Best league settings for historical game?

[SteveP]

Has anyone in this forum done a comprehensive piece on appropriate settings for different periods, or is there an online source out there that would provide a good guide? I am primarily referring to the options available in the Rules section of league settings -- for example, size of secondary roster, minor league option years, refusal of minor assignment, disabled list time period, etc. I have seen some good ideas on these boards for work-arounds with respect to the pre-free agency era, but nothing that deals with other settings. I'd like to do better than make reasonable guesses on these things.

[bigMatt]

This is a good question, and I would extend this to include a request that there be a section on the board specifically and solely for "preferred settings." There are a lot of variables to the game, depending on your desired outcome.

[PhillieFever]

What kind of league do you want to start and in what year.if your looking for a straight historical league that includes accurate player representation and spot on league wide stats I can help you but be forewarned there are no minor leagues in the setup.

[SteveP]

I am not looking for help with a specific League I'm trying to start. But I will provide an example of what I mean:

I don't believe that that professional baseball always had a 40-man secondary roster. Other than having that knowledge, I don't know what changes were made to these rules, and when. I could say the same things about rules relating to waivers, the ability of players to refuse minors assignments, etc.

For some reason, OOTP doesn't help with these settings, even though the game does make adjustment related to statistics. I just thought that someone might have put together a timeline relating to each of the rules (the ones that can be set by the player in OOTP).

[plannine]

This (former) website had a lot of good information on roster sizes:

Roster Limits & ORIGINAL BASEBALL RESEARCH

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by plannine

This (former) website had a lot of good information on roster sizes:

Roster Limits & ORIGINAL BASEBALL RESEARCH

The Roster Limits website is the best thing I've seen so far. When you get to the Roster Limits page, click on table of contents to see articles on related topics, such as disabled lists. I haven't fully digested these yet, but it's clear that could be very helpful.

The article on disabled lists says that currently the 60-day list can't be used unless the 40-man roster is full. If correct, I think OOTP has that wrong ...

[plannine]

Originally Posted by SteveP

The Roster Limits website is the best thing I've seen so far. When you get to the Roster Limits page, click on table of contents to see articles on related topics, such as disabled lists. I haven't fully digested these yet, but it's clear that could be very helpful.

The article on disabled lists says that currently the 60-day list can't be used unless the 40-man roster is full. If correct, I think OOTP has that wrong ...

The archive is from 2005, so it may not be current.

[Garlon]

This is what I suggest using for all seasons in OOTP:

Use of Relievers: Very Often
Use of Closers: Very Often
Pitcher Endurance: Very Low
Rotation Size: 4-man 1901-1968, 5-man 1969-present
Pinch Hit for Pitchers: Very Often
Pinch Hit for Position Players: Normal
Defensive Substitutions: Normal
Stealing Bases: Normal
Hit & Run: Very Rarely
Bunting: Normal

Reasoning behind these settings:

You need Relievers and Closers and Pinch Hit for Pitchers all set to Very Often in order to get the most realistic bullpen usage. Pitcher Enurance also needs to be set to Very Low because we havea modifier in the game for SP Endurance, so by setting it to Very Low has no impact on SP's but it will impact the Relievers. If you don't set Endurance to Very Low you will have individual relievers throwing way too many innings.

We have Modifiers for Stealing and Bunting, so regardless of the setting the Modifier will make up for it. It is best to leave these at Normal.

Hit & Run should be set to Very Rarely because at higher levels this tends to add more runs scored to the league. You wll get the most realistic Runs Scored per Game results by keeping this on Very Rarely in all seasons.

[SteveP]

Originally Posted by Garlon

This is what I suggest using for all seasons in OOTP:

Use of Relievers: Very Often
Use of Closers: Very Often
Pitcher Endurance: Very Low
Rotation Size: 4-man 1901-1968, 5-man 1969-present
Pinch Hit for Pitchers: Very Often
Pinch Hit for Position Players: Normal
Defensive Substitutions: Normal
Stealing Bases: Normal
Hit & Run: Very Rarely
Bunting: Normal

Reasoning behind these settings:

You need Relievers and Closers and Pinch Hit for Pitchers all set to Very Often in order to get the most realistic bullpen usage. Pitcher Enurance also needs to be set to Very Low because we havea modifier in the game for SP Endurance, so by setting it to Very Low has no impact on SP's but it will impact the Relievers. If you don't set Endurance to Very Low you will have individual relievers throwing way too many innings.

We have Modifiers for Stealing and Bunting, so regardless of the setting the Modifier will make up for it. It is best to leave these at Normal.

Hit & Run should be set to Very Rarely because at higher levels this tends to add more runs scored to the league. You wll get the most realistic Runs Scored per Game results by keeping this on Very Rarely in all seasons.

Terrific insights, though not specifically relevant to the subject of this thread, which is about setting on the Rules page. I particularly like the part about endurance and pinch hitting for pitchers.

I continue to be surprised that no one else seems disturbed by the excessive use of pinch hitters for position players. Not only is it unrealistic, but the AI is unable to plan ahead for the impact on fielding. It was absurd to see OFs playing catcher so often in the ninth inning or in extra innings, for example. Anyway, that rant was just a prelude to saying that I set pinch hitting for position players to very rarely, and back that up for adjusting this strategy for all the teams in the league way down. That way I get most games with no pinch hitting, and seldom more than two per team in a game.

