Fake Players Guide for Major League Baseball 2K5 (PS2) by Jason (aldrete2) - 4/12/05 v1 Contents -------- 0001 What This Guide Is About 0002 Fake Player List 0003 Top 25 Prospects Fakes List 0004 FAQ/Notes/Miscellaneous Stuff 0001 What This Guide Is About ----------------------------- If you've played any baseball games the last few years you've probably seen fake players filling out the rosters. If you've played Major League Baseball 2k5 you've seen a lot of fake players on rosters. You may be wondering if/who these fake names represent, and maybe even why there are fake players in the game to begin with. I will cover this here, as well as talk about some general roster updating things. This will not be a comprehensive roster update guide listing all the transactions that have occured - there are other places to find info on that. The info included in this guide covers the default rosters (no offical roster updates had been released by 2k/Take 2/Sega as of mid-April 2005) for the PS2. I've never played the Xbox version, so I'm not sure if all the roster info is the same in both versions. 0002 Fake Player List --------------------- This is a listing of all the fake players on active major league rosters. A majority of minor leaguers and free agents are fake players, they will not be included here. There is one fake player in the free agent pool with stats, I do have him listed. A few of the fake players on active rosters do represent real major leaguers, the real player name is listed afterwards. Go to section 0004 for more details about specific players and other issues regarding fake players and who can/can't be included in the game for various reasons. I will mention a couple of things in this section though. First, many of the fake players who match up with real players do not look like the real players, and there is no way to edit things like flesh tone or facial hair in 2k5. Second, most of the fake players on all teams and levels DO NOT represent any real players. If you look at the players' vital stats and appearance and compare it to guys on 40-man and spring training invitee lists, they do not match up close enough to anyone to be truly considered representative players. More about this later, here's the list of fake guys on active rosters: Ana: Tim Zimmerman-P --> Brendan Donnelly Atl: Jeff Ashburn-3B Bobby Abbott-LF Cliff Dickey-P --> Tom Martin Allen Acevedo-P Bal: Erik Lambert-P Bos: Carlos Ahearn-RF --> Kevin Millar ChC: Chris Ganz-2B Terrance Brown-C Cle: Brandon Ament-LF Paul Prior-P --> Scott Sauerbeck Col: Jerome Tang-3B Det: Grant Ashby-2B Flo: Damon Perdue-RF Jeremy Figgins-LF Chipper Fikac-CF Hou: Matt Underwood-LF Evan Boehler-RF KC: Jon Gettis-P LA: Jack Vian-1B Mil: Jef Holton-C --> Damian Miller Tim Biemel-P --> Justin Lehr Min: Carlton Lloyd-P NYM: Colby Long-RF Oak: Oliver Phelps-C Evan Olivo-LF Gary May-P Phi Felix Berger-SP --> Cory Lidle Marshall Meche-P Pit: Jay Pride-P A.J. Houston-P SF: Joe Young-LF --> Barry Bonds Brad Almanzar-P --> Matt Herges TB: Dan Young-P Tex: John Thomas-P FA: Tim Scutaro-P 0003 Top 25 Prospects Fakes List -------------------------------- If you start seaon/franchise/GM career, you can look at a listing of the top 25 hitting or pitching prospects from around the league. Most of the names on the top 25 boards are fake names, since minor leaguers are not in the union and can't be used in the game. A good amount of the fake top25's SORT OF match up with some of the elite prospects in the minors in real life. Below is a list of some of the fake minors who I found that kind of match up real top prospects, at least in position, handedness, and prospect status. Keep in mind that most of these fake guys do not match up with the listed real prospects in terms of age, height, weight, or physical appearance. Romain Soson (P/Sea) - Felix Hernandez Alan Palmer (P/NYM) - Yusmeiro Petit Colin O'Hara (P/Tex) - John Danks Anand Madhavapeddy (P/Cle) - Adam Miller Sumir Kataria (P/SF) - Matt Cain Al Spong (P/LA) - Greg Miller Shan-Min Chao (P/Atl) - Kyle Davies Jeff McNurlin (P/ChW) - Brandon McCarthy Carol Celic (P/Oak) - Huston Street Walter Hecht (P/Was) - Mike Hinckley Dale Son (1B/ChC) - Brian Dopirak Beck Moussavi (OF/NYM) - Lastings Milledge Dave Von Mol (3B/NYY) - Eric Duncan Adam Bain (C/Atl) - Brayan Pena Drew Krevi (SS/Bos) - Hanley Ramirez Andy Modrovich (3B/Col) - Ian Stewart 0004 FAQ/Notes/Miscellaneous Stuff ---------------------------------- Here are some general topics and questions that deal with the fake players and roster editing that have been asked about on message boards, or let you know why certain players aren't in the game. Q: Why are there fake players in the game? A: For legal reasons, not all players can be included. Some of the fake players are fill-ins for real players who can't be included. Many minor leaguers are fake, since teams do not have enough eligible players to fill out a full 25-man roster and a pool of minor leaguers. Q: So, who's eligible to be included in 2k5 and other baseball games? A: Players included in the MLPBA (the player's association) are eligible, with a few exceptions that will be covered later on. Players on 40-man rosters, and 25-man rosters and disabled lists during the season are generally considered in the union. For video games, it's a little different though. Usually players who appeared in the majors or were on the disabled list the previous season are on the official list of players that game makers are allowed to include in their games. Players on 40-man rosters who did not appear in the majors or DL (prospects and older players who spent last season in the minors) typically can not be