need help tweaking park factors

thehef · 09-03-2006, 06:30 PM

In my 6.51 historical league, I'm at a point (1961) where the AL is outhitting the NL significantly (.259 vs .242), when in reality the NL (.262) was outhitting the AL (.256) slightly. Also, the AL is popping too many dingers, whereas the NL is just fine. So I want to tweak the park factors of the AL and/or NL parks to adjust this somewhat, but have never done that before.

My questions... How much does a tweak upward to 105 or 110 or downward to 95 or 90 have? And is there a thread anywhere that deals with this? Anybody out there have any tips or words of wisdom? Thanks in advance.

kevinatlanta · 09-09-2006, 01:41 AM

If you can get historical ballpark info, why not use this excel worksheet and see what parks are "out-of-whack" and then make adjustments...

http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...llpark+factors

Cowboys3356 · 09-09-2006, 09:03 AM

Send me a PM with your email and I can email you the Ballpark files for whatever year (1901-2005) that you need. You then just insert the files into your League Folder and you are ready to go. There was a time you could download them off the internet but the hosting site has closed. They were called Soxman Stadium files.

thehef · 09-09-2006, 02:09 PM

Thanks for the replies... The way I setup things, I use historical ballpark images (cuz they're cool!), but I don't adjust any of the distances, fences, etc., to reality. When I first setup my historical league, I found some posts that said that - for historical simming - it was best to start off with all your parks using the Old League Park setup because historical stats & ratings were already based on the parks the players played in. For example, Yastrzemski's stats & ratings ALREADY reflect the fact that he played half his games with a Green Monster and the other half in the other AL parks.

Furthermore, there is this from Steve K's Historical League FAQ:

"Personally, instead of using the real stadiums I create 2 generic stadiums, one for each league. This allows me to adjust for the difference in stats between AL and NL totals... By modifying the stadium factors for one of the leagues it allows you to get realistic stats for both leagues. Simply create 2 new stadiums from the Edit Stadium menu. Name one American League Park and one National League Park... If you have your league setup pretty good with fairly realistic stats for the NL and the AL is good except you have too few homers then you can simply change the HR park effect number for the AL stadium to 105 or 107. This will increase homers in the American League but wont change your National League numbers."

This is essentially what I'm doing, even though I have individual park names (because of the ballpark images) for each team, not just one for each league. But as of now ALL my parks have the same dimensions & factors... What I was asking was for some suggestions on what numbers to tweak - uniformly across one league or the other - given the league differences I mentioned.

In Steve's example - where the AL is hitting too few homers - he suggests trying 105 or 107 numbers for the HR park effect number for the AL parks. So I suppose in my situation - where the AL is hitting too many homers - I could try 95 or 93. But I don't really know, and am hoping for suggestions... And in the case of my NL hitting 20 points below RL, I'm not sure how much to adjust those factors. Yeah, I can experiment with it, but I'd like a reasonable starting point. And, I'm thinking that my NL homers are just about right - even though the NL avg is so low. So if I make an adjustment that increases NL hits, it seems logical (to me, anyway), that I'm going to get more homers (and doubles, and triples), too.

So if anybody's had similar circumstances and have suggestions, let's have 'em? And if I'm misunderstanding kevinatlanta's and Cowboys3356's suggestions and that maybe those are answers for me, please let me know, fellas... Thanks again.

09-03-2006, 06:30 PM	#1
thehef Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,380	need help tweaking park factors In my 6.51 historical league, I'm at a point (1961) where the AL is outhitting the NL significantly (.259 vs .242), when in reality the NL (.262) was outhitting the AL (.256) slightly. Also, the AL is popping too many dingers, whereas the NL is just fine. So I want to tweak the park factors of the AL and/or NL parks to adjust this somewhat, but have never done that before. My questions... How much does a tweak upward to 105 or 110 or downward to 95 or 90 have? And is there a thread anywhere that deals with this? Anybody out there have any tips or words of wisdom? Thanks in advance.

09-09-2006, 01:41 AM	#2
kevinatlanta Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 29	If you can get historical ballpark info, why not use this excel worksheet and see what parks are "out-of-whack" and then make adjustments... http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...llpark+factors __________________

09-09-2006, 09:03 AM	#3
Cowboys3356 All Star Starter Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 1,571	Send me a PM with your email and I can email you the Ballpark files for whatever year (1901-2005) that you need. You then just insert the files into your League Folder and you are ready to go. There was a time you could download them off the internet but the hosting site has closed. They were called Soxman Stadium files.

09-09-2006, 02:09 PM	#4
thehef Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 5,380	Thanks for the replies... The way I setup things, I use historical ballpark images (cuz they're cool!), but I don't adjust any of the distances, fences, etc., to reality. When I first setup my historical league, I found some posts that said that - for historical simming - it was best to start off with all your parks using the Old League Park setup because historical stats & ratings were already based on the parks the players played in. For example, Yastrzemski's stats & ratings ALREADY reflect the fact that he played half his games with a Green Monster and the other half in the other AL parks. Furthermore, there is this from Steve K's Historical League FAQ: "Personally, instead of using the real stadiums I create 2 generic stadiums, one for each league. This allows me to adjust for the difference in stats between AL and NL totals... By modifying the stadium factors for one of the leagues it allows you to get realistic stats for both leagues. Simply create 2 new stadiums from the Edit Stadium menu. Name one American League Park and one National League Park... If you have your league setup pretty good with fairly realistic stats for the NL and the AL is good except you have too few homers then you can simply change the HR park effect number for the AL stadium to 105 or 107. This will increase homers in the American League but wont change your National League numbers." This is essentially what I'm doing, even though I have individual park names (because of the ballpark images) for each team, not just one for each league. But as of now ALL my parks have the same dimensions & factors... What I was asking was for some suggestions on what numbers to tweak - uniformly across one league or the other - given the league differences I mentioned. In Steve's example - where the AL is hitting too few homers - he suggests trying 105 or 107 numbers for the HR park effect number for the AL parks. So I suppose in my situation - where the AL is hitting too many homers - I could try 95 or 93. But I don't really know, and am hoping for suggestions... And in the case of my NL hitting 20 points below RL, I'm not sure how much to adjust those factors. Yeah, I can experiment with it, but I'd like a reasonable starting point. And, I'm thinking that my NL homers are just about right - even though the NL avg is so low. So if I make an adjustment that increases NL hits, it seems logical (to me, anyway), that I'm going to get more homers (and doubles, and triples), too. So if anybody's had similar circumstances and have suggestions, let's have 'em? And if I'm misunderstanding kevinatlanta's and Cowboys3356's suggestions and that maybe those are answers for me, please let me know, fellas... Thanks again.