Era Calculator

molarmite · 04-01-2006, 04:43 PM

How do you use it? I know that's probably a dumb question, but I don't know how.

BradW · 04-02-2006, 12:49 AM

i could be wrong but

Earned Runs Allowed - (Innings Pitched/9) = ERA

molarmite · 04-02-2006, 06:57 PM

No, I meant Iatric's Era calculator. It's a downloadable program.

Garlon · 04-03-2006, 04:43 AM

The Era Calculator should have a Word file in it with a step by step guide (albeit outdated in that it shows screen from an older version of OOTP).

It's the best program for historical simming. Someone needs to create a new guide for it with newer screenshots though. I'll try to post something here with some explanation of how to use it when I have a chance, probably this weekend. If I forget for som reason shoot me a PM molarmite.

Garlon · 04-08-2006, 08:15 PM

Iatric Era Calculator Guide

The Era Calculator is a utility that provides league totals to plug into OOTP’s engine so that you can play each season to historical accuracy in career mode. You need to run this program each season to get new totals for the engine.

Your Era Calculator folder should have a file called “mlbactuals.txt” and another file called “initratings.txt”. The Era Calculator refers to the initratings.txt file the first time you start a league an then uses the mlbactuals.txt file to check the accuracy of your league’s ratios with historical ratios for any given season.

For historical accuracy set all of the ballparks in your OOTP league to “Old League Park”.

Example of starting a career league in 1901:

1. Create a folder on your desktop called “leaguetotals” (you can name this folder anything you want).

2. Create your historical league from a database. Import year 1901. Name the league “1901test”.

3. Open the Era Calculator program. Click the Edit Defaults button. Where it says League Directory click browse and navigate to your OOTP game folder and find the “1901test.lg” folder and open it. You should see a file called “league.dat”, select it and click open. In the Era Calculator defaults screen you should now see the path to this file, click OK. Don’t worry about setting the HTML Directory just yet.

4. On the Era Calculator main screen click Open League. Go to your “1901test.lg” folder in your OOTP game folder and select the “league.dat” file. The Era calculator should now give you a message saying “New league found. Would you like to initialize it?”, click Yes. It will now say “Input Starting Season”, type 1901 in the space and click OK. (If you happen to get a run-time error at this point, just re-open h Era Calculator and click initialize season and put in 1901 again) It will say would you like to copy ballpark configuration files, click No. You will now see a box called “Suggested Ratings”. In your OOTP league go to League>League SetUp>Engine Setup and you will see the DIPS Engine Setup. Put in 100000 for At Bats and then the numbers for Hits, 2B, 3B, HR, BB, HBP, and K you received in the suggested ratings from the Era Calculator. (As you proceed from season to season always leave At Bats at 100000). Where it says “AVG on balls in play” put in “.288”, you should leave this total the same every season. (Why “.288”? Because the historical average of Balls In Play from 1901-2005 is about .288, if you go back to 1871 and weight all years equally you get .286, which is what I use. No matter what you pick for this total, just set it and never change it again.). After you have all of your totals in, click OK in the Suggested Ratings box the Era Calculator gave you and you should now return to the Era Calculator main screen. In OOTP go to League>League Online Setup, you should see a box that says “Master HTML Report”, where it says “Destination Folder” click and navigate to the “leaguetotals” folder that you created, select it and click OK.

5. Set up your OOTP league exactly how you want it, i.e. set lineups and rotations. Now in OOTP click file and open up any other OOTP league you have saved. On the Era Calculator main screen you should see a button that says “Backup Files”, click it, you will get a message that says “Is OOTP still running? (League/OOTP must be closed)”, you’re fine because you just opened a different OOTP league so there’s no need to shut down OOTP completely, click No. Part of the Era Calculator main screen will turn red and say “Please Wait”, this will only last a couple seconds. In OOTP click File and open up your 1901test.lg again. Simulate your season though the playoffs. Go to League>Online League Setup, your destination folder should still be set to your “leaguetotals” folder, where it says “Generate Player Pages” select No, where it says “Include Box Scores of:” put “0”, and where it says “Include Game Logs” select No. Click the “Generate Report” button, OOTP will give you a message that says “Generating League Reports” and then a message that says “Export Complete! The index file is INDEX.HTML”, click OK. You now get a message that says “Show Report?”, click Yes. In the report, click on League Batting and add together the number of HRs the NL and AL hit and make a note of it (we’re just doing this to spot check and so you have an idea of how the Era Calculator works). Close the League Report Window in OOTP. After you generate your league report in OOTP, go to the Era Calculator and click Edit Defaults. Where it says HTML Directory, click Browse and navigate to your "leaguetotals" folder and select the "index.html" file and click open to set this as the default.

