Potential Edit Default Roster Project

[Funkycorm]

Hello!


Welcome to the Potential Edit Default Roster Project or PDR Roster as I have been calling it.

This will be for MLB 21.


The roster will be done and fully available soon after release of the game. It will be available for the PS5. I do not know whether the vault is cross server or not so if the vault is cross platform, it will be available for more systems.


This roster idea was born out of 2 plus years of prospect potential editing with my first roster edits being tested in 2018 with my first attempt at a public roster with these edits in MLB19 late in that cycle (fall 2019). So, after deciding to post the work I will be doing on the roster to the vault when done, I have decided to share the information here.


The goal is to set the base for a long healthy franchise experience that isn't hampered by inflated roster ratings down the road. This is something I have been disappointed with when it comes to the FM rosters and what actually started my journey here a few years back.



Let's get the basics out of the way so you can determine if this roster is for you then I will answer some specific questions:


This roster is an improved version (in my opinion) of the base 90-man default roster. It has hundreds of potential edits done to make for a long-term franchise experience that is not bloated with high overall players a few years in and does not have crazy free agency issues either. It is designed to make the long-term franchise experience more sustainable. This base for this was the default roster where I edited nothing but potentials for most minor leaguers and a lot of major leaguers.


This means that it is not a real 90-man roster and the players in A ball are fake. I will address this in a bit. It is not a 100 percent accurate 90-man roster with accurate 40-man, 26 man, rotations, and lineups. I used the default rosters as a base so the fake payers are there but have been edited so they will never impact the game. I am not a CAP creator and I simply do not care if there are fake players on the roster to start. Plus, I don’t want to spend 2 months making a roster or waiting for one. The way I play and sim years into the future, I embrace fake players. And honestly, once you start franchise, it becomes your own universe anyway. If you care solely about accurate 90 mans with everything matching real life, this is not the roster for you. Sorry! Personally, I have no interest in accurate real life 90-man rosters at this point in my baseball gaming life so that reflects in this roster.



If you are interested in the long, drawn-out explanation of what I do edit wise, please check out this thread here


Let's get the big obvious thing out of the way. You are likely wondering why your favorite prospect is not an A potential player and may have even dropped to a C potential. My other thread fully explains this but for this roster you must embrace the average player is rated 74-77, and not 80-85. The A and B potential prospects are now rated as such to match this logic. Potentials are changed substantially. Your favorite prospect that had an A potential of 95 may well have a new B potential of 85. This is done to make the roster more sustainable long term. There is also a massive amount of MLB players with their potentials changed as well. This is to help with the long-term experience.


What about the top 10 prospects? Even though only 3 prospects have potentials above 90, the top 10 prospects have potentials higher than the rest of the prospects so they will stand out and still be better than the rest down the road.


Remember that potential of a player does not guarantee success. Editing prospect potentials like I have done helps to mimic that and take away some of the certainty that all prospects will be big name players. I consider this an added bonus to the less inflated rosters and messed up free agency down the road.


Most prospects with scout grades in the 40-45 range and not in their teams top 15 prospects, have potential set to 70-72. There are some that may have D potential as well. These numbers match to my potential editing scale and do take other factors into consideration like high grades on an individual tool.


I will also be utilizing my massive amount of draft class edits when I have draft classes. Remember, these must be edited at the end of the season. This is vital for the long-term health of your franchise. If you are playing a single season, that is not important. Again, a chunk of those edits is on the thread linked above. I have been working on more edits over the last few months to further the health of my long-term experience but will not share some of those as the work and formulas I used for the generated players are not my own and I do not want to take credit for someone else’s work. Users will have to do this themselves as it is in franchise but it is essential for the long-term health of franchises. I can recap my edits here upon request if desired.


Now A ball players being fake will have their potential edited to 66-68 so they will almost never have an impact at the MLB level. This also helps long term balancing of issues like drafted players not getting playing time or higher overall players sitting untouched in free agency.


With them being fake players, it will also allow some adjustments to positions to try and alleviate large trade issues. I will be changing positions for some of these fake players to help alleviate the trade issues that plagued the default roster last year.


This roster will be great for franchise mode and RTTS. Since the game replaces players in A ball at the beginning of RTTS, the fake players there will go away and the real players will be in the game still while the game replaces the fake A ball players with game generated fake players.



This is a one-time roster release. I will be starting my franchises with this roster and not looking back. Therefore, there will not be updates unless absolutely necessary. But I don't anticipate too much in that sense.


I plan on starting 3 different franchise/RTTS games. First, I will be doing a future Indians franchise where I sim years into the future to play with all GM stuff on manual. Second, I will be doing a Rockies rebuild and probably using quick manage for most of it. I haven’t played in the NL in a few years and I look forward to the no DH strategy. Last, I will be creating a RTTS left-handed throwing, switch hitting 1B.


I did not edit players ratings so any sliders will work with this roster without issue I would assume. Though I do use my own sliders tweaked for my play style and have never had a problem with using them on any roster edits I have done in or out of franchise.



