All-Time Roster Project Beta Released

[GForce22]

Hi all,

The beta version of the All-time roster project is up now at the (very crudely) redesigned RosterDevelopmentGroup.com. I am an absolute Web site novice, but it at least has a LITTLE more going on than the old site did.

Simply unzip into whatever league folder you want and you're ready to go.

I welcome all feedback, as it is the only way this project will continue to develop to be all it can be. I am very excited about it in its current state, but I know it can be improved.

Up next will be a release with more negro league and Japanese stars added for the draft, as well as other players added to specific teams. That release will also incorporate other changes I see as I continue to test, as well as things you all notice.

Below is a rehashing of what's included for those who don't know. If you've followed the project, below is stuff you pretty much know already.

Thanks to all for the support. There's much more to come!

GH
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The All-Time Roster Project


-- 28 teams, two leagues (American & National).

-- Teams are the 26 before the last 4 expansion teams, one team comprised of players from the last 4 expansion teams, and the "Washington Senators," which is made up of Negro League stars and a few Japanese stars as well.

-- Managers assigned for each team from the best manager they had who is not a player in the set. Subject to debate in some cases I'm sure.

-- Players are rated to correlate to performance in "80's style" baseball. Frank "Home Run" Baker will not hit a max of 12 home runs in a season as he did in his career, but closer to 30-40 to reflect the difference in generation. These guys aren't just imported, but studied and rated accordingly to make a true universe rated on the same scale. Without doing that, a set like this just doesn't work, IMO.

-- Ages reflect when a player played. More recent players are younger. This creates an interesting dynamic as teams need to decide if they will hold on to a veteran if a good young player is coming up behind him, making franchise play a real joy in my eyes. For example, with my age variations, Jimmie Foxx is 29, right in his prime. Mark McGwire is 19. Jason Giambi 18. In 4 years, or when Foxx hits free agency, do the A's let him go to let one of the kids replace him. Do they trade him?

A better scenario...the Yankees have a 28 year old Joe DiMaggio and a 25 year old Mickey Mantle. Do they deal one of them to try to bring back young pitching, for example. Same with Yogi Berra/Bill Dickey (after all, I do not have a DH in this file, so the time needs to get split somewhere).

What about a team like the Mets, which has some potentially great pitching talent (remember, the Mets, because of the age variation, are full of very young guys...Seaver is only 22) but VERY little in the way of offense? Are they willing to part with that to improve at one or even two offensive positions? (in one sim they dealt Seaver to the Pirates for Clemente and veteran second baseman George Grantham, a deal that helped both sides as the Pirates are offensively strong but pitching challenged).

I've seen projects like this that have done things like make everyone 20 or something of that nature in order to have everyone have a long career. The problem with that is there is only so much playing time to go around. Some guys would never get an opportunity. My hope is that this method makes someone have to work to be on top. Each division seems to have a defined top and bottom, except the AL East which is strong top to bottom except the Blue Jays, whose youth in a division that includes the Yanks, Orioles, Tigers, Indians, Red Sox and Negro Leaguers (each of whom finished above .500 in my last sim). You want a project...take the Padres, Mariners or combined expansion teams and try to make them winners.

As for my ratings, everything has been adjusted by me based on the era a player played in, much in the fashion of my TotalMinors work, running players against their respective league numbers for the time they played. This doesn't just mean batting and pitching numbers, but running speed and defensive ratings as well. These are then adjusted for the age the player will be based on my formulas. For example, while still effective, Cy Young has started the downside (he's 36), but is still a top pitcher...for now. If you're running the Red Sox, do you keep him in your rotation, or do you deal him for help in other areas. Though younger, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb...all in their 30s. How do you handle them?

The only guys I didn't do a set age thing for were the Negro League/Japanese players. I wanted to give them a bit of luck of the draw, and the chance for a longer career. So they have random ages, none older than 30, most in their early 20s. Also, by no means are all the top Negro Leaguers included. In fact, many aren't, so they could be dispersed, with more being included for the draft. I took a top 5 of sorts (Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Turkey Stearnes, Satchel Paige and Buck Leonard) and then filled the rest with random players from the top 10 lists by position in Bill James' Historical Abstract. Martin Dihigo, Heavy Johnson, Louis Santop, Bullet Joe Rogan...luck of the draw brought them in. But many others are outside...for now.

There will be updates soon. More players for each of the teams, lots more Negro Leaguers and Japanese stars for the following year's draft (the expansion team could sure use a Buck O'Neill, Cristobal Torriente or Cool Papa Bell). I will be working on finances and contracts next to make sure younger guys don't become free agents too soon.

I'm releasing this version to get feedback, comments, questions, suggestions...I love what I'm seeing so far, but I have a great resource - all of you who play this game - to serve as beta testers for me to make it the best it can be.

I continue to get PMs and e-mails about this project, wondering if it will see daylight. This is the first step, but there's more coming. Hopefully this taste will be good enough for now. Your feedback is needed and most appreciated.

Thanks for the continued support.

[GForce22]

Hey all,

the error with the zip file creating too many folders has been fixed.

GH

[BESTDJINFL]

GFORCE I tip my hat to you AGAIN!!

[GForce22]

Thank you much. Still lots more to come though.

GH

[lgkeeper]

I can't wait to get home to try this out...

[Spanky]

I see that you have completed your All Time Greats League - congratulations!

I say that because I personally know how much time and labor it takes to put something like this together.

I'm wondering if my Legends League won't be a repitition of what you've accomplished. I did download your zipped files and noticed that its only about 2.3MB. My League files by comparison are 33.3MB (Edited) to 50MB (unedited).

Is there something you did to reduce the file size or might it be because my League simply contains more data?

I would be interested in sharing thoughts with you regarding this subject. Since I don't have my website up and running yet, I'm unable to share any data with you at this time.

Good luck and keep up the great work!

Spanky

[GForce22]

Spanky,

Basically I think a lot of it is that you are adding lots of duplicates of lots of players. I had no desire to do that. I was trying to create a fixed baseball universe with players re-rated for their careers, across eras for the most accuracy. Basically my goal was to create 28 "franchises" composed of the best in those teams' histories based on their careers, not single fluke seasons or things like that (Kal Daniels, for example). Yours seems more like a collection of the best seasons, with some guys showing up over and over again. So I think at its core what we were trying to accomplish is a bit different.

Keep in mind, I have NO free agents right now. The league has 45-55 a team for 28 teams. The bulk of the size differential is likely because you imported a lot of guys from the database and replicated many. Other than that, I can't think of a reason why the size difference would be so big.

Good luck with your project as well.

GH

[ImpossibleDream]

GF,

It must be my lucky day. I hadn't checked the ootp boards in a while, and randomly I check in today ... and the All Time rosters are up! I've been eagerly awaiting this. Can't wait to check it out when I get home from work.

Thanks in advance!

[GForce22]

Thanks. Let me know what you think.

GH

[statman]

Usually not into this type of roster set, but this one is great. Watching stars from the game compete against each other to see who can put up the best stats is pretty cool. Great job on the roster set.

I have to share one thing that I thought was great, after simming from 2001 to 2015 there were many pretty amazing stats but the one that amazed me the most was Joe Dimaggio hiting .386 at age 41!

Thanks again
Terry

[ImpossibleDream]

Well, the Yankees keep winning. ;-)

[[WWBL]Batboy]

AWESOME!

Thank you for the hard work.

This ROCKS!

[RDG]

Have you guys had any problems with player roles or garbled players?

[IatricSB]

Originally posted by RDG
Have you guys had any problems with player roles or garbled players?

RDG = RosDevGroup? Is this you also GH?