Using historical rosters

Sharur · 07-12-2007, 08:19 PM

What's the best way to maximize the historical accuracy of a league? That is, what's the best way for me to get as many correct player names, correct player ratings, correct player stats, etc., for the majors and as much of the minors as possible? There's a lot of stuff in a lot of places on these forums, but I haven't been able to identify a centralized database of historical rosters or whatever. Basically, I want my first game to be as entrenched in reality as possible.

injury log · 07-12-2007, 08:45 PM

If you want complete minors for 2007, Cubbyfan/haveband's roster set is your best bet. It's the most complete of the 2007 sets. If you want to play an older season, I don't think anyone's invented any roster sets with minor leagues. The Lahman database is brilliant, though, for replaying with accurate ratings of real Major Leaguers, for any year since 1900 or so.

1998 Yankees · 07-12-2007, 08:50 PM

If you can, injury log, please tell him about these settings in conjunction with the Lahman Database (http://www.baseball1.com/). Other than what I have read by pressing F1 while on that screen, I don't know much about them:

Sharur · 07-12-2007, 09:20 PM

That looks like exactly the sort of thing I had in mind. Do I just stick all the files in the database folder? I apologize if this is covered in the manual, but... the manual is very large, and the table of contents didn't suggest anything to me.

injury log · 07-12-2007, 10:27 PM

If you want to play 2007, download Cubbyfan's roster, unzip (your machine should be able to do this automatically), and drop the folder ending in .lg into your Saved Games folder.

If you want to play an older (pre-2007) season of baseball:

The Lahman database is a database of every player who stepped on a big league baseball diamond since 1900 (or thereabouts), with a complete statistical record. The game does a great job of converting the stats to ratings, though there are a few settings to get right depending on how you want to play the game. First, get the comma separated version of the database (.csv version) from the link 98Yankees provides above. It doesn't matter where you put it, but you'll need to know where it is; the game will ask for the path when you create a game from it. I'd recommend running the historical league wizard when you set up your league; it's surprisingly easy. Two decisions that will greatly affect gameplay: you'll need to decide how the game determines potential ratings (most seem to use future career); and you'll need to decide whether to use recalculation of ratings (which will adjust player ratings to keep their performance year-after-year in line with what they really did- which might sound great, but you'll know when Brady Anderson is going to have that big year, and the AI teams won't). My recommendation is to run a few test leagues first before getting deep into a league- make sure you like the results your settings are producing before committing a lot of time to a league.

As for the settings 98Yankees highlights above, the game is able to adjust the league parameters from year to year to mirror the historical progression of real baseball. You can use these options regardless of whether you use real players or fictional players, provided your league starts at some point between 1900 and the present (not much point in bothering if you start a league in the 2000s, really). So, if you enable the 'Import Adjusted Financial Settings', say, salaries will grow in the same way as in real life, along with ticket prices, revenue, etc. If you leave this off, your average salaries and revenues won't change; some teams will get bigger budgets, some smaller, but the amount of money in your league won't change with time. You can have team strategy (use of relievers, frequency of bunting and stealing, etc) evolve as it did over history, or not if you want to 'freeze time'. The League Totals Modifiers will determine the overall statistical profile of your league- they affect how many HRs are hit, how many singles, etc, so to mimic the deadball eras and such you'd need to check the option to adjust these as time passes. Lastly, the Player Creation Modifiers will only affect how the game generates fictional players, so you'd only need to concern yourself with this setting if you wanted the game to generate fictional players that were similar to real players from a certain era. If you're using real players only, this setting won't matter.

All that said, I don't play much historical, so hopefully an expert will stop by and fix any mistakes I may have made.

Sharur · 07-12-2007, 10:38 PM

Wow, thank you!

1998 Yankees · 07-12-2007, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by injury log

As for the settings 98Yankees highlights above . . .

Thanks, i.l.

jprywell · 07-13-2007, 08:51 AM

Hello:

As a followup question from another Newbie attempting a historical league, how do you set injuries and fatigue in a league to gain the most real-life accuracy but not make the game too difficult?

I initially set both at Low, following the set-up instructions from the Sticky memo, but now am wondering whether injuries and fatigue are set high enough. I'm not getting hardly any players getting fatigued and few injuries.

