Random Debut Hall of Fame opinion

[David Watts]

Just had my first Hall of Fame inductee.

Ed Walsh
Walsh was part of the league inaugural debut. He imported at the age of 27 and would shut things down at the age of 34. During his age 34 season, Walsh would not make a start, pitching 58.2 innings over 24 games in relief. Ed made 220 starts over his career, winning 123 games and losing 78. Over the first 3 years of Walsh's career he went an amazing 68-23. Ed totaled 44.3 over his career. His best WAR season was 9.4 in 1973. Crazy thing is, Walsh managed to lose 15 games that season. Walsh whiffed 200+ batters for the first 5 seasons of his career with his high being 285 in 1972.

My question is, do you like it that the game counts a players non OOTP service time towards the 10 years required to qualify for the Hall of Fame? I'm on the fence. I think it's cool that the game recognizes Walsh for his greatness, but I know there will be others that have brief flashes of greatness that didn't have the benefit of being part of the inaugural draft and the make believe service time. What do y'all think?

[darkcloud4579]

Yes, I will sometimes remove undeserving people from the Hall or raise the % needed to keep fringe guys out.

[LansdowneSt]

I actually like it. I manually vote every year to try and ensure that the older RD inaugural class guys that dominate the first 10 years of my league get my little boost to try and get in. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. It gets harder once more names become eligible as there is a vote splitting effect. In real life, they'd be pioneers and get in. I mean, you get Randy Johnson getting 140 dominating wins and other huge stats ... but he debuted at age 36 when my RD league (and so presumably MLB baseball) begins. Ya gotta root for him to get in. I played the game those years. I saw how he dominated. Thank goodness I didn't have to open the editor and OOTP instead naturally gave him a chance after the 5-year wait time and put him on the ballot so I could try and vote him in.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

I actually like it. I manually vote every year to try and ensure that the older RD inaugural class guys that dominate the first 10 years of my league get my little boost to try and get in. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. It gets harder once more names become eligible as there is a vote splitting effect. In real life, they'd be pioneers and get in. I mean, you get Randy Johnson getting 140 dominating wins and other huge stats ... but he debuted at age 36 when my RD league (and so presumably MLB baseball) begins. Ya gotta root for him to get in. I played the game those years. I saw how he dominated. Thank goodness I didn't have to open the editor and OOTP instead naturally gave him a chance after the 5-year wait time and put him on the ballot so I could try and vote him in.

In my league, Walsh didn't even reach the 10 years in actual playing time. He played 8 seasons with 5 of them being dominant. He finished with 11 years service time, due to the game giving him 3 service years. In the end, I think I agree with you though. Walsh really stood out during the first few years of league play.

Question, when you manually vote for the Hall of Fame, do the players you vote for automatically get in, or does the game just add your vote to the tally? I've thought about voting, but I don't want to be a determining factor. For example, If I were to vote for someone on the fringe and probably not deserving, would my vote push the player into the Hall? Thanks.

[Reed]

With the way I start my random league, (I pre start a historical year 1895, RAH on, and 1st rookie draft is for all players that debut 1896-1900 (18 rounds)). For 1896 I reset debut range to 1901-2022, 8 round rookie draft.
Sim to spring of 1901 and go to league function and erase all those options on bottom left including career stats. That way no player WILL HAVE IRL stats as part of their OOTP stats.
Obviously you can do anything you want in your game but if they don’t play 10 OOTP seasons in my league, they won’t be HOF eligible. If I make an exception for one player, I would probably start making exceptions for others and that would water down the HOF.

[LansdowneSt]

My current RD is all players, started in 1920, no RAH but instead development on and 3-year recalc.

No, if you vote in the HOF they do not get in automatically. So in the Randy J example, I’m pushing against headwinds of Randy’s lesser cumulative totals and am just a voter valuing peak. I think my vote is worth a few percentage points. Maybe more if I vote for one player vs voting for many. The HOF voting is my favorite part of the game in a weird way. That’s why I’ve gone out of my way to try to mock up how a Vet Committee could work in game.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

My current RD is all players, started in 1920, no RAH but instead development on and 3-year recalc.

No, if you vote in the HOF they do not get in automatically. So in the Randy J example, I’m pushing against headwinds of Randy’s lesser cumulative totals and am just a voter valuing peak. I think my vote is worth a few percentage points. Maybe more if I vote for one player vs voting for many. The HOF voting is my favorite part of the game in a weird way. That’s why I’ve gone out of my way to try to mock up how a Vet Committee could work in game.

The Hall of Fame is my favorite part of random debut league, but I've always been a total hands off observer. You've given me something to think about. Thanks.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Reed

With the way I start my random league, (I pre start a historical year 1895, RAH on, and 1st rookie draft is for all players that debut 1896-1900 (18 rounds)). For 1896 I reset debut range to 1901-2022, 8 round rookie draft.
Sim to spring of 1901 and go to league function and erase all those options on bottom left including career stats. That way no player WILL HAVE IRL stats as part of their OOTP stats.
Obviously you can do anything you want in your game but if they don’t play 10 OOTP seasons in my league, they won’t be HOF eligible. If I make an exception for one player, I would probably start making exceptions for others and that would water down the HOF.

You said the other day that you play without financials. With financials on I think players starting out with random service times may be needed.

[Reed]

Originally Posted by David Watts

You said the other day that you play without financials. With financials on I think players starting out with random service times may be needed.

I haven’t thought about that until now but that does make sense.

[David Watts]

Another question. Do y'all keep your milestone for runs and rbi at 1000 or do you up it so there are less players that reach the milestone?

[LansdowneSt]

I always keep the milestones as-is. I don’t mind some surprise. I have thin draft classes so recently one of the first amateur draft players, Bill Madlock, pushed past his irl retirement date and got i with nearly 3000 hits. I voted for him but still took a year or two to crack 75% if I recall correctly. Currently pushing for my old ace Steve Rogers to make it.

[darkcloud4579]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Another question. Do y'all keep your milestone for runs and rbi at 1000 or do you up it so there are less players that reach the milestone?

I raise them for that reason, especially well into the 2060s, because I find lots of guys who I don't eyeball as HOFers are getting in.

[Reed]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Another question. Do y'all keep your milestone for runs and rbi at 1000 or do you up it so there are less players that reach the milestone?

I think runs/rbi are to dependent on other players so I raise them up to 1500. Win total is another stat that is misleading but there just isn’t that many stats available for pitchers.

[David Watts]

Watched Roger Clemens pick up his 270th win this morning. Really pulling for him to reach 300. He's currently 38 years old.

Got a young Aaron Judge in this league, I think he's just starting his 4th season. Meanwhile, Barry Bonds is playing his rookie season. Jim Thome is very young as well. Ken Griffey currently is the leagues home run king with 400+ home runs. He's 31 years old, but he's playing like he's 41 to start the 1985 season.

[David Watts]

Was looking at the Gold Glove winners over the years in my league yesterday. Really cool to see at one point Mark Belanger won 8 straight Gold Gloves. Especially when as per real life, he wasn't exactly all that great offensively. Love the fact that the AI saw his value and kept playing him.