the team's ML rosters thus far. I'm being a bit conservative with these, leaving a lot of guys set to hit free agency, and those I do tie up long term only using 2 to 5 year contracts, as I feel like people prefer to make their own decisions on payroll and contracts whenever possible, versus inheriting a team or player where you're tied to an 8, 9 or 10 year contract. I think generally speaking team payrolls will still likely be pretty low for each squad to start.

I did sim into one free agency as a test with half the league having real contracts, and with actual good players hitting free agency the AI has ZERO problem offering huge value and term contracts, so it should be interesting. Hopefully I'll be able to strike a good balance.

I should be able to get this done by next week.

If anyone has any tips or advice, I'm all ears. As I'm relatively new to mass roster editing in this game. But having a complete fresh start league with 100% fictional/generated players and teams has always been what I've been wanting, so I'm happy to put the work in with the base you've provided here.

Have you saved this to the vault? I could help in editing if you would like.

[ripwalk]

Re: Fictional Roster

I never use the SDS roster since the AI is so bad at setting lineups and making trades, etc. I can't get on board when some star player is platooning because some random bench guy has a super high contact against LHP.

Excited to see what you guys can do with the ratings to make it more realistic.

Just to clarify, and to perhaps temper expectations of what I'm doing, the player editing I did was just widespread, broad reduction of talent, as opposed to any sort of trying to change the skillsets/style of certain players, or trying to make them any more 'unique' than they would have been when made by you.

For example, if I was just trying to drop a player's overall from say 83 to 74, I'd just very quickly drop down their main ratings by roughly equal amounts across the board. So someone that was say a 75 contact / 75 power versus RHP may just end up a 62/67 contact/power ... I didn't go in and try to change to make any of their other skills vastly different, just overalls to decrease. And I wasn't super precise with it either.

Only case I increased talents was for a few relievers across the league. I thought there was way too many relievers rated in the 78 to 82 range.. so I bumped a couple bullpen guys up to be high 80s rated relievers.

I also dropped the potential of a lot of players from A and B, to C and D in some cases. As I thought there was way too many players rated with high potential.

[ripwalk]

Re: Fictional Roster

Have you saved this to the vault? I could help in editing if you would like.

I haven't yet. Once I finish the contracts/service time for other half of teams, I'll upload my version and then people can go from there with whatever they want to do.

For example, jkarp definitely likes to have starting pitchers mostly all with high stamina. I did drop some of them, but I overall don't mind that as I play with quick counts and having higher rated stamina SP's allows pitchers to get more realistically deep into games when they are pitching well than they would otherwise.

It does of course lead to more 200+ inning pitchers, more complete games and more shutouts than you may normally get in 'real' life.. but, as mentioned I also use this roster for a complete rebrand league, so I don't particularly care if it doesn't mimic MLB stats 100%.

[jkarp86]

Re: Fictional Roster

Just to clarify, and to perhaps temper expectations of what I'm doing, the player editing I did was just widespread, broad reduction of talent, as opposed to any sort of trying to change the skillsets/style of certain players, or trying to make them any more 'unique' than they would have been when made by you.

For example, if I was just trying to drop a player's overall from say 83 to 74, I'd just very quickly drop down their main ratings by roughly equal amounts across the board. So someone that was say a 75 contact / 75 power versus RHP may just end up a 62/67 contact/power ... I didn't go in and try to change to make any of their other skills vastly different, just overalls to decrease. And I wasn't super precise with it either.

Only case I increased talents was for a few relievers across the league. I thought there was way too many relievers rated in the 78 to 82 range.. so I bumped a couple bullpen guys up to be high 80s rated relievers.

I also dropped the potential of a lot of players from A and B, to C and D in some cases. As I thought there was way too many players rated with high potential.

Just that will make it better I think. I just didn't have the patience to go through again and adjust. I was fine with them as they were, even if I would have preferred lower ratings overall.

[jkarp86]

Re: Fictional Roster

I haven't yet. Once I finish the contracts/service time for other half of teams, I'll upload my version and then people can go from there with whatever they want to do.

For example, jkarp definitely likes to have starting pitchers mostly all with high stamina. I did drop some of them, but I overall don't mind that as I play with quick counts and having higher rated stamina SP's allows pitchers to get more realistically deep into games when they are pitching well than they would otherwise.

