Player Creation Modifiers. Am I understanding them correctly?

[JAttractive]

I am trying to tweak my league settings but I can't seem to get it right. My intent is over a 100 year sim period to have 3 or 4 players hit .400+. I have a bunch of other similar desires and I have met all of those. I find if I just tweak up the league hits total though it throws off my pitcher marks (higher ERA's than I wanted).

So, if I adjust the player creation modifiers for hitting what exactly happens?

1. Let's say I bump it up from 1.000 to 1.020. Does that mean the league will see the SAME number of hits but now I will have a wider range in possible Contact Ratings? As such a top player is more likely to hit .400 but if I was seeing 15,000 hits across the league before the change I will still see that after?

2. Or does it mean the Contact ratings go up but so will the expected total # of hits across the league? Essentially this not only would increase the Ratings but also the League Total hits?

[Biggio509]

If you are playing with a full minors system I am not sure player creation mods do much. It is my understanding that these numbers determine where players are placed. The higher the numbers the more current ability a prospect has to have to move up to the next level. So changing the ML player creation mods will made the AI having a higher standard for promoting to the big leagues.

I think what you need to look is league totals. I have no experience in this so I can't give you much guidance. However, I believe it you up the right numbers then your 3 or 4 guys hitting say .350 will hit .380 some more and you get .400. I can't help much here but league totals is where I would search for the answer.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by JAttractive

I am trying to tweak my league settings but I can't seem to get it right. My intent is over a 100 year sim period to have 3 or 4 players hit .400+. I have a bunch of other similar desires and I have met all of those. I find if I just tweak up the league hits total though it throws off my pitcher marks (higher ERA's than I wanted).

So, if I adjust the player creation modifiers for hitting what exactly happens?

1. Let's say I bump it up from 1.000 to 1.020. Does that mean the league will see the SAME number of hits but now I will have a wider range in possible Contact Ratings? As such a top player is more likely to hit .400 but if I was seeing 15,000 hits across the league before the change I will still see that after?

2. Or does it mean the Contact ratings go up but so will the expected total # of hits across the league? Essentially this not only would increase the Ratings but also the League Total hits?

Some clarification is in order:

1. Player creation modifiers are only related to the creation of fictional players. If you are using historical players, the PCMs don't have an effect.

2. If you are in a fictional league, then the PCMs do pretty much what they suggest -- they modify ratings up or down relative to what would have been the case relative to the year of your created league. In a fictional league, there is no control over what the league as a whole does. If you raise the PCM, everyone will do that much better, and vice versa. PCMs do not effect how performance is distributed among the players. The distribution of player performance is on a curve embedded in the game that you do not have the ability to control or influence.

Hope that helps.

[JAttractive]

Originally Posted by SteveP

Some clarification is in order:

1. Player creation modifiers are only related to the creation of fictional players. If you are using historical players, the PCMs don't have an effect.

2. If you are in a fictional league, then the PCMs do pretty much what they suggest -- they modify ratings up or down relative to what would have been the case relative to the year of your created league. In a fictional league, there is no control over what the league as a whole does. If you raise the PCM, everyone will do that much better, and vice versa. PCMs do not effect how performance is distributed among the players. The distribution of player performance is on a curve embedded in the game that you do not have the ability to control or influence.

Hope that helps.

Sorry still confused. Yes it's a fictional league.

In an initial league creation do the PCM's affect the ratings on league creation or only for future players. If so is this why it seems to take about 5-10 seasons for things to "normalize" in my tests.

I am confused by your last few sentences. So increasing PCM's means that the totals hits (for example) in my league go up beyond what is expected from my league totals once these players start to enter the league?

[JAttractive]

Basically what I need to know is how I can keep my league-wide total hits the same (right now ~15,500) but create a wider range in hitter production. I want the top hitters to do better and the weaker hitters to do worse essentially. That way pitchers aren't really affected by the change overall.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by JAttractive

Basically what I need to know is how I can keep my league-wide total hits the same (right now ~15,500) but create a wider range in hitter production. I want the top hitters to do better and the weaker hitters to do worse essentially. That way pitchers aren't really affected by the change overall.

Can't do it, at least not in any way I can think of. I believe that the distribution of ability is hard-wired into the game design. The only thing that can affect this is the player development engine. You could try increasing the Talent Change Randomness. That would create more potential for some players to get more talented and others to get worse. Or not (it's not called "randomness" for nothing ).

[JAttractive]

I had hoped that if you set the PCM to 1.2 for instance then you would see a guy with 10 for power raise to 12 but a guy with 200 for power raise up to 240. As a result the 10 power guy should still hit 1-3 hr a year but the other guy should see a significant improvement.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by JAttractive

I had hoped that if you set the PCM to 1.2 for instance then you would see a guy with 10 for power raise to 12 but a guy with 200 for power raise up to 240. As a result the 10 power guy should still hit 1-3 hr a year but the other guy should see a significant improvement.

That's a good way to describe the question. Disclosure: I don't play enough with fictional players to be an expert. However ...

