Commissioner's News (13)
January 11 2012 Software (Sim Engine) Update
Written by AdministratorSome important information on today's update:
1. Improvements to accuracy in the batting average, walk, and home run functions. Many more league norms have been added in order to accomplish this level of sophistication.
2. In conjunction with 1. above, American league batters during the DH era should see a performance surge. Because league norms always included those stats garnered by Designated Hitters, it amounted to a penalty for modern AL hitters. We have removed all DH-generated stats from the league norms and replaced them with pitcher's hitting projections from the same era, which will now cause AL players to be evaluated based on lower league norms and lead to more productivity. Someday I'd like to detail everything that happens inside the sim. It's impressive. But it will have to wait since I have no time at the moment.
3. Added a tab in the reports window for PARK STATS. These will populate as the season unfolds and clear out at the end of the season.
4. Removed the Batter-Pitcher Matchup report. The batter-pitcher matchup database took up 27 GB and was always a hassle to transport from one machine to another, so I've closed it down.
5. Custom leagues have an OTF option now which keeps 2 slots open on each roster for OTF pickups.
6. Weather data is no longer used in the calculation of batting averages and home run percentages. The effect was always slight, but it was biased against cold-weather cities. Similarly, HR tendencies will now remain constant throughout the season rather than being adjusted by month according to actual ML tendencies. This, too, is in the interest of fairness.
7. Some sorting improvements (e.g., HSV) have been made in the software on various reports.
On August 27, 2011 an update was issued with the following enhancements:
- Custom leagues have more settings, including a choice between 158 and 162 games schedules.
- The teams in a custom league can be auto-generated according to parameters you supply!
- A wallpaper was added for better visual contrast in the manager controls and stats reports.
- Custom leagues now install completely on their own, just as when you join a league
- Improved speed in the reports window.
CUSTOM LEAGUES ARE NOW FREE TO ANY MEMBER WITH A STANDARD MEMBER TYPE OR HIGHER.
August 11, 2011 - We released an important software update today with following enhancements:
1. THE BIG CHANGE! Custom Leagues are now fully integrated and automated. A vertical panel containing custom league controls is now a part of the events tab itself. After you create a custom league, the pace of play is completely at your discretion. Simply queue up an event and send it to the server. Within 10-15 minutes your event will be ready and the software will notify you that a packet is ready to download. No more waiting for upcoming events. And, you can control every team in the league! Move easily between teams and adjust rotations and roster settings the way you want them!
These changes signal our commitment to the custom league concept and our willingness to continue developing the software in this direction.
2. The menu selection item "Uninstall League" has been moved to the program launcher for ease of use.
3. A pitcher fielding column has been added to the list view on the pitcher's tab on the database window.
4. Game Replays now show red lights for outs instead of the numbers "1", "2", or "3".
5. Animations were added judiciously throughout out the software to better catch the user's eye and signal a change of content on screens.
6. An important drafting bug was fixed which allowed users to access supplemental players even when the supplemental draft was disabled.
7. Removed the option (in Settings) to specify a custom start up tab.
8. Fixed another bug which sometimes crashed the program when changing leagues.
9. Fixed the check box "Distribute RPL evenly" on the lineup tab, which seemed not to work very reliably.
10. Numerous other minor changes.
During the past week I've fixed and tested a couple small, though bothersome, quirks in the simulator.
First, walk-off triples, which almost never happen in real life because the base runner senses the run scoring somewhere between 1b and 2b, should now be all but eliminated from the sim. There are still legitimate cases (e.g., when trailing by 2 runs with the bases loaded) where it could happen, but you shouldn't see any more of the illegitimate variety if I've done my coding right.
Second, there were times when a set-up pitcher would finish his work on the mound but still hit when, in almost all cases, a manager would prefer to send a pinch hitter to the plate. So, if you're the home team and you're batting in the bottom of the 8th (or the road team in the top of the 9th), and it's a save situation, and you've got a closer designated, and there are eligible pinch hitters on the bench, then the sim will request a pinch hitter no matter how good the setup man might be at the plate. Again, if I've done my coding right, you shouldn't see any more of those situations.
Finally, I've been alerted to another little anomaly, perhaps, in that the percentage of runners thrown out at the plate on sac fly balls is claimed to be "too high." I am willing to explore this claim provided you can help by sending me some games to watch. So, those of you who watch replays, help me out if you can.
- In the interest of a cleaner-looking page, I've been changing our modules to a more basic, less "boxy" look. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused while you were browsing.
- I've created a new banner atop the site. If you can't see it, refresh the community page in your browser.
- We have a group chat feature now. You can access it from the navigation menu atop the pages.
- I've improved access to articles and information so that you can more easily locate what you might be looking for.
- On the leagues pages, current champions show for each league. Check 'em out!
I'm interested in doing more for the league pages, like automated story content when interesting things happen in the sim. If there's something you'd like to see, use the comment link below to communicate it.
At this year's SABR convention in southern California, Thomas Tomsick, M.D., presented a poster showing the results of his recent study on the relationship between a ballpark's foul territory size and the number of strikeout events. The study was based in data gathered from the NL 1954-1968 and the AL 1954-1963. His conclusion is that the size of a park's foul territory does indeed have an effect on strikeouts.
Why? The reasoning goes something like this: because more foul balls reach the stands and cannot be caught for pop outs by infielders, which adds strikes to the pitcher and increases the probability of a K.
Should we use this data in our sim? It would mean that pitchers originating in park with small foul grounds, like Fenway, would have their K totals deflated by a small amount when they traveled to larger (foul area) parks, and that pitchers at League Park (Cleveland), for example, would get a small boost when put in smaller (foul area) parks.If you have an opinion, please comment by clicking the comment link below! I should also mention that if anyone is interested in ballpark diagrams which show foul ground size, some nice ones may be found at the website of Andrew Clem. Thanks to Pete Yee for alerting me to this interesting study.
Thanks to all our loyal members for enduring the inconvenience of migrating to our new site. And to everyone, welcome! I think you'll find the interface to be smoother and better organized to meet our community needs. As always, thanks for your interest in Nostalgia Sim Baseball.
In January 2011 we will release a robust update to the Quiz database with upwards of 100 new questions. Got questions for us? Now is the time to send them along! You can send them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Also, if you have a general feedback about the quizzing feature (something else you'd like to see?) now is a good time to make that known as well.
The custom league feature was released on the evening of 12/23/10. You can now build custom leagues of 24 teams (162 game schedule) using historical teams from 1893 - 2008. You can access the custom designer after your software upgrades to build 58. But to send a request for a custom league, you first must buy a custom sim license (available on the products page of this site). The cost is $29.95. Your license is valid for as long as you are a member. It will not expire. If for any reason you are dissatisfied, you may request a refund within 30 days and get your money back.
Site Enhancements ... Note the Following:
1. Added a module to show who's joining what leagues. For now, we're showing an email address. You can use that to welcome someone to your league.
2. Added a module to show active member class level achievements.
3. Added a module to show stories submitted by our members. If you become an author for us, your submitted stories will appear there.
4. Added a module to show member comments. Feel free to comment on any content article. This becomes just another way of interacting with others at the site.
5. Added (earlier) a Hot Stove module on the leagues pages to show latest league-specific forum posting.
I am planning more enhancements for the league pages. Your suggestions are welcomed!