Fast-Paced Historical League with a Big Twist

legendsport · 02-09-2007, 04:26 PM

I'm starting up a new endeavor, "Baseball Thru The Years" which I'll call 'Batty' for short.

Here's the concept: play baseball history with random players from throughout history - sort of like using Ankit's Random Debut db, except that I've built a system that lets me normalize a player's career to any era.

So if a player whose actual career was from 1950-64 is randomly selected to start his career in 1901, I can output his "career" normalized to 1901-1913 (the same range of 14 seasons, but each season statistically correct for the "new" year) and then import him into OOTP as a deadball era player.

The whole idea came about because I was reading "Baseball Between the Numbers" from the Baseball Prospectus guys and they described a methodology of figuring out how Babe Ruth's career would have looked in Barry Bonds' timeframe, and vice-versa. Since they explain the method, I used it to work up a system to do it for any player.

Needless to say, it's pretty complex using stuff like standard deviations and league difficulty factors, and I've been messing around with it off-and-on for a couple of months, but I'm finally happy with it. It factors in league difficulty, park effects and of course, era.

I decided to combine this method with a re-run of my 20th Century Challenge league (which ran a season each week) and let us sim 100 years of history in about two years of real time. Thus was born Batty.

Batty will start in 1901 (I can normalize to the 19th century, but baseball was vastly different in the 19th century, so we'll just start with the "modern" game).

The league will run a season each week, and each season's rookies will be randomly selected - no one can tank a season knowing that Babe Ruth is coming into the league because no one knows when any player will appear.

Each player will only appear once in the history of the league. Also, for the initial season, the entire league will be randomized, and some guys will be mid-career. I'll use the historical teams and player pool size (which was 362 players, 153 of them pitchers, and 131 of them being rookies).

I'm going to use 6.5 to start and will stick with the old-tried-and-true sim throughout the league's history. I was tempted to wait for 2007, but decided that I'd rather just use a sim that I already *know* can do this and do it quite well.

The league will follow history in terms of park changes, franchise moves, expansions and so on.

Anyone who thinks they might want to GM a team, feel free to let me know via PM or email at commish-at-legendsport.com.

The sim schedule will be Monday thru Friday with Mondays covering April & May, Tuesdays June & July, Wednesday's August-end of season, Thursdays playoffs and Fridays draft. All drafts, due to the nature of the league, will be list drafts of one round, with succeeding rounds being cpu'd. A GM can elect to just have the cpu draft for him. I generally sim my leagues at 6am Eastern time.

I will not run a team myself, enabling me to impartially handle the random player selection, deal with issues, fill in for a GM on occasion and so forth.

If this league can be half as exciting as the 20th Century Challenge was, it'll be a blast.

legendsport · 02-09-2007, 05:27 PM

I also posted this over on the Dynasty Reports forum, as I will be writing things up as a dynasty for the folks over there. Since sign-ups have been happening there, I thought I'd post the link to the thread:

http://ootpdevelopments.com/board/sh...83#post2046183

Anyone interested might as well hit that thread for signup.

3 teams (Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs) are gone so far.

Thanks!

metsgeek · 02-09-2007, 07:10 PM

I was in the original and it was addicting as hell. If you like your coffee to be a Starbucks Venti Latte with 3 or 4 extra shots of espresso (as I do), this is right up your alley!

JasonBonham · 02-10-2007, 10:31 AM

Love this type of format. Email sent. Tigers requested.

1 question I did have since your going 2 months per sim what of injurie setting? I find depth chart isnt a big problem since you can set those preaty deep but the darn pitching staff you cant.

legendsport · 02-11-2007, 01:10 PM

Just a bump and quick update.

5 teams are still available... check out the dynasty thread for more information.

legendsport · 02-15-2007, 08:09 AM

Another update/bump: only the Philadelphia A's are available. The league starts play on Monday - again: a season each week, simming two months each day from Monday-Wednesday, playoffs on Thursday, draft on Friday.

Players are randomly pulled from throughout baseball history and then normalized to their new era. Here are a few big names from the 1901 Athletics:

Willie McCovey
Billy Williams
Randy Wolf
and even.... Mario Mendoza. Can he hit above his famous "line" in the deadball era?

To see the entire league, you can view the OOTP website here. I am building a league homepage and it should be up tomorrow.

BaTTY uses 6.5 and will stick with it for the life of the league.