I like a bit of both, because it's more historically accurate and it forces me to make more decisions as a manager/gm and affects my roster sizes. What suggestions does anyone else have?

jprywell

Curtis · 07-13-2007, 11:05 AM

Injuries set to 'normal' is designed to result in frequency of injuries very similar to real life. Fatigue to 'normal' would represent most of the history of baseball. You could argue that in the modern day (since the 1969 expansion) it would be more accurate to bump it to one level higher than 'normal'. Or not.

jprywell · 07-13-2007, 12:01 PM

Thanks, Curtis. I'm told that when playing the deadball era, it might be best to keep injuries set to Low, because they aren't as many players on the reserve or minor league rosters to use. (plus, I understand that the game can overdo the injuries at times, with some career-enders for everyday players).

I may leave it at Low for my 1903 replay but change my fatigue setting to Average to better replicate real life.

In either case, it's probably best to experiment with the settings, which I'll do.

jprywell

Sharur · 07-13-2007, 03:26 PM

So I've looked into the Lahman database and the World of Baseball mod/template, and both look pretty cool (if intimidatingly large, but a couple of tests have suggested my computer can handle them if I'm careful...).

What I'm wondering now is if I can combine the two. Can I take the World of Baseball template and import the database so that my Major League, at least, has real players (while presumably all the others would have fictional ones)? I haven't found an option in editing the league settings for importing a player database, and while I know you do get that option if you use the Historical League option, that option also forces me to create a separate league in addition to all the leagues provided by the template (so I end up with two different MLBs running around).

1998 Yankees · 07-13-2007, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sharur

So I've looked into the Lahman database and the World of Baseball mod/template, and both look pretty cool (if intimidatingly large, but a couple of tests have suggested my computer can handle them if I'm careful...).

What I'm wondering now is if I can combine the two. Can I take the World of Baseball template and import the database so that my Major League, at least, has real players (while presumably all the others would have fictional ones)? I haven't found an option in editing the league settings for importing a player database, and while I know you do get that option if you use the Historical League option, that option also forces me to create a separate league in addition to all the leagues provided by the template (so I end up with two different MLBs running around).

Man, it's trying to answer questions like these that make you work at learning this game. Of course, what comes to me with difficulty will probably be a breeze to somebody else who's actually done what you propose, but what the heck, I'll throw this out there:

I think you could delete your current fictional MLB league, which dumps all the fictional players into the free agent pool; you could go there as commissioner and delete them if you prefer. Then, add a new historical league with the real players from the database. Benefit: One MLB with real players. Drawback: You lose the settings in the WOB quickstart for team colors, logos, ballparks, etc. These would have to be redone.

You could also keep the current league, but Release All Players & Schedule Inaugural Draft (again, deleting the fictional players from the FA pool). Then, you could import historical players (same FA screen and need to be commissioner) one by one. When you finally had everybody in the game, you could manage the inaugural draft so that every player was on the correct team. Benefit: One MLB with real players. Drawback: It would probably take a good amount of time to import players individually like that, but perhaps not as much as you think. Also a good amount of work managing the draft for all teams.

That's it, sorry. Cannot think of anything else. Watch somebody else come along and say "That's terrible. Obviously you would want to do it this way . . ."

07-12-2007, 08:19 PM	#1
Sharur Bat Boy Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 12	Using historical rosters What's the best way to maximize the historical accuracy of a league? That is, what's the best way for me to get as many correct player names, correct player ratings, correct player stats, etc., for the majors and as much of the minors as possible? There's a lot of stuff in a lot of places on these forums, but I haven't been able to identify a centralized database of historical rosters or whatever. Basically, I want my first game to be as entrenched in reality as possible.

07-12-2007, 08:50 PM	#3
1998 Yankees Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Yankee Stadium, back in 1998. Posts: 8,645	If you can, injury log, please tell him about these settings in conjunction with the Lahman Database (http://www.baseball1.com/). Other than what I have read by pressing F1 while on that screen, I don't know much about them: Attached Images Last edited by 1998 Yankees; 07-12-2007 at 08:52 PM.

07-13-2007, 08:51 AM	#8
jprywell Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 22	Newbie Set Up Hello: As a followup question from another Newbie attempting a historical league, how do you set injuries and fatigue in a league to gain the most real-life accuracy but not make the game too difficult? I initially set both at Low, following the set-up instructions from the Sticky memo, but now am wondering whether injuries and fatigue are set high enough. I'm not getting hardly any players getting fatigued and few injuries. I like a bit of both, because it's more historically accurate and it forces me to make more decisions as a manager/gm and affects my roster sizes. What suggestions does anyone else have? jprywell

