[SkyDog]

DOWNLOAD v101 TEMPLATE HERE


OK. For those who are unfamiliar, I like setting up fictional leagues with settings that don't necessarily mirror the last 5-10 years of baseball, but more the 1950-1995ish years. I want my league to have better pitching, rarer 50-HR seasons, a little more base-stealing prowess, etc. In an ideal world, I'd love to have my league churn out stats where a guy might just lead the league in homers with 40 or so, but where 60 is a possibility once every 100 or so years and someone might even chase Aaron, where pitchers finish what they start more than they do these days, but a great closer has a shot at saving 50, where 55-65 SBs usually leads the league, but where every now and then a guy comes along and flirts with 100, where once every hundred years someone might hit .400, but where the league ERA without the DH is usually around 4.00. And, I want all of this without having to change my settings every year or import predetermined settings every year that change what defines a "good" or "great" season.

The GREAT news is that it appears that ALL of the above is possible with OOTP2007.

First, most of the settings I used can all be found in the League Setup-->Strategy Tab.

GENERAL STRATEGIC TENDENCIES
USE OF RELIEVERS: Often
USE OF CLOSERS: Often
PITCHER ENDURANCE: Low
TYPICAL STARTING ROTATION SIZE: 5 Man Rotation
PINCH HIT FOR PITCHERS: Often
PINCH HIT FOR POSITION PLAYERS: Rarely
DEFENSIVE SUBSTITUTIONS: Normal
STEALING BASES: Normal
HIT & RUN: Normal
BUNTING: Normal

All of the "Traditional OOTP Creation Modifiers" were set to 1.000, with one exception: I decreased running speed to 0.795

All of the "Sabermetric Player Creation Modifiers" were set to 1.000.

LEAGUE TOTALS (and modifiers)

AT BATS: 160000
HITS: 41434, .965
DOUBLES: 7616, .785
TRIPLES: 1005, 1.150
HOME RUNS: 4147, .695
BASES ON BALLS: 15534, 1.075
HIT BY PITCHES: 1700, 1.050
STRIKEOUTS: 28921, .915
BABIP: .296
FIELDING ERRORS: 1.000

I also use low injuries. It helps increasing the "milestone" careers.




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(Note, these were with version 1.0. Version 1.01 is a little better, imho, but very close to these numbers.)
So, Ben, what sort of results can I expect from this sort of league???
Glad you asked. I'll look at a few stats from a career and single-season perspective, based on a 100-year sim I ran today.

HITS
Single-Season Record: 243
Leader Board in Current Season: 232, 217, 198, 195, 195
Top Five Career: 3671, 3666, 3603, 3457, 3452

I got 27 3,000-hit players. MLB has had 26.

The league leader has had less than 215 hits 31 times. (215 is the bottom number in the top 100 leader board)

BATTING AVERAGE
Single-Season Record: .403 (only .400 hitter in 100 years)
Leader Board In Current Season: .350, .337. .335, .333, .332
Top Five Career: .3451, .3446, .3418, .3408, .3380

DOUBLES
Single-Season Record: 61 (then 54, 50, 50, 49 are next-best)
Leader Board In Current Season: 36, 35, 35, 35, 34
Top Five Career: 618, 615, 591, 558, 557

From 1950-1995, the 50 mark was passed 9 times. From 1996-present, it has been passed 26 times. I'd prefer the former. Doubles could probably stand to be increased a hair, maybe to around .750. Rose, with 746, is the real-life post-WW2 leader in this category.

TRIPLES
Single-Season Record: 18 (Since 1950, Lance Johnson and Willie Wilson have had the most, with 21.)
Leader Board In Current Season: 12,11,10,10,10
Top Five Career : 180, 164, 143, 139, 135 (Musial, with 177, is tops among players who played after 1950. Clemente, with 166, is tops among guys who only played after 1950.)

Looks pretty good, maybe could be raised a hair so that someone could come along and crack 20. 18 was only done twice in my leauge, and 17 five fimes.

HOME RUNS
Single-Season Record: 60
Leader Board In Current Season: 51, 41, 39, 38, 36
Top Five Career: 693, 688, 593, 592, 571

I had 23 guys with 500 homers. 20 have done it in real life. Also, I had 27 50-HR seasons, compared to 20 in real life up to '95. I'll take that, rather than lowering it a little. I like having 60 be a possibility.

WALKS(Batters)
My walk numbers are a little high, intentionally. I did that to help bring ERAs up a bit. The record in my league was 178, which is only 8 more than Ruth, and well below Bonds. I had 10 guys in my league with >2000 walks. In MLB, only four have done that, three post-WWII.

STRIKEOUTS(Batters)
Single-season leader had 180 in my league. The 180 mark was hit 6 times pre-2000 in real life, but never more than Papa Bonds and 189. That works for me. 151, 144, 143, 141, 140 led the league this season.

PITCHING
My league had 15 ERAs under 1.75 in 100 years. It has happened 8 times in the last 50 years in MLB. Works for me. It's hard to evaluate other pitching stats, because most of them are very dependent on usage, but here's a nice one....

H/9IP: Nolan Ryan has the MLB record with 5.261 in '72. 5.23 is the record in my league. For a career, it's 6.52 in my league, 6.555 in MLB. I can get behind that.




OVERALL
Over the course of the 100-year sim, league batting average was around .257 (including pitchers), and league ERA was 4.03.