[Pelican]

Funny, but I don't understand why anybody would have the annual recalc on, as it effectively negatives what has happened during the past year, pulling the players back to reality. But we know what actually happened, historically. Why simply try as hard as possible to replicate that? Where's the fun or the challenge in that? (I know, there can be challenges within the constraints of actual numbers and actual trades and actual retirements. It just seems unduly repetitive to me.)

Fictional? Once you take control of a team as GM or Manager, it becomes fictional. Once you make a single trade, it's fiction. It's not binary. The question is how far you want to go into an alternative universe. And if you want that undone and pulled back to reality, every year. Fictional players are too much of an effort for me. Maybe when/if I'm fully retired. Development on a high TCR provides as much change as I can handle. Since I'm exploring the "what if" of my trades and signings and spending and managing games, why not explore how things might have diverged differently? Playing historical, that prevents me from "knowing" that this Koufax guy will finally master his control of pitches. Or this Maris fellow will suddenly develop plus plus plus power numbers.

But the beauty of the game is that we can disagree over this and play it in totally different ways and then discuss it. I like that.