Question about historical leagues..

[Matty86]

I normally don't play historical leagues, but I figured I'd give something new a try with the new version... I created a league starting in 2000, but only with ML, AAA, AA, and A. None of the minor leagues are the real teams from the systems... did I do something wrong or are they just randomly generated and I would have to change everything myself? I wanted to start in A and work my way up.

[Spritze]

Randomly Generated

[Le Grande Orange]

Creating a database listing all the affilations, league structures, and team names and nicknames, along with the changes to affiliations, league structures, team relocations, team name changes, etc., for the minors would be a huge project. It gets more complicated when you look back at earlier years when the minors were much larger in relation to the majors, with a lot of teams and leagues coming into existence and later folding.

All that said, it would be a great thing to see if it could be done...

[Spritze]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Creating a database listing all the affilations, league structures, and team names and nicknames, along with the changes to affiliations, league structures, team relocations, team name changes, etc., for the minors would be a huge project. It gets more complicated when you look back at earlier years when the minors were much larger in relation to the majors, with a lot of teams and leagues coming into existence and later folding.

All that said, it would be a great thing to see if it could be done...

A db like you mention does exist. Available on-line.

[Cardinal Rule]

Originally Posted by Spritze

A db like you mention does exist. Available on-line.

Right - it's available through baseball-reference.com, I think it used to be at BR Bullpen but that site has changed so much over the past months it may be all just at the main BR site now.

[StyxNCa]

Originally Posted by Matty86

I normally don't play historical leagues, but I figured I'd give something new a try with the new version... I created a league starting in 2000, but only with ML, AAA, AA, and A. None of the minor leagues are the real teams from the systems... did I do something wrong or are they just randomly generated and I would have to change everything myself? I wanted to start in A and work my way up.

In reality, there is no such thing as "historical" in OOTP. It exists in name only but the results are always fictional.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Spritze

A db like you mention does exist. Available on-line.

Well, yes and no.

The work at Baseball-Reference uses the work done by the Minor League Committee of SABR. If you poke through it, you'll find relatively little data for earlier years, since there is so much to complete. I randomly picked the 1938 PCL. You can find individual player stats, but there's no team-level stats.

There's also no team history page which tracks the nickname changes of a club, the moves of a club from one city/town to another (and sometimes from one league to another), nor a listing of all the affiliation changes for a given club. That sort of team-based listing is what you need for OOTP to have historically correct minor leagues for any selected year.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by Spritze

A db like you mention does exist. Available on-line.

There's also an Excel file available with that most of that data in it. No, it's not perfect, but it's good enough that it could be used.

I should know. I use it - manually, sad to say, because the game hasn't advanced to generation historical minor league leagues and teams yet even though it should have.

[Bluenoser]

Originally Posted by StyxNCa

In reality, there is no such thing as "historical" in OOTP. It exists in name only but the results are always fictional.

Technically everything in OOTP is "fictional". What's your point?

[Spritze]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Well, yes and no.

The work at Baseball-Reference uses the work done by the Minor League Committee of SABR. If you poke through it, you'll find relatively little data for earlier years, since there is so much to complete. I randomly picked the 1938 PCL. You can find individual player stats, but there's no team-level stats.

There's also no team history page which tracks the nickname changes of a club, the moves of a club from one city/town to another (and sometimes from one league to another), nor a listing of all the affiliation changes for a given club. That sort of team-based listing is what you need for OOTP to have historically correct minor leagues for any selected year.

Is available, just not on BBref.com. Someone put it together a few years ago. Tracks League names, cities, team nicknames, level, and I forget what else. Starts in the 1800's and goes through somewhere in the 2000's. I have a copy if you need it.

[Spritze]

Originally Posted by Malleus Dei

There's also an Excel file available with that most of that data in it. No, it's not perfect, but it's good enough that it could be used.

I should know. I use it - manually, sad to say, because the game hasn't advanced to generation historical minor league leagues and teams yet even though it should have.

Yeah, I bet this is the one.

[Malleus Dei]

Originally Posted by Spritze

Yeah, I bet this is the one.

Me, too. Upload it to Padresfans' website, would you? I think people could use it.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Spritze

Is available, just not on BBref.com. Someone put it together a few years ago. Tracks League names, cities, team nicknames, level, and I forget what else. Starts in the 1800's and goes through somewhere in the 2000's.

Ah, yes, now that you mention it, I remember that file. I have a copy of it somewhere on my hard drive. It primarily used, if I recall correctly, the first or second edition of Baseball America's Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball to compile the data.

There were, however, a few leagues, teams, and years missing from the file. I remember adding some in myself. It doesn't have an individual team history so that you can track all the changes a given minor league club went through. But for generating the setup for a selected year, it's certainly a good start.

The SABR minor league database will eventually have more info too...