MLB Manager 2015 Review

mac2298 · 03-27-2015, 09:54 PM

I just got MLB Manager 2015 (finally!!!) and here are my initial impressions on it.

First off, there are a few things that bug me. While the player ratings are more accurate than I felt they were last year, there are still some seriously underrated players. For example, Devin Mesoraco has a 2 star rating initially, as well as 2 star potential. As a Reds fan, this is unacceptable (I ended up editing him manually). He is probably the best offensive catcher in the NL right now, up there with Lucroy and Posey. He hit over .500 SLG last season. How can he have just 11 power (I think this was the default... I changed it to 12, so that I'm not completely biased)??? He has to have at least 4 stars with 4.5 potential. He has definitely shown that he will become one of the best power-hitting catchers in baseball.
And just to prove I'm not biased here, I feel like Joey Votto is waaaaay too overrated. 5 stars? Really? Maybe 2 or 3 seasons ago, but right now he simply cannot have green contact, power, and batting eye. I had no mercy on him, nuking him to a 3 star player with 15 eye, 12 contact, and 11 power. There are a few other players on the Reds that seem rated wrong, but these are the worst of them, and I'm sure there are many other examples of this on other teams. I sincerely hope that this is fixed in the Opening Day update, as it can take the fun out of managing my own team.

I also would like to see readjusted team profiles. The Reds still have 180,000,000 in cap space, which is just too much. Last season we had a record 114,000,000 payroll, and a large portion of that was cut during the offseason this year. I would say a max of 120,000,000 for us is more than fair. Again, I'm just using the Reds as an example because I'm familiar with them, I'm sure many other teams have similar issues. I think overall the budgets are much higher than they really are.

The fact that players accept superlow contracts doesn't help either. When star SPs go for 12,000,000 per year and you have 180,000,000 to spend, suddenly payrolls don't matter.

Additionally, I am disappointed that there aren't any facts/quotes. That was one of my favorite parts! Those Yogi Berra quotes that came every once in a while made my day, and all of the quotes were incredible, even if I had seen them 10 times already (I've seen them all). At least re-add the same quotes, because that's a huge part of the game for me.

My final complaint is about player morale. This is an issue I've been having since last year. When you demote a player, their morale shouldn't automatically go down. Oftentimes by the end of the season my entire team has those frowny faces, even if we did well and they get game time, because they've been moved up and down for various purposes such as injuries.

Ok, I've slammed the game enough, let me add in some of the things I love. Overall, I have got to say I am very impressed. The subtle changes to the UI look great, the licensing is a huge bonus, the players are, for the most part, more appropriately rated than I found them to be in the previous version. The new trading features look good, although I have yet to use them. The new sim features are a great tool, something that will allow me to get much more use out of this game than I did in the past. However, what I perhaps love most is the extended roster. The rosters feel so much more in depth now, and I feel like I really have the entire organization at my finger tips. When the time comes to add to my 40 man roster, I'll have plenty of my team's best prospects to try out, and I won't feel like I've completely thinned out my team in a few seasons.

So overall, I'm really happy with the game. I'm not sure that it is quite enough to warrant a 5 dollar upgrade from the previous version, considering they're so similar and the old version is now free, but it does enough to keep the dedicated satisfied. If the mentioned problems, particularly the player ratings and definitely the quotes, can be at all fixed, it will make the game even more enjoyable.

wodi · 03-27-2015, 10:28 PM

I have also noticed the team budgets seem pretty high

IAmC · 03-28-2015, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mac2298

I just got MLB Manager 2015 (finally!!!) and here are my initial impressions on it.

...

Additionally, I am disappointed that there aren't any facts/quotes. That was one of my favorite parts! Those Yogi Berra quotes that came every once in a while made my day, and all of the quotes were incredible, even if I had seen them 10 times already (I've seen them all). At least re-add the same quotes, because that's a huge part of the game for me.
....

Agreed totally. The quotes were fantastic, even when repeated. They set the atmosphere. The replacement with a plug for OOTP gives a negative feel, like wanting to fast-forward through ads when watching TV. I want the quotes back.

One addition that wasn't mentioned was the pinchhitting/pinchrunning fix so that you can tell who was being replaced (to avoid pinchrunning with Cecil Fielder because of fat fingers!). That alone was worth the cost of the new version.

mac2298 · 03-28-2015, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IAmC

Agreed totally. The quotes were fantastic, even when repeated. They set the atmosphere. The replacement with a plug for OOTP gives a negative feel, like wanting to fast-forward through ads when watching TV. I want the quotes back.

