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Ballparks:
Teams play in historically accurate ballparks. I manually adjust ballpark factors.
Players:
The player development engine is on at standard settings, so while players theoretically start with talents appropriate for their careers, they can, and often do, evolve away from those talents. It isn’t terribly unusual for a great player to have a lousy career, and vice versa. I definitely enjoy this part of the league – seeing what happens to their careers after they join the league.
Hall of Fame:
Though pre-1948 records are murky, I have kept a lot of records myself by hand over the years. For example, at the end of each season, I note the top five players at each position (10 for pitchers) and have this all in a spreadsheet. I also have a spreadsheet for the top players that calculates a rudimentary WAR-like value for their offense/pitching. It’s definitely crude, but there was no WAR in version 5, so it was all I had! Using this information, plus now WAR values and other information, I have created a Hall of Fame.
The HOF started around maybe 1915, once there were enough guys with careers worthy of induction. The induction process was haphazard to start. Now two guys are inducted every year no matter what. There are no rules about eligibility, so sometimes there will be a slow year, and I will induct someone from long ago that never quite made it. This pattern of inducting a set number of players every year has been in place since the 1926 season, though the exact number has fluctuated just a bit. I am sure I will talk more about the HOF quite a bit in the future. There are currently 123 members.
My team and role:
I have controlled the Braves since the start – since they were the Boston Beaneaters. Obviously the AI has improved dramatically since version 5. But I still keep one self-imposed rule to keep myself honest: I will only make trades that the computer offers me. I never try to conjure up a trade myself, since that can be easily abused.
I control everything about the team, including making draft picks, all player movement, lineups, etc. I do a lot of research before each draft about every guy in the draft. This is mostly for my own education, I enjoy learning about the players.
Settings:
As I said before, player development is on and financials are off. Injuries are at the standard setting. I see only potential ratings, not current ability ratings, as another handicap for myself. Everything is on a scale of 1-5, once again to make it more challenging for me. Trading is set to normal. Historical offensive settings are used. Players import with neutralized statistics, and get talents from their peak seasons. I make sure pitchers import with appropriate stamina ratings and SP/RP settings, manually adjusting as needed. I have found this to be a weakness of the AI. I use real schedules, and I am glad to have rainouts in the game now.
This is quite enough for now, but I figured having the context of my league would be useful. Plus, it might be interesting for you all to compare what I have done to what you have – please share thoughts, ideas and experiences! I am always curious what others do. I definitely tweak my league for what I want to get out of it, and we all have different thoughts about that.
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