Overall Ratings in Baseball Mogul

As mentioned before, Baseball Mogul used to have the problem that player ratings weren’t well-defined. For example, an 85 Contact rating might put a batter among the top 25 players in the league in this category, while an 85 Power rating might not be enough to break the top 100.

There was also a problem of rating drift. When you start a new game in 2011, the MLB average for Contact is 78; ten years later, it has risen to 82.

These problems were fixed in Baseball Mogul 2016 and further improved in Baseball Mogul 2017. Player ratings are now well-defined in terms of what each number means relative to the league. And ratings are constantly adjusted every to ensure that these definitions remain meaningful over multiple seasons.

However, I’ve gotten some questions about how the ratings are actually defined. So, I pulled a couple tables from my design documents to help clear this up. This one shows how Overall ratings are groups into 10 separate categories, each with its own general definition:

Overall Rating	Definition	Example Scouting Report from 2017 Database
90-99	Superstar	Mike Trout is headed for the Hall of Fame if he doesn’t get hurt.
87-89	Franchise Player	Paul Goldschmidt is a franchise player on almost any ballclub.
84-86	Potential All-Star	In any given year, Joey Votto is a potential All-Star.
81-83	Star Player	Hanley Ramirez could play every day for any team in the league.
79-80	Established Starter	Justin Upton could be a starter for most major league teams.
77-78	Borderline Starter	Josh Rutledge has the skills to compete for a starting job.
75-76	Bench Player	Peter Bourjos is a solid backup, but borderline as an everyday player.
73-74	Borderline Major Leaguer	Tyler Holt could be useful as a backup, but he’s probably not going to get any better.
68-72	High Minors (AAA)	Shane Robinson is a mediocre ball player, and I think he's reached the peak of his ability.
50-67	Low Minors	Now that Reid Brignac has reached his peak, all he can really do is detract from a major league team.

 

This table shows the ideal distribution of players in the current 2017 database. (Historical databases look a bit different; more on this later.)

Overall Rating	MLB Ranking	Players in Database	Approximate Players Per Franchise	Roster Spot(s)
90-99	Top 2%	10	<1	n/a
87-89	Top 5%	30	1	#1
84-86	Top 10%	50	2	#2-#3
81-83	Top 20%	100	3	#4-#6
79-80	Top 40%	120	4	#7-#10
77-78	Middle 20%	150	5	#11-#15
75-76	Bottom 40%	150	5	#16-#20
73-74	Bottom 20%	180	6	#21-#26
68-72	n/a	450	15	#27-#40
50-67	n/a	550	18	n/a

Players in Database:  The number of players that should fall within this range in a modern database with 30 teams.

Roster Spot(s): The roster spots that players of this caliber generally fill on a major league roster. For example, players rated 75-76 will occupy roster spots #16 to #20 on an average team; they aren’t good for the starting lineup or pitching rotation (a total of 13-14 players) but they have value off the bench and out of the bullpen.