07-13-2007, 12:01 PM	#10
jprywell Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 22	Injuries/Fatigue Thanks, Curtis. I'm told that when playing the deadball era, it might be best to keep injuries set to Low, because they aren't as many players on the reserve or minor league rosters to use. (plus, I understand that the game can overdo the injuries at times, with some career-enders for everyday players). I may leave it at Low for my 1903 replay but change my fatigue setting to Average to better replicate real life. In either case, it's probably best to experiment with the settings, which I'll do. jprywell

07-12-2007, 08:45 PM	#2
injury log Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Toronto Posts: 9,162	If you want complete minors for 2007, Cubbyfan/haveband's roster set is your best bet. It's the most complete of the 2007 sets. If you want to play an older season, I don't think anyone's invented any roster sets with minor leagues. The Lahman database is brilliant, though, for replaying with accurate ratings of real Major Leaguers, for any year since 1900 or so.

07-12-2007, 09:20 PM	#4
Sharur Bat Boy Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 12	That looks like exactly the sort of thing I had in mind. Do I just stick all the files in the database folder? I apologize if this is covered in the manual, but... the manual is very large, and the table of contents didn't suggest anything to me.

07-12-2007, 10:27 PM	#5
injury log Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Toronto Posts: 9,162	If you want to play 2007, download Cubbyfan's roster, unzip (your machine should be able to do this automatically), and drop the folder ending in .lg into your Saved Games folder. If you want to play an older (pre-2007) season of baseball: The Lahman database is a database of every player who stepped on a big league baseball diamond since 1900 (or thereabouts), with a complete statistical record. The game does a great job of converting the stats to ratings, though there are a few settings to get right depending on how you want to play the game. First, get the comma separated version of the database (.csv version) from the link 98Yankees provides above. It doesn't matter where you put it, but you'll need to know where it is; the game will ask for the path when you create a game from it. I'd recommend running the historical league wizard when you set up your league; it's surprisingly easy. Two decisions that will greatly affect gameplay: you'll need to decide how the game determines potential ratings (most seem to use future career); and you'll need to decide whether to use recalculation of ratings (which will adjust player ratings to keep their performance year-after-year in line with what they really did- which might sound great, but you'll know when Brady Anderson is going to have that big year, and the AI teams won't). My recommendation is to run a few test leagues first before getting deep into a league- make sure you like the results your settings are producing before committing a lot of time to a league. As for the settings 98Yankees highlights above, the game is able to adjust the league parameters from year to year to mirror the historical progression of real baseball. You can use these options regardless of whether you use real players or fictional players, provided your league starts at some point between 1900 and the present (not much point in bothering if you start a league in the 2000s, really). So, if you enable the 'Import Adjusted Financial Settings', say, salaries will grow in the same way as in real life, along with ticket prices, revenue, etc. If you leave this off, your average salaries and revenues won't change; some teams will get bigger budgets, some smaller, but the amount of money in your league won't change with time. You can have team strategy (use of relievers, frequency of bunting and stealing, etc) evolve as it did over history, or not if you want to 'freeze time'. The League Totals Modifiers will determine the overall statistical profile of your league- they affect how many HRs are hit, how many singles, etc, so to mimic the deadball eras and such you'd need to check the option to adjust these as time passes. Lastly, the Player Creation Modifiers will only affect how the game generates fictional players, so you'd only need to concern yourself with this setting if you wanted the game to generate fictional players that were similar to real players from a certain era. If you're using real players only, this setting won't matter. All that said, I don't play much historical, so hopefully an expert will stop by and fix any mistakes I may have made.

07-12-2007, 10:38 PM	#6
Sharur Bat Boy Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 12	Wow, thank you!

07-13-2007, 11:05 AM	#9
Curtis Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Watertown, New York Posts: 4,567	Injuries set to 'normal' is designed to result in frequency of injuries very similar to real life. Fatigue to 'normal' would represent most of the history of baseball. You could argue that in the modern day (since the 1969 expansion) it would be more accurate to bump it to one level higher than 'normal'. Or not.

07-13-2007, 03:26 PM	#11
Sharur Bat Boy Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 12	So I've looked into the Lahman database and the World of Baseball mod/template, and both look pretty cool (if intimidatingly large, but a couple of tests have suggested my computer can handle them if I'm careful...). What I'm wondering now is if I can combine the two. Can I take the World of Baseball template and import the database so that my Major League, at least, has real players (while presumably all the others would have fictional ones)? I haven't found an option in editing the league settings for importing a player database, and while I know you do get that option if you use the Historical League option, that option also forces me to create a separate league in addition to all the leagues provided by the template (so I end up with two different MLBs running around).