Quote:
Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange
That's not necessarily the case. The weekly editions of The Sporting News used to publish, for some seasons and leagues, a summary of the transactions which occurred. I believe also the player contract cards on file with the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library contain transaction data (in addition to salary data).
Of course, researching all that is another matter entirely.
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Perhaps true. Historical MiLB transactions would fall into one of these categories:
- Known
- Knowable with some basic research
- Knowable with some serious research
- Not knowable
The "Not knowable" ones could be transactions from obscure leagues in small towns long ago. Exactly which ones are knowable vs not knowable is not yet knowable
But I'm guessing that - much like the MiLB ballpark names when I was researching those - the farther back in history the league/team existed, and the lower the minor league level, the harder the data would be to find.
I'll re-emphasize, though, that - as far as I'm concerned - precise dates are not all that necessary. I'd venture a guess that the majority of player-seasons throughout non-affiliated MiLB history were those where the player played a full, or close to full, season with one team. So in the event the player changed teams in the offseason, a date of 1/1/yyyy should suffice. For those that played only partial seasons with one team, or played for more than one team in a season, dates could be estimated based upon number of games played and other factors. This would suffice, although actual txn dates discovered by eventual and ongoing research (assuming it was undertaken) could absolutely and incrementally supplant any guessed/estimated dates.
Finally, this "date estimation" would
not need to be performed for players who changed teams within an MLB organization; it would
only apply to those changing from one independent team to another, moving from an indy team to an MLB organization, moving from an MLB organization to an indy team, or moving from one MLB org to another MLB org. Why not? Because we don't need to know when a guy was promoted or demoted, as OOTP AI / player development will handle that. (Think about it: If Jim Rice is hitting .143 in double-A in your OOTP game, do you really want him promoted to Triple-A Pawtucket just because history says he was?)