[Syd Thrift]

I only do fictional, but there are a couple things to bear in mind overall and for this period of time:

- Sometimes a player will just fall below what the game considers to be the minimum requirements to play a position - a shortstop has to have a decent range and error rating, for example - and they'll become unrated as a result. I see this pretty often with older players, relatively speaking - they get into their 40s and they just aren't rated up the middle anymore. IRL very few players continue to play at those positions as they get older, and the ones that do were usually superstars with the glove in their prime (Omar Vizquel and Ozzie Smith come to mind as exceptions).

- In the deadball era to the 20s and into the 30s, you can actually hide a meh defender at second base even if he's not "rated" by the game. This is a dangerous game to play, potentially, but if he's still got a decent error rating he won't embarrass you in the field. He won't turn double plays but nobody turned double plays back then, and his range will suck, but range wasn't as big a deal for infielders in general during that time compared to now (error rating was a much bigger deal). I don't think you can do this so well with third base because if that arm's not there you're going to see a sub-900 FA regardless, but this actually reflects real life, where guys like Rogers Hornsby were kind of awful defenders who were hidden at 2nd whereas the few HOF 3B from this period - Pie Traynor, Home Run Baker, Jimmy Collins - were considered plus defenders (Traynor in particular was like Brooks Robinson before Brooks Robinson).