My Historical Game Secrets For A Modernized Experience

[sprague]

I wanted to share with you my new historical game vision and how it has made OOTP even more fun for me.


I basically stopped playing historical a couple of years ago, because I just couldn't get the game to do what I wanted it to do, which was more modernify all the years through history. Most would say you can do that, by calling up a modern year in the league totals screen. But doing so tended to create some real wacky numbers for players, there was the problem with dealing with playing without limiting players to retiring when they did- for that can throw leagues out of whack with too many 28 year olds .311 BA for the next 10 years as they have no more recalc years to drop them. I tried the neutralized DB stats, but never like how the ballparks are made out.


As i say I tried things over and over, got somewhat ok with the Spritze Db, but still never played.


then 2 weeks ago, I got a new idea, and said ok lets try it. I am now through 1970, and I am getting the results that I had always hoped for with the historical game. It has been so much fun, and as yet I haven't really been playing, just modifying and seeing the results.


I want to share it with all of you here, in case some others want to give this a go, and see if some of these ideas can enhance your game experience too.


The most important aspect are the new league modifiers that I will add in a next post, but for now I want to give the parameters of the league, so you know how the results were being generated. If you play differently you may need slightly different modifiers, but I will give you the formula in case you want to go an try it out.
No matter I suggest you play 5-10 years with the system before making a judgement either way, one year is too short a sample. So here goes what I did


I hope I explain this well.


The Setup
I began the league in 1901. I had no draft so players would go to the original teams. However, through history I would make trades to assure players made their "most famous" team. So a Joe Jackson had to be traded to Cleveland and then the white sox, TF Brown to the Cubs or Ernie Lombardi to the Reds, each time adding a fair player in return. This has been more for my historical eye. if they get traded after that, so be it. I will test out the game again with a draft next.
Expansion is on. I am calling in real life stats.
I want the game to change team names, ect so the "expansion" box is clicked, as is update strategy and stats, even though I am going to change much of it each year- it just makes it easier to bring in the original players.


Ok since I am playing modern-ish ball, I will have a league structure set up that has a minimum of a 4 man rotation, max normal stamina (early days have to click down) and relievers and closer to a minimum often (to make revilers part of the game)
1901 requires a slight adjustment, as there are too few pitchers to make this. So what i did was make 1 fictional reliever. He was basically a 4-5 th reliever on a team. Not good, but good enough to play. Then I copied him 60 times, and added 4-5 to every team to allow them to have full staffs. You don't have to worry, they will soon be gone in a few years as better players replace them. It is just for 1901 and 02 to have proper staffs.


Playing with real stats can also make things wacky if the ballparks are not all set to 1.000 for modifiers. I do this each year as you will see below cuz I don't trust the ballpark values.


I change the managers (make them older as they were players in 1901 and they would go on to all win 3000 games), and i change their strategies, as they are usually all slided far over to the right. This takes 30 min or so, but is well worth it. After this the only "Real" managers entering the game are the one's I manually create.


I feel the great starting pitchers get a bit hosed the way the game sets up their values. The great pitchers tend not to always be the best pitchers, or can wind up as middle relievers for 3-4 years). So each year I take the best 3-4 pitchers (say Walter Johnson, Joe wood, Christy Mathewson and Pete Alexander in the early 1910's) and give each of them a 10 value boost to their ground ball percentage. It is not as big as advantage as you might think- when you see my overall league values coming up- but it is enough to assure that the best pitchers are the best pitchers. In 1901 I changed Cy young, mathewson and mcginity.


In 1901 I play the a 154 game schedule, 162 games each year after that.


The totals get "modernized" as will be explained below.


While it seems like a lot to get 1901 set up, when I do, I made a 1901 template. Now to start a new game I just call up the template, and everything is in place and ready to go.


Each pre season there requires some steps in order to get each season to work in the same way, the steps are below. It takes me about 1-2 minutes to do it, but is a key to what I was creating






THE STEPS AT EACH PRESEASON
it seems like a lot but it goes real fast. bookmark each of the needed pages to get to them.


