Best Roster for Franchise Mode (and a call for feedback)

[ViatorLion10]

Finally finished! What initially started as a small project (just editing the Cubs roster) eventually turned into a MUCH larger project as I decided to really do a job instead of just nipping around the edges. Below are the full details, as well as a request for feedback on something specific.


Roster Base: I used Cycloniac's TrueSim roster as a base. Cy did another great job this year, providing a strong base I could build on. I did have some discrepancies that I felt needed to be edited, so that's why I decided to embark on this project to put my own little spin on things.


Editing focus: My main focus was to try and get MLB player overalls a little more in-line with a player's true value. For the most part, Cy's ratings matched up pretty tight with what I got. The main discrepancies came with pitchers and catchers being a little overrated, and I just wanted to turn that down a bit. I also dug deep into player potentials and edited those to fit better with my tier system (defined below) and a player's current and future role.


The big thing I can offer with this roster is a really deep dive into the top prospects. I went through every team's top 30 prospects (per MLB Pipeline) and edited current overalls to better match with MLB ETAs. I also did a vast amount of research into identifying a prospect's true potential. I wanted prospect potentials to feel more free flowing and not so systematic. Additionally, I tried to greatly restrict the ceilings of prospects. Very few prospects got "A" potentials from me, while even those that broke into the "B" level still found it tough to break 85. A large majority of prospects fell into the 75-79 range (which is roughly league average).


Editing Method: For MLB players, I mostly used fWAR to determine a player's value. I looked mainly at the last 3 seasons played to determine their value as a player, and then correlated that to a role, which had a range of overalls (see below). To determine potentials, the highest fWAR value was considered, and a potential was adjusted from that value (e.g. if a player only had one high WAR season, I would prorate his value more towards his consistent value; older players were held to stricter potentials, while younger players were given a little leeway for additional growth).



Prospect overalls were determined by a combination of their current minor league level they are playing at along with their MLB ETA (per MLB Pipeline). Potentials were generated via a combination of their "overall" grade, their age (younger players received loftier potentials, while older players were more harshly restricted), their ranking in their team's system, and off of their tool grades and scouting reports (some reports hype up players so they received slight boosts, while other reports are a little more mild mannered, thus the potential reflects that).


Player Tiers
Elite: 95-99
Superstar/Ace/Elite Closer: 90-95
All-Star/Top Rotation/Top Closer: 86-90
Great/2nd or 3rd SP/High leverage RP: 82-85
Above Avg./Mid rotation SP/Mid-Late RP: 78-81
Avg./4th or 5th SP/Regular RP: 75-77
Role player/5th SP/Low leverage RP: 72-74
AAAA player (players stuck between AAA and MLB): 69-71
AAA player: 64-68



Call for feedback: The biggest part of this roster is the editing that I did for the Chicago Cubs (my hometown team). I am testing out a new ratings method for both MLB and MiLB prospects that I was hoping to debut this year, but was unable to finish due to time constraints. However, I wanted to give it a go for at least my favorite team. Therefore, the entire Chicago Cubs roster (all players from 1-93) were all edited using this method I developed. I also included every single one of their top 30 prospects and even a couple more unknowns that were excluded from the list. I was very pleased with the outputs this method gave me for the Cubs, and even ran a couple season-long simulations in Franchise and was very satisfied with the results.


So my request for everyone who views this thread is simple: even if you have no interest in using the roster for Franchise, I would sincerely appreciate if you downloaded the roster and took a look at the Chicago Cubs. I'm eager to receive critical feedback of what you guys think works, what you think doesn't work, and any suggestions on how to improve. I think I'm going to try to debut this method in a roster set next season, I just need to get an early start on the process because it's a doozy.


Please leave your feedback on this thread, and thanks a bunch ahead of time. I always say creators should be open to feedback and criticisms, so I am a man of my word and willing to listen to what y'all have to say.


Draft class editing: As with any roster that severely restricts potentials, it is probably a good idea to have some sort of a gameplan to edit the incoming draft classes so they don't completely flood the roster with overrated randomly generated players. I developed a method for quick and efficient draft class editing that I will be using myself. You can find that thread here: https://forums.operationsports.com/f...post2050400163


File name for download: "Best Roster for Franchise" or username search "ViatorLion10"


VERSION 2.0 AVAILABLE NOW


The update includes the editing system being deployed on the Colorado Rockies, a team perfectly primed for a rebuild in this year's game



My finals are done. My roster is finished.