[pstrickert]

Originally Posted by Garlon

This is what I suggest using for all seasons in OOTP:

Use of Relievers: Very Often
Use of Closers: Very Often
Pitcher Endurance: Very Low
Rotation Size: 4-man 1901-1968, 5-man 1969-present
Pinch Hit for Pitchers: Very Often
Pinch Hit for Position Players: Normal
Defensive Substitutions: Normal
Stealing Bases: Normal
Hit & Run: Very Rarely
Bunting: Normal

Reasoning behind these settings:

You need Relievers and Closers and Pinch Hit for Pitchers all set to Very Often in order to get the most realistic bullpen usage. Pitcher Enurance also needs to be set to Very Low because we havea modifier in the game for SP Endurance, so by setting it to Very Low has no impact on SP's but it will impact the Relievers. If you don't set Endurance to Very Low you will have individual relievers throwing way too many innings.

We have Modifiers for Stealing and Bunting, so regardless of the setting the Modifier will make up for it. It is best to leave these at Normal.

Hit & Run should be set to Very Rarely because at higher levels this tends to add more runs scored to the league. You wll get the most realistic Runs Scored per Game results by keeping this on Very Rarely in all seasons.

I assume this part I bolded is a typo.

How does Very Low Endurance affect SPs in the early and mid 20th century? Do they really get enough innings?

[thehef]

Garlon wrote:

You need Relievers and Closers and Pinch Hit for Pitchers all set to Very Often in order to get the most realistic bullpen usage. Pitcher Enurance also needs to be set to Very Low because we havea modifier in the game for SP Endurance, so by setting it to Very Low has no impact on SP's but it will impact the Relievers. If you don't set Endurance to Very Low you will have individual relievers throwing way too many innings.

Regarding the sentence above that pstrickert bolded... This does seem counter-intuitive and/or contradictory. However, Garlon explains it in this post (from another thread): http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...ml#post2644716

[pstrickert]

Thanks!

[pstrickert]

I simmed the 1974 season using Garlon's suggested league modifiers. The number of innings pitched does, indeed, seem rightly divided between starters and relievers. However, the 5-man rotation tends to leave many SPs short of their historical GS. Consequently, they fall short of their historical IP (as well as K, BB, etc.). Nolan Ryan, for example, led the league with 264 K in 209 IP in the sim. IRL, he led the league with 367 K in 332.2 IP.

[Garlon]

You can try a 4-man strict order or highest rested starter setting in 1974. One thing to consider is that some teams could have been using 4-man and some 5-man rotations IRL.

Over time though these things even out. In my sim, Ryan ended up with 780 GS, 4975 IP, 5186 K, and 243 K per 1000 Batters Faced. In the sim Ryan retires after 1991, and does not play 1992-1993 because we put a force-retire after a certain age limit so that guys like Minnie Minoso don't play into their late 50's because they have those cameo appearances in their stats. IRL Ryan made 773 GS, 5386 IP, 5714 K, and 253 K per 1000 Batters Faced.

[pstrickert]

I should also mention that I simmed with INJ off. If Ryan (or anyone) had lost a few starts due to injury, he'd come up even shorter in IP for the season. That said, I do agree that, most likely, not all teams used the same rotation in 1974.

[pstrickert]

I've been using Garlon's settings to sim the 1974 season. Now that I've looked more closely at the results, I think I've discovered the reason for the lack of GS by SP (even though I have INJ off). Very Low Endurance = slower to return to 100% strength. Thus, occasionally, SPs will miss turns in the rotation during the season. So, with a 4-man rotation, most SP will not get 40 starts but 32-36 instead.

[Garlon]

Sometimes the AI also puts a pitcher in the spot-starter role and that will also take some GS away from the pitchers in the rotation.

[clamel]

I haven´t changed any modifiers at all and do get strange stats.

Lots of starting pitchers in 1987-90 gets 35-36 starts. It´s very common to have top K kings closing in on 300Ks a season.

The major effect on having many many starting pitchers to get 30-plus starts is that many teams have very few starters all over during a season.
I can´t recall what team but I had teams with only 8 pitchers was used as starters over the full season. Too few IMHO.

I have only started with 1987 and onwards and not adjusted anything from what the game gave me in numbers. Well, the Injury was set to LOW.

FYI the game has Pitchers endurance set to Normal.

I use 5-man rotation, or actaully the game use it. If I try changing it the AI changes it back again and it always stay on highest pitcher to start, never strict order.


Is i fatigues or modifiers for endurance or what I need to mess with to get an overall more use of more starters or what ???

[pstrickert]

Originally Posted by Garlon

This is what I suggest using for all seasons in OOTP:

Use of Relievers: Very Often
Use of Closers: Very Often
Pitcher Endurance: Very Low
Rotation Size: 4-man 1901-1968, 5-man 1969-present
Pinch Hit for Pitchers: Very Often
Pinch Hit for Position Players: Normal
Defensive Substitutions: Normal
Stealing Bases: Normal
Hit & Run: Very Rarely
Bunting: Normal

Reasoning behind these settings:

You need Relievers and Closers and Pinch Hit for Pitchers all set to Very Often in order to get the most realistic bullpen usage. Pitcher Enurance also needs to be set to Very Low because we havea modifier in the game for SP Endurance, so by setting it to Very Low has no impact on SP's but it will impact the Relievers. If you don't set Endurance to Very Low you will have individual relievers throwing way too many innings.

We have Modifiers for Stealing and Bunting, so regardless of the setting the Modifier will make up for it. It is best to leave these at Normal.

Hit & Run should be set to Very Rarely because at higher levels this tends to add more runs scored to the league. You wll get the most realistic Runs Scored per Game results by keeping this on Very Rarely in all seasons.

Do you still recommend these settings, Garlon? Or have you made recent changes to them?