6. On the Era Calculator main screen you will see a button that says “View League Totals”, click it. Check to see if the HR total matches what you added up, it should. (Never click the View League Totals Button twice otherwise it will just keep add the repot a second time and you will run into problems. You don’t really need to click the View League Totals button after each season, we’re just doing this to show you that the Era Calculator is looking at the same report that you generated in the game.) Click OK. You should also see a button on the Era Calculator that says “Verify Results”, click it. This gives you a report of the ratios of your simulated league’s totals compared to historical totals of that season, a “1.000” is perfect in a category. At the bottom of this report it says “Possible Problems:” and it will list any category that is above 1.05 or below 0.95, these are categories that are off from historical accuracy by more than 5%. You will probably be off in a couple categories in this initial season and let’s assume that you are. Click OK in this report. You now have to choose between two buttons on the Era Calculator, “Good Results” (which we’ll assume we didn’t get yet) and “Replay Season”. In your OOTP game, switch to a different league like we had to do before. On the Era Calculator click the “Replay Season” button and you will now get a new set of totals for the OOTP DIPS engine (the Era Calculator has just recalculated the totals that you need to try to get every category to a 1.000 ratio with historical totals), click OK. You don’t need to write these totals down, we can bring them up again later. On the Era Calculator main screen you will see a button that says “Restore Files”, click it and you will get a message that says “Are you sure you want to restore league?”, click Yes, now you get a message “Is OOTP still running? (League/OOTP must be closed)”, we already switched to a different OOTP league so just click No. The Era Calculator screen turns red with a message of “Please Wait” for a couple of seconds while it restored your league to the same condition as when you backed it up in step #5. In OOTP open up your 1901test league again, go to League Setup>Engine Setup, click “View Suggested Ratings” on the Era Calculator main screen to bring up the new totals it wants you to use for the DIPS engine, plug them in and hit OK.

7. In OOTP open a different league. On the Era Calculator main screen you should see a button that says “Lock Ratings”, click it, you get a message that says “Would you like to Backup your league? (Recommended)”, click Yes. (It is extremely important that you do this every season after clicking Lock Ratings, otherwise you can’t go back and replay a season properly when you need to.) You get the message “Is OOTP still running? (League/OOTP must be closed)”, we already switched leagues so we’re fine, click No. The Era Calculator turns red and gives you the Please Wait message while it backs up your league again.

8. Go back to your OOTP league and simulate your season again. Go to the Online League Setup and generate your Master HTML Report again, be sure the destination folder is still set correctly. In the Era Calculator click “Verify Results”, let’s assume we are satisfied with the results this time (if not then you have to do step # 6 again), click “Good Results”, the Current Year of the Era Calculator should now have changed to 1902. In your OOTP league click “Proceed To Next Season”, import your rookies from a DB. Go to the OOTP DIPS Engine again, click the Suggested Ratings button on the Era Calculator and plug them into the game. Do your free agent signings, your amateur draft, set your lineups and stuff, run Spring Training, and then open a different OOTP league. On the Era Calculator click Lock Ratings, backup your league again. Play your season out and do the same thing at the end of each season.