02-09-2007, 04:26 PM	#1
legendsport Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Behind The Lens Posts: 2,933	Fast-Paced Historical League with a Big Twist I'm starting up a new endeavor, "Baseball Thru The Years" which I'll call 'Batty' for short. Here's the concept: play baseball history with random players from throughout history - sort of like using Ankit's Random Debut db, except that I've built a system that lets me normalize a player's career to any era. So if a player whose actual career was from 1950-64 is randomly selected to start his career in 1901, I can output his "career" normalized to 1901-1913 (the same range of 14 seasons, but each season statistically correct for the "new" year) and then import him into OOTP as a deadball era player. The whole idea came about because I was reading "Baseball Between the Numbers" from the Baseball Prospectus guys and they described a methodology of figuring out how Babe Ruth's career would have looked in Barry Bonds' timeframe, and vice-versa. Since they explain the method, I used it to work up a system to do it for any player. Needless to say, it's pretty complex using stuff like standard deviations and league difficulty factors, and I've been messing around with it off-and-on for a couple of months, but I'm finally happy with it. It factors in league difficulty, park effects and of course, era. I decided to combine this method with a re-run of my 20th Century Challenge league (which ran a season each week) and let us sim 100 years of history in about two years of real time. Thus was born Batty. Batty will start in 1901 (I can normalize to the 19th century, but baseball was vastly different in the 19th century, so we'll just start with the "modern" game). The league will run a season each week, and each season's rookies will be randomly selected - no one can tank a season knowing that Babe Ruth is coming into the league because no one knows when any player will appear. Each player will only appear once in the history of the league. Also, for the initial season, the entire league will be randomized, and some guys will be mid-career. I'll use the historical teams and player pool size (which was 362 players, 153 of them pitchers, and 131 of them being rookies). I'm going to use 6.5 to start and will stick with the old-tried-and-true sim throughout the league's history. I was tempted to wait for 2007, but decided that I'd rather just use a sim that I already know can do this and do it quite well. The league will follow history in terms of park changes, franchise moves, expansions and so on. Anyone who thinks they might want to GM a team, feel free to let me know via PM or email at commish-at-legendsport.com. The sim schedule will be Monday thru Friday with Mondays covering April & May, Tuesdays June & July, Wednesday's August-end of season, Thursdays playoffs and Fridays draft. All drafts, due to the nature of the league, will be list drafts of one round, with succeeding rounds being cpu'd. A GM can elect to just have the cpu draft for him. I generally sim my leagues at 6am Eastern time. I will not run a team myself, enabling me to impartially handle the random player selection, deal with issues, fill in for a GM on occasion and so forth. If this league can be half as exciting as the 20th Century Challenge was, it'll be a blast. __________________ Hexed & Countered on YouTube Figment League - A fictional history of baseball, basketball, football, hockey & more! Want to join in the fun? Shoot me a PM! Read the story of the Barrell Family - A Figment Baseball tale Same Song, Different Tune - The Barrells in the Modern Era

02-09-2007, 05:27 PM	#2
legendsport Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Behind The Lens Posts: 2,933	I also posted this over on the Dynasty Reports forum, as I will be writing things up as a dynasty for the folks over there. Since sign-ups have been happening there, I thought I'd post the link to the thread: http://ootpdevelopments.com/board/sh...83#post2046183 Anyone interested might as well hit that thread for signup. 3 teams (Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs) are gone so far. Thanks! __________________ Hexed & Countered on YouTube Figment League - A fictional history of baseball, basketball, football, hockey & more! Want to join in the fun? Shoot me a PM! Read the story of the Barrell Family - A Figment Baseball tale Same Song, Different Tune - The Barrells in the Modern Era

02-09-2007, 07:10 PM	#3
metsgeek Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Norwood, MA Posts: 5,450	I was in the original and it was addicting as hell. If you like your coffee to be a Starbucks Venti Latte with 3 or 4 extra shots of espresso (as I do), this is right up your alley! __________________ Commissioner - PBRL - Just finished 2009 109 seasons and still running strong!!!

02-11-2007, 01:10 PM	#5
legendsport Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Behind The Lens Posts: 2,933	Just a bump and quick update. 5 teams are still available... check out the dynasty thread for more information. __________________ Hexed & Countered on YouTube Figment League - A fictional history of baseball, basketball, football, hockey & more! Want to join in the fun? Shoot me a PM! Read the story of the Barrell Family - A Figment Baseball tale Same Song, Different Tune - The Barrells in the Modern Era

02-15-2007, 08:09 AM	#6
legendsport Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Behind The Lens Posts: 2,933	Another update/bump: only the Philadelphia A's are available. The league starts play on Monday - again: a season each week, simming two months each day from Monday-Wednesday, playoffs on Thursday, draft on Friday. Players are randomly pulled from throughout baseball history and then normalized to their new era. Here are a few big names from the 1901 Athletics: Willie McCovey Billy Williams Randy Wolf and even.... Mario Mendoza. Can he hit above his famous "line" in the deadball era? To see the entire league, you can view the OOTP website here. I am building a league homepage and it should be up tomorrow. BaTTY uses 6.5 and will stick with it for the life of the league. __________________ Hexed & Countered on YouTube Figment League - A fictional history of baseball, basketball, football, hockey & more! Want to join in the fun? Shoot me a PM! Read the story of the Barrell Family - A Figment Baseball tale Same Song, Different Tune - The Barrells in the Modern Era

02-10-2007, 10:31 AM	#4
JasonBonham Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 105	Love this type of format. Email sent. Tigers requested. 1 question I did have since your going 2 months per sim what of injurie setting? I find depth chart isnt a big problem since you can set those preaty deep but the darn pitching staff you cant.