Every year around this time, MLB: 12 The Show fans get ready to start their franchise. But some can’t do it without one important thing.

The Operations Sports Full Minors roster project, started by Michael Koncz, or you may know him better as Operation Sports forum member Knight165. The rosters include all of the minor leaguers real names, ratings, faces (when possible) and attributes.

When asked why he does what he does, Koncz kept it simple.

“I've always liked to edit rosters for sports games," he said. "For me, it goes all the way back to Front Page Sports Baseball. I used to run a league online in which each owner would send me their roster/lineup moves and I would sim the games and post the results.

"Then it was High Heat. That game really got me into editing historical rosters. The "glory" years of baseball. 1951, 1969, 1927, etc.”

After High Heat went defunct, Koncz was left without a baseball game. But through his past with High Heat, he made friends along the way. One of those friends, Diablo25 on OS, convinced him to tryout the new MLB series: The Show.

“I was kind of searching for something new ... so I guess I have (Diablo25) to thank for my connection to SCEA and The Show," said Koncz. "It was amazing to watch the growth and transformation of The Show from the 2005 version to the '12 version.”

Every year Koncz gets together his ragtag group of OS community members to create the OS Full Minors. Before he had his following, he would do each ballclub himself. It was a project that would take over 250 hours to complete. Now, with the help of so many OS users, the project timeline sits around 50 hours for completion. Talk about dedication.

With all of the time and effort put forth by Knight, he surely must ask himself what he has gotten himself into. It has become second nature to him; something that he loves to do and expects himself to do. However, his wife still gives him the look every March.

Finally, when asked if he could see himself getting to a point where he might be ready to hang up the roster duties, or if he plans on doing this for a while, Koncz stated what we all wanted to hear.

“I kind of took a break last year, with the community doing a lot of the work and not doing a historical set for the first time in a long time," sad Koncz. "I really missed it. It's therapy for me in a way. I don't watch television and my 'reading' has been audio books on my commute to and from work, so gaming is my hobby. My wife is fine with it as she knows where I am pretty much 24/7.”

The work Koncz does for the community is invaluable to so many MLB: The Show fans. While there are other roster creators out there, none have built the reputation that Koncz has with his OS community. Without him, The Show, or OS for that matter, would not be the same.

You can check out Koncz rosters for 2012 here.