OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Where do the extra players come from for 1892-1900?

Scruff · 06-27-2013, 06:46 PM

Looked at baseball-reference.com and started in 1871, worked my way through 1910, for debuts and retirements, breaking out pitchers also.

The MLB pool dropped from 402 players in 1891 to 326 in 1892, and stayed pretty steady at 313-327 through 1897. In 1898 31 extra players join the league (net) and 16 more in 1899.

For 1900 there are only 293 players still around (remember this includes players that played in 1899, took off (or played in the Western League) 1900 and return for 1901. That's just 18 per team. 9 of those are pitchers (athough that includes anyone who ever pitched a game as pitchers, so that overstates the problem a little). There really aren't enough players for 1900. You could muddle through with 19-20 man rosters from 1892-1899, but again 11-12 of those are pitchers, although obviously some of those are position players that just pitched on occasion.

06-27-2013, 06:46 PM	#5
Scruff Minors (Triple A) Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 243	Looked at baseball-reference.com and started in 1871, worked my way through 1910, for debuts and retirements, breaking out pitchers also. The MLB pool dropped from 402 players in 1891 to 326 in 1892, and stayed pretty steady at 313-327 through 1897. In 1898 31 extra players join the league (net) and 16 more in 1899. For 1900 there are only 293 players still around (remember this includes players that played in 1899, took off (or played in the Western League) 1900 and return for 1901. That's just 18 per team. 9 of those are pitchers (athough that includes anyone who ever pitched a game as pitchers, so that overstates the problem a little). There really aren't enough players for 1900. You could muddle through with 19-20 man rosters from 1892-1899, but again 11-12 of those are pitchers, although obviously some of those are position players that just pitched on occasion.