How are Card Overall Ratings Determined?

[Sorim]

This is my first season playing perfect team, and by far the most confusing thing I've come across is that the overall number on a card seems to not really mean anything. For example, I got a 90 overall Bryan Reynolds out of a pack today, but when I compared him to my 69 overall Amos Otis it was just objectively worse in almost every category. Does anyone know how these overall ratings are actually determined? It really sucks to get hyped about about a new diamond player only to find out he's worse than a bronze.

[Southern_Aristocrat]

Originally Posted by Sorim

This is my first season playing perfect team, and by far the most confusing thing I've come across is that the overall number on a card seems to not really mean anything. For example, I got a 90 overall Bryan Reynolds out of a pack today, but when I compared him to my 69 overall Amos Otis it was just objectively worse in almost every category. Does anyone know how these overall ratings are actually determined? It really sucks to get hyped about about a new diamond player only to find out he's worse than a bronze.

The overall ratings are *usually* a good guide, barring a jarring weakness that overwhelms any positives ( i.e. 20 control on a pitcher, 50 infield range on a 2nd baseman). But get used to it. Last year there were 100 rated perfect cards that were unplayable trash.... You have to do the work and look at the full details.

EDIT: I'd like to add you have a choice to liquidate high value cards for points now to quick start your tournament roster or main roster. However (at the moment it's pure speculation on my part), last year 99% of high value historical cards were used as future mission fillers and rose significantly in value. In the past high value live cards were in general not worth more than the base price so I always got rid of them for points but don't quote me on that for this year...

[Bunktown Ballers]

Originally Posted by Southern_Aristocrat

The overall ratings are *usually* a good guide, barring a jarring weakness that overwhelms any positives ( i.e. 20 control on a pitcher, 50 infield range on a 2nd baseman). But get used to it. Last year there were 100 rated perfect cards that were unplayable trash.... You have to do the work and look at the full details.

EDIT: I'd like to add you have a choice to liquidate high value cards for points now to quick start your tournament roster or main roster. However (at the moment it's pure speculation on my part), last year 99% of high value historical cards were used as future mission fillers and rose significantly in value. In the past high value live cards were in general not worth more than the base price so I always got rid of them for points but don't quote me on that for this year...

If you look at the LIVE cards this year their rating are representing the 2020 season and not the 2021 season. And on the "Back" of the cards the REAL LIFE STATS do not match the rating on the card. The best card to confirm my claim is Corbin Burners 2022 LIVE (which should represent the 2021 season not the 2020 card) although I think nearly every cards ratings. Every card in this years PT-LIVE set represent the 2020 stats meaning NOT last 2021 years cards. Burnes 2022 LIVE card rating does not represent the CY YOUNG he won, not even close . Even if you don't have a Burnes Card..check out the live REAL LIFE STATS vs the LIVE card you have

[HRBaker]

Personally, I think the OOTP team calculates the "true value" of the card (which we will never see) and then assigns a random variation like "plus or minus 5%" which would give us a rough idea of where the card fits in the grand top-to-bottom list.


If that's the way it actually works, then studying each card is critical to being successful which is the whole idea anyway

[Jasimino]

i noticed the same thing with Anthony Rendon the live card is rated 10 points higher yet the 2017 card is better on almost all the individual stats.

[Fabtron7]

Originally Posted by Jasimino

i noticed the same thing with Anthony Rendon the live card is rated 10 points higher yet the 2017 card is better on almost all the individual stats.

Historical cards are generally speaking always better (relative to their rating). The Live cards are pulled a much higher rate that historicals and have to be worse since they are largely pack-filler.

The ratings for the live cards are mostly based on the ZIPS projection systems prediction for how the players will perform during the 2022 MLB season. There's some tweaking here and there... but it's mostly ZIPS.

[ncap99]

Ignore the overall rating it is meaningless, honestly, aside from how much the card sells for. There are 82 overalls that will outperform 95 overalls by a large margin for example. In general the higher cards are better, but you can find examples of cards with the same overall rating where one card is better in literally every category at the same position.

Take the time to understand the effects of ratings and their importance and base your decisions on that instead of using overall. 2B arm strength might factor in to their defense in a similar fashion to SS and have a similar effect on their overall rating, but arm matters less to a 2B in game sims as an example. If you are running a lot of groundballer pitchers your IF defense might have a more pronounced effect on your team performance. Things like that.

[dmoney350z]

The overall ratings are *usually* a good guide, barring a jarring weakness that overwhelms any positives ( i.e. 20 control on a pitcher, 50 infield range on a 2nd baseman). But get used to it. Last year there were 100 rated perfect cards that were unplayable trash.... You have to do the work and look at the full details.

Speaking of unplayable trash, here's the Harrison Bader live card. 95 overall. His batting skills are garbage and he'll never see my lineup. His fielding ratings are great but why would I play him? Why is he 95 overall? Also, thanks for saying "get used to it" and "you have to do the work." That's great. Doesn't really explain why a highly rated card is actually garbage.

[the doctor]

Yeah, unfortunately that's just the way it's always been with PT - the live cards are always worse than the historical ones. The issue does seem more pronounced in '23 though - I've seen numerous live platinums that are objectively worse than historical bronzes (the Bader above is horrible, and the other one coming to mind right now is Clayton Kershaw).

It's genuinely frustrating with the way the pack odds work - it's always felt to me like the historical cards should have different (displayed) odds or be a different "tier" of card than the lives, if they're going to be so comically better. It's a huge bummer to draw a platinum or perfect only to have it flip over and reveal it's a totally useless live card. It also just seems to kind of go against the spirit of what (in my mind) PT should be encouraging - what sort of baseball fan is excited to draw Jim "Boxcar" Pemberton (for the record, I made this guy up) that they've never heard of, versus a modern player they're an active fan of? Then you go look up ol' Boxcar's real life stats and it turns out he hit a career high 7 homers in 1922, but for some reason he's inexplicably got 145 power compared to, like, 88 power for a Guerrero Jr. The historical player ratings are often totally befuddling.