MLB 10: The Show is right around the corner, but I'm still keeping in shape by playing MLB 09. In the past few years after the last roster update I would normally have put the game back on the shelf and forgotten about it only to play a depressing game or two a few weeks before the new season.

This year has been different. The end of the season roster update from Sony had Xavier Nady starting in right field and Chien Ming Wang as the #4 starter for the Yankees. It was a very "theoretical" roster update in the sense that if no one changed teams or signed free agents, these would be the rosters for next year. As any baseball fan knows, that's not the case at all. The Yankees outfield got overhauled, the Reds signed a Cuban defector, and there are tons of minor leaguers that will break through, along with dozens of other transactions.

Thankfully there is a strong community working hard to keep the rosters up to date. These people that are working hard to update rosters do so without the limitations that Sony has due to the MLBPA. For instance, due to the restraints of MLBPA, these minor league players aren't allowed into the game until they make their first professional appearance. Don't get me started on the Kevin Millar's of the world who crossed the picket line during the 94' strike and are banned from joining the MLBPA.

Every few days I'll log onto Sports Connect and go to Roster Vault to check out whats new. Recently someone added the Reds new pitcher Aroldis Chapman to rosters. User-submitted rosters are nothing new to gaming but that are something, that for me, have become invaluable. Be it giving NCAA football and basketball players names, or just roster transactions on games that take too much time to update, I'm looking at you NHL.

Don't get me wrong, Roster Vault isn't going to replace getting the next iteration of a game. Though I'm sure there are a lot of you that feel that some sports games are essentially a $60 roster update. I've got my copy of MLB 10: The Show preordered, and I'm confident within the first week of its release there will an updated roster available from the community that will get all the needed minor league and imported players in the game.