I am releasing this as I did have a few requests to do so and wanted to share it with the broader OS community. I wanted to get this info out there soon so if there is anyone who has interest in this roster but skeptical about starting with the default rosters, they have an option to use. I also wanted players to have a franchise and RTTS ready roster very early in the cycle instead of waiting a while for the bigger roster releases. Even if it is just a hold over for them. My hope is that a few get enjoyment out of this roster and embrace the PDR Roster and its ideas.


In terms of a release, I am thinking anywhere from 5-7 days for the fully finished product to be done. I work a 12-hour shift Friday then I am off the weekend so I plan on getting a lot done starting Saturday. Maybe even finishing it if I am lucky. I may or may not post updates on my progress but I will announce when it is complete. The next post will be reserved and have the release information when it is complete.


Hopefully this answers any questions you may have.


Disclaimer: I did not create any of the players on this roster. I also use the MLB.com scouting grades.


Thank you for checking out the roster.


Baseball really is the best!

[Funkycorm]

Announcements


The Roster is complete!

File: PDRfinal
PSN: Doctordoof36


What this roster has:

First live roster update as base.

All Fake A ball players have D potential (64-69) and all are rated under 70.
Massive prospect potential edits based off of my adjusted scale (for no more morale impacts).

Large amounts of MLB player potential edits. (Most any player that has MLB time has a potential of 70 or more as they have been to the show at some point.

All teams are at their position minimums so that will minimize trades.

This roster is franchise and RTTS ready now.


Diclaimer: Spencer Torkelson CAP made by drsublime. All other players in the roster are default from SDS.

[Funkycorm]

Draft Class Edits


*Remember that these can only be done at the offseason*


The goal of these is not to recreate real life, the goal is to mesh with what we have roster wise and make it balanced long term.


Those that remember my 2019 roster thread, know I had this long, convoluted system of RNG to lower potentials. I have since gone away from that and to a much more streamlined system that actually meshes better, especially in my testing this year as morale is no longer impacting ratings. I can’t express again how big of a plus that is. To me, that is worth the price of admission alone to franchise in 2021.


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Before we get to the edits, let’s address a few of the flaws of the system I am trying to correct:

1. Players are aged way too high. We can see 24 and 25-year-old draftees then will get 30-year-old rookies of the year.

2. Players can come out of the draft with overalls in the 40’s and never have an impact. This mostly impacts catchers, first and third baseman, and the occasional other position.

3. The game does a bad job of generating power hitting corner OF. Most corner OF generate with a high speed and stealing skill but very low power.

4. Way too many talent prospects are generated at SS and CF. Again, all with high potential and high speed but usually lacking in the power department. Not as bad with the power, but we want that occasional power hitting middle infielder or CF because it happens.

5. The classes start strong and get progressively weaker.


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Anyway, I will share what I do with draft class edits and 1 new edit I added at the beginning of a season (starting year 2). You are welcome to do all of these, none of these, or somewhere in between. I would recommend at least doing 1 of them for the long-term health of your franchise. All of these edits apply to my team as well as the rest of the league.


1. First thing I do is nothing more than take pictures on my tablet of all 30 teams signed draft picks the day after the draft. I used to hand write, but only handwrite a few notes now when need be.

2. To address the age discrepancy and avoid 25-year-old draft picks, I utilize the following scale based on the overall they come out of the draft with. This applies to all prospects with potential of 78 or more. This only applies if they are over the age for their bracket. I won’t touch a 19-year-old 71 overall B potential player:

a. Overall of 60 or less: they become 18 years old if older than 18
b. Overall of 61-65: they become 19 years old if older than 19
c. Overall of 66-70: they become 20 years old if older than 20
d. Overall of 71+: they become 21 years old if older than 21
e. This is designed to mimic college. Players coming out of college will be more ready.
f. For other prospects with potential less than 78 and 23 and older, I honestly tend to let them be.

3. For prospects that come out with a potential of B or more and are under 50 overall. I simply boost them to 50 overall but the trick here is their potential can’t be over 85. If it’s over 85, I drop it to 85.

4. If I see an imbalance of talent at 2B and SS, usually from too many SS, I will change a few to 2B. This is random if I do it and usually no more than 1 to 2 per draft.


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Now with that out of the way, let’s talk about balance of the overall draft class. This is where pictures come in nice as I can just scroll through. Remember, we want balance but we also want to make sure our franchise and roster will be viable long down the road as current MLB players regress and retire.


1. We want a max of 10 A potential prospects in the entire draft

a. So, we must pick those few who will be dropped from that tier. This is only an issue in year 1 as the classes get weaker each year (side note: we really need expanded rosters and longer drafts. It would stop a lot of prospects from not being put in the draft pool and having them age yearly until 25 getting progressively worse grades. Would save me a lot of time).
b. I will typically lower RP and CP to a max potential of 88 if they are here. It makes it uniform and avoids playing favorites.
c. If there is 11 or 12, it is not a big deal

2. Each team can have a max of 1 A potential and 2 B potential prospects per draft.
a. You rarely see a team with more than 1 A potential per draft.
b. Each team can only have a max of 2 potential prospects over 85 so if there are 3 the lowest gets changed to 84

3. If a team doesn’t have an A potential, they are only allowed a max of 2 B potential players.
a. Like above, if there are 3 or more, they get lowered to a 77 potential, which is the top end of the league average. It’s fair because they will still have an impact

4. Each team’s lowest signed prospect must become D potential (67-68).
a. This helps with depth charts and teams will play their better prospects over these guys.
b. If there is a D potential prospect there, don’t change it.