1- Go to a ballpark and click "assign neutral park factors to all parks" thus all will be 1.000. But this has to be done each
2- Go to the league option screen and click on 162 games (also click the all star game if you want one in years the years before 1933). Then to the Edit League Structure and click on "generate schedule" (by the 1960's teams are playing 162 game sched so this no longer needs to be done)
3- Go to the league strategy and change the stamina to no higher than normal (it can be low in modern days) and relievers closers to often (when it gets to very often no change is needed)
4- I then click run computer manager, so teams have their normal rosters set up. Sometimes I have to check the teams, as the AI can do odd stuff like have Willie Mays as a backup. I change as needed.
5- Set up the new modernized modifiers as shown in the posts below. AND place starting pitcher stamina to .910
Also if you need to update any pitchers, or star fielding ratings (I up a few players like bench or Ozzie smith a few years) do so now


Extra- Every 3 years go to the league player screen then edit by age. Check good players over age 36. Any of them who are "non recalcing anymore" ie real life retired but not retired in the game, I go in an weaken them, hence they can still play on as backups or relievers but not in a starting role anymore.




I think I explained everything there. Next will be the modifiers and how they were made, and then some updates on the game to 1970 so you can see how this is working out so far.




If you have questions please ask away- I may say something fine in my own head, but makes no sense when read by someone else.
Like I say once this test is done I will try it again, but now with a draft, and then I will try a new way to work with the spritze HS db, which has some different challenges to overcome.


Just wanted to share something I have been trying for a while and finally got to work, in case it something someone else wants to try or gives you an idea for your own games.


Cheers

[sprague]

THE MODIFIERS


I had tried many different ways to try and make the game more modern through history. At first I just called up a modern year, but first the game sets the modifiers for that year, then at the first day of the season, redoes it again with those numbers, for the year in question. So then I tried to add different actual values in the numbers side of it.
The frustration mounted as nothing tended to give me anything accurate at all.
Then my newest test. And it worked. Or at least through 1980 it has worked out very very well.
One of the big issues I had was that if i wanted players not to retire in retire year, then there were too many good players playing, and the game calcs based on a stat number, not on the actual players in the game (Say how a strat o matic does it). thus a .300 hitter in real life, will become a .280 hitter because their are more good hitters to get the available hits allowed. the two tricks are A- play with more teams (what i will do next, have 4 more teams than real life) and/or B work with the modifiers to boost the stats a bit. That is what this is doing (just so you guys follow along with what I am doing and why)


Here was the trick. First I went to baseball reference and got the average # per game of the key stats for hits, doubles, homers ect- the modifier numbers that appear on the setup page
Say for 1971 those were avg .249, 2b 1.27, 3b .21 hr .74 W 3.23 hbp (wasn’t needed) K-5.41


this was the trick. I then took a standardized super season of
avg .270, 2b 1.90, 3b .21, Hr 1.10, W 3.50 HBP .15 and K 7.50


Now the trick. Take the two values, add them together and divide by 2. Hence 2B we get 1.27 + 1.90 = 3.17 /2 = 1.58


So the new 2b modifier is 1.58
The new mods for 1971 are
1971 H .935 2b .863 3B 1.039 Hr .726 W 1.008 HBP 1.037 K 1.003


The only thing I do differently is home runs. That was 2X the new figure (1.1) and divided by 3. In this case 1971 works out to .98
I wanted the dead ball era players to get up in the homer game, but not be hitting 50+ in a season- with this formula, the dead ball leaders are now in the 20's occasionally a boomer (Schulte ect) will hit 30.

Another example the revised start numbers now for 1906 are
ORIG avg .247, 2b 1.07, 3b .41, Hr .11, W 2.501 HBP .30 and K 3.71


REVIS avg .258, 2b 1.44, 3b .35, Hr .77, W 3.00 HBP .24 and K 5.60


You may think the numbers will throw the game out of whack, but not at all. The stats rise to a more modern looking numbers but not too much to seem goofy.


THE NEXT STEP
Now comes the math!


