Alrighty, I've done a bit of research regarding your question on the poor play of Boston and Chicago in the American League. I'll only take a quick look at Chicago, because I feel their performance in my replay has been pretty close to what happened in real life:
Code:
Batting Runs ERA Fielding Record
1901 White Sox .276 (5th) 819 (1st) 2.98 (1st) .941 (5th) 83 - 53
1901 REPLAY .243 (8th) 633 (3rd) 3.46 (5th) .965 (2nd) 77 - 63
1902 White Sox .268 (6th) 675 (5th) 3.41 (5th) .955 (2nd) 74 - 60
1902 REPLAY .231 (8th) 522 (8th) 2.92 (2nd) .965 (1st) 67 - 73
1903 White Sox .247 (6th) 516 (6th) 3.02 (6th) .949 (7th) 60 - 77
1903 REPLAY .226 (8th) 546 (8th) 3.09 (3rd) .965 (1st) 63 - 77
The White Sox of my replay are a very poor offensive ballclub, with their batting average at the bottom of the league in each of the first three seasons. Their pitching has been better in 02 & 03, keeping them relatively competitive. The real life White Sox won 217 games in these three years while the replay had them winning 207...pretty close, I think.
Now the Americans/Somersets/Pilgrims...quite a different story:
Code:
Batting Runs ERA Fielding Record
1901 Americans .278 (4th) 760 (3rd) 3.04 (2nd) .943 (1st) 79 - 57
1901 REPLAY .258 (4th) 576 (6th) 3.29 (4th) .959 (6th) 67 - 73
1902 Somersets .278 (4th) 664 (6th) 3.02 (1st) .956 (1st) 77 - 60
1902 REPLAY .249 (5th) 544 (6th) 3.52 (5th) .961 (5th) 62 - 78
1903 Pilgrims .272 (1st) 708 (1st) 2.57 (1st) .959 (2nd) 91 - 47
1903 REPLAY .237 (7th) 565 (5th) 3.07 (2nd) .956 (8th) 67 - 73
The A.L. Boston franchise had spectacular pitching in these early years, which just hasn't been duplicated in my replay. Take 1903, for example - here's a look at the real life pitchers versus the Boston staff in my replay:
Code:
Real Life 1903 Replay 1903
Cy Young 28-9 2.08 Cy Young 16-19 2.86
Bill Dineen 21-13 2.26 Win Kellum 9-22 3.43
Tom Hughes 20-7 2.57 Doc Newton 9-9 3.63
George Winter 9-8 3.08 George Winter 22-12 2.81
Norwood Gibson 13-9 3.19 Norwood Gibson 10-11 2.88
The fact that Hughes and Dineen haven't been traded to Boston in my replay has been a huge factor in the record of the OOTP Boston franchise. George Winter has stepped up and played well but Kellum and especially Young are not performing.
I really feel that Cy Young's real-life dominance in his late-30s and early-40s is something that is tough to replicate in this game with the way Marcus codes the aging process. Maybe someone who has run more dynasties is better prepared to argue this point - I could run 1000 simulations and Young would probably never get to 500 career wins. As it stands now, he likely won't even reach 400 in my replay, as he's dropped all the way down to '1 star' at the end of 1904.
Hope this has helped swampdragon! Let me know if you'd like some more numbers!