1994 historical league

[Rookie250]

I had previously started a 1994 historical league with random historical players and no history. It was going good for 6 six years then I had the option to draft Nolan Ryan. I asked on a thread if he would always stay a reliever or move into being a starter. I got a recommendation to change a setting (to allow Nolan to change into a starter. I forget which box I checked) It was also suggested that I click the box that has players retire according to real life so that I wouldn't have 50 and 60 year old players still playing. After the first season under those new settings I had about 70% of players in all of my organization retire. Nolan Ryan retired at 19.
I know these suggestions were to make the league more realistic but it didn't work out.

With all of that said I would like a create a league that starts in 1994 with no previous history. I would also like to have the random debut of historical players.

One question I have...is it better to use the OOTP development engine (I feel that when I have used that players fall out of their prime much quicker) or a recalc? I don't know if 1-3-5 year is better. If I use the development engine will someone like Nolan Ryan always be a terrible reliever? Would Babe Ruth ever make the transition to playing in the field?

I really enjoyed the league I was going with but I did have players like Greg Maddox go from 78 to 21 in one year at age 31.

I guess another question I have is I do like having some randomness which is why I choose the development engine to start with. Will the Recalc also give me some randomness?

Sorry for the length. Thanks for the help.

[David Watts]

Never select retire according to history when playing random debut.

If you want to use the development engine instead of recalc, just make sure to select "entire career" for the option base pitcher stamina/role when setting up your league. This is part of the historical league wizard. The other options are import season, and 3 years. Entire career should solve your Ryan/reliever issues.

1 year recalc---this will provide individual players more dynamic seasons. For example--Roger Maris 1961. You are much more likely to see Roger reach 61 with 1 year recalc. Downside. You will also see larger fluctuations due to real life injuries/awful seasons. Example---you can have Chris Carpenter win a Cy Young one year and show up at the bottom of his teams bullpen the following season. This is due to real life injuries suffered by Carpenter that limited his output for 2 seasons.

3 and 5 year recalc will soften the effects of a off year for a player by using a average of several seasons.

Me, I'm starting to move more and more towards simply using player development. About a week or so, someone said that when a player reaches the end of his real playing time the game simply recalcs his final season over and over and over. If true, I can only see myself using recalc for leagues in which I am retiring players according to history.