I think what happens with the PCMs is that they move the bell curve (it's really a ski slope in professional baseball) in one direction or the other. Keep in mind that we are talking about totally fictional players -- there is nothing to anchor what "they should be". So, I think that what happens in your scenario is that the league as a whole get 20% better at hitting HRs. The distribution does not spread out or contract in some way (consider if you set the PCM to .250, for example -- would everyone hit the same? No, but hitting overall would be way down).

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by JAttractive

I had hoped that if you set the PCM to 1.2 for instance then you would see a guy with 10 for power raise to 12 but a guy with 200 for power raise up to 240. As a result the 10 power guy should still hit 1-3 hr a year but the other guy should see a significant improvement.

This is how I have always assumed it work.

[robc]

Originally Posted by SteveP

Some clarification is in order:

In a fictional league, there is no control over what the league as a whole does.

I am not an expert at all but I thought when you create a fictional league it is (or can be) based on real league totals for a specific year. Am I totally off base on this?

See step 4: http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/docu...ctional_wizard

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by robc

I am not an expert at all but I thought when you create a fictional league it is (or can be) based on real league totals for a specific year. Am I totally off base on this?

See step 4: OOTP Baseball Manual - Fictional Wizard

My statement may have been too definitive. I've never done it, but I believe people do create historical games, delete all the real players, fill the teams with fictionals (and somehow keep real players from showing up in future years). In that event, the historical league totals and modifiers would continue working, since the game engine doesn't care if the players are historical or fictional. AFAIK, that's the only way you could get historical league stats working for a fictional league.

[robc]

Originally Posted by SteveP

My statement may have been too definitive. I've never done it, but I believe people do create historical games, delete all the real players, fill the teams with fictionals (and somehow keep real players from showing up in future years). In that event, the historical league totals and modifiers would continue working, since the game engine doesn't care if the players are historical or fictional. AFAIK, that's the only way you could get historical league stats working for a fictional league.

Thanks

[JAttractive]

Originally Posted by SteveP

My statement may have been too definitive. I've never done it, but I believe people do create historical games, delete all the real players, fill the teams with fictionals (and somehow keep real players from showing up in future years). In that event, the historical league totals and modifiers would continue working, since the game engine doesn't care if the players are historical or fictional. AFAIK, that's the only way you could get historical league stats working for a fictional league.

Can't you just go to Game Setup, load in the settings for that year and then click the option to adjust for historical accuracy? I see no reason to create it with fictional players first but I could be missing something...

[bubba22plus]

Originally Posted by SteveP

My statement may have been too definitive. I've never done it, but I believe people do create historical games, delete all the real players, fill the teams with fictionals (and somehow keep real players from showing up in future years). In that event, the historical league totals and modifiers would continue working, since the game engine doesn't care if the players are historical or fictional. AFAIK, that's the only way you could get historical league stats working for a fictional league.

I do this all the time. For a good website, go here.

It is a little outdated, but it is still applicable.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by JAttractive

Can't you just go to Game Setup, load in the settings for that year and then click the option to adjust for historical accuracy? I see no reason to create it with fictional players first but I could be missing something...

People are certainly free to do their own experiments to see what they get. I may have gotten this thread off track enough as it is.

[JAttractive]

Ok I have tested so many ideas now with limited success. I am thinking the only other option is to reduce the draft size so that there is a distinct lack of "average" players, forcing teams to play guys out of position or in over their heads. In theory this should create a greater variance between the stars and the bottom players in the league... testing it now.

With a 10 team league and only AAA as a farm team in my league though this means a three round draft probably. I don't mind a small draft but that may be TOO small even for me.

[bailey]

I use the default for everything, except walk, HBP and strikeouts which I set to .900 and BABIP which I lower to .301. I also make sure I set ballpark factors to 1.000 for everything. I also use high stamina for pitchers, closers rarely, and 4-man rotations. With these settings .400 hitters are possible, but very rare. I did get a bunch of .400 hitters once, though, when I forgot to neutralize ballpark factors. So, I'd suggest neutralizing ballparks and then bumping up a few of them to 1.05 for contact.

I use no minors and a 5 round draft with 20 players on reserve rosters.

[JAttractive]

Well I simmed 200 seasons and finally got the results I wanted. I had to reduce to a three round draft (with enough players for 4 rounds) but it seems to work. Going to be interesting to see how this affects depth, prospect value etc.

You get a few odd crazy records but nothing we haven't seen in MLB at some point in time. Thanks for all the ideas and replies!

[JAttractive]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

This is how I have always assumed it work.

By the way... It didn't seem to work out that way. I didn't bother to investigate too closely but Steve P seems to be right. I don't think the player with a 10 rating becomes 12 with a 1.2 PCM but probably more like 30 or 40 (or whatever). Feel free to test but it didn't look that way to me.

In any case changing the PCM didn't seem to create more variance.

[knockahoma]

Ok I have tested so many ideas now with limited success. I am thinking the only other option is to reduce the draft size so that there is a distinct lack of "average" players, forcing teams to play guys out of position or in over their heads. In theory this should create a greater variance between the stars and the bottom players in the league... testing it now.

With a 10 team league and only AAA as a farm team in my league though this means a three round draft probably. I don't mind a small draft but that may be TOO small even for me.

That's a very inventive solution you devised. And your league totals still seem in line? Seems like something has got to give doesn't it, either the league totals, or the bell curve imbedded within the game?