Front Office Manager Review and Analysis

I bought the game and I'm going to install it soon. I decided to create a whole new thread for this so I can track my team(s) through the years. I'm going to be comparing this game heavily to MVP 2005 because that was arguably the greatest baseball game ever made.

Usually when I buy a new baseball game, I will chose a lousy team and play for a few years until I figure everything out, then I'll start a new game with the Tigers. It was always the Devil Rays, but now that they are good, I think I'll pick the Royals.

It will be interesting to see when the game starts. MVP 2005 started on opening day, but I always thought that it should have started the first day of ST. I'm also wondering if they'll have an option to draft and/or create a player. I often drafted a team instead of using the current rosters. I never used the create a player, but it will be neat if they had it. I'm also wondering how they rate players and what stats they use. This is suppose to be really technical, so it'll be cool if they have a wide range of stats.

Stay Tuned...

Help section from 2K Sports: http://www.2ksports.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=164

I found out on their site that if you have an intel video controller, like most notebooks do, you can't play this game. So forget this game for me! They say it must be direct x compatible, which mine is, but it turns out they do not put this important little nugget on their box!

First of all, you have to register your game at STEAM before you can install, which is annoying. After that, it takes about 15 minutes to install. It's a DVD instead of a regular CD.

You start off at the end of the '08 season (November 3rd to be exact) which is great because you have the whole off season to get ready. I'm still trying to get familiar with my team, but every time I try to get rankings on players it's always Mike Jacob's regardless of who I chose. This is getting annoying. As soon as I figure it out, I'll post the default 40-man roster for the Royals...

Stay tuned...

This is the first game I've had to deal with a 40-man roster. Also, there are 5 levels of minor leagues. I'm not going to waste your time posting that. Here is the current 40-man Royals roster. It will be different by opening day. Points are based out of 80 instead of 100

Pitchers:
B. Bannister* - 40
J. Bale - 45
K. Davies* - 50
B. Duckworth - 50
J. Fulchino - 40
Z. Greinke* - 60
J. Gobble* - 40
L. Hochevar - 40
D. Lowery - 45
G. Meche* - 60
N. Musser - 40
J. Newman - 45
J. Peralta* - 40
R. Ramirez* - 55
D. Randall+* - 50
C. Rosa - 45
J. Soria* - 70
R. Tejeda* - 50
Y. Yabuta* - 45

1B:
R. Gload* - 45
M. Jacobs* - 50
K. Ka'aihue - 45
R. Shealy - 40

2B:
A. Callaspo - 40
E. German - 45
M. Grudzielanek* - 55
J. Smith - 40

SS:
M. Aviles* - 40
T. Pena* - 40

3B:
A. Gordon* - 55

C:
J. Buck* - 40
M. Olivo* - 45
M. Tupman - 45

OF:
S. Costa - 40
D. DeJesus* - 55
J. Gathright* - 40
J. Guillen* - 50
M. Maier - 40
M. Teahen* - 55

DH:
B. Butler* - 50

* = active 25-man roster
+ = fake player

As far as fielding goes, this is their dominating positions which shows a green dot. A yellow dot means about average, red dot means below average and a gray dot means poor. For example, Ross Gload has a green dot for 1B, and a yellow dot for LF and RF. I wonder if someone can learn a new position and have it change for red to yellow (or green). Hmmm...

Stay tuned...

I'm in the process of doing arbitration with my players. I resigned Grudzielanek to a 2-year contract.

Quick note: They have the stats I was hoping for. ERA+, OPS+, VORP and EQa. The last 2 I never quite understood, but I can use ERA+ and OPS+.

One thing about this game is that it will test your patience. I think it's because it's new and I'm not familiar with it and further off-seasons will go faster. I'm not saying a casual fan will not enjoy this game as it does attempt to descibe everything you have to do, but don't expect to go right in and start playing. It will take days for a trade to be acknowledged (unlike immediately in MVP 2005). You can't trade a player without a contract, so if someone is awaiting arbitration you cannot trade him until after arbitration.

