Hybrid Real/Fictional MLB

[oldfatbaldguy]

I just started a save and smoothed things out just a little for small-market teams with equally shared national broadcast revenue. That's easily done in the settings and I didn't feel that it was likely to have unforeseen consequences.

We play with no DH, no three-hitter rule, and certainly no "20-21 rule changes" in the Classic Baseball Association (CBA). Other than that the league evolution settings are enabled.

(I should add that I'm at peace with the DH in real life, but in a strategy game I want strategy.)

[PSUColonel]

I like the idea of more and less pitching hitting for evolution settings…but that’s it. The only thing is, I like to play with all leagues enabled, so it could be very difficult to analyze players from one league to another. (Not that it would be unrealistic…but it could yield some wildly different results from league to league.

[Syd Thrift]

I honestly can't wait for the asymmetrical setup between the AL and NL. I'm not going to implement it early but I'm waiting in anticipation, even if I'm anticipating a thing I will be using with like OOTP 24 or 25 at this rate. I do think the "no DH = more strategy" thing is grossly overrated; it's not really "strategy" when everyone does a particular move at the same time TBH. There is the thing, which really is no longer something you've got to worry about (and so is yet another reason why I'm very meh about the DH even though I like the asymmetry) where you have a pitcher who is pitching well into the 7th or 8th but the game is tied or perhaps they're only up by a run and you have to decide whether or not to bring in a pinch-hitter and then turn it over to the bullpen. Sometimes, too, you'll have a guy who hasn't pitched particularly well and is losing but you decide to leave him in because he isn't tired and you want to save the good parts of your 'pen for another day.

But just, like, "hey, should I pinch hit for this guy who hits .120 in order to gain the platoon advantage?" is barely strategy and IMO is more than balanced by "my starter has gone 7 and has thrown a good number of pitches, but he's still pitching well and I want to save my set-up guy for tomorrow. Do I leave him in and hope he doesn't suddenly implode?". That exists in no-DH leagues but to some degrees you can punt on that issue one way or the other - "welp, I need a pinch-hitter anyway so I guess I'll be using 2 pitchers after this guy" or "nah, he's up 2nd next inning so it's best to just try and push him through another frame" - so it's not quite the same. Also, I think there's a lot more strategic pinch-hitting in DH leagues, particularly before everybody started carrying 12 or 13 pitchers and reducing the sheer number of people available to pinch-hit and/or be used defensively late.

To each their own, of course, and with all the caveats above, as noted I'm in a non-DH era of MLB and enjoying it so make of that what you will...