Negro League Update

There's good news and bad news.

The original idea behind the negro league player set just didn't pan out.  At first I tested with a minimum playing time requirement of 300 plate appearances/20 games started.  After copying and pasting 660 team records and 7,000 player seasons worth of data off of Baseball Reference and into excel, this resulted in just a handful of eligible seasons to work with.

My second bright idea was to lower the playing time requirement.  This would be problematic in a league that requires full seasons out of it's players in order to be eligible, but I thought this could be countered by utilizing the injury system DMB has to offer.  A player with 200 at bats was to be "very prone" to injury, one with 250 at bats was to be "prone", etc.

This too didn't quite work as planned, as 200 at bats was simply too small of a sample size.  After running a few sims the results were staggering - I would have introduced another 10 Babe Ruth's, Barry Bonds', and Ted Williams.  In fact, 10 of the top 12 seasons were all from the negro league player set.

The Negro Leagues, I have come to realize over the years, were a crucial part of baseball's history.  Personally, I had usually overlooked them, instead focusing my love of baseball (and ultimately baseball simulations) grounded in statistics; with no proof of what actually occurred in the Negro Leagues, I ignored them.  In reality some of the best players to ever grace the game played over the course of 50 years in either the Foreign (Cuban) or Negro Leagues.

Baseball Reference now has the results of 135,000 innings pitched and 451,000 plate appearances, all compiled by players such as "Steel Arm" Davis, Willie "The Devil" Wells, "Black Diamond" Mendez, and even "Ankleball" Moss.  There simply must be a meaningful way to use the data.

After two tries and a total number of hours I would rather not go into, I stumbled upon a third idea.  The Negro League seasons were roughly half that of major league baseball, why not combine back to back player seasons into a single stat line that can be used in ATB.

Thus, Oscar Charleston, who in 1925 went an absurd .451 / .552 / .826 in 301 at bats, now adds in 215 at bats from 1924 where he batted .380 / .439 / .698.  1924 is absurdly great, but the combination offers are more realistic view of Charleston's worth when compare to those getting 650 plate appearances in the major leagues.

Nip Winters, previously ineligible under normal rules, now has a 1922-23 stat line of 18-4, 201 IP, 131 H, 33 BB, 133 K's.

So, this is where I am at.  I have done all the grunt work and combined each possible season (only back to back seasons may be combined) and even run 10 sims in the "79 Resim" environment.  The results are promising, more than promising.

• Oscar Charleston (OF) hits like Ted Williams with less OBP
• Turkey Stearnes (LF) like Ross Barnes
• Willie Wells (SS) like George Brett
• Nip Winters (SP) like Greg Maddux
• Bill Tyler (SP) like Rube Waddell

And that seems appropriate, and in all, the results were extremely balanced.  Here is a file of the data if you are interested.  (Please note I only entered in about 60 player records in all, there are  hundreds of others untested.)

This is actually a long winded  post to inquire about any objections.  ATB is a community first, and I would not want to introduce a change of this magnitude without getting some feedback first.

So, please let me know in the comments if you have strong feelings one way or the other.  And please, don't let my excitement get in the way of any concerns.