TOTALMINORS VERSION 3 RELEASED!!!

[GForce22]

Version 1 now available on my site, www.rosterdevelopmentgroup.com. Have sent here as well.

Below is the readme, which is also included in the zip.

This will now serve as the official feedback thread for TotalMinors as well. Your feedback will make this the best it can be.

You'll notice the future planned v 1.1 is now referred to as v2 in the ReadMe. Sorry for the confusion, just thought the 1.1 thing seemed stupid.

Enjoy and thanks to all for their patience. Hope it meets expectations.

GH

TOTALMINORS '04 for MVP BASEBALL: V1

Gregg "GForce22" Henglein

Thank you for downloading Version 1 of TotalMinors for MVP Baseball. Hopefully you will enjoy it.

A lot of you know me from my work on High Heat Baseball and Out of the Park, where I served as the roster developer for the release of OOTP5 in addition to my third-party work such as the All-time Roster Project. I have been very fortunate to be well regarded in the roster development field, and hope this release will be no exception.

Those of you following the project know it's taken a while due to family and work responsibilities. I appreciate the patience and support I've been shown during it's development. If you know me, you know the dedication I put into my rosters, and believe me, v1 is just the start. There are lots of additions coming.

First, if you don't want to read any more of my ramblings, to install simply copy the files into your mvp baseball/data/ folder. Done!

Also, TotalMinors is donationware. You are NOT required to pay me a dime for the roster. It's free. But if you like it and feel my work is worth a few bucks, you can make a Paypal payment through my Web site. If you don't like Paypal and care to send cash or check, e-mail me. But regardless of whether you donate or not, enjoy the rosters and please give your feedback. It's how they will improve.

Version 1 includes:

-- All transactions up to opening day

-- Virtually all of the top 30 prospects for each team as designated by Baseball America. Few exceptions based on depth (i.e., if a franchise is loaded with 4 shortstops at AA and below, I don't use them all), but at least 25 per team are in. When all is said and done, if you see someone missing you would like, let me know and I'll try to put him together for you

-- Accurate 25-man rosters as of Opening Day

-- DL'd players as of Opening Day are in AAA. Regrettably, Robert Glass (creator of the indispensible MVPEdit program) was limited by the game configuration and couldn't give me access to DL guys from the start of the season. But putting them as FAs makes no sense to me, nor does cutting their ratings. This way they are accessible and you can handle them how you like, be it reducing ratings or whatever.

-- Uniform numbers correct for MLB players, some minor leaguers (will get these accurate all the way through by final version)

-- All minor leaguers rated through my TotalMinors spreadsheets, which I will detail more later. Basically, these factor 3 years of minor league data, adjusting for age relative to league, park factors, etc. For sabremetrics fans out there, these factor K:IP, K:BB, plate patience is valued highly...All ratings, including speed, pitch types, arm strength, etc. are adjusted based on scouting reports as well. NOBODY in this set just had a name slapped on them for a guy "close" to what their ratings should be. They were all run through and rated accordingly.

-- After allocating all real players to the proper franchise and level and adding the BA prospects, remaining slots at AAA and AA are filled with real players from those rosters, rated the same as noted in the previous graph. The backup SS at AA? Rated in the same fashion as the 5-star prospect at AAA.

-- Minor league rotations and lineups are complete, in line or very close to the real minor leagues (allowing for the AAA spots taken up by DL players and AA spots taken by top prospects who, in real life, are at lower levels

-- Contract lengths have been modified. All major league deals should be right, except for the younger players who need to be adjusted to reflect arbitration. In addition, minor league contract lengths better reflect a prospect's age.

-- If I could find a picture on the minor league Web site or Getty Images, I made appearances as close to real as I could.

-- MLB Batting Stances have been updated from stuff I've seen on various threads on several boards. If you see anything in this regard, stance, delivery, equipment, please let me know and I will gladly fix it accordingly. This goes for minor leaguers as well.

What's left to do?

I plan 2 more versions (there may be small updates in-between for little things, but I plan 2 substantial upgrades).

v2 (I have previously termed this v 1.1 but that's stupid. This allows me some quick releases for adjustments as they come along.) V2 will include:

-- Finish contract terms (adding real dollar equivalents)

-- Finish minor league uniform numbers

-- Fix hot/cold zones (too many cold zones overall, I think)

-- Implement fixes pointed out by users based on v1

-- Start of major league revisions (top players, basically, or guys it's obvious the game just had way off)

v3 will be the final planned version for this year

-- Player IDs for minor leaguers (a list is being compiled to make adding photos easier)

-- Major league ratings modifications (I have most of these set aside, just a matter of time to get them in, but it will be much quicker than it was to get v1 out.) This will be an overhaul...better hitting, fielding, pitching ratings. I don't blame guys for not wanting to wait until then (which is why I hope to get some changes into v2), but this will greatly improve things, IMO, and I will be getting to this quickly.

