The Facegen Thread

[Outlaw Jim]

Looked good when opened in facegen.

[Amazin69]

Thanks for all of those!

Billy Hall (no relation to Bill Hall of the Red Sox and Brewers, a decade later) was from Wichita, and walked on at Wichita State. (He probably only got a tryout because his dad was coaching Wheatshocker coach Gene Stephenson's son.) Two years later, he was an All-American, leading WSU (along with Darren Dreifort and Doug Mirabelli) to the national championship game.

As a pro, he had his best success with his hometown Wranglers in 1993-94, but then the Padres promoted him to AAA, and he got lost in the bright lights of Las Vegas. Still, he's in the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame.



Darrin Reichle threw two no-hitters in a 16-day span in May, 1988, with Charleston in the SAL. The Padres put him on the 40-man roster, but didn't bump him up too high, only moving him up to Riverside in the California League the next year. Where he led the league in walks, thus justifying the Pads' skepticism. Still at Riverside in 1990, he scored a third career no-hitter when he threw the first 7 innings in a combined effort against Modesto, but he was clearly struggling, and when his long-awaited promotion to AA in 1991 proved a bust, he was done. But he had three more no-hitters than most do, so he'll always have that.



You wouldn't think that somebody with a career ERA+ of 166 would wash out after only four pro seasons, but the Giants pulled the parachute on Steve Connolly after 1990. Granted that his strikeout rate had fallen off of a cliff in his first year at AA Shreveport the year before, but he'd rebounded to a 7.2 K/9 in 1990 before getting pink-slipped. Only thing I can think of is that, as a four-year graduate of UC-Santa Barbara, he was already 26, but considering that Connolly was a lefty and they usually get lots of chances, it seems premature.

(Not to be confused with Steve Connelly, who cracked the bigs and got into three games for the 1998 Athletics. And probably also deserved better, given that his ERA was only 1.93.)



Another Wichitan, Steve Lienhard had success at three stops in the Giants chain, winning California League Pitcher of the Year honors at San Jose in 1989. Yet the Giants were culling ruthlessly in those days, and cut Lienhard in spring training of 1991. He hooked on with the Brewers AA El Paso affiliate, made the Texas League all-star game, but had his shoulder give out in the second half of the season and a 1992 recurrence finished him.

Back home in Wichita, Lienhard was later a mentor to a teenaged Mike Pelfrey.

[Outlaw Jim]

Billy Hall:

[Outlaw Jim]

Darrin Reichle:

[Outlaw Jim]

Steve Connolly:

[Outlaw Jim]

Steve Lienhard:

[Amazin69]

And thanks for those, too!

Ron Stephens fought his way up through the White Sox system, from starting at A and AA to relieving at AAA. But that pesky K/W ratio was his undoing, there's no undoing that.



(There were other pics, but they were tiny. Hope the face-shadow issue isn't one.)

OTOH, I have no idea what happened here. Mitch Hannahs was an All-American 2nd baseman at Indiana State, got drafted by the Brewers…and then barely played. His career ended after only 127 games in 3 seasons, with a slash line of .306/.412/.426. Must have been a series of injuries or something.

He wasn't even around long enough to get a decent picture taken. Hope you can rotate this or something:



Nowadays, Hannahs is the head coach at Indiana State. Plenty of contemporary pictures of him…but that hardly does us any good here.

[Outlaw Jim]

Mitch Hannahs:

This was a difficult one to do. With this image I am confident that I have eyes, nose, mouth region correct. Without a straight on look I am not sure if the head shape is correct, but looking at the image I think I am close. If you have any concerns let me know. The only regions I have any concerns would be in the chin and cheek regions.

As you can see by the facegen image there was a lot of work done on this face. This is also why the fg file itself is so large. I usually keep them in the 7-10 kb range and this one with the magic of facegen brought it up to the large size it is.

[Outlaw Jim]

Ron Stephens:

[Outlaw Jim]

Mitch Hannahs:

For those who prefer smaller fg files I created a version that looks very close to the larger file. With my collection approaching 40,000 facegens I recreate them once in a while to get a smaller fg file. The main difference is the skin tone and texture, but when reduced in size in game is not noticeable much. The one on the right is the smaller version.

[Amazin69]

Excellent work! I needn't have worried about Hannahs, I see.

Shon Ashley (real name "Shon Ron Ashley"…seriously, parents?) was the #3 pick of the Brewers in 1985 and advanced through the system at a decent pace. Still, by 1988, he was 21 and married and only as far up the chain as A+ Stockton, and was talking about how he'd made a deal with his wife that he wasn't going to play forever if it became apparent he wasn't going to make the majors. The Brewers moved him up to AA El Paso in 1989, but didn't bump him up to AAA despite his posting an .868 OPS for the Diablos. And then he had an off-year in 1990, but he came back very strong (.308/.395/.533, 24 HR, 100 RBI) in 1991. So this gets him to AAA, right?

Well…sort of. The Brewers decided to release him, figuring that they didn't really need 25-year-old outfielders who had spent three years at AA, no matter how well they'd hit in El Paso's bandbox. But he hooked on with the Expos, who sent him to AAA Indianapolis. Where he flopped (.663) OPS, and decided to go home to Idaho and open an auto glass shop. Which presumably made his wife happy, so that's glass-half-full, anyhow.



Another Brewers OF prospect, Darryel Walters, had good range and demonstrated decent power (68 HR in 3 years) at the lower levels. But he also had a hole in his swing (380 Ks, the same years) and when he got promoted to AAA Denver in 1988, his attempt to tighten up his swing also choked off his offense. By his 3rd year in Denver, he had his OPS up to .765, but the Brewers had run out of patience and let him go. Probably should have kept hacking, instead.