Regarding the “Possible Problems” categories after you Verify Results with the Era Calculator: I have found that during the Deadball Era that you will still pretty much be OK for HRs as long as you are within 10% (between 0.900 and 1.100). For the other categories I tend to click Good Results and proceed to the next season as long as I am within 7.5% (between 0.925 and 1.075). If you are X% over in a category, the Era Calculator takes this into account the next season and gives you engine totals that will result in X% lower totals than expected. So if you are up in HRs one season compared to historical totals, the Era Calculator makes up for it the next season by reducing your results making the average of the two seasons historically accurate.

Another note: The Era Calculator will work fine if you play from 1901 to the 1940’s, but then WWII causes some problems and you will not be able to maintain historical accuracy. With the upcoming DB that Arod23 and I are working on, we have accounted for these problems so that you will be able to play a league from 1901 straight thru to 2005. When we finish the DB I will provide custom mlbactuals.txt and initratings.txt files for the Era Calculator to account for the adjustments we made. Until then, I suggest you either play leagues from 1901-1940, or start in 1950 and play to present day.

NCBeachBum · 04-09-2006, 12:05 AM

Don't I remember reading somewhere that the ERA Calc doesn't work with 6.5?

Garlon · 04-09-2006, 02:43 AM

It works with 6.5. I just finished a career league that I started in 1950 and played thru 2004.

Scoman · 04-28-2006, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Garlon

It works with 6.5. I just finished a career league that I started in 1950 and played thru 2004.

May i ask what database you are using with the era calculator ,to get accurate historical stats,and do you think the database matters as far as working with the era calculator,and producing accurate stats from year to year. In other words should all databases work with it,or are some databases better suited to work with it. Thanks.

Garlon · 04-28-2006, 04:43 PM

Scoman - you can use any DB you want with the Era Calculator, even the regular lahman DB, you might want to try a DB that Arod23 and I created called the Arod23/GarlonRegDB65.

You can dload it here: OOTP downloads

Arod23 and I will be releasing a newer an much more improved DB hopefully very soon. You can read about it in the OOTP 2006 General Discussion forums here

04-01-2006, 04:43 PM	#1
molarmite Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Minnesota Posts: 4,927	Era Calculator How do you use it? I know that's probably a dumb question, but I don't know how. __________________ From the wise mind of Davey Eckstein "Now all you need is a signature. A quote or initial, perhaps." [

04-02-2006, 12:49 AM	#2
BradW Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 29	i could be wrong but Earned Runs Allowed - (Innings Pitched/9) = ERA __________________

04-02-2006, 06:57 PM	#3
molarmite Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Minnesota Posts: 4,927	No, I meant Iatric's Era calculator. It's a downloadable program. __________________ From the wise mind of Davey Eckstein "Now all you need is a signature. A quote or initial, perhaps." [

04-09-2006, 12:05 AM	#6
NCBeachBum All Star Starter Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Topsail Island, NC, USA Posts: 1,049	Don't I remember reading somewhere that the ERA Calc doesn't work with 6.5? __________________ And ain't that a shame, shame, shame Shame, shame, the way you do Oh, it's a shame, shame, shame Shame, shame on you

04-03-2006, 04:43 AM	#4
Garlon Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 4,367	The Era Calculator should have a Word file in it with a step by step guide (albeit outdated in that it shows screen from an older version of OOTP). It's the best program for historical simming. Someone needs to create a new guide for it with newer screenshots though. I'll try to post something here with some explanation of how to use it when I have a chance, probably this weekend. If I forget for som reason shoot me a PM molarmite.