What other files do I need for this roster?

-- you don't NEED other files, but I strongly suggest Bill Harris' progression mod at MVPMods and Ron Rodkey's v3 datafile. Both GREATLY improve the game/dynasty experience.

You said a while ago this would be a .sav file. Why the change?

-- I had said a .sav file because I have had my work taken and passed off as someone else's for High Heat and for Out of the Park. Can't edit a .sav file. But guys have been great and very supportive this year, and I've put some safeguards in where I'll know if it's my set taken...no reason to penalize guys who may want to just tweak the set a bit for their liking, so I've attached the separate files instead.

Will there be a roster with the DL guys on the MLB roster?

-- Yes, just not for v1. I didn't want to go having to incorporate revisions into 2 sets of rosters. For v3 there will definitely be 2 versions. I may do this for v2 as well. I'm not sure yet.

You've talked about other things you wanted to do, like park effect modifications and ratings spreadsheets. Will you be able to do these?

-- Yeah. That's my fault. I talked about these things but had so much to do on the rosters I kind of lost track. I will try to get spreadsheets up soon, and I will post a datafile with right park effects (or give them to Ron Rodkey to incorporate into his work).

What happened to your messageboard? It seems like you post more at other boards than your own.

-- What happened was I was stupid. Other boards that carry all mods have a lot more traffic than mine. To limit things to my own site would be limiting the number of people who would see/talk about my work. Made no sense. With release, I will be posting more there (and the file will be on my site as well), but the other forums have more traffic so it more sense to post there. I was limiting myself with my own site.

Questions/Comments, please e-mail me at ghenglein@yahoo.com

Special thanks:

Bill Harris of GoneGold.com for his hard work on the progression file, and his overall support of my work. It's much appreciated.

Robert Glass for his tireless work on MVPEdit, without which TotalMinors wouldn't have been possible.

Nick (x94blair) for gathering MLB split information

Scott Nepp, Ron Rodkey and Chukj45 (hey, I don't have real names for everyone for their great work on modding the datafile itself to make this game a lot better than out of the box.

All modders...you guys do great stuff for this game and I'm glad to be among you

Everyone at BaseballSimCentral, MVPMods, RosterDevelopmentGroup.com, Operation Sports and HighHeat2004.net for the patience and support shown towards me with this project this year. Guys knew I was short on time and respected that, and it's very much appreciated. I hope I have/will make this project worth your wait.

[billharris44]

If anybody sims 20 seasons under these conditions--

1. EA Patches applied

2. Total Minors Roster Set used

3. V2 of my player progression mod used

I would really appreciate if you'd send your dynasty save file to me at bharris@gonegold.com. I'd like to do league totals and see how the mod works with Total Minors. 20 seasons is the optimal period, but you can send me a save from 10 seasons if that's all you have.

I don't think I'll need to put out a new version, but the only reason I did the player progression mod to start with was because the Total Minors rosters were being done for the game, so if my mod needs tuning, it will be done.

Thanks and congrats to GForce22 for his endless work on these rosters.

[Cris987]

Be proud of youself!!! you should be GForce! I glanced over it in MvpEdit, and I'm REALLY impressed!

I'm not going to use ur roster just yet, becuz I'm more keen on v3 and i might do a transaction update on it as well . Meanwhile, I miaght help you look over this roster and find some bugs - here's a few.

- I used MvpEdit's tool, and it showed a few incomplete linup, However, they were completed when I checked them out

- Boston AL vs RHP Gabe Kapler and Jason Varitek should be switched around in postion

-there's a lot of AA/AAA pitchers who can hit REALLY well considering that they are AA/AAA pithcers eg. Francisco Rosario - con vs L 37/42 vs R 45/35

- have to tune down Prospects (eg. Alexis Rios - 85/95 contact) so that player progression would work

- interestingly, I couldn't find Jays , Jason Frasor, anywhere. He is a former AAA Dodgers, who got traded to Toronto for Jason Werth

that's it for now. Thx alot GForce!!!

