Problems with stat realism

[simcrazy]

Hi and thanks in advance for any input you have,

The way I enjoy playing is by starting a brand new league with fictional players and holding an inaugural draft. I imagine that baseball has just been invented, but we're in 2014.

I neutralize park factors, give every team a retractable roof, grass stadium with 50,000 capacity and neutralize all owner/market/budget variables. I take these steps to even the playing field.

Everything else is pretty straightforward, maybe a few nuances like DH in both leagues, but other than that MLB rules and structure.

I am having problems with stat realism, particularly (and it appears to be only) with batting average. I played one league and over two years there was a .400 hitter as well as 14 additional players with seasonal averages of over .350. Obviously if you follow real life MLB closely, you know this is ridiculous: there has been ZERO .350 hitters in the past four years, no one has hit .400 since 1941 and the leading averages in the NL/AL last year was .319/.341. Frustrating.

If I look at the whole league, in real life the AL's average over the last 2 years were .256 and .253 and in my league the AL/NL league averages were all between .259-.263. So, it appears that although there is a slight issue with overall average (within a range I wouldn't mind), it appears the issue is far better described as the best players are too many standard deviations away from the mean.

I started another league and for the first time used the "Auto-Calc Modifiers" feature in League Settings-->Stats & AI. The problem is persisting. Any advice? I am appreciative. I have a team I really love and want to play 100 years with, but I really want the stats to be present day MLB!

[Gai1997]

Well messing with park factors and such might be the issue. I've never had players do that well whenever I played default games.

[simcrazy]

Originally Posted by Gai1997

Well messing with park factors and such might be the issue. I've never had players do that well whenever I played default games.

Perhaps, but neutral park factors, if interpreted literally, would not result in non-neutral statistical output, no?

[MBarrett]

If you left the League Total Modifiers as default, that's causing the problems. They create too much offense. As an example, default will result in a league batting avg of .260.

[simcrazy]

Originally Posted by Gai1997

Well messing with park factors and such might be the issue. I've never had players do that well whenever I played default games.

Originally Posted by MBarrett

If you left the League Total Modifiers as default, that's causing the problems. They create too much offense. As an example, default will result in a league batting avg of .260.

Can I infer from your post that you would have expected the Auto-Calc option to solve the issue?

[MBarrett]

No idea, I stay away from that button at the ML level.

[simcrazy]

Originally Posted by MBarrett

No idea, I stay away from that button at the ML level.

And you're saying that keeping modifiers at default (i.e. 1.0) also doesn't lead to present day stats? So how do I get realistic stats?

[darkcloud4579]

I've done a lot of testing over the years to get my numbers right. I find autocalc works well for me at the major league level to keep things consistent year to year, but maybe not for you. I think it depends a lot on the variable too...the talent that enters a new league usually is too good. I find that after years of feeders, I can bring the talent level down well and it helps a lot.

But really it's about tinkering. I've sometimes spent 20-30 seasons of simming to find my numbers where I want them, but the beauty of recent years is the game engine stays the same so I don't have to invest that time anymore.