included, even though they are considered members of the MLBPA for other things. Q: Why isn't Barry Bonds in the game? A: this is probably the most asked question regarding baseball gaming the last couple of years. The simple reason many people give is that Bonds "dropped out of players union". I severly doubt he actually dropped out of the union completely, what they probably mean is that Bonds opted out of the MLBPA's group licensing agreement. If you've ever seen the MLBPA/Player's Choice logo on games or baseball cards or whatever, that symbol indicates that the product is licensed by the MLBPA, and can use the names of players who signed on to the group licensing agreement. Bonds opted out of this agreement before the 2004 season, which is why he wasn't in any of last year's games either. This is the same reason why Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal were not in some of the video games back in the Sega Genesis days. As far as I know, Bonds is the first baseball player to leave the MLBPA group licensing agreement. Q: Why are Kevin Millar, Brendan Donnelly, and a few others missing? A: Millar, Donnelly, Cory Lidle, Tom Martin, Matt Herges, and Damian Miller have been "banned" from the players union for appearing in at least one spring spring training game during the players' strike of 1995. The MLBPA has taken the cold stance of saying that any player who appeared in just on game that spring crossed the invisible picket line, and will not be allowed in the MLBPA. Even though no regular season games were played with strikebreaking players (making it impossible to tell who would have actually crossed the line and played in official games during the strike), and many minor leaguers were forced or tricked into playing spring games, the union leaders have remained assholes regarding this issue. From stuff I've read, Billy McMillon (who is included in 2k5) is the only guy who played ina game that spring that has been let into the players union. Jamie Walker, Frank Menechino, and Kerry Ligtenberg also appeared in games that spring, but are included in 2k5. There are some other players still active in the minors who played in games that spring, so if they reach the majors this year they may be left out of official roster updates. Those players will be listed below, along with their current real-life roster status. By the way, if you're wondering were I got this info from, check out the excel spreadsheet (which was actually compiled by me) on this site: http://baseball-almanac.com/legendary/replacement_players.shtml Active "Spring 95" players not in 2k5: Lou Merloni - Ana Chris Truby - KC/disabled list Andy Abad - Cle/AAA Charles Gipson - Hou/AAA Brian Daubach - NYM/AAA Chris Clapinski - KC/AAA Pedro Swann - Cin/AAA Angel Echevarria -ChC/AAA Eddie Oropesa -ChC/AAA Sean Fesh - Phi/AAA Chris Prieto - Ana/AAA Shane Spencer - Japan Benny Agbayani - Japan Keith Osik - Free Agent Kevin Tolar - Free Agent Chris Latham - Free Agent Jeff Tam - Free Agent Chuck Smith - Free Agent Q: Are there any other players missing? A: From what I've found, Expos OF-1B Terrmel Sledge is the only other notable player I've found that's missing. He's a union member and included in other games, so there's no known reason why he's missing from 2k5. Guys who retired during the offseason like Edgar Martinez are missing. There may be some minor league free agent types or guys on 40-man rosters who had short stints in 2004 who are missing as well. There are two other representative players I have on the list above. Justin Lehr played with Oakland in 2004 and was on the Brewers' 40-man roster this offseason, and his fake does match up in terms of vital stats. There's no known reason why he's missing. Scott Sauerbeck was injured last season, and was signed by Cleveland to a minor league contract. He was added to their 40-man roster in the offseason, but since he wasn't on Cleveland's major league DL, Sauerbeck may not have been on the list of eligible players. Q: So who the hell are the other fake players...and why? A: Good question. Like I said earlier, many of the fake players do not represent any real players close enough to be considered legitamite matches. Filling out minor league rosters with fake players is understandable, but giving half the teams a fake reliever when they have several real guys pushed to the AAA roster is just plain idiotic. For instance, the Twins have a nobody named Brandon Lloyd taking up a spot in their bullpen while vets like Terry Mulholland are relegated to the AAA roster. Doing this makes it seem like the 2k Sports people know nothing about baseball...or are really lazy or something. I know a lot of people on the internet are trying to match up names of fake players with names of players on 40-man or spring rosters, or top prospects in organizations. But as I said before, if you check out vital stats and appearances of many fake guys, they don't really match up with anyone. A lot of the fake players I saw are 30-something year old guys, very hard to mistake those guys for prospects. Q: Where did the get some of those goofy fake player names? A: If you turn to the end of the manual, you'll see that the people who made the game used their own names for some of the fake players. In the free agent pool, you migh notice a pitcher named Santos L. Halper. If you don't know, they got this name from an old Simpsons episode. Bart applies for a credit card using his dog's name (Santa's Little Helper), and when the card comes in the mail it says "Santos L. Halper" as the cardholder. Q: Why are the classic teams so messed up? A: Since most players on the classic teams are retired, they are not part of