04-08-2006, 08:15 PM	#5
Garlon Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 4,367	Iatric Era Calculator Guide The Era Calculator is a utility that provides league totals to plug into OOTP’s engine so that you can play each season to historical accuracy in career mode. You need to run this program each season to get new totals for the engine. Your Era Calculator folder should have a file called “mlbactuals.txt” and another file called “initratings.txt”. The Era Calculator refers to the initratings.txt file the first time you start a league an then uses the mlbactuals.txt file to check the accuracy of your league’s ratios with historical ratios for any given season. For historical accuracy set all of the ballparks in your OOTP league to “Old League Park”. Example of starting a career league in 1901: 1. Create a folder on your desktop called “leaguetotals” (you can name this folder anything you want). 2. Create your historical league from a database. Import year 1901. Name the league “1901test”. 3. Open the Era Calculator program. Click the Edit Defaults button. Where it says League Directory click browse and navigate to your OOTP game folder and find the “1901test.lg” folder and open it. You should see a file called “league.dat”, select it and click open. In the Era Calculator defaults screen you should now see the path to this file, click OK. Don’t worry about setting the HTML Directory just yet. 4. On the Era Calculator main screen click Open League. Go to your “1901test.lg” folder in your OOTP game folder and select the “league.dat” file. The Era calculator should now give you a message saying “New league found. Would you like to initialize it?”, click Yes. It will now say “Input Starting Season”, type 1901 in the space and click OK. (If you happen to get a run-time error at this point, just re-open h Era Calculator and click initialize season and put in 1901 again) It will say would you like to copy ballpark configuration files, click No. You will now see a box called “Suggested Ratings”. In your OOTP league go to League>League SetUp>Engine Setup and you will see the DIPS Engine Setup. Put in 100000 for At Bats and then the numbers for Hits, 2B, 3B, HR, BB, HBP, and K you received in the suggested ratings from the Era Calculator. (As you proceed from season to season always leave At Bats at 100000). Where it says “AVG on balls in play” put in “.288”, you should leave this total the same every season. (Why “.288”? Because the historical average of Balls In Play from 1901-2005 is about .288, if you go back to 1871 and weight all years equally you get .286, which is what I use. No matter what you pick for this total, just set it and never change it again.). After you have all of your totals in, click OK in the Suggested Ratings box the Era Calculator gave you and you should now return to the Era Calculator main screen. In OOTP go to League>League Online Setup, you should see a box that says “Master HTML Report”, where it says “Destination Folder” click and navigate to the “leaguetotals” folder that you created, select it and click OK. 5. Set up your OOTP league exactly how you want it, i.e. set lineups and rotations. Now in OOTP click file and open up any other OOTP league you have saved. On the Era Calculator main screen you should see a button that says “Backup Files”, click it, you will get a message that says “Is OOTP still running? (League/OOTP must be closed)”, you’re fine because you just opened a different OOTP league so there’s no need to shut down OOTP completely, click No. Part of the Era Calculator main screen will turn red and say “Please Wait”, this will only last a couple seconds. In OOTP click File and open up your 1901test.lg again. Simulate your season though the playoffs. Go to League>Online League Setup, your destination folder should still be set to your “leaguetotals” folder, where it says “Generate Player Pages” select No, where it says “Include Box Scores of:” put “0”, and where it says “Include Game Logs” select No. Click the “Generate Report” button, OOTP will give you a message that says “Generating League Reports” and then a message that says “Export Complete! The index file is INDEX.HTML”, click OK. You now get a message that says “Show Report?”, click Yes. In the report, click on League Batting and add together the number of HRs the NL and AL hit and make a note of it (we’re just doing this to spot check and so you have an idea of how the Era Calculator works). Close the League Report Window in OOTP. After you generate your league report in OOTP, go to the Era Calculator and click Edit Defaults. Where it says HTML Directory, click Browse and navigate to your "leaguetotals" folder and select the "index.html" file and click open to set this as the default. 