Back to 1971. I do all the steps from the previous post, and let the game get to the pre season, where it will calc the modifiers based on the actual season stats.
For 1971 came the figures
avg .259 2b 1.59 3B .20 Hr .98 W 3.340 HBP same K 6.45


Ok that seems normal to what we would likely see for modifiers that year.
Here is what I do. I take the value, say 2B- The actual 2b that year as shown was 1.27 per game. My revised figure is 1.58. so I divide the mod number by 1.27, X by 1.58 (then for doubles I add .050, various era have their variable) and total comes to 1.103
The new figure to give a modern double number is thus 1.103 instead of .863


The revised figures are
1971 H 1.020 2b 1.103 3B 1.001 Hr 1.101 W 1.092 HBP 1.037 K 1.245

(note at this era hits g0t a .050 boost, 2B .050 boost, W .050 boost, K .050 boost)


Beyond all the math HERE IS WHAT MATTERS


I think you take the modifiers I give you below, and just repost them over what the computer generates at the first day of the season, and let the game play out and you should get more modern figures without things getting out of whack.
In the posts below them you will see my over all values, leader numbers, and how the early 70's look.
Yes Ruth hits a lot of homeruns, but if he were playing in a modern environment, adjusted this is really bang on. In fact I thought he would have years of 80, so this works out better than hoped.
the dead ball era works great too. A few players can still hit over .400, the pre Ruth Hr leader was 33 in a season, and a few pitchers (Walter Johnson, Smokey Joe Wood) could pass 300 K's in a season


Give it a shot see how it works out for you.
Remember though, if you are playing this with "retire in actual year" then these mods will tend to run the stats of top players a bit too high, as there are less decent players around to absorb some of the stats, so you may have to weaken the mods slightly. The formula is there, takes about 2 min before each season to do the calcs and enter them in if you want to try it for a "retire in real year" test.


Next will come the mods for years, then some of my test season.


Next I want to play with instead of actual 16 teams, to start with 20 teams in 1901, and have the recalc OFF so players develop by the game itself, though I will alter some of the players as the top players get hosed by the way the game generates "peak seasons" for their values
See how that goes


Here comes the values.

[sprague]

THE VALUES


you will notice I have some maxs (such as 1.400 for early K rates, the conversion could get them very high. As well home runs in the dead ball era have a reduction of 1-2 depending on the year)




1901 H .980 2b 1.093 3B .858 Hr 4.776 W 1.082 HBP .600 K 1.400
1902 H .982 2b 1.118 3B .800 Hr 2.592 W 1.021 HBP .600 K 1.344
1903 H .992 2b 1.183 3B .970 Hr 4.338 W 1.044 HBP .600 K 1.350
1904 H .979 2b 1.200 3B .999 Hr 4.571 W .947 HBP .600 K 1.350
1905 H .988 2b 1.164 3B .906 Hr 5.282 W 1.040 HBP .600 K 1.400
1906 H 1.032 2b 1.132 3B .958 Hr 5.040 W 1.046 HBP .600 K 1.400
1907 H 1.040 2b 1.096 3B .883 Hr 3.476 W 1.073 HBP .600 K 1.400
1908 H 1.028 2b 1.126 3B .950 Hr 4.999 W .985 HBP .700 K 1.400
1909 H 1.030 2b 1.133 3B .898 Hr 4.669 W 1.040 HBP .800 K 1.400

1910 H 1.035 2b 1.193 3B .900 Hr 5.839 W 1.111 HBP .800 K 1.450
1911 H 1.055 2b 1.155 3B .970 Hr 5.500 W 1.155 HBP .900 K 1.400
1912 H 1.050 2b 1.118 3B .870 Hr 5.000 W 1.121 HBP .600 K 1.400
1913 H 1.020 2b 1.140 3B .800 Hr 4.890 W 1.036 HBP .700 K 1.400
1914 H .998 2b 1.127 3B .800 Hr 2.866 W 1.117 HBP .800 K 1.400
1915 H 1.015 2b 1.135 3B .800 Hr 3.140 W 1.156 HBP .800 K 1.400
1916 H 1.030 2b 1.178 3B .742 Hr 3.925 W 1.114 HBP .890 K 1.500
1917 H 1.028 2b 1.150 3B .950 Hr 3.100 W 1.053 HBP .800 K 1.550
1918 H 1.010 2b 1.100 3B .900 Hr 2.001 W 1.091 HBP 1.000 K 1.554
1919 H 1.026 2b 1.100 3B .816 Hr 2.392 W 1.050 HBP 1.050 K 1.550