One addition that wasn't mentioned was the pinchhitting/pinchrunning fix so that you can tell who was being replaced (to avoid pinchrunning with Cecil Fielder because of fat fingers!). That alone was worth the cost of the new version.

I've heard of this issue, but I have never been affected by it too much.

IAmC · 03-29-2015, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mac2298

I've heard of this issue, but I have never been affected by it too much.

I suspect that the "fat fingers" pinchhitting/pinchrunning issue might be far less of a problem on larger screens, like the iPad or iPhone 6. I have an iPhone 4s, where it is easy to select the wrong item.

BradC · 03-29-2015, 12:56 PM

The team budgets issue will be fixed in update #1.

The facts and quotes were pulled for an internal reason. I hope we can put them back, as I've liked them too. Thanks.

mac2298 · 03-29-2015, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradC

The team budgets issue will be fixed in update #1.

The facts and quotes were pulled for an internal reason. I hope we can put them back, as I've liked them too. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply! I look forward to the updates!

Ike348 · 03-29-2015, 06:53 PM

In OOTP, the random facts are part of a "hints.txt" file that you could customize to say whatever you want. I haven't really gotten a chance to play MLB Manager or to customize any files, but hopefully the hints.txt file was modified just to display the ad. If that is the case, then one can manually add a new file.

However, if something changed in the structure of the game (like the game now ignores the hints file and displays the ad internally), then it can't be changed.

Dkelley · 03-29-2015, 08:50 PM

Could you possibly use a third-party tool to take the "hints.txt" file from iOOTP 14 and copy it to the MLB Manager 15's as a temporary fix?

Ike348 · 03-29-2015, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dkelley

Could you possibly use a third-party tool to take the "hints.txt" file from iOOTP 14 and copy it to the MLB Manager 15's as a temporary fix?

Most definitely, assuming that MLB Manager's hints file contains only the advertisement.

iFunBox or something similar would work for this. The procedure would be very similar to installing logos/stadiums.

Leefoo · 03-30-2015, 07:54 AM

I want those, along with those fun facts.

Btw, I am soooooooooooooooooooo grateful for that editor in that last version, esp for the older seasons. I grew up with a lot of those players and some of the ratings they receive are 'not good'.

To the OP...I am a Buccos fan, and I had to do some editing of my own, and like you, I was both generous and cruel...lol.

Cutch's arm HAD to go down....He is terrible at throwing.

mac2298 · 03-30-2015, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leefoo

I want those, along with those fun facts.

Btw, I am soooooooooooooooooooo grateful for that editor in that last version, esp for the older seasons. I grew up with a lot of those players and some of the ratings they receive are 'not good'.

To the OP...I am a Buccos fan, and I had to do some editing of my own, and like you, I was both generous and cruel...lol.

Cutch's arm HAD to go down....He is terrible at throwing.

I think since the fans of the team will be the most judging, we can see the good and bad in the players. I don't think anyone can know the organization's prospects the way dedicated fans do, aside from journalists, scouts, ect. That's also why I wanted to start this, because while I feel like I can be a good judge of the Reds, I may not be aware of what changes should be made to other teams.

Markus Heinsohn · 03-30-2015, 10:41 AM

Player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projection system (the best in the business), so you can either agree with it or not

Budgets will be fixed in the first update, and the quotes etc. will return as well.

Leefoo · 03-30-2015, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projection system (the best in the business), so you can either agree with it or not

Budgets will be fixed in the first update, and the quotes etc. will return as well.

Marcus...I used to help with ratings for another game and even produced several seasons worth of FB disks for APBA (both current and retro seasons back 'in the day').

I GREATLY depended on other users' inputs. As Mac22 noted, NOBODY knows them like us rabid fans. Pecota is good, but give me a good home team 'scout' any day.

ESPECIALLY for the oldtime teams....

Btw...as an aside and speaking of my hometown Bucs...there is only one game I know of (not recommending it) out there that can reproduce Pedro's season...only ONE Fielding error....all the rest were bad throws....Weird.

Btw, I thank you for that Editor....it lets us 'know it alls' tweak the ratings until we're happy.

mac2298 · 03-30-2015, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projection system (the best in the business), so you can either agree with it or not

Budgets will be fixed in the first update, and the quotes etc. will return as well.