5. So, the goal here is that we want a max of 10 A potential and a max of 60 B potential prospects per draft class.

a. This is a max recommendation but usually there is lower number total. This is higher than the percent in the base roster for this, but it is necessary for the long-term balance.
b. I tried some other methods but this above has worked the best by far.
c. If I have to drop an A potential because of being under 50 overall, I do not make someone else an A instead.


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Now I have one final edit I added this year but it happens at the beginning of the season, starting in year 2 but usually isn’t even needed until year 3 or 4:

1. The top 50 prospect list in the game helps us here.

2. If there is a player aged 24 years old or older on the first day of the regular season and they are not on the 40 man for their team, they get their potential lowered by 10.

3. If they are on the 40 man and not on the MLB team, potential gets lowered by 5.

4. I am on year 9 now and have only had to do this half a dozen times. It’s nothing special but it kind of equals a bust. A once high potential prospect isn’t meeting their potential. It is a nice storyline kind of thing.


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Let’s look at a few examples of all of the above so you can see it in practice. I know it is fairly hard to follow but it is hard to convert my charts into text. In the end, it is a lot simpler than it sounds.

1. I draft a 24 year old catcher with an overall of 58 and potential of 87.

a. Since he is 24, potential over 78, and overall 58: I simply change his age to 18

2. I draft a 19 year old shortstop with an overall of 70 and potential of 90.

a. Since he is 19, potential over 78, and overall of 70: I would do nothing because his age is lower than the 21 year old threshold for his overall.

3. I draft 3 players with potentials of 87, 85, and 80:
a. I am only allowed 2 B potential, so the lowest potential player (80) gets lowered to 77 potential.

4. I draft a 20 year old catcher with an overall of 44 and potential of 90.
a. I lower his age to 18 since he is 60 or less overall with a potential of over 78
b. I would boost him to 50 overall
c. I would change his potential to 85 because he can out under 50.


***************


Everyone can take something from this or none from this, but I wanted to share what I did. If I had to pick one edit, I would pick the age edits. They can be done quickly and it helps with that 29-year-old rookie annoyance almost all of the time. Sim enough and it’s there, but for most people that is very far down the road if ever.


I know this is a lot but I wanted to break it up. As I said, it is a lot simpler than it sounds. I have a chart that I made and it doesn’t take up much space at all. It is harder to explain it than to actually practice it.

[Funkycorm]

Feel free to ask any questions or provide any constructive feedback.

[The Kid 24]

Sorry, just want to be sure... This will be a MLB 21 roster not MLB 20, right?

[Funkycorm]

Quote: Originally Posted by The Kid 24

Sorry, just want to be sure... This will be a MLB 21 roster not MLB 20, right?

Yeah.

I realized I left that off and added it back in. My bad.

[Funkycorm]

I will be starting this tonight with the default roster or the first live one I guess technically. I heard there are some veterans and such missing, but I am not going to worry about that as my plan is to take the default and go forward.

Because it affects the potential scale for the top 10 current prospects, I will attempt to create Detroit's top prospect Spencer Torkelson and rate him. I am not a CAP creator so his face and stance and what not will not be accurate, but his vitals will.

I may check the vault to see if someone made him and add him in then adjust the ratings as necessary.

This is a single exception to adding to the base roster because as I said it directly impacts the top 10 prospects and my potential scale.

A friend of mine got the game digital at midnight and I had given him a list of questions to answer for me. Found out that we have 93 players on the rosters this year and that there seem to be only a few teams that need players positions adjusted to get them to the minimum. That is a good thing as it will be less work. He also confirmed that A ball was once again fake players as I had assumed.

The plan is to complete the editing of the fake A ball players tonight to D potential, adjust all teams to position minimums, get Torkelson made, and start on the prospect edits.

By end of the day tomorrow I should be ready to tackle the MLB player potentials that need adjusting, and have this out by early next week once I run a test sim on it. I will update on the ETA once I get the game installed and get going on the editing.

As a note, I am old school and there is not a spread sheet of players potentials. I worked on them by hand and I don't plan on making a sheet available as they are in a notebook and would create extra work for me.

[Funkycorm]

Made quite a bit of progress tonight. More than I thought I would.

I got all the A ball players to D potential.

I also finished editing potentials of the top 15 prospects per team.

I got Torkelson added thanks to drsublime and his CAP.

I started all the position potential balancing for all the rest of the players. I got the easy positions out of the way so far.

I may be done late tomorrow at this rate. I may wait thru the weekend and decide if I am going to add any more CAPs or not. But I anticipate a release no later than Monday night in time for everyone who did not get the game early.

With morale no longer playing a role in ratings, I did modify my potential scale slightly to adjust for it and this actually makes the top 10 prospects stick out more.