1920 H 1.014 2b 1.081 3B .999 Hr 2.033 W 1.086 HBP .986 K 1.550
1921 H 1.001 2b 1.069 3B .754 Hr 2.500 W .991 HBP .999 K 1.550
1922 H .990 2b 1.040 3B .76 Hr 2.273 W 1.049 HBP .920 K 1.550
1923 H 1.000 2b 1.019 3B .800 Hr 1.386 W 1.099 HBP .999 K 1.550
1924 H .999 2b 1.022 3B .835 Hr 1.355 W .955 HBP .877 K 1.550
1925 H 1.002 2b 1.020 3B .800 Hr 1.873 W .946 HBP .880 K 1.550
1926 H 1.001 2b 1.050 3B .807 Hr 1.055 W 1.093 HBP .890 K 1.550
1927 H .997 2b 1.040 3B .810 Hr 1.022 W .989 HBP .939 K 1.550
1928 H 1.005 2b 1.051 3B .810 Hr 1.300 W .981 HBP .945 K 1.550
1929 H .985 2b 1.010 3B .800 Hr 1.306 W 1.029 HBP .867 K 1.550

1930 H 1.010 2b 1.010 3B .900 Hr 1.500 W .988 HBP .926 K 1.550
1931 H 1.007 2b 1.001 3B .830 Hr 1.000 W .980 HBP .900 K 1.550
1932 H .990 2b 1.029 3B .870 Hr 1.020 W .950 HBP .800 K 1.550
1933 H .982 2b 1.020 3B .900 Hr 1.020 W .850 HBP .990 K 1.550
1934 H 1.010 2b 1.030 3B .860 Hr 1.030 W .960 HBP .800 K 1.550
1935 H 1.000 2b 1.030 3B .830 Hr 1.030 W .940 HBP .990 K 1.550
1936 H 1.012 2b 1.020 3B .850 Hr 1.300 W .930 HBP 1.030 K 1.550
1937 H 1.010 2b 1.030 3B .850 Hr 1.500 W 1.020 HBP .820 K 1.550
1938 H .999 2b 1.020 3B .850 Hr 1.380 W 1.070 HBP .890 K 1.550
1939 H 1.010 2b 1.001 3B .920 Hr 1.600 W 1.030 HBP .900 K 1.550

More to come will add a decade every day

[sprague]

Reserved for more years

[sprague]

And now for the test runs


KEY NOTE- To make things easier for the test sims, and just see how well the players would do, injuries were off. Plus players all played 162 game seasons, thus for pre 1960 players it is like adding an extra year to their career. Thus the overall totals are very high for careers.
But If you want to see what the numbers come out as with injuries, basically knock the values down by 15%


Then say Micky Mantle's 740 home runs in the test becomes 630 in a injury league, Gehrig would be 569- which is very right on to what stats might look like.
Musial would have 3837 hits, Cobb 4634


I bolded the above so people would see it and not respond "your career values are too high, look how many home runs Ruth and Williams hit. Hence I wanted to explain what you are looking at.
Revised down by 15% they wind up with 833 and 791, if the injuries took 20% the totals are 785 and 745. Very reasonable figures.


This helps to show that these guys were Studs, and the stats of the era really took away how many home runs they hit compared to a more modern 21st century baseball. I don't doubt that if healthy they both could have been pushing 800 in a modern career.
PS Ted Williams without having to miss seasons, and getting the boost of the modernized stats was just AWESOME. 15 AL MVP awards. Yikes! In future games I will have to turn Ruth into a hitter right away in order for him to have a proper run at first place.




