The Facegen Thread

[Amazin69]

Picture was grainy, but managed to get a good facegen.

Thanks. As always, feel free to substitute a better picture, or ask me to look for one. I'm just grabbing what I think might be best, but I can be wrong.

Born on Christmas Day, 1963, it sure didn't feel like Christmas for Armando Moreno during all those years that he thought he was never going to get out of AA Jacksonville. He'd earned promotion with solid seasons in his first two years playing for the Expos (at Rookie League Calgary and A-ball Gastonia, posting OPS of .975 and .910, respectively) and while he'd stumbled in his first year at AA (.696 OPS), you'd think that the .805 he rebounded to in 1985 would have earned him the trip up to AAA Indianapolis, if not the majors. Moreno was a 2B-3B after all, so it's not as if his value was only in his bat.

But no, the Expos sent him back to Jacksonville in '86, for a third year in a row. Whereupon he went 311/424/489, a nice impressive .913 OPS which…got him sent right back to Jacksonville, for a fourth straight season. Which led to a slump in 1987 (.706 OPS), so Moreno couldn't complain too much about getting a fifth ticket to the River City (by this point he probably could have bought a home there), but even so. Would his bounce-back season in 1988 (.827 OPS) make a difference?

Yes! Finally, the Expos made Moreno and Indianapolis Indian. Now, all he had to do was have another solid season (.811 OPS) and that September trip to Montreal was right around the corner, right?

Nope, wrong. And after eight years in the Expo chain, Moreno decided to opt out as a minor-league free agent, signing with the Pirates. Would another good year at AAA Buffalo (.828 OPS) finally be the ticket to the top?

Yes! Unfortunately for Moreno, he never got into a game (as is obvious because Moreno isn't in the ML database and doesn't already have a facegen), but he was called up for a weekend series against the Phillies (August 3-5, 1990), making him our first Sharman Society member, or "phantom" (hence the post title).

Larry Doughty told the media that the Pirates needed a veteran right-handed bat as they went to face the Phillies' left-handed-dominant pitching staff, so they brought up Moreno and sent Dann Billardello to Buffalo for the weekend. The Pirates were in a tight pennant race with the Mets, being one game behind as the Metsies made a visit to St. Louis. On Friday night, the Phillies pitched lefty Bruce Ruffin, but Pittsburgh jumped all over him, rolling to the 11-0 win behind Doug Drabek.

Meantime the Mets had to fight from behind to get the win over the Cardinals, rallying for three in the 9th off Lee Smith after their own bullpen had blown an earlier lead. (The Mets loaded the bases on singles by Mark Carreon, Darryl Boston and [after a 10-pitch battle] Tom O'Malley, Alex Trevino hit a deep sac fly to score Carreon and cut it to 4-3. Howard Johnson took a called third strike but Dave Magadan dropped a little pop fly behind Ozzie Smith to tie the game, and Gregg Jefferies put one over Terry Pendleton's head to give the Mets the lead, and after John Franco nailed the save, the win.)

Saturday afternoon, the Mets sent Doc Gooden to the mound, but after they took a 1-0 lead against Ken Hill, a 2-run HR by Pedro Guerrero in the 4th put the Cards on top. The Mets tied it in the 6th, but singles by Willie McGee and Guerrero put runners at the corners in the bottom half, and on what was likely a swinging bunt by Todd Zeile, Gooden had to take time to check McGee and so couldn't get anyone. With the bases loaded, Terry Pendleton sent on into the right-center gap, unloading them and giving the Cards a 5-2 lead and thus the game. (Johnson and Tim Teufel hit irrelevant home runs off of Tom Niedenfuer in the 9th, but St. Louis triumphed by 7-5.)

So the Pirates took on the Phils that night, looking to move into a tie for 1st. Philly pitched lefty Pat Combs, and Pittsburgh had a 1-0 lead behind Neal Heaton in the 7th. They let Heaton hit for himself, and turned the lead over to Bob Patterson in the 8th, but Patterson gave up a tying homer to Von Hayes in the 9th. With Roger McDowell in the game for the Phils in the 10th, the Pirates did send up a right-handed pinch-hitter, but it was RJ Reynolds, not Moreno. Reynolds lined out, but Don Slaught followed with the game-winning double, Ted Power locked down the save, and the Pirates were tied for the division lead.