It does of course lead to more 200+ inning pitchers, more complete games and more shutouts than you may normally get in 'real' life.. but, as mentioned I also use this roster for a complete rebrand league, so I don't particularly care if it doesn't mimic MLB stats 100%.

Yeah, I fell in love with baseball back when way more pitchers threw 200 innings each year so I wanted my roster to be like that. Not realistic to the modern game but the roster was designed for what I like so hopefully it isn't too cumbersome for people that want to change it.

[ripwalk]

Re: Fictional Roster

I got contracts/service time done for all teams, and am running some tests before releasing.

But in every sim season I'm seeing an issue... AI teams quite simply aren't offering extensions to their star players even when they have money, and as a result every year free agency is littered with top stars..

I'm not entirely sure why this is happening, or what I'm missing. I may have to run some test seasons with the default MLB league to see if this is simply a bug with the game, or something to do with this roster.

Example from season I'm currently testing ...

Pirates - projected surplus of $64 million, no qualifying offer or extension made to:

a 94 overall SP who is 28 years old, a 91 rated SP who is 29 ...


Cardinals - $63 million projected surplus, no qualifying offer or extension offe rmade to a 91 OVR OF who is 28

Arizona with a projected $68 million surplus did not offer to a 29-year-old 99 rated 1B.

Rockies have a projected surplus of $118 million and are letting walk without a qualifying offer or extension a 96, 92 and 89 rated SP. They made one offer for $15 million to their 87 rated 1B.

These are just a few examples, but basically across the league, teams have money to spend, but are just letting their best players walk. I'm not really sure what the issue is to be honest. If anyone has insight that would be great.

[jkarp86]

Re: Fictional Roster

I got contracts/service time done for all teams, and am running some tests before releasing.

But in every sim season I'm seeing an issue... AI teams quite simply aren't offering extensions to their star players even when they have money, and as a result every year free agency is littered with top stars..

I'm not entirely sure why this is happening, or what I'm missing. I may have to run some test seasons with the default MLB league to see if this is simply a bug with the game, or something to do with this roster.

Example from season I'm currently testing ...

Pirates - projected surplus of $64 million, no qualifying offer or extension made to:

a 94 overall SP who is 28 years old, a 91 rated SP who is 29 ...


Cardinals - $63 million projected surplus, no qualifying offer or extension offe rmade to a 91 OVR OF who is 28

Arizona with a projected $68 million surplus did not offer to a 29-year-old 99 rated 1B.

Rockies have a projected surplus of $118 million and are letting walk without a qualifying offer or extension a 96, 92 and 89 rated SP. They made one offer for $15 million to their 87 rated 1B.

These are just a few examples, but basically across the league, teams have money to spend, but are just letting their best players walk. I'm not really sure what the issue is to be honest. If anyone has insight that would be great.

Do those teams spend anything in free agency once they let them walk? Or do they just not spend the money at all?

[ripwalk]

Re: Fictional Roster

Do those teams spend anything in free agency once they let them walk? Or do they just not spend the money at all?

Teams are definitely spending money.

The rosters in year 1 have team salaries probably ranging from about $60 million to $200 milion..

I have a file I've advanced to 2029 and team salaries have now ballooned to a range of (by memory) $80 million to over $300 million. So top stars are getting paid... it's just alarming how uncommonly they are getting retained by their original teams.

Maybe this is an AI issue at large, as a lot of things that would be logical (like buying out ARB years and a couple FA years for a lower AAV than if the player was a free agent), maybe doesn't happen from the AI.

But these franchise type players not even being offered qualifying offers in order to get draft pick compensation in a lot of cases, is extremely alarming.

There's zero reason why teams shouldn't be offering their studs a qualifying offer (which will be rejected of course).

But yeah, people are being paid in free agency ... I wanted to keep base game salaries low to keep the teams financially flexible, so most big contracts I created are in the $20 to $30 million range and 4 to 5 years max. But once they hit free agency teams are handing out 7, 8 and 9 year contracts for $35 to $45 million AAV.

So yeah, not a spending problem just a retaining homegrown players problem. Maybe it will slow down or improve in future, I don't know.

