MLB The Show 22: Missing from Rosters
The first thing I do whenever I open up a new baseball video game is go through the rosters with a fine-toothed comb. Well, actually the FIRST thing I do is set up the gameplay options to be a mix between my two favorite baseball video games of all time: All-Star Baseball 2001 (hitting) and MVP Baseball 2005 (pitching, baserunning). But given my obsession with building custom rosters for all 12 astrology signs (all the way down through A ball, the lowest level of the minors), it’s going to be a while before I’m ready to start actually playing in games.
I already had two databases that make this roster documentation process a little easier. One is a complete list of each real-life team’s 40-person roster and non-roster invitees, culled from the team pages on MLB’s official website. And the other is a complete list of all the players who appeared in MLB The Show 2021, the first year where the game had a license for all minor league players. Despite these resources, the new game included close to 1,000 new players that I had to add from scratch. This might sound like an ordeal, but trust me, I’m thoroughly enjoying deepening my knowledge of the minor leagues.
As I mentioned above, most of these “new” players are low-level minor leaguers, many of whom were high round picks in the two most recent amateur drafts. So it was surprising to me to find a fair amount of players (about 80 in total) who were removed from the game’s player pool from last year’s installment to this year’s. Most of them are not going to make a particular impact on their respective astrology teams, but there are a handful of difference makers that their signs will definitely miss.
First up is disgraced Capricorn pitcher Trevor Bauer, whose player rating was at 96 in MLB The Show 2021. I wont’ go into the details of the gruesome sexual assault allegations that caused his initial placement on administrative leave, but suffice it to say, it’s not likely that the drone enthusiast and known cyber bully will step on an MLB mound in the near future. Speaking of assault perpetrators, Aquarius reliever Roberto Osuna was also left out of MLB The Show 2022, but I didn’t initially flag that, since Osuna is currently a free agent, while Bauer was listed on the official Dodgers active roster page until part way through Spring Training.
Next in terms of astrological impact is likely Virgo closer Ken Giles (rated at 84 overall in last year’s game). Granted, he will be on the shelf to start the year following a finger tendon injury, but he was still a selectable player last year, even though it was known that he would miss the entire season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. The Flowers still have Devin Williams (87) and James Karinchak (82) to close and setup, but bullpens are all about depth, and the loss of “100 Miles Giles” will hurt this sign for sure.
Screenshot from MLB The Show 2021
Moving to the position player side, Libra will be without second baseman Robinson Cano (80), who was suspended for all of 2021 because of PED’s. The Scales are mostly set at second base, with Ketel Marte (90) and Kolten Wong (83), but Robbie would have helped shore up the first base mix, where their best options are Jonathan Schoop (83) or Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (87) playing out of position.
OK, going down the list, I’m starting to see a pattern here. Tommy Kahnle (81), Jose Leclerc (81), Scott Oberg (77), Yonny Chirinos (77), Jonathan Hernandez (76)… all of these pitchers missed the entire 2020 season (and some even more time than that) with injuries. Meanwhile, position players like Dee Strange-Gordon (75), Yolmer Sanchez (75), Ryan Goins (71), and Mallex Smith (70) played in the minors, but didn’t have any MLB experience for the entirety of last year. Could this be the reasoning behind their exclusion?
But that can’t be it, because the game includes literally HUNDREDS of career minor leaguers who have not yet reached the majors, some of whom haven’t even played in the MINOR leagues since 2019. And it’s not even consistent, because the game does include some former MLB players who missed all of 2020: Justin Verlander (88), Mike Clevinger (85), Mike Soroka (83), and Sixto Sanchez (76), just to name a few.
Unless there’s a players union-related reason for the absence of these players (cf. Jon Dowd in MVP ‘05), I’m hoping that they will be included in later live roster patches. But the question is, how long can I wait until starting to build these astrology rosters? Because any updates that happen after I’ve begun the process would require me to start over, and even to re-create my database to account for any changes in player ratings. And who has that kind of time? (Who am I kidding, it’s not like I have any other hobbies or interests…)