A Few Questions About Schedules in 2007

[cprongs2]

1) Will 2007 have a schedule generator that will make schedules with different 'off days' for each team....automatically? (I think 2006 would reference a historical schedule if it matched the set-up of the league, if not it would make a schedule, but the schedule would have the same off days for each team.

2) I saw in the changelist that a weather system has been added to 2007. I assume that means that each team location will have weather based on their geographical location. Just wanted to know if the 'weather system' is also extended to cover......rainouts.....and therefore rescheduled double headers??? (probably not, but curious)

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by cprongs2

1) Will 2007 have a schedule generator that will make schedules with different 'off days' for each team....automatically?

No, the game's built-in schedule generator is the same as last year's. Building a good schedule generator is a tough task and Markus had lots of other things on his plate for this year. There may be a new third-party utility for creating schedules out sometime after the game is released.

Originally Posted by cprongs2

I think 2006 would reference a historical schedule if it matched the set-up of the league, if not it would make a schedule, but the schedule would have the same off days for each team.

It still works like that.

The problem is that there aren't a lot of real-world major leagues to use as sources for schedules. There are plenty of minor leagues to use as sources, but those schedules differ from major league ones in a couple of important ways.

Originally Posted by cprongs2

Just wanted to know if the 'weather system' is also extended to cover......rainouts.....and therefore rescheduled double headers???

Nope, no postponed games. That'd be a scheduling/programming nightmare, as well as opening up some accuracy/historical questions.

Postponement rates in MLB aren't just a factor of weather; lots of other variables enter the picture. The percentage of MLB games postponed each year varies from year-to-year but slowly increases the further back you look. In 2004, only 2% of MLB games were postponed (that's 48 out of 2430); in 1975 it was 4% (77 games out of 1944); in 1950 it was 9.3% (114 out of 1232); in 1934 it was 11.1% (137 out of 1232); and in 1919 it was 14.6% (163 out of 1120).

Given this real data, one would have to decide if such varying postponement rates should be modelled, or if just the modern-day rate should be modelled. If the historic rates are modelled, then that means the rescheduling is going to be even more complicated. Add to that how should the increased postponement rate be recreated given that it's not strictly weather related.
And so on.

Not easy questions at all to tackle... which is why rain out won't be modelled in the game any time soon. Someday though perhaps...

[cprongs2]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

No, the game's built-in schedule generator is the same as last year's. Building a good schedule generator is a tough task and Markus had lots of other things on his plate for this year. There may be a new third-party utility for creating schedules out sometime after the game is released.

It still works like that.

The problem is that there aren't a lot of real-world major leagues to use as sources for schedules. There are plenty of minor leagues to use as sources, but those schedules differ from major league ones in a couple of important ways.

Nope, no postponed games. That'd be a scheduling/programming nightmare, as well as opening up some accuracy/historical questions.

Postponement rates in MLB aren't just a factor of weather; lots of other variables enter the picture. The percentage of MLB games postponed each year varies from year-to-year but slowly increases the further back you look. In 2004, only 2% of MLB games were postponed (that's 48 out of 2430); in 1975 it was 4% (77 games out of 1944); in 1950 it was 9.3% (114 out of 1232); in 1934 it was 11.1% (137 out of 1232); and in 1919 it was 14.6% (163 out of 1120).

Given this real data, one would have to decide if such varying postponement rates should be modelled, or if just the modern-day rate should be modelled. If the historic rates are modelled, then that means the rescheduling is going to be even more complicated. Add to that how should the increased postponement rate be recreated given that it's not strictly weather related.
And so on.

Not easy questions at all to tackle... which is why rain out won't be modelled in the game any time soon. Someday though perhaps...

Interesting statistics on the postponements.....had no idea.

I'll look for that third party schedule generator when 2007 is released. I saw one for 2006 somewhere....

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by cprongs2

Interesting statistics on the postponements.....had no idea.

Neither did I until I sat down and calculated them out. I was somewhat surprised myself. It's a bit time-consuming though since it requires going through a season day-by-day and checking the results against newspaper listings... which is why I only have a relative handful of seasons to report.

[Curtis]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

There may be a new third-party utility for creating schedules out sometime after the game is released.

I can't get third party rosters to work. I'm not even going to ATTEMPT a utility.

Something else for the 2008 list.