Yeah, I saw that they were. However, according to them Mesoraco was the best batter for the Reds in 2014, with a 4.8 BWARP. Votto was 4th with 1,8. How, then, do you give Meso a 2 star rating and Votto a 5 star rating? Do you directly import the ratings from PECOTA or do you analyze them manually and decide on player ratings? It seem like if they were directly imported, it would have given Meso a higher rating.

Anyway, thanks for the info.

Leefoo · 03-30-2015, 01:23 PM

My take: I use the 20-80 rating system. Mesoraco is a "42" and is rated below average at catcher. Also, was 2014 a mirage or the real thing?

However, he is rated well as a hitter and just about duplicated his 2014 season in my replay (.267, 762 OPS, 23 HRs)

They may have discounted Votto's bad 2014 season (he is rated a '78)? Based on just that, Devin IS a much better hitter? However, if you go by his career numbers, he seems to be rated accurately. However, in real life, it remains to be seen if 2014 was an aberration or the start of a downhill trend.

I don't see him everyday, but I would tend to chalk up last year's down year because of injury?

==================.

IAmC · 03-30-2015, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

... the quotes etc. will return as well.

Yay!

mac2298 · 03-31-2015, 06:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leefoo

My take: I use the 20-80 rating system. Mesoraco is a "42" and is rated below average at catcher. Also, was 2014 a mirage or the real thing?

However, he is rated well as a hitter and just about duplicated his 2014 season in my replay (.267, 762 OPS, 23 HRs)

They may have discounted Votto's bad 2014 season (he is rated a '78)? Based on just that, Devin IS a much better hitter? However, if you go by his career numbers, he seems to be rated accurately. However, in real life, it remains to be seen if 2014 was an aberration or the start of a downhill trend.

I don't see him everyday, but I would tend to chalk up last year's down year because of injury?

==================.

2014 was just Meso reaching his potential. Anyone who was following him knew he was going to be the real deal. Even last season, his iOOTP rating was 3 star overall with 4.5 potential. Why he got downgraded is beyond me.

Votto's had a bad 3 seasons. Whether it's injuries, age, or just realising he's human, he has not been the same since 2012. It wasn't just last season.

Devin may not be better than Votto yet, but Votto is not a 5 star player and Meso is not a 2 star player. If we went with career numbers for every single player, Pujols would be rated 5 stars with 16 contact and 18 power.

MikeG719 · 03-31-2015, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projection system (the best in the business), so you can either agree with it or not

Budgets will be fixed in the first update, and the quotes etc. will return as well.

So they have A-Rod rated with 3.5 stars still? I'm legitimately curious.

wodi · 03-31-2015, 01:05 PM

Ratings are an arbitrary thing, you could look at any game ever made and dispute the ratings.

The editor was added and let's people change ratings to what they see is best fit.

I'd rather the developers spend time looking into other aspects of the game for improvement rather than the ratings.

And for the record I do agree, someone like chapman is underrated.

03-30-2015, 07:54 AM	#11
Leefoo Major Leagues Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 437	Can you use a 3rd party tool to import saved games? I want those, along with those fun facts. Btw, I am soooooooooooooooooooo grateful for that editor in that last version, esp for the older seasons. I grew up with a lot of those players and some of the ratings they receive are 'not good'. To the OP...I am a Buccos fan, and I had to do some editing of my own, and like you, I was both generous and cruel...lol. Cutch's arm HAD to go down....He is terrible at throwing.

03-30-2015, 10:41 AM	#13
Markus Heinsohn Developer OOTP Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 24,739	Player ratings are based on Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA projection system (the best in the business), so you can either agree with it or not Budgets will be fixed in the first update, and the quotes etc. will return as well. __________________ Buy Out of the Park Baseball 25 now! Download OOTP Go 25 for iOS Download OOTP Go 25 for Android

03-30-2015, 01:23 PM	#16
Leefoo Major Leagues Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 437	Votto vs Mesoraco My take: I use the 20-80 rating system. Mesoraco is a "42" and is rated below average at catcher. Also, was 2014 a mirage or the real thing? However, he is rated well as a hitter and just about duplicated his 2014 season in my replay (.267, 762 OPS, 23 HRs) They may have discounted Votto's bad 2014 season (he is rated a '78)? Based on just that, Devin IS a much better hitter? However, if you go by his career numbers, he seems to be rated accurately. However, in real life, it remains to be seen if 2014 was an aberration or the start of a downhill trend. I don't see him everyday, but I would tend to chalk up last year's down year because of injury? ==================. Last edited by Leefoo; 03-30-2015 at 01:27 PM.