Pittsburgh had chance to take the lead all by themselves the next day, as the Mets were getting destroyed in Missouri, 8-3. (Sid Fernandez got bombed, John Tudor was on lock, the Mets only scored irrelevant unearned runs in the 9th [Teufel hit another HR].) Both the Pirates' Bob Walk and the Phils' Ken Howell were exceedingly mediocre, but when Pittsburgh got a chance to use a righty pinch-hitter in the top of the 6th against LHP reliever Don Carman, Jim Leyland passed on Moreno and instead let Scott Ruskin hit for himself, even though Ruskin had just let the Phils tie the game at 5-5 by letting Walk's inherited runs score. Ruskin made out, then went back out there and gave up the eventual game-winning 2-run HR to Hayes. In the 8th, down 8-6, the Bucs had 2 on and 1 out, but Leyland again bypassed Moreno and tapped Jeff King to pinch-hit against RHP Joe Boever the Saver. King rolled into the inning-ending DP, and the next day the Pirates called up Randy Tomlin and sent Moreno back to Buffalo, ending the cup of coffee without actually letting Moreno have a sip.

Moreno got to attend Pirates camp the next year, but was sent back to Buffalo, and had bad year (.686 OPS). Which made it ironic when he was then tabbed by Topps for a "Top Prospects" card…especially as the Pirates had cut him loose in 1992, and he never played in the US again. (I assume he might have continued in the Caribbean or Mexico for a while, being only 28, but his US career was over.)

[Outlaw Jim]

Going strictly by the images I decided to do both. I would use either one.

I have also created ootp-like photos at 180x270 for those that would like to have the option for a photo for their collection.

First set - Ponce

[Outlaw Jim]

Moreno with Indianapolis.

While both images are different, they do look like the photo provided. The physical features are very close to identical also.

[Amazin69]

Thanks, as always.

And sometimes everybody gets it wrong. Brian Lane's dad, Harlan Lane, had been a college football star at Baylor, which is how Brian grew up in Waco, TX, starring at Midway High, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. Making All-State in both his junior and senior seasons, the big third baseman turned down a scholarship to the University of Texas when the Cincinnati Reds made him their 3rd round pick in 1987.

Lane moved quickly from Rookie ball Billings to A-ball Greensboro to AA Chattanooga, reaching the All-Star game at each level, and getting better every year. Unfortunately for Lane, "better" only meant improving his OPS from .574 to .680 to .701, always with at least twice as many Ks as walks. Even when he drove in 89 runs at Chattanooga in 1989, he only hit .252, with just 34 XBH in over 500 PA. And he was a crappy fielder, too, with fielding percentages consistently in the .920 range.

Still, nobody was getting off the Lane Train. With three seasons under his belt, he was added to the 40-man roster and thus got a major league contract, worth $100,000 for 1990. Baseball America debuted its "Top 100" Prospects list, and Reggie Jefferson (28) and Lane (36) were the only Reds on the list. Bowman did a baseball card of him, and he was invited to major league camp, where he and Jefferson were among the first wave of cuts, on March 30. Then he went down to AAA Nashville, and completely bombed (.193 BA, .634 OPS), which sent him down to Chattanooga to lick his wounds. (And he still only posted a .679 there.)

On top of all this, Lane had developed knee problems, which ended up costing him the entire 1991 season. He came back in 1992 with two semi-decent months at Chattanooga (.762 OPS) and one very mediocre one at Nashville (.675). Then he spent 1993 at Chattanooga, putting up perhaps his most consistent year (.264/.329/.421), but those were hardly all-star numbers for someone who had first reached that level four years before. And so, despite being only 24, Brian decided his career was stuck in the slow Lane, and took the off-ramp to life after baseball.

Another writeup, complete with Reds camp pic, is in the minor league player thread, courtesy of Rainmaker. (Fewer achingly bad puns there, though.)

[Outlaw Jim]

I did this a few times and got the same results, could not get the red from the face out. I thought it was shadow at first but realized that he may have had a sunburn or something. Anyhow tested in game and it is not noticeable.

Photo provided with facegen.

[Outlaw Jim]

Found a better photo, so I did him again. Looks very much like the first but with out the redness under his eyes. Both look good in game tests.

Major difference is skin tone due to the shading in the first image.

