[dougaiton]

There are some great league files out there already, but in case anyone's interested...

STOP PRESS: Version 2.1, with proper managers and minor teams (courtesy of MD) now available at the link provided, thanks to Sporr!

BORN IN ’69 LEAGUE FILE README

I decided I wanted to make a league-file for 1969 that allowed me to use Soxman’s glorious stadiums without the double park effects kicking in – namely, that Willie Stargell is imported as player who’ll hit 5 less homers because his stats were recorded in Pittsburgh, then he loses 5 again because he’s still playing there. I also fancied doing lefty/righty splits.

’69 is a wild year for baseball. The dominace of pitching about to force MLB’s hand, etc. etc.‘69 also sees major expansion – do you want to lead the Royals, the Expos, even the Pilots to greatness? Now’s your chance!
Moreover, ’69 is also the first season we have left/right splits from, and a real bugger for historical simmers. How do you deal with the fact that next year’s historical rookies will be much better offensively?

Now, obviously, this league has its problems. The ’70 rookies will not be split, and it doesn’t solve the ‘69/’70 gap issue. What I’m doing is going with fictional rookies from ’70 onwards, recreating baseball as if the change to the more modern offense had happened slowly. I’ll set my rookies with the following development modifiers:

Batting: -5 contact, -15 power, +15 eye,
Pitching: +15 end

This will import 1970 style rookies. Your minors will be very thin, so I’d recommend a June draft and a preseason draft for your first year!

So, what has been done with this league file:

1 – All hitters with over 200 ABs and at least 100 ABs against lefties and righties have been adjusted for historical left/right splits. This can be pretty exciting. For example, OOTP6 imports ‘69 Curt Flood as a good hitter with good gap power. When historically split, we see he’s actually in ’69 a league average or worse hitter against righties with very little in the way of secondary average, who just kills lefties. In certain situations, where it is clear a player is being platooned (200 ABs against righties, 20 against lefties, for example), I have edited the players down against whichever side they never bat against.

2 – Similarly, any batters with over 200 ABs who played the whole season in the one stadium was park-adjusted.

3 – All batters with over 200 ABs have been adjusted for defence using Baseball Prospectus.

What has NOT been done:

1 – Pitchers have not been touched. I have no idea how they import, and what part getting hits plays. I didn’t want to risk it.

2 – Triples have not been touched. I have no idea how OOTP now calculates a triple.

3 – Speed has not been touched. I didn’t want to risk skewing triples or steals by editing speed when I didn’t know what I was doing.

4 – Players with less than 200 ABs have not been touched.

5 – Players who performed excellently in say 250 ABs have NOT been edited down to represent career performance. My belief is these guys had a good year, and their talent will drag it down eventually.

6 – Talents have not been touched, and remain what they were on import from Ankit’s wonderful database.

This started off as a bit of fun, but I thought I’d offer it up. I’ll email it to the relevant download centers. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a good starting point.

Version 2.0 is a joint production of the original file plus the cracking good work of HR, BillII and TigerFan.

Other thanks to:
dh for stats, HR/dh for fielding idea, Mats for the retrosheet point-out, Ankit for the wonderful database update that meant I was just typing in the easy stuff!

I’m using Soxman’s Stads, TigerFans’s wonderful 50s and 60s debut photos, and JDEWs 1901-2004 Uniforms and Logos.

Things I would like to do: get my hands on that Neyer book MD mentioned and fix the pitchers!

Version 2.0 Update: New Features!:

Fully updated record books (including team records!) along with accurate HOF and career leaders - Bill II
Exact league totals to replicate the 'perfect' '69, and a lovely authentic logo-pack - Holyroller
Schedule added representing the real schedules (minus double-headers) employed by MLB for the 20-team league - TigerFan

Version 2.0 Update: New Features!:
Full managers and minor-league teams (where they existed) - MalleusDei