1971
Hr leader Reggie Jackson 43
average Roberto Clemente .355
K's Tom Seaver 341


1972
Hr leader Willie Stargell 56
average Al Oliver .369
K's Tom Seaver 350


1973
Hr leader Willie Stargell 53
average Rod Carew .355
K's Nolan Ryan 390






ALL Time
Here are the leaders up to 1971
(# still active in 1971)


HITS
cobb 5451
musial 4513
speaker 4392
hornsby 4257
collins 4183
williams 4089
wagner 406
jackson 3907
appling 3848
mays 3811#


HR
Ruth 981
williams 931
mantle 740
mays 721#
ott 675
aaron 672#
gehrig 669
musial 641
mathews 628
foxx 603
berra 602
joe d 590


(PS note. Have played to 1980 now. Aaron finished with 845 home runs- 680 if in an injury league)


RBI
williams 2753
ruth 2652
musial 2596
cobb 2461
gehrig 2369
ott 2262
mays 2227#




HR SEASON
ruth 1921 74
ruth 1920 71
williams 1944 66
ruth 1926 66
ruth 1922 64
ruth 1927 64
ruth 1919 92
mathews 1925 61


foxx 1934 59
mccovey 1960 58
williams 1953 57




WINS
young 439
johnson 429
ruffing 381
grove 356
wynn 352
spahn 331
Leonard 321
feller 318
derringer 313
plank 311


K'S
johnson 5215
feller 4434
wynn 4020
leonard 3786
kaufax 3765
grove 3687




MVP's




ted williams 15
babe ruth 11
john mize 9
micky mantle 8
rogers hornsby 7
lou gehrig 6
stan musial 6
ty cobb 4


hank aaron 4#
willie mays 4#




Cy Youngs
walter johnson 8
carl hubbel 7
sandy kaufax 6
christy mathewson 4
hippo vaughan 4
bob feller 4


tom seaver 3#




mgr wins (championships)
mack 3478 (4)
mcgraw 3095 (5)
stengel 3006 (4)

[Mike45]

interesting...and the numbers (with the injury % you account for) are pretty solid if everyone had 162 game season for their career.

I'm not sure if I missed it, or if you didn't post it. I know ballparks were all neutralized. But did you allow players to change teams on their own or as history dictated? While the ballpark factor might be null, playing in different lineups/teams/rotations could also alter some of the stats.

[sprague]

Those are interesting questions.
Yes I expected bigger numbers myself, but again because I used a middle gradient of the actual season and a modern super season, it was more like a sloping curve in the stats towards the modern rather than just throwing in modern numbers. It is why I am really liking how the numbers are going. A few tweeks will be needed for specific seasons along the way, but now the test is to 1990 and all is still
going fine- though Mark McGwire did hit 64 HR in 1986, the next highest has 41, and there is the guys like Ken Phelps or Oscar Gamble who need the injuries to slow down the super numbers they had playing 80 game seasons

The players came to the team that they first came to as per the database, then with main stars I traded them to the team most known for. And yes the AI could then do what it wanted with players after that point. Baltimore traded Brooks Robinson to Detroit 2 years into his carreer and he played out his time in Tiger Land for example. But I still "traded" Frank Robinson from Cinci to Baltimore in the mid 60's (cinci got a good player back, can't remember who now) the forced trades I tried to be as fair as I could- but I didn't want to get too hands on in what was basically a test run.

Yes the lineups for teams would thus be slightly different, but close enough in most
cases that the players can be looked at rather fairly

A big help for the pitchers was the boost I gave the superstar pitchers. Without that, I don't think the main pitchers would be the main pitchers. It seems the game generates
the ratings based on hits, walks and strikeouts and ignores the ERA, which helps to factor in good seasons or not, so by giving the 10% GB boost in the star pitcher's best
year really does make a difference to assure they reflected better thier impact as a starter.



PS I added another decade to the modifier list above

[Mike45]

when you imported...i take it you brought over all stats prior to 1901?

what does the ERA stats look like for guys not imported with previous stats?

[rogmax11]

I wonder how things would look with random debut in play. And now that I think of it, how did the
various franchises fare over the years? Were there dynasties similar to real history or did unexpected
variations arise?

In any case, this is fascinating stuff and I applaud you for kindly doing the math for me!

[sprague]

Remember the players went to original teams, so only in a few cases did a start not play his first year with his famous team,

say larry gura not begining in kc, so dynasties are to be expected
.
cleveland won 7 of 8 pennants in the late 40-50's
yankees won 10 between 1928-1940
giants won 4 world series in a row in the 1930's (beat the yankees 3 of the 4 years)
cardinals won 7 pennants in the 40's
kansas city won 6 pennants between 75-84


1920's are up