[Outlaw Jim]

I am finding many players on the old TMCA sets with shading issues. I have gone back to 1974 and I am looking at doing the PCL set for the 1974 issue and find the images not so perfect - but workable.

This player was really never good - having one year (1974) in AAA with the Dodgers organization with the remaining years of his career in A ball other than a short stint at AA. I found it interesting only because I find a lot of TCMA cards with this shading issue and if the facegens are acceptable I feel I can do some interesting team sets from the 1974-into the 1990's when TCMA covered minor league baseball with their sets.

I would like any opinions if the following facegen is acceptable, due to the shading. At first I hated it but then when I looked at it in game it just looked like his cap was keeping the sun from his eyes and I kind of liked the look. I worked on this image to make sure that all facial features are seen so that the facegen accurately looked like the player.

Opinions please appreciated.

James

[Amazin69]

I chose the first Brian Lane; the red wasn't noticeable and that one had eyebrows. I don't know about Keller, but I haven't put a hat on him, as yet.

Pat Tilmon attended the University of South Carolina-Upstate (in Spartanburg; the main campus is in Columbia) and was the Braves' 26th round pick in 1987. He tore through the Appalachian League with Pulaski in his rookie half-season (8-1, 1.56; 11.2 K/9) and then started hot for Burlington in the Midwest League in 1988, leading the staff with 7-3 and 2.38 by the end of June. He stumbled a little after that, but still got promoted to Durham (high-A) where he did stumble (1-3, 5.35 in 8 starts). But he did better at Durham in '89 (11-4, 3.18), so it was a surprise when the Braves sent him back to Durham again for 1990, presumably because his K/9 had dropped to 5.6/9.

Pitching mostly out of the bullpen in 1990, Tilmon cranked the fastball up again and pushed his K rate to 8.7/9, while still having a decent (3.68) ERA. But that wasn't impressive enough and he was 24 at this point, so the Braves cut him loose, instead.

Unable to find another organization to take him in, Tilmon spent a couple of years out of the game, before joining the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks of the independent Northern League in 1993. He would spend the better part of six seasons in Thunder Bay, pausing only to scab for Toronto in 1995 and then get bumped down to AAA Syracuse for four games when the real players came back. And even then, the Jays dumped him from AAA, and he was back in the Northern League.

Still, he learned to like Thunder Bay (home of Paul Shaffer); he later worked for several years on the front office of a later incarnation of the Whiskey Jacks. I'll drink to that!

[Outlaw Jim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

I chose the first Brian Lane; the red wasn't noticeable and that one had eyebrows. I don't know about Keller, but I haven't put a hat on him, as yet.


Attachment 574231

Thanks for the reply, been really ill lately so doing these have picked up my spirits a bit lately....

I also picked the first Lane - the eyebrowson the second came out light because of the skin tone being so white, but facially they are a match. I may darken the second image up a bit, but then I would think it would look too much like the first Lane....

If you saw the image I used for Keller yu would be surprised. It was one of him in his pitching motion throwing a pitch, that is why the face had the crease. I like it like that - adds charachter. I removed the arm from the image, added a neck and changed the jersey to have shoulders on the left side. The image is on the trading card database for the 1974 season. Keller does not look bad in game because of the size of the facegen. I have found that the blue cards can be changed to color by running them through the colorize program on the web.

[Outlaw Jim]

I was kind of impressed by this guy. Never made the majors, was basically a AA player yet managed to get a paycheck for a long time. This guy must have just really loved playing the game.

[Amazin69]

RHP Michael Call "set several records" in his two years pitching for the Community College of Spokane, then moved to the University of Washington, where he was a successful relief pitcher and was taken by the White Sox in the 20th round of the 1991 draft.

Converted to starting by Chicago, he had a strong rookie campaign (8-1, 1.25 at Gulf Coast and Utica) but apparently hurt something and missed all of 1992. He came back with a strong year at South Bend in 1993, going 15-7 to lead the Midwest League in wins. But after moving to Prince William in the Carolina League in '94, he was rather mediocre (10-12, 4.02) and flat-out awful when returned to the pen in '95 (4-7, 5.42), which led to his release.

Still, at least he always had good control. So he never heard the Call of the Wild.