Another annoying feature is it won't tell you your top prospects. All the prospects are fake, so it's not like you can relate to real-life prospects. Most of the prospects have a 20 rating but if you click on them it'll tell you the potential. I lied earlier and said that there were 5 levels of minor leagues; there are actually 6. So you'll have to click on every single player to see who is a legitimate prospect and who is there just to take up space. I guess in time, once you are familiar with your team, this won't seem so much like a chore, but you would think they could have made this easier.

Oh, and I traded Gathright for some prospect...

Stay tuned...

It's now ST and I've made a bunch of roster moves that include FA signings, released players and called-up players. I won't bore you with the details (yet). What's annoying about this is the same thing that was annoying with MVP 2005. You can only use 25 players at a time in a game which isn't very real. You can use anyone on the 40-man roster, but if you wanted to use a rookie to see how he does, you first have to put him (temporarily) on the 40-man roster. This might go more smoothly in later years as I get familiar with it (like in MVP 2005) but you'd think they'd make it more realistic.

Now lets talk about the player rankings. Like I said before, the ranks are out of 80 instead of 100 which I still think is weird. Hitters are given a rank on hitting, power, plate discipline, speed, baserunning, range, glove and arm. Pitchers are ranked on stamina, control and the varies pitches they throw. Rookies are also given a rank on their potential. Also what's weird is the ranking are in 5 (20, 25, 30, 35 etc.) so it's not as precise as in MVP 2005 which are ranked in ones (51, 52, 53, etc.). Also, in MVP 2005, hitters were given their power and contact separately between lefthanders and righthanders which this game fails to do. You can see the splits and go with that on whether to sit a player against a lefty, which is a lot more work. Not saying I won't enjoy it though...

Stay Tuned...

bobrob2004 wrote:

Points are based out of 80 instead of 100

That's how scouts rate players. They'd say something like "(Some guy) has a 50 changeup, 55 fastball, and 65 curveball"

I believe a score of 80 is like a once-in-a-lifetime type of prospect/player.

bobrob2004 wrote:

Quick note: They have the stats I was hoping for. ERA+, OPS+, VORP and EQa. The last 2 I never quite understood, but I can use ERA+ and OPS+.

VORP is value over replacement player. This assesses how much better (or worse) a player is than "replacement level". This level refers to the type of player a team should be able to call up from the minors or acquire from another team at minimal cost...in other words freely available talent. The player is an average fielder and below-average hitter. The exact calculation of this is beyond the scope of this post.



EqA is equivalent average. This one assess hitters independently of park and league effects. To get it, first get the raw EqA:



Normalize that such that the league EqA is .260. Anything better than .260 is better than average.

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

Points are based out of 80 instead of 100

That's how scouts rate players. They'd say something like "(Some guy) has a 50 changeup, 55 fastball, and 65 curveball"

I believe a score of 80 is like a once-in-a-lifetime type of prospect/player.

Oh, well that explains it. I also noticed that you can't get a score below 20.

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

Quick note: They have the stats I was hoping for. ERA+, OPS+, VORP and EQa. The last 2 I never quite understood, but I can use ERA+ and OPS+.

VORP is value over replacement player. This assesses how much better (or worse) a player is than "replacement level". This level refers to the type of player a team should be able to call up from the minors or acquire from another team at minimal cost...in other words freely available talent. The player is an average fielder and below-average hitter. The exact calculation of this is beyond the scope of this post.



EqA is equivalent average. This one assess hitters independently of park and league effects. To get it, first get the raw EqA:



Normalize that such that the league EqA is .260. Anything better than .260 is better than average.

That's why I never understood VORP. You're essentially comparing a player to someone that doesn't exist. That doesn't make any sense.

And you're using SB in the second equation. How does the ballpark effect that? Isn't 2nd and 3rd base 90 feet away in any ballpark?

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

Quick note: They have the stats I was hoping for. ERA+, OPS+, VORP and EQa. The last 2 I never quite understood, but I can use ERA+ and OPS+.

VORP is value over replacement player. This assesses how much better (or worse) a player is than "replacement level". This level refers to the type of player a team should be able to call up from the minors or acquire from another team at minimal cost...in other words freely available talent. The player is an average fielder and below-average hitter. The exact calculation of this is beyond the scope of this post.