6. On the Era Calculator main screen you will see a button that says “View League Totals”, click it. Check to see if the HR total matches what you added up, it should. (Never click the View League Totals Button twice otherwise it will just keep add the repot a second time and you will run into problems. You don’t really need to click the View League Totals button after each season, we’re just doing this to show you that the Era Calculator is looking at the same report that you generated in the game.) Click OK. You should also see a button on the Era Calculator that says “Verify Results”, click it. This gives you a report of the ratios of your simulated league’s totals compared to historical totals of that season, a “1.000” is perfect in a category. At the bottom of this report it says “Possible Problems:” and it will list any category that is above 1.05 or below 0.95, these are categories that are off from historical accuracy by more than 5%. You will probably be off in a couple categories in this initial season and let’s assume that you are. Click OK in this report. You now have to choose between two buttons on the Era Calculator, “Good Results” (which we’ll assume we didn’t get yet) and “Replay Season”. In your OOTP game, switch to a different league like we had to do before. On the Era Calculator click the “Replay Season” button and you will now get a new set of totals for the OOTP DIPS engine (the Era Calculator has just recalculated the totals that you need to try to get every category to a 1.000 ratio with historical totals), click OK. You don’t need to write these totals down, we can bring them up again later. On the Era Calculator main screen you will see a button that says “Restore Files”, click it and you will get a message that says “Are you sure you want to restore league?”, click Yes, now you get a message “Is OOTP still running? (League/OOTP must be closed)”, we already switched to a different OOTP league so just click No. The Era Calculator screen turns red with a message of “Please Wait” for a couple of seconds while it restored your league to the same condition as when you backed it up in step #5. In OOTP open up your 1901test league again, go to League Setup>Engine Setup, click “View Suggested Ratings” on the Era Calculator main screen to bring up the new totals it wants you to use for the DIPS engine, plug them in and hit OK. 7. In OOTP open a different league. On the Era Calculator main screen you should see a button that says “Lock Ratings”, click it, you get a message that says “Would you like to Backup your league? (Recommended)”, click Yes. (It is extremely important that you do this every season after clicking Lock Ratings, otherwise you can’t go back and replay a season properly when you need to.) You get the message “Is OOTP still running? (League/OOTP must be closed)”, we already switched leagues so we’re fine, click No. The Era Calculator turns red and gives you the Please Wait message while it backs up your league again. 8. Go back to your OOTP league and simulate your season again. Go to the Online League Setup and generate your Master HTML Report again, be sure the destination folder is still set correctly. In the Era Calculator click “Verify Results”, let’s assume we are satisfied with the results this time (if not then you have to do step # 6 again), click “Good Results”, the Current Year of the Era Calculator should now have changed to 1902. In your OOTP league click “Proceed To Next Season”, import your rookies from a DB. Go to the OOTP DIPS Engine again, click the Suggested Ratings button on the Era Calculator and plug them into the game. Do your free agent signings, your amateur draft, set your lineups and stuff, run Spring Training, and then open a different OOTP league. On the Era Calculator click Lock Ratings, backup your league again. Play your season out and do the same thing at the end of each season. Regarding the “Possible Problems” categories after you Verify Results with the Era Calculator: I have found that during the Deadball Era that you will still pretty much be OK for HRs as long as you are within 10% (between 0.900 and 1.100). For the other categories I tend to click Good Results and proceed to the next season as long as I am within 7.5% (between 0.925 and 1.075). If you are X% over in a category, the Era Calculator takes this into account the next season and gives you engine totals that will result in X% lower totals than expected. So if you are up in HRs one season compared to historical totals, the Era Calculator makes up for it the next season by reducing your results making the average of the two seasons historically accurate. Another note: The Era Calculator will work fine if you play from 1901 to the 1940’s, but then WWII causes some problems and you will not be able to maintain historical accuracy. With the upcoming DB that Arod23 and I are working on, we have accounted for these problems so that you will be able to play a league from 1901 straight thru to 2005. When we finish the DB I will provide custom mlbactuals.txt and initratings.txt files for the Era Calculator to account for the adjustments we made. Until then, I suggest you either play leagues from 1901-1940, or start in 1950 and play to present day. Last edited by Garlon; 04-08-2006 at 08:35 PM.

04-09-2006, 02:43 AM	#7
Garlon Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 4,367	It works with 6.5. I just finished a career league that I started in 1950 and played thru 2004.

04-28-2006, 04:43 PM	#9
Garlon Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 4,367	Scoman - you can use any DB you want with the Era Calculator, even the regular lahman DB, you might want to try a DB that Arod23 and I created called the Arod23/GarlonRegDB65. You can dload it here: OOTP downloads Arod23 and I will be releasing a newer an much more improved DB hopefully very soon. You can read about it in the OOTP 2006 General Discussion forums here