[Outlaw Jim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

RHP Michael Call "set several records" in his two years pitching for the Community College of Spokane, then moved to the University of Washington, where he was a successful relief pitcher and was taken by the White Sox in the 20th round of the 1991 draft.

Converted to starting by Chicago, he had a strong rookie campaign (8-1, 1.25 at Gulf Coast and Utica) but apparently hurt something and missed all of 1992. He came back with a strong year at South Bend in 1993, going 15-7 to lead the Midwest League in wins. But after moving to Prince William in the Carolina League in '94, he was rather mediocre (10-12, 4.02) and flat-out awful when returned to the pen in '95 (4-7, 5.42), which led to his release.

Still, at least he always had good control. So he never heard the Call of the Wild.

Attachment 574328

This one was tough to get right. I did the best I could I think it turned out good - not great - but good. I also have the facegen with the shadow across his face if anyone wants it - just request it and I will post it. Actually the shading does not look bad - not like the old facegens that gave players the "raccoon eyes".


James

[Amazin69]

Apparently no relation to Rick Wrona (who was from Tulsa), Lockport IL's Dave Wrona was described as "the slickest-fielding shortstop I've ever seen" by one rival high school coach. Moving on to Southern Illinois, Wrona hit a scorching .395 as a senior in 1990, and was named All-American (third team) and became the Brewers' 13th-round pick that year. (He was inducted into the SIU Hall of Fame in 1997.)

Rather than send Wrona to a rookie-league team, the Brewers started him off at Beloit in the Midwest League, where he hit .300 for the last month of the season, with a .374 OBP. But he only managed 3 2B in 80 AB, so his ISO was a mere .038. Even still, you would have thought they might have moved him up to Stockton (California League) the next year, but instead the Brewers sent him right back to Beloit, and he struggled there, as well as in Stockton when he was bumped up at midseason.

So he ended up back at Stockton in 1992. His manager, Tim Ireland, had fond memories of Wrona, and it had nothing to do with the sterling .445 OBP Wrona posted. No, it was in the field, where Wrona got the season started by successfully pulling the hidden-ball trick on an opposing base-runner, a feat he later duplicated against Damon Mashore of Modesto. Of this latter trick, Ireland wondered why Mashore was off the bag for "a good 30 seconds" before Wrona finally tagged him out.

"Well," Wrona told his manager, "I had to finish my conversation with him first."

Unfortunately, despite that amazing OBP, the Brewers decided that they'd finished their conversation with Wrona, and cut him loose. I mean, yeah, no power whatsoever (1 HR in 2+ pro seasons), but he had a career OBP of .388. So you have a skilled and clever SS who knows how to get on base…how is that not worth taking a chance on? And these were the same Brewers who were cutting Bobby Benjamin because they wanted better athletes in the OF; do they want power or not? Very strange.

[Outlaw Jim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Apparently no relation to Rick Wrona (who was from Tulsa), Lockport IL's Dave Wrona was described as "the slickest-fielding shortstop I've ever seen" by one rival high school coach. Moving on to Southern Illinois, Wrona hit a scorching .395 as a senior in 1990, and was named All-American (third team) and became the Brewers' 13th-round pick that year. (He was inducted into the SIU Hall of Fame in 1997.)

Rather than send Wrona to a rookie-league team, the Brewers started him off at Beloit in the Midwest League, where he hit .300 for the last month of the season, with a .374 OBP. But he only managed 3 2B in 80 AB, so his ISO was a mere .038. Even still, you would have thought they might have moved him up to Stockton (California League) the next year, but instead the Brewers sent him right back to Beloit, and he struggled there, as well as in Stockton when he was bumped up at midseason.

So he ended up back at Stockton in 1992. His manager, Tim Ireland, had fond memories of Wrona, and it had nothing to do with the sterling .445 OBP Wrona posted. No, it was in the field, where Wrona got the season started by successfully pulling the hidden-ball trick on an opposing base-runner, a feat he later duplicated against Damon Mashore of Modesto. Of this latter trick, Ireland wondered why Mashore was off the bag for "a good 30 seconds" before Wrona finally tagged him out.

"Well," Wrona told his manager, "I had to finish my conversation with him first."