EqA is equivalent average. This one assess hitters independently of park and league effects. To get it, first get the raw EqA:



Normalize that such that the league EqA is .260. Anything better than .260 is better than average.

That's why I never understood VORP. You're essentially comparing a player to someone that doesn't exist. That doesn't make any sense.

And you're using SB in the second equation. How does the ballpark effect that? Isn't 2nd and 3rd base 90 feet away in any ballpark?

VORP does compare player's to fictional players. This fictional player is bad enough to where any team could acquire a player with this skill set without any effort. Any starting player who is less valuable than a replacement player needs to be replaced immediately since it should be incredibly easy to do.

EqA is independent of park effects. OPS+ is dependent on them. Just take everyone's raw EqA and make it so the average is .260. If a guy plays in a park with 200 feet to LF and RF and he ends up with 175 HRs that's not adjusted so that it is consistent with a guy who plays in a ballpark with 1000 ft OF walls. I think OPS+ is a little better than EqA for this reason. Better yet, use both.

catbox_9 wrote:

EqA is independent of park effects. OPS+ is dependent on them. Just take everyone's raw EqA and make it so the average is .260. If a guy plays in a park with 200 feet to LF and RF and he ends up with 175 HRs that's not adjusted so that it is consistent with a guy who plays in a ballpark with 1000 ft OF walls. I think OPS+ is a little better than EqA for this reason. Better yet, use both.

OPS+ is a lot easier to understand than EqA. There's just things in that equation that are so random. Why multiply BB + HBP by 1.5? Why divide SB by 3? It seems that they are trying to combine multiple stats together to come up with this "super stat" that doesn't really measure anything. I could do something like that without even trying.

I like ISO because it's like SLG without singles. It actually measures something.

I'm still on the fence about using Runs Created.

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

EqA is independent of park effects. OPS+ is dependent on them. Just take everyone's raw EqA and make it so the average is .260. If a guy plays in a park with 200 feet to LF and RF and he ends up with 175 HRs that's not adjusted so that it is consistent with a guy who plays in a ballpark with 1000 ft OF walls. I think OPS+ is a little better than EqA for this reason. Better yet, use both.

OPS+ is a lot easier to understand than EqA. There's just things in that equation that are so random. Why multiply BB + HBP by 1.5? Why divide SB by 3? It seems that they are trying to combine multiple stats together to come up with this "super stat" that doesn't really measure anything. I could do something like that without even trying.

I like ISO because it's like SLG without singles. It actually measures something.

I'm still on the fence about using Runs Created.

Lots of stats don't really measure much so you have to be careful there. Even OPS doesn't really measure anything. It just arbitrarily combines some stats. While an OPS of 1.000 sounds good it's not actually a perfect score, 5.000 is. That's an odd score for a perfect score - it's 500%

So how is your FOM game doing? Was it worth the investment?

GoGetEmTigers wrote:

So how is your FOM game doing? Was it worth the investment?

Video games are always worth the investment

I would have to get a new computer to play the game, it will not work on laptops running intel video controllers.

The box says you need a direct x compatible video cards, which I have, but when you read the manufactures website, people are getting ripped off because of a problem the game has with intel chipsets!

That is a weird requirement.

On the plus side you can always buy an NES and play Baseball Stars - the general consensus as the greatest baseball game of all-time. Sadly, I do not have that game which is pretty pathetic on my part as it isn't particularly valuable - a $10 bill will pick this game up on eBay without any difficulty.

I haven't been updating this, but I finally got through ST. I've been playing the games in April (and losing most of them) when an interesting thing happened. All of a sudden a question popped up saying something like "a reporter asks you about Manny Ramirez. He's been hitting well as of late, how do you think you'll do against him in the coming series? A. Manny is a great hitter, so we'll try to keep him in check. B. Manny's been doing great lately, but we always do well against him. C. Manny's been on a hot streak, but I'm not worried about him in this series. D. I will not discuss Manny."

I chose A. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.