I also ran a test season with the base roster too and seemed a similar issue existed... several 85+ rated players made it into free agency that would likely be retained in real life.

[ripwalk]

Re: Fictional Roster

Another minor issue I'm seeing is the free agency pool still having great players in it when the season starts.

Year one there was a 94 rated SP ... but he did eventually get picked up before mid season on a one year deal (then signed a huge new FA contract for 9 years in the next offseason).

And in other years I've tested there's often been many 78 to 84 rated players who begin the regular season without a team.

I guess it's likely just a result of teams being unwilling to pay what they want, as most teams still have budget room at season beginning too.

A good news is the players sitting in free agency are often older (33 or 34).

But it's unfortunate their demands don't go down as season begins (as would happen in real life) to a number that the AI is comfortable paying.

Likely not much way I'm going to work around that anyway.

[bigjdotcom01]

Re: Fictional Roster

Another minor issue I'm seeing is the free agency pool still having great players in it when the season starts.

Year one there was a 94 rated SP ... but he did eventually get picked up before mid season on a one year deal (then signed a huge new FA contract for 9 years in the next offseason).

And in other years I've tested there's often been many 78 to 84 rated players who begin the regular season without a team.

I guess it's likely just a result of teams being unwilling to pay what they want, as most teams still have budget room at season beginning too.

A good news is the players sitting in free agency are often older (33 or 34).

But it's unfortunate their demands don't go down as season begins (as would happen in real life) to a number that the AI is comfortable paying.

Likely not much way I'm going to work around that anyway.

Thanks for all the hard work! Have you posted these yet? I have just been working on my stadiums in MLB 24 waiting for the CAS fix and these rosters

[jkarp86]

Re: Fictional Roster

Another minor issue I'm seeing is the free agency pool still having great players in it when the season starts.

Year one there was a 94 rated SP ... but he did eventually get picked up before mid season on a one year deal (then signed a huge new FA contract for 9 years in the next offseason).

And in other years I've tested there's often been many 78 to 84 rated players who begin the regular season without a team.

I guess it's likely just a result of teams being unwilling to pay what they want, as most teams still have budget room at season beginning too.

A good news is the players sitting in free agency are often older (33 or 34).

But it's unfortunate their demands don't go down as season begins (as would happen in real life) to a number that the AI is comfortable paying.

Likely not much way I'm going to work around that anyway.

That sounds like an AI problem if I had to guess and nothing the user can do about it unless you do 30 team control which is a pain. Maybe I'm wrong and someone can figure it out. Does it happen with the default rosters?

[ripwalk]

Re: Fictional Roster

Thanks for all the hard work! Have you posted these yet? I have just been working on my stadiums in MLB 24 waiting for the CAS fix and these rosters

Nope, I'll definitely get them up sometime this week, was just trying to run some tests so I can at least let people know what to expect and potential issues.

And to jkarp86,

It does seem this is an issue in the default/MLB roster too. For example every time you sim the first season, some higher rated guys always make it to free agency. Even if the team has offered on them, and they have a fairly high interest in the offer, it seems they don't sign it and just let it lapse.

I have seen sometimes in open free agency the original team does end up with the player they should have extended in the first place. But once I get set to play my full fledged franchise I honestly probably will just use 30-team control to offer a few guys long-term extensions that make sense.

I want some big names in free agency, but not every single player whose contract runs out as it more or less (with a few exceptions) seems to be now.

[bigjdotcom01]

Re: Fictional Roster

Nope, I'll definitely get them up sometime this week, was just trying to run some tests so I can at least let people know what to expect and potential issues.

And to jkarp86,

It does seem this is an issue in the default/MLB roster too. For example every time you sim the first season, some higher rated guys always make it to free agency. Even if the team has offered on them, and they have a fairly high interest in the offer, it seems they don't sign it and just let it lapse.

I have seen sometimes in open free agency the original team does end up with the player they should have extended in the first place. But once I get set to play my full fledged franchise I honestly probably will just use 30-team control to offer a few guys long-term extensions that make sense.

I want some big names in free agency, but not every single player whose contract runs out as it more or less (with a few exceptions) seems to be now.

I do a 30-team control and I take the top three free agents on each team, run a random number generator to see if I can offer an extension or let them test free agency. That way I have some control, and also get some big names that hit the market.