Unfortunately, despite that amazing OBP, the Brewers decided that they'd finished their conversation with Wrona, and cut him loose. I mean, yeah, no power whatsoever (1 HR in 2+ pro seasons), but he had a career OBP of .388. So you have a skilled and clever SS who knows how to get on base…how is that not worth taking a chance on? And these were the same Brewers who were cutting Bobby Benjamin because they wanted better athletes in the OF; do they want power or not? Very strange.

Attachment 574520Attachment 574519

I did not read the write up and went straight to BB-Ref to look at his stats. I realized he was only at the A level, but my thinking was that how did this guy not get a chance with the OBP he had. Well here is the facegen. I thought I had it wrong until I analyzed the image at many angles and his features on the facegen matched his photo, so I assume I got it right. I left his skin tone light because when I adjusted the skin tone darker the redness under his eye showed. Could not fix this well in photoshop so I left him as is.

James

[Amazin69]

Chris Schaefer was an Indiana boy, through and through. Drafted by the Royals in the 37th round in 1986, he chose to stay close to home (Evansville) and attend Indiana State in Terre Haute, where he pitched his way into their all-time strikeout leaders. (He was dislodged from the Top 10 by Sean Manaea in 2013.) The Royals, being persistent, re-drafted him in the 10th round in 1989, and Schaefer decided to pass on his senior year and sign with them.

He was good, but not spectacular with Eugene in the Northwest League (7-4, 2.34), but improved on that the next season at Appleton in the Midwest League. He went 6-2 1.71 in 12 starts before being promoted to AA Memphis, where he threw 4.2 scoreless innings in one start…and then apparently hurt something. The next year, he made two starting attempts in the Gulf Coast League, but could only manage three innings (one run allowed) before being shut down, for good.

I don't know what happened, but it killed his career off, worse than Budweiser did to Schaefer. And so it goes.

[Outlaw Jim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Chris Schaefer was an Indiana boy, through and through. Drafted by the Royals in the 37th round in 1986, he chose to stay close to home (Evansville) and attend Indiana State in Terre Haute, where he pitched his way into their all-time strikeout leaders. (He was dislodged from the Top 10 by Sean Manaea in 2013.) The Royals, being persistent, re-drafted him in the 10th round in 1989, and Schaefer decided to pass on his senior year and sign with them.

He was good, but not spectacular with Eugene in the Northwest League (7-4, 2.34), but improved on that the next season at Appleton in the Midwest League. He went 6-2 1.71 in 12 starts before being promoted to AA Memphis, where he threw 4.2 scoreless innings in one start…and then apparently hurt something. The next year, he made two starting attempts in the Gulf Coast League, but could only manage three innings (one run allowed) before being shut down, for good.

I don't know what happened, but it killed his career off, worse than Budweiser did to Schaefer. And so it goes.

Attachment 574809

EDIT: removed images from threa. Reworked images and they are in the next post...... those that downloaded these images should download the images in the next post. Thanks,

James

[Outlaw Jim]

Here is the re-work on Schaefer. looks better without the sun in his face.

James

[Amazin69]

I'll be really lazy here, because the Baseball-Reference Bullpen did a better Bernie Tatis biography than I ever could. (Although they don't mention whether he's related to the three Fernando Tatises or not.) So, I'll just show a picture. Or two.

[Outlaw Jim]

I used the picture on the angle for this image - came out pretty good

[Tiger Fan]

Originally Posted by Outlaw Jim

I am finding many players on the old TMCA sets with shading issues. I have gone back to 1974 and I am looking at doing the PCL set for the 1974 issue and find the images not so perfect - but workable.

This player was really never good - having one year (1974) in AAA with the Dodgers organization with the remaining years of his career in A ball other than a short stint at AA. I found it interesting only because I find a lot of TCMA cards with this shading issue and if the facegens are acceptable I feel I can do some interesting team sets from the 1974-into the 1990's when TCMA covered minor league baseball with their sets.

I would like any opinions if the following facegen is acceptable, due to the shading. At first I hated it but then when I looked at it in game it just looked like his cap was keeping the sun from his eyes and I kind of liked the look. I worked on this image to make sure that all facial features are seen so that the facegen accurately looked like the player.

Opinions please appreciated.

James

Just advanced to 1970 in my league and Keller appears for the first time. I think the image in the game looks great, especially the baseball card version. I for one would love to see facegens for any of the minor leaguers of the early to mid-70s you came find workable TCMA cards for.