League Modifiers in Historical Game (Pre-1901)

Jor97 · 07-16-2025, 09:13 PM

I've been running a historical league starting in 1876 for a few seasons, manually adding all the correct teams along the way. 1876-1879 were run using auto-calc, with no real outliers in statistics. I've got recalc off and development on, so players should start to turn out somewhat differently at this point.

In order to reflect the changing talent levels I decided to run 1880 using pre-calc. I'm now halfway through the season and pitcher K's have started to get a bit out of control. Pre-calc should have the league hitting around .245/.273/.320 with a .264 BABIP, yet at this moment the league is batting .211/.242/.294 with just a .238 BABIP. The screenshot I've attached shows that K/AB are up to .127 from just .084 last year, more than a 50% increase.

The schedule I've loaded in this year is very spread out, meaning teams get a lot of opportunity to start their top pitcher more or less 75% of the time. Most of these top pitchers have 80 stuff. Is this working as intended or could this be up to the schedule?

Matt Arnold · 07-17-2025, 09:35 AM

Pre-1901 totals are hard to balance, just due to the nature of the league, and the wide variety in setups possible.

If you use the pre-calculated modifiers, they were calculated using a certain setup. The more your setup deviates from that, the more likely they will not be correct. So certainly if your league development has been more favorable to pitchers than batters, or if your schedule ends up favoring teams using their #1 more than what the default/precalc was generated with, the more likely you will have results that deviate from historical.

Jor97 · 07-17-2025, 10:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

Pre-1901 totals are hard to balance, just due to the nature of the league, and the wide variety in setups possible.

If you use the pre-calculated modifiers, they were calculated using a certain setup. The more your setup deviates from that, the more likely they will not be correct. So certainly if your league development has been more favorable to pitchers than batters, or if your schedule ends up favoring teams using their #1 more than what the default/precalc was generated with, the more likely you will have results that deviate from historical.

Thanks for the response, in this case then would it be better to revert to the auto-calc for next season in order to achieve some more balance or would this completely negate improved player ratings?

Matt Arnold · 07-17-2025, 11:58 AM

The auto-calc is mostly about adjusting the modifiers. So it would see that your strikeouts are high, and babip is low, and adjust those modifiers. It's not related to recalc settings.

Rain King · 07-17-2025, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jor97

Thanks for the response, in this case then would it be better to revert to the auto-calc for next season in order to achieve some more balance or would this completely negate improved player ratings?

It really comes down to your preferences and expectations.

You could even split the difference a bit if you want.

For example, you could record your modifiers before running Auto Calc. Then, compare that to what you get after running Auto Calc and adjust the modifiers to be somewhere in the middle of those results. Make sure to backup your league and I'd recommend running some tests, depending how particular you are

.

07-16-2025, 09:13 PM	#1
Jor97 Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Oct 2019 Posts: 33	League Modifiers in Historical Game (Pre-1901) I've been running a historical league starting in 1876 for a few seasons, manually adding all the correct teams along the way. 1876-1879 were run using auto-calc, with no real outliers in statistics. I've got recalc off and development on, so players should start to turn out somewhat differently at this point. In order to reflect the changing talent levels I decided to run 1880 using pre-calc. I'm now halfway through the season and pitcher K's have started to get a bit out of control. Pre-calc should have the league hitting around .245/.273/.320 with a .264 BABIP, yet at this moment the league is batting .211/.242/.294 with just a .238 BABIP. The screenshot I've attached shows that K/AB are up to .127 from just .084 last year, more than a 50% increase. The schedule I've loaded in this year is very spread out, meaning teams get a lot of opportunity to start their top pitcher more or less 75% of the time. Most of these top pitchers have 80 stuff. Is this working as intended or could this be up to the schedule? Attached Images Last edited by Jor97; 07-16-2025 at 09:14 PM.

07-17-2025, 09:35 AM	#2
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 15,925	Pre-1901 totals are hard to balance, just due to the nature of the league, and the wide variety in setups possible. If you use the pre-calculated modifiers, they were calculated using a certain setup. The more your setup deviates from that, the more likely they will not be correct. So certainly if your league development has been more favorable to pitchers than batters, or if your schedule ends up favoring teams using their #1 more than what the default/precalc was generated with, the more likely you will have results that deviate from historical.

07-17-2025, 11:58 AM	#4
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 15,925	The auto-calc is mostly about adjusting the modifiers. So it would see that your strikeouts are high, and babip is low, and adjust those modifiers. It's not related to recalc settings.