What Era to choose

[seasideda]

Im starting an all Red Sox best team league which includes teams from the early 1900's-2007. Im new to OOTP so Im not exactly sure how most people set the options.

1) How do you decide on which ERA to choose? Or can this actually be a factor in the outcome of the standings? For example if I choose a year from the steroid era will I see players from the early1900s hit a lot more HRs than their actual stats.

2) Would you make adjustments team by team to the teams strategies? For example, If I choose and era of 1975 pitchers were yanked quicker than in 1903. Do i need to adjust the team settings for the 1903 Red Sox so their picthers stay in the game longer?

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by seasideda

Im starting an all Red Sox best team league which includes teams from the early 1900's-2007. Im new to OOTP so Im not exactly sure how most people set the options.

1) How do you decide on which ERA to choose? Or can this actually be a factor in the outcome of the standings? For example if I choose a year from the steroid era will I see players from the early1900s hit a lot more HRs than their actual stats.

2) Would you make adjustments team by team to the teams strategies? For example, If I choose and era of 1975 pitchers were yanked quicker than in 1903. Do i need to adjust the team settings for the 1903 Red Sox so their picthers stay in the game longer?

Wow, two interesting questions. I'm not big on historical leagues (fictional player here) so basically I am bumping your thread up to see if anybody who is experienced will care to comment. However, here's what I think I know.

Yes, if you choose initially to import the League Totals and Modifiers from a Steroid Era year, you are going to see your 1903 Red Sox players hit more home runs than they did in real life. However, as individual players they will still be rated as weak in power, so the increase may not be substantial for them. What may happen is your 1975 Red Sox guys may hit more as well to make up for the turn of the century wussies in order to satisfy the overall League Home Run Total of the Steroid Era.

For example, I just imported Buck Freeman, who led the Boston Americans of 1903 with 13 homers, into my 1977 league. He evaluated to a six out of 20 in Home Run Power. That means he may hit the same amount in 1977 but instead of being a 1903 power hitter, he will be a weak 1977 hitter. Maybe 15, 16, 17 homers due to the effect of the 1977 League Home Run Total.

But you have to choose an era for your league, so it might be a good idea to choose one from the middle of the century, say. Avoid the extremes of Deadball and Steroid Eras.

To your second question, it is possible to have different years for League Totals and Modifiers on right side and General Strategic Tendencies on the left of the Game Setup, Strategy screen. However, it may not be a good idea to mismatch the years in that I see the Player Creation Modifiers are also affected on the left and this may or may not conflict with League Totals on the right (although in a historical league, PCM's may not be used at all). Better to keep all the settings consistent by choosing the same year, I'd say.

So, to answer that question, I'd say yes, if you want the 1903 Red Sox to play like the 1903 Red Sox and not the, say, 1950 Red Sox if that is the era you choose, then you are going to have to really yank around the team settings accordingly. I think, though, that the overall league strategy for Pitching Stamina and Use of Relievers is probably going to generally overrule the Team Strategy setting for Hook Starting Pitchers pushed all the way over to Slow. Again a reason to choose a mid-century era.

[seasideda]

Thank You. I love this board, a Yankee fan helping out a Red Sox fan. Its all about baseball first!

So Interesting. I guess there is no way to "turn off" or not choose a Year using league totals so the AI is not forced to elevate or diminish players totals just so it can come close to the total years actuals? I wonder why though? Im assuming its all worked under the greater scheme of using statistical accuracy in some way. In some way it makes sense to play this way because in reality to put someone from the "dead ball" era they wouldn't necessarily lose their pysical ability to hit home runs but the ball was really made different back then, and overused. So based on Buck Freemans physical ability to hit hr's in an era where balls were lighter and traveled further OOTP in some way accounts for this, thus giving him more home runs.

However I still dont see why you can choose a year and have the players perform based on their ratings and keep the league totals out of it.

According to the Dead ball era "During the dead-ball era, baseball was much more of a strategy-driven game, using a style of play now known as small ball or inside baseball. It relied much more on stolen bases and hit-and-run types of plays than on home runs"

SO WHEN IMPORTING A TEAM FROM THE EARLY YEARS, DO THE TEAMS STRATEGY SETTINGS ACCOUNT FOR THIS. For example if I import a team from 1903 shouldn't I see the bar lean more toward steels, hit and runs etc. or do I have to manually adjust them?

[seasideda]

sorry but what are PCM's?

[Groucho Marx]

I'm definitely a "Dead Ball Era" guy. It seems like there's much more strategy.

I did however just start a Histoical Replay starting in 1961 just for a change of pace. Well, mostly because as a Cardinals fan I wanted to experience Bob Gibson's pitching peformances in his prime years.

[Lou Gehrig]

Originally Posted by seasideda

Thank You. I love this board, a Yankee fan helping out a Red Sox fan. Its all about baseball first!

Don't push your luck!

[Lou Gehrig]

Originally Posted by seasideda

sorry but what are PCM's?

Player Creation Modifiers

[seasideda]

Ah, Player Creation Mod. Are you sure? or are you not just leading a Sox fan on?

[Lou Gehrig]

I just made it up.
It does sound pretty good, doesn't it?

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Lou Gehrig

I just made it up.
It does sound pretty good, doesn't it?

Lou, quite jerking him around! I don't care if he is a Red Sox fan!

seasideda, Player Creation Modifiers determine the strengths and weaknesses of your league's players, any that are created by the game instead of being imported from historical databases. They are an important aspect of a fictional game, I can tell you that, so you may want to leave them alone until you know more about them. Read about them here:

Out of the Park Baseball Manual

[rjl518]

Originally Posted by Lou Gehrig

Don't push your luck!

a yankee fan helping a red sox fan...wait a minute...i gotta go outside for a minute....nope the sky isnt falling...yet

[seasideda]

Thanks everyone. Since Im still new to the game Im going to create a test leauge and experiment with the settings.