03-27-2015, 09:54 PM	#1
mac2298 Minors (Double A) Join Date: Mar 2015 Posts: 107	MLB Manager 2015 Review I just got MLB Manager 2015 (finally!!!) and here are my initial impressions on it. First off, there are a few things that bug me. While the player ratings are more accurate than I felt they were last year, there are still some seriously underrated players. For example, Devin Mesoraco has a 2 star rating initially, as well as 2 star potential. As a Reds fan, this is unacceptable (I ended up editing him manually). He is probably the best offensive catcher in the NL right now, up there with Lucroy and Posey. He hit over .500 SLG last season. How can he have just 11 power (I think this was the default... I changed it to 12, so that I'm not completely biased)??? He has to have at least 4 stars with 4.5 potential. He has definitely shown that he will become one of the best power-hitting catchers in baseball. And just to prove I'm not biased here, I feel like Joey Votto is waaaaay too overrated. 5 stars? Really? Maybe 2 or 3 seasons ago, but right now he simply cannot have green contact, power, and batting eye. I had no mercy on him, nuking him to a 3 star player with 15 eye, 12 contact, and 11 power. There are a few other players on the Reds that seem rated wrong, but these are the worst of them, and I'm sure there are many other examples of this on other teams. I sincerely hope that this is fixed in the Opening Day update, as it can take the fun out of managing my own team. I also would like to see readjusted team profiles. The Reds still have 180,000,000 in cap space, which is just too much. Last season we had a record 114,000,000 payroll, and a large portion of that was cut during the offseason this year. I would say a max of 120,000,000 for us is more than fair. Again, I'm just using the Reds as an example because I'm familiar with them, I'm sure many other teams have similar issues. I think overall the budgets are much higher than they really are. The fact that players accept superlow contracts doesn't help either. When star SPs go for 12,000,000 per year and you have 180,000,000 to spend, suddenly payrolls don't matter. Additionally, I am disappointed that there aren't any facts/quotes. That was one of my favorite parts! Those Yogi Berra quotes that came every once in a while made my day, and all of the quotes were incredible, even if I had seen them 10 times already (I've seen them all). At least re-add the same quotes, because that's a huge part of the game for me. My final complaint is about player morale. This is an issue I've been having since last year. When you demote a player, their morale shouldn't automatically go down. Oftentimes by the end of the season my entire team has those frowny faces, even if we did well and they get game time, because they've been moved up and down for various purposes such as injuries. Ok, I've slammed the game enough, let me add in some of the things I love. Overall, I have got to say I am very impressed. The subtle changes to the UI look great, the licensing is a huge bonus, the players are, for the most part, more appropriately rated than I found them to be in the previous version. The new trading features look good, although I have yet to use them. The new sim features are a great tool, something that will allow me to get much more use out of this game than I did in the past. However, what I perhaps love most is the extended roster. The rosters feel so much more in depth now, and I feel like I really have the entire organization at my finger tips. When the time comes to add to my 40 man roster, I'll have plenty of my team's best prospects to try out, and I won't feel like I've completely thinned out my team in a few seasons. So overall, I'm really happy with the game. I'm not sure that it is quite enough to warrant a 5 dollar upgrade from the previous version, considering they're so similar and the old version is now free, but it does enough to keep the dedicated satisfied. If the mentioned problems, particularly the player ratings and definitely the quotes, can be at all fixed, it will make the game even more enjoyable. Last edited by mac2298; 03-27-2015 at 10:48 PM.

03-27-2015, 10:28 PM	#2
wodi All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 535	I have also noticed the team budgets seem pretty high

03-29-2015, 12:56 PM	#6
BradC All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: northern CA Posts: 1,870 Blog Entries: 1	The team budgets issue will be fixed in update #1. The facts and quotes were pulled for an internal reason. I hope we can put them back, as I've liked them too. Thanks.

03-29-2015, 08:50 PM	#9
Dkelley Minors (Double A) Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 188	Could you possibly use a third-party tool to take the "hints.txt" file from iOOTP 14 and copy it to the MLB Manager 15's as a temporary fix?

03-31-2015, 01:05 PM	#20
wodi All Star Reserve Join Date: Aug 2014 Posts: 535	Ratings are an arbitrary thing, you could look at any game ever made and dispute the ratings. The editor was added and let's people change ratings to what they see is best fit. I'd rather the developers spend time looking into other aspects of the game for improvement rather than the ratings. And for the record I do agree, someone like chapman is underrated.