[Renegade44]

hey gforce i just tested out your rosters for the past half hour they look great man. I only have 1 complaint. for some reason the curveballs dont curve and the sliders dont slide nomore. all pitches dont really have any movement on them for some reason. now im not 100%that your rosters can make this happen but it just wasnt like this till i used your rosters and it wasnt like it afterwords. hell, you may have intended it to be like this idk. i just like throwing those backbreakers w/glavine.

anyone else having this problem?

[poonani]

i will extensively test your roster for the yankees tomorrow and give you a list of things to fix. your work is SO appreciated in making this game the best it can be

[chakfu]

Looks pretty good!

I kind of wish that you had more major league veterans in teams AAA squads, but I understand that that's limited by the single-A guys you want to get in there. Maybe next year they'll give us single-A squads too...I feel greedy wanting that, but once they give you this much, I still want more!

For example on my Indians though, in AAA Buffalo in real life they have 2 catchers, both with ML experience, one who even has his portrait in the game - Dusty Wathan and Sandy Martinez...but instead if you have single-A catchers in AAA and AA.

Probably not much you can do with that though. I just had a very interesting thought though: if mvpedit eventually allows you to put players on the DL, could you then use the DL to stash extra players? Say you're doing the Indians, pretend everyone is actually healthy, but you fill up AAA and AA with prospects and leave off some fringe minor league guys like Wathan and Martinez - could you just give those guys fake injuries and put them on the DL? They wouldn't be on the roster really, but you could use the DL as a taxi squad, if you have injuries, activate them and call them up, otherwise just leave them there. This strikes me as a good way to add extra guys if it's possible! Is there a limit to guys you can put on the DL?

I don't know, for some reason I just get a kick out of obscure guys and like to have that type of guy in the game on a AAA squad, more than a single-A prospect - I'd love to see everyone who has a portrait in the game make it into the rosters, that's extra fun to me. But I'm sure other people would rather see the low minors guys.

[Cris987]

Looks pretty good!

I kind of wish that you had more major league veterans in teams AAA squads, but I understand that that's limited by the single-A guys you want to get in there. Maybe next year they'll give us single-A squads too...I feel greedy wanting that, but once they give you this much, I still want more!

For example on my Indians though, in AAA Buffalo in real life they have 2 catchers, both with ML experience, one who even has his portrait in the game - Dusty Wathan and Sandy Martinez...but instead if you have single-A catchers in AAA and AA.

Probably not much you can do with that though. I just had a very interesting thought though: if mvpedit eventually allows you to put players on the DL, could you then use the DL to stash extra players? Say you're doing the Indians, pretend everyone is actually healthy, but you fill up AAA and AA with prospects and leave off some fringe minor league guys like Wathan and Martinez - could you just give those guys fake injuries and put them on the DL? They wouldn't be on the roster really, but you could use the DL as a taxi squad, if you have injuries, activate them and call them up, otherwise just leave them there. This strikes me as a good way to add extra guys if it's possible! Is there a limit to guys you can put on the DL?

I don't know, for some reason I just get a kick out of obscure guys and like to have that type of guy in the game on a AAA squad, more than a single-A prospect - I'd love to see everyone who has a portrait in the game make it into the rosters, that's extra fun to me. But I'm sure other people would rather see the low minors guys.

Interesting thought. If there WERE single A, GForce would be workin his a$$ off

regarding MVPEdit, from what I kno, it is IMMPOSSIBLE to have a player put on DL in a roster set. It's not MVPEdit's fault, it's just that MVP Baseball doesn't have this.

[jpup]

great job G. when you get the chance, the pitch descriptions are off for a lot of the pitchers in all leagues. curveballs are not curving. wondering if you knew this and if it was a mistake?

otherwise, great job.

[GForce22]

UGH!!! The pitch description thing is my screw up. I had messed something up and pulled a backup out, but the backup was before I edited the pitch descriptions to make them accurate. They had gotten reset to none for some reason.

I'll get this fixed today.

GH

[Millennium]

I also, being inexperienced with the editor, think you may have globally editted the 'Pitch Movement' value by a percentage, as all of the pitchers I have seen on the Orioles have movement less than 10.

[poonani]

anyone know what # face refers to the default ones (491-?)

alright heres my fix/problem list...ill keep editing it

-------------------------------------------

yankees-

donovan osborne (MLB)'s ID is 663 (not 0)

jorge depaula (MLB) is having tommy john surgery and will be gone till AT LEAST summer of next year (most likely longer), im not sure where that would set him in the rosters, i honestly dont think he'll play another game in the yankees system considering that he'll be 27 next time he plays a major league game.

bubba crosby (MLB) does not have a goatee

[eastjam]

ok, so gforce, when are the updated pitch movement fixed ones gunna be posted? are they in the uploaded file on mvpmods already?