Jeff Braley led the Sally League in appearances and saves in 1990, the FSL in appearances in 1991 (3rd in saves), and the Eastern League in appearances in 1992 (5th in saves) and led the entire Tigers chain in saves all three years. But his K rate was never terribly impressive (career 5.8 K/9) and when he stumbled a bit in his 2nd year at London in 1993, he was cashiered, career ERA of 2.27 (ERA+ of 176) notwithstanding.

[Outlaw Jim]

Jeff Braley: 2 options here,1 was off of the photo you gave me. I like it because he looks a little rugged. 2 a photo I found. Both look fine when reduced to the size in game. Just a matter of preference. I will post the graphic files here and then a 2nd post with the fg files

I left the first one a bit dark because of the photo quality he looked "pock-faced" when lightned up. I actually like the first one better even though the photo quality (and facegen) appear to be better.

Amazin69' let me know which Braley suits your fancy. This will help me to determine your style and help me when I fix the graphics prior to putting through facegen.

James

[Outlaw Jim]

Originally Posted by Outlaw Jim

Jeff Braley: 2 options here,1 was off of the photo you gave me. I like it because he looks a little rugged. 2 a photo I found. Both look fine when reduced to the size in game. Just a matter of preference. I will post the graphic files here and then a 2nd post with the fg files

Here are the fg files:

[Outlaw Jim]

Darryel Walters: Had to "brighten" him up to get his facial features, then "darken" him to look real.

[Outlaw Jim]

Shon Ashley: The last one... This was easy one. The image was perfect. The other two were not so good when brought into facegen and needed a little work and messing around. The resolution on some of the minor league cards suck, but I have been able to make them work so far......

[nemolee.exe]

Originally Posted by nemolee.exe

I have a couple:

Jamie Romak: http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=...full/31211.png
Coco Crisp: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/images/player...hot/424825.jpg
KwangMin Kwon: http://www.milb.com/images/666247/ge...270/666247.jpg
Muneroi Kawasaki (with glasses): https://www.japantimes.co.jp/wp-cont...a-20170428.jpg
Brett Cecil (with glasses): http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/images/player...hot/446399.jpg
Tyler Clippard (with glasses): https://www.zennioptical.com/blog/wp.../2014/04/i.png
Bryan Pena: http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=...ng&w=350&h=254
Tim Lincecum: http://www.milb.com/images/453311/ge...270/453311.jpg
Nate Scheirholtz: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/images/player...hot/435625.jpg

Finally found source photos for all of them.

[Amazin69]

I went for Braley #1; it's not that I'm *looking* to find his skin seeming rough, but I'm willing to trade that for his eyes and mouth seeming (IMO) more realistic. Good work on the shadows on Walters, as well.

And yeah, that Ashley was perfect for source material. I actually had a lot of choices (for one thing, half the time he has a mustache), but that one was so good I had to go with it.

Thanks for all your work!

[Amazin69]

Mike Twardoski must have wondered what it took to get a big-league roster spot. He posted a career OBP of .405, including .424 at AA New Britain in 1990 and .422 for AAA Pawtucket two years later. And it's not as though it was only walks; he hit .285 and was a skilled bat-handler, going back to his days at Alabama, where his coach cited his command of the fundamentals (hit & run, etc.)

Only problem was, he didn't have any power (career SLG .400) and he could only play 1st Base. And the Sox weren't going to move Mo Vaughn out of the way to make room for a guy who would've hit 30 fewer HR. (Especially as Mo could get on base, too.) Moral of the story: if you're gonna hit like a shortstop, learn to play shortstop. Or at least left field. Hopefully Twardoski, the head coach at Emory since 2000, has done a better job of finding suitable positions for non-sluggers.



In his first two seasons, Darren Hodges made the Yankees think they'd found their next fireballer, as he rang up 238 Ks in 252 innings at Oneonta in 1990 and Prince William the next year. (And that sweet 2.32 ERA didn't hurt, either.) This earned him three years' worth of chances to show he belonged at AA Albany, but he didn't, never posting a K/9 above 6.0 there. It's not that he pitched poorly (in his 1994 swan song he was 5-1, 3.23 in 8 starts), but if you can't smoke the Eastern League, you don't get to smell the AL East.



Jason Maas was two years older than his brother Kevin, and went earlier in his draft (10th round) than Kevin in his (22nd round). He didn't have anything near Kevin's power (14 career HR), but he was in the top 5 in batting average and SB in several leagues. (In his career, he stole 127 bases in 157 attempts.) Following Kevin's sensational rookie year in 1990, Jason got off to the best start of his career at AAA Columbus (.352/.459/.507 in 30 games) and had visions of joining his baby brother on the big club.

So he demanded a promotion. The Yankees, reasonably content with Mel Hall/Jesse Barfield/Roberto Kelly/Bernie Williams/Bam Bam Meulens as their outfield, refused.

Frustrated, Jason demanded his release so he could hook on with another club. (I believe he would have been a minor league FA at year's end, but he probably wanted to strike while the iron was hot…that .966 OPS was far higher than his norm.) The Yankees said no, again.

Even more frustrated, Jason retired. (He was 28, after all.) And thus his dreams of a Maas & Maas Yankee lineup were no mas.

[Outlaw Jim]

Originally Posted by nemolee.exe

Finally found source photos for all of them.

Most of these are already in game. I have attached a folder with 6. I do not have any with the glasses - they come out not so good so I just do not do them.

[Outlaw Jim]

Jason Maas: B&W photo makes him appear a little grey, but when brought down to the size of the image in game he looks okay. In facegen modeller I test each fg file at 17 ft to make sure they will appear good in game.