the union and can't be used for that reason. Some of the players that are in the Hall of Fame can be used, since Cooperstown has its own group licensing thing that players and their families can enter. Unfortunately, most of the players on the classic teams have little resemblance to their real life counterparts. They can't make the fake guys look exactly like the real players, but many of the fakes are wrong in vital stats, facial hair, flesh tone, and uniform numbers. And since you can't edit complexion or hair, the classic teams are worthless to many people. Even the real players they have are messed up. Most have incorrect uniform numbers. Nolan Ryan is rated as 100 on the 69 Mets, even though he was a young middle reliever who was nothing close to the dominating pitcher he became. Not all Hall of Famers are in 2k5 - Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Duke Snider, and even Joe Morgan are among the missing. Morgan is on the Cooperstown team and the analayst on the telecasts and he's not on the 76 Reds! Here's a list of the few real players that are on the classic teams: 76 Cin: Tony Perez 55 Brk: Pee Wee Reese 69 NYM: Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan 61 NYY: Yogi Berra 89 Oak: Dennis Eckersley 95 Cle: Jose Mesa, Julian Tavarez, Eddie Murray, Omar Vizquel, Manny Ramirez, Kenny Lofton, Sandy Alomar, Jim Thome, Carlos Baerga Q: What's this roster/lineup glitch people keep talking about? A: Sometimes after making trades or signings, positions may appear twice in your lineups, and there is no real way to fix it. For instance, I went through moving players to their new teams, and when I signed Jeromy Burnitz, Maggliio Ordonez, and Mark DeRosa to the Cubs, Tigers, and Rangers respectively, each of those teams then had two DH's in one of their lineups. The roster/lineup editing pages do not include any way to eliminate duplicate positions. If you trade/release players, you can remove them from all lineups, then send them to AAA before transfering them to try to avoid problems. In season mode you can sign free agents to a minor league roster, then promote them. Unfortunately, in exhibition mode, if you want to make an updated roster file, it is virtually impossible to avoid the multiple-position thing. When you sign free agents in exhibition mode, they automatically go to whatever level they were listed at in the free agent pool, and sometimes major league free agents will be automatically inserted into the lineup. If you're only concerned with editing players' names, stats, and uniform numbers you should be okay. But if you want to start a season, I would recommend sticking with the default rosters until 2k/Take 2/Sega comes out with an official roster update and/or patch. Q: Are there any limits to editing players I should know about? A: You can not edit players' flesh tone, facial hair, or years of experience. The problem with this is that the fake players who represent real players (both on current and classic teams) often look nothing like their real life counterparts. I can understand not being able to edit real players completely, for legal reasons or whatever, but there's no reason to make it so you can't edit the fake guys. Yet another annoyance from 2k5. You can not edit players on league/division/national/hall of fame all star teams. You can't edit the manager or coaches names. Finally, you can't edit or create players once you enter a season mode. Q: Are there any other mistakes/issues with the rosters? A: I noticed two player handedness errors. Dodgers IF Olmedo Saenz should bat and throw R, not L. Cardinals pitcher Carmen Cali should be left handed, not right handed. Sometimes when you edit players, they will turn to polygons. The good news is if you exit the editing screen, then come back the players should look fine again. Some players who did play in the majors last year have zero stats, and a few guys who were never free agents are in the free agent pool. For instance, Cubs pitcher Mike Wuertz is in the free agent pool, and his stats are all zeros. Q: Who the hell are you and why should I believe what you're babbling on about? A: I have posted a roster update for this game on gamefaqs, so I know first hand about all the messy stuff with roster editing. In the past I made many rosters for High Heat 2001 and 2002 (PC), both extremely detailed "current" rosters and several past seasons. So I know a lot about stupid lineup messes, disappearing players, and fake players. I also am working on a current roster for the very messy to edit PC replay game Diamond Mind Baseball 9. In the past I made about 20 roms with current and past teams for the classic NES game RBI Baseball. I've also made rosters for Baseball Mogul and one or two other games, I can't remember off the top of my head. I've also posted a few rosters for PS2 games here on gamefaqs. So I'm obviously insane, or have way too much spare time. Well, that's the kind of fun stuff that happens when you graduate from college and nobody's hiring entry-level in the field you went to school for... Contact info ------------ I have a secondary e-mail address at yinka 5000 @ netzero. com (remove spaces). If you have any big info/corrections about stuff I talk about in here you can e-mail me. Don't send lists matching fake and real players unless you actually verified that they match in regards to vital stats (age, ht, wt, etc). It's easy to go through rosters and try to match up names by positions, but from what I've seen most fake players are completely fake. If you want to use stuff from this file, just give me credit, I'm not gonna put a rod-up-the-ass disclaimer like a lot of faq's have. -Jason/aldrete2