[bp10]

The only things that I found with the Cardinals, is Hector Luna and So Taguchi should be switched for power, their contact looks about right. Luna already has 3 homers on the season in limited time and Taguchi I think has 2 for his career.

Also, could you add Brad Thompson to the Tennessee Smokies, the AA team. He is on a scoreless innings streak of 52 stretching from last year to this year, with 43 1/3 this year. He moved up a lot of the prospect lists because he now has a career 1.99 ERA and is only in his second season of pro ball and dominating at AA. He throws a low 90's fastball (he says a sinking 2-seamer, so I would make that his better pitch), good slider, and a change that is a work in progress.

Anyway, awesome job on the rosters.

[GForce22]

Will have update with many fixes/changes posted late tonight.

GH

[voodoo_daddy]

-Minnesota's No. 5 starter Seth Greisinger is nowhere to be found.

[poonani]

anyone know what each skin tone in mvpedit means? and how they need to correspond to the faces (can you have a dark face and light tone?)

[adembroski]

I think as far as hitters go, you got this thing right on, but the pitchers are a tad weak at the lower end of the spectrum.

I have hardly any control, movement, or speed from any of them.

The Diamondbacks AA team has a pitcher that throws a 56 MPH cut fastball.

[billharris44]

Somebody ran 20 seasons for me and sent me the save file.

Home runs after 20 seasons were at 6100 for the league total. That's higher than the mod with the default rosters by about 8%, but remember that the pitch movement ratings aren't in there for some of the pitches. When the revised rosters are uploaded tonight, I bet the numbers are dead on. GeForce is always so careful about his ratings distributions that I'm totally confident the progression mod will work fine with it.

[ShesHotSheSteals]

Luna should also should ve listed as UTIL as he plays catcher alot

[Millennium]

I just got why the numbers were low (editor uses a 0-15 scale for movement)

So a couple of changes for the Orioles:

-Denny Bautista started the year in the minors. If you wanted to replace him, Erik Bedard is the logical choice.

-Larry Bigbie, contrary to many MLB site (mlb.com, espn.com) throws right handed and bats lefty.

That's all I could find with my O's. Great stuff GForce!

[Wolverineman]

I'd imagine this happened because I'm inexperienced with MVPedit or something. I downloaded the rosters, put them in my MVPBaseball folder, and then tried to load them up with MVPEdit. When I did, on the AAA and AA parts, almost every player shows up as either SP or C, with their secondary position being the correct position for them. This seemed very strange, especially since I couldn't view the pitching ratings of a lot of the pitchers. Anyone know whats going on? Besides that, what I could see looks awesome.

[Mutombo]

Luna should also should ve listed as UTIL as he plays catcher alot

If you're talking about Hector Luna, you're wrong. He doesn't catch a lot. In fact he hasn't caught at all. Played 2B, SS, 3B, and a little outfield, but not caught.

[eastjam]

hey everyone. well, i just tested out the rosters playing pirates vs phillies, and i had no problem with the pitching movements. my sliders are sliding, curvballs curving . . . . these on gforces rosters. now - are people finding the pitching problems with minor leagues only or MLB, because i only tried mlb and found that there was no problem with pitch movement.

[GForce22]

OK guys, a few things:

Expect an updated file late tonight or, at latest, by midday Monday. I already have several fixes completed with more to do (adding a few players like Greisinger, Tyler Walker).

I also exaggerated the difference between top prospects and non-prospects...easy fix, will be in update as well.

A thing for guys if you want...a couple of guys sent me equipment notes for their teams. I am happy to add these things, so if you could just look at guys from your team and send me any notes on shin guards, glove color, batting gloves, etc. I will implement them as I go. Time restrictions are the only reason I didn't search for these already, but next time you watch your team, just make a few notes and pass them on, and I'll get it in.

Also, regarding ratings, I won't be adjusting guys based on what they've done this year. Hector Luna's power is fine...the guy hit 2 homers in 460 at bats in AA last year. A small sample size doesn't merit an adjustment based on his career history. I will gladly make adjustments, but not based on 100 at bats of this season.

Thanks guys.

GH

[CarpFan]

Thank you so much GForce. I'm a long time fan. That said the only mistake I've noticed so far is that you have Greg LaRocca playing 3B for the Buffalo Bison. This past off-season he signed with the Hiroshima Carp of the Japanese Central League, where he currently plays 2B. IIRC he signed sometime in early February.