I'm ready for some baseball. See y'all out there!

[Figment]

Your Cubs look great man. I love seeing Michael McAvene, Matt Mervis, Luis Verdugo, Yeison Santana, and Ismael Mena in the roster.


Great representation of both Tommy Nance and Justin Steele, I think they are spot on rating wise. Same with Dakota Mekkes and Michael Rucker as actual prospects ready to reach the MLB.


I'd like to see Luke Little (for obvious fun reasons, who doesn't want a 105mph lefty on their team ) and Juan Gamez would be a great addition too, but overall I love the roster, can't get everybody. Maybe reevaluate DJ Herz, dude has been on a tear in the minors.

[JackNCoke]

Flipped through the roster fairly quickly so no indepth notes as of yet. The one thing I’m curious about is what changes you did for the Cubs versus everyone else. They seem to stick out to me as being on a separate scale. Again. Just curious.

[ViatorLion10]

Quote: Originally Posted by Figment

Your Cubs look great man. I love seeing Michael McAvene, Matt Mervis, Luis Verdugo, Yeison Santana, and Ismael Mena in the roster. Great representation of both Tommy Nance and Justin Steele, I think they are spot on rating wise. Same with Dakota Mekkes and Michael Rucker as actual prospects ready to reach the MLB. I'd like to see Luke Little (for obvious fun reasons, who doesn't want a 105mph lefty on their team ) and Juan Gamez would be a great addition too, but overall I love the roster, can't get everybody. Maybe reevaluate DJ Herz, dude has been on a tear in the minors.

Appreciate the feedback. Yea Luke Little was one of my cuts prospect wise because he's not at the forefront of guys in the system quite yet and he's also very inexperienced and I couldn't overload the system with guys in the 50s. As far as Herz, he's been very filthy, but he's still only at low A ball so that doesn't give him a massive bump to his ratings.

[ViatorLion10]

Quote: Originally Posted by JackNCoke

Flipped through the roster fairly quickly so no indepth notes as of yet. The one thing I’m curious about is what changes you did for the Cubs versus everyone else. They seem to stick out to me as being on a separate scale. Again. Just curious.

The Cubs were edited based of of my own in-depth method. So I collected all the necessary stats for MLB players and scouting reports for prospects and input those into a spreadsheet I created, and it generates ratings for each and every player. That is the main thing I am debuting here, and I wanted to see what people think of that.


The rest of the roster was edited just based off of Cycloniac's base ratings, but to better overalls and potentials that I thought based of of fWAR and what not. Also helped balance out the roster with what I did for the Cubs players.

[jfinger2013]

Just for Cubs only browsed thru , just based off overall ratings I prefer yours to Cyclone by a mile just based purely off my beloved Cubs but then just looking at details I’m really confused as to how Anthony Rizzo is one of the best batters against Left handed pitchers with a .365 average I believe but both rosters have his contact and powered higher against right handlers when it’s like that’s just not the case at all but like I said I only skimmed thru the Cubs because I’m watching them play Dodgers right now lol will check back

[ViatorLion10]

Quote: Originally Posted by jfinger2013

Just for Cubs only browsed thru , just based off overall ratings I prefer yours to Cyclone by a mile just based purely off my beloved Cubs but then just looking at details I’m really confused as to how Anthony Rizzo is one of the best batters against Left handed pitchers with a .365 average I believe but both rosters have his contact and powered higher against right handlers when it’s like that’s just not the case at all but like I said I only skimmed thru the Cubs because I’m watching them play Dodgers right now lol will check back

Idk why everybody thinks Rizz is such a good hitter against lefties. In reality, his number indicate he's about slightly above average in the contact department (.264 over the last three years which is what I use for my calculations) and below average in the power department (.141 ISO). His numbers against lefties this year are more of an aberration than an indication of his true abilities against lefties.

[jfinger2013]

Got ya , yeah I just saw that most roster creators do their numbers based on every 3 years and not just based upon this season …. Sorry bro 😭