Call me Ishmael...
One faces many changes when trying to rate NeLers for use in the game of OOTP. Some are completely external to it; sparse stats and an understanding of QoP, for example. Others are entirely to do with how the game interprets the data you provide it with and turn them into ratings.
In my many years now in this quest, some players have become what I consider to be the NeL "black whales". Players that, for whatever reason and usually more than one of them, the game simply doesn't handle well. Doesn't "like" them, if you will.
Cool Papa Bell is probably the ultimate example of the "black whale" in my experience. The only decent version of him I have seen was in a recalc save in v24 where he has come in as a 2WP, although he is still young in that timeline and I am yet to see his career in its entirety.
This was CPB's Eclipse League output:
And that, despite my having re-entered the input data a number of times. For him, it is all about the "imprint" that I have written about elsewhere. This has improved to a certain degree in the past couple versions of the game but is still prevalent.
Where it hurts players most is for the pre-1920 guys. They get the double whammy of their stats not being included in the "major league" categorisation and those stats being from the deadball era. From 1920 onwards, any OOTP save is going to favour the power game to varying degrees and leave these early guys looking pretty poor in quality by comparison. When you throw in the minors stats category it is nearly impossible for guys such as Grant "Home Run" Johnson, Julian Castillo and the subject of this feature to be any good in an OOTP context. At least guys like Cobb, Keeler, Shoeless Joe et al get the full merit of their contact hitting in the MLB; not so for these guys, who see their main attribute discounted heavily by the game, rendering them almost as scrubs.
They are the true "black whales".
It is for this reason that the Eclipse League save remains and will forever remain on v23. As a dev only save, it has proven the absolute "Goldilocks Zone" to this point in which, while not invariably but more often than not, players have responded well to the input data and reproduced in the manner I had hoped and expected they would. Long may that continue!
Carlos Moran is one player from this era who has so far defied the trend and turned out exceedingly well in this timeline.
As is the norm for NeLers of his era, little is known of his early life other than his being born in Matanzas, Cuba in 1878 and that he had two brothers Francisco and Angel who would also play the game. Like most players with an Asiatic countenance he was known as "Chino". These sorts of racial epithets are frowned upon these days and I avoid them as a rule, although given some of the other things these guys had to endure being called, "Chino" almost seems a complement in comparison.
There is some controversy about Carlos's handedness, with various sources claiming he threw with his left. Of course, this is almost unheard of for a 3B and if you try and use that in OOTP his defensive rating at that position is almost non-existent.
His rookie campaign was in 1899 and he spent most of his 17-season career in Cuba, with the occasional US foray. SH has his slash line at 280/410/330 with an excellent 151 OPS+ but just 3 HR in total. In EC's MLEs, that total "skyrockets" to 8 and he earns nearly 40 career WAR by his calculations.
He was elected to the Cuban Baseball HoF in 1945.
His EL avatar was taken 3rd overall in the 1979 Draft by the Elite Giants, with whom he would spend his first four years in the league. He was traded to the BBs prior to the 1984 season for Andrelton Simmons and Vic Harris and then signed a 4-year deal with the Buckeyes as a FA before the season currently in progress.
Sadly, he suffered a season-ending knee injury in July.
His career stats to this point in the EL aren't too far off his IRL marks, with a 271/355/319 line and 18 HR. That has earned him nearly 20 career WAR and his exemplary D has so far earned him 4 Slick (Gold Glove) Awards.
Here's hoping he makes a speedy recovery and is back in action soon. We'll check in on him regularly.
PS Happy 119th birthday to another EL success story - Martin Dihigo, born on this day in 1905!