Fictional Solo Players: What baseline stats year do you think is best?

[The_Offspring187]

So I've got a league I've been playing for at least the last 7 years. I started in 1880, simmed til the end of 1999 and took over a team for the 2000 season. I'm in 2015 now. I've done this entire league's history based on 2013 stats output. So while I'm happy with a few things, like the fact only one guy had over 700 homers and only a handful have had 600 plus, along with most of the offensive records, I have had very few 300 game winners or guys who pitched 300 inning seasons. Obviously due to the fact that by the time 2013 happened none were throwing 300 innings anymore and the 300 game winners were starting to fade from memory too.

So I'm going to be restarting a league soon, using the world template I'm using now, which has: my main league with 32 teams and minors, a high school and college feeder system, Japanese, Korean, Cuban, and Mexican leagues complete with minors and feeder systems, an independent league, the World Baseball Classic, and Dominican and Venezuelan summer and winter leagues. Does anyone have a suggestion on a stats year I should use to keep my homeruns where it doesn't look like the steroid era the entire history of my league, and will also allow me to have more than 5 or 6 300 game winners in 135 seasons? And some 300 inning seasons as well?

Thanks for any feedback or advice.

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[No Pepper]

Looking at the list of 300-game winners, it appears that 6 players (Carlton, Ryan, Sutton, Niekro, Perry and Seaver) started their careers in the mid 1960's. 300-innings leaders were abundant during that span as well, dipping below 300 by the 1980's. Career HR leaders list a good number of 500-700 homers from guys that started about a decade earlier in the early to mid 1950's (Aaron, Mays, Robinson, Killebrew, Jackson, Mantle, McCovey, Banks). I think a reasonable first attempt at what you'd want would be to pick a year somewhere in that range along with the corresponding player modifiers. As always, let us know what works!

[Syd Thrift]

I feel like the real answer here is, whichever era you grew up watching. I’m biased towards the 80s and early 90s, others will prefer the 50s (not enough relief pitching for me) and 60s (offense levels are too low for my tastes), still others the 90s. Or, tinker with different eras and see which “flavor” you like the best. Admittedly I like the largely hands-off approach one can take to doing deadball era leagues as a GM as well; YMMV.

[Rain King]

Also, you aren't limited to historical years. You can use something you generally like as a base and then up the steals or pitcher stamina, etc. The League Totals and modifiers are your oyster.

[edapes]

The ideal for me is 1992 adding 10% to the HR total and 10% to the strikeout total.

[RyderHerring]

Wow, your league sounds like an amazing project with so much depth! The historical balance you’re aiming for is a great challenge. Using a stats year from the 1970s or early 1980s could help with pitcher longevity while keeping home runs in check. Excited to see how your new league turns out—keep us updated!