My NeL Player Profile Project

[luckymann]

Comparable speed-wise to Cool Papa Bell, according to JAR, and one of those complete ballplayers every club needs - great on D, good bunter and spray hitter to move the runners along - and it's little surprise he was a favourite of Rube Foster, the champion of NeL SmallBall. Not much pop, but with all those other tools didn't really need it.

MLEs are - IMHO - overly harsh on him and I have squared that up with a 110% POT.

[luckymann]

Imports into the game as Leo Henry, but "Preacher" is used for him on all of my source sites. Also, my version of the DB has him coming in at 1939, but he has stats for '37 and '38 so you might try him a bit earlier.

Must have just crept into the MLEs (all players with 0 career WAR or better have been done aside from those with too little data), because he was fairly ordinary.

Flat profile as he was an age-26 rookie.

[luckymann]

Another lower-tier guy known more for his speed and defence than hitting.

Straight 80-105% profile.

[luckymann]

A sneakily good type who didn't play for long. Little anecdotal info to go by meaning some creativity was required.

Started late so relatively flat profile.

[luckymann]

We'll finish up today with another one of my absolute faves - Spot Poles. A distinct spottiness (sorry) to his stats as he played in the early 20th century and moved about a lot, but it is universally recognised that he was elite. Bell-esque speed, superb OF defence and a great contact hitter, though not much pop to speak of.

Gets hit a bit by the MLEs and I've given him a 75-112% profile.

[Pelican]

I happen to be replaying the 1938 season. I decided to turn off the color line, and allow signing of Negro League players ass free agents. I am trying to deal with the ratings on a one-by-one basis, based on available stats from Seamheads and other sources, with particular emphasis on the head-to-head matchups that did occur with white MLB players after the season, barnstorming. One issue I have for 1938 is that numerous top players like Paige, Bell, Leonard vanished from the records, because they solely played overseas in the Dominican Republic or elsewhere. They don’t even exist in the OOTP database for 1938, because they did not play in the Negro Leagues, the only entry point. I’ve had to devise ratings based on their most recent U.S. seasons. Thoughts on that?

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by Pelican

I happen to be replaying the 1938 season. I decided to turn off the color line, and allow signing of Negro League players ass free agents. I am trying to deal with the ratings on a one-by-one basis, based on available stats from Seamheads and other sources, with particular emphasis on the head-to-head matchups that did occur with white MLB players after the season, barnstorming. One issue I have for 1938 is that numerous top players like Paige, Bell, Leonard vanished from the records, because they solely played overseas in the Dominican Republic or elsewhere. They don’t even exist in the OOTP database for 1938, because they did not play in the Negro Leagues, the only entry point. I’ve had to devise ratings based on their most recent U.S. seasons. Thoughts on that?

Yeah, this is problematic - akin to Williams etc during the war. But the fact is that this is precisely why recalc is not an option for realistic NeL performance in-game.

My profiles may offer an acceptable band-aid workaround.

If you DL my spreadsheet for the player(s) in question, you could figure out some stats to use for generating ratings in keeping with the player's general career path at that point.

Go into the IMPORT DATA B tab of the spreadsheet. You'll see there a series of calculations. You can change this percentage if you want and the stats will move accordingly.

Take Buck as an example. 1938 is his age-31 season, which is pretty much his peak period. So let's allocate him 110% to reflect him reaching his potential. It's already in this tab, showing the following stats:

550 AB - 195 H - 36 2B - 10 3B - 24 HR - 92 BB - 4 HBP - 50 SO

Enter these stats into the editor and hit the create ratings button for both CURR and POT.

That should set his ratings for both to these stats and give you an appropriate version of him for 1938 based on my methodology of generating ratings.

Pitchers are more problematic because of the individual pitch ratings. You would need to go through the whole process as set out in my manual, using the stats and pitch ratings appropriate to that part of the player in question's career.

Let's use Satchel as the example here.

First, use the 110% stats in the IMPORT DATA P tab of the spreadsheet.

I would, however, be reluctant to use the 110% markup for pitch ratings as it makes the pitcher a bit too good IMHO. So I'd just check the pitch ratings in the editor are close to those shown as FINAL in my spreadsheet and edit them if needed to bring them in line. They might not even have moved so this may not be necessary, I'm not sure as I haven't come across this before and am thinking on the fly.

So for Satchel the stats would be:

250 IP - 8 HRA - 74 BB - 3 HBP - 207 K

And the individual pitch ratings:

190 FB - 85 SINKER - 178 CUTTER - 104 CURVE - 58 SLIDER - 86 CHANGE - 51 FORK - 83 SCROOGE

Of course, if you've just been using the game-generated pitch ratings for him to this point this might be anomalous to what was there for 1937 and will be there when his OOTP database stats reappear.

Like I said, problematic - if not downright messy. You'll just have to use your own discretion to get it to work how you see fit.

Hope that's at least of some help.

G

[Pelican]

Many, many thanks for your thoughtful response. I’ve taken the lead over the AI in signing Negro League players for the Phillies and A’s. Now I see why. Without proper ratings, the Negro League players don’t look that attractive as free agents to the AI. Plus they can be tenacious in their demands for salary and bonus, from teams suffering through the Depression years. So my next task is to use your guidance to recalibrate some of the mid-level players who at very least could fill out the weaker clubs. Plus there are guys who were quite young in 1938 but starred later. They might get signed into the minor leagues and then develop as I go forward.

In retrospect, it may have made better sense to hold a draft of Negro League players, to give every MLB team a chance. Of course, that’s not at all what happened in 1947. In 1938, it’s my two Philly teams, rather that the Dodgers, who have broken the color line in a big way, with multiple signings. Remains to be seen if a few key signings can make bad teams better.

Also, to prevent skewed hitting results for the Phillies at the Baker Bowl, I have remodeled the old ballpark, moving the RF fences out thirty feet and lowering the wall. (Presumably eliminating the sidewalk area on Broad Street using a special variance from the City?). The Phils actually abandoned Baker Bowl in midseason, for Shibe Park. Now they can stay in their revamped spacious renovated ballpark. As redesigned, it plays fairly neutral, believe it or not.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by Pelican

Many, many thanks for your thoughtful response. I’ve taken the lead over the AI in signing Negro League players for the Phillies and A’s. Now I see why. Without proper ratings, the Negro League players don’t look that attractive as free agents to the AI. Plus they can be tenacious in their demands for salary and bonus, from teams suffering through the Depression years. So my next task is to use your guidance to recalibrate some of the mid-level players who at very least could fill out the weaker clubs. Plus there are guys who were quite young in 1938 but starred later. They might get signed into the minor leagues and then develop as I go forward.

In retrospect, it may have made better sense to hold a draft of Negro League players, to give every MLB team a chance. Of course, that’s not at all what happened in 1947. In 1938, it’s my two Philly teams, rather that the Dodgers, who have broken the color line in a big way, with multiple signings. Remains to be seen if a few key signings can make bad teams better.

Also, to prevent skewed hitting results for the Phillies at the Baker Bowl, I have remodeled the old ballpark, moving the RF fences out thirty feet and lowering the wall. (Presumably eliminating the sidewalk area on Broad Street using a special variance from the City?). The Phils actually abandoned Baker Bowl in midseason, for Shibe Park. Now they can stay in their revamped spacious renovated ballpark. As redesigned, it plays fairly neutral, believe it or not.

My pleasure mate, happy to help however I can. My Bucs save is in 1928 now and I fairly whizz through seasons there, adding NeL Draftees each year so I'll catch up to you fairly soon one would think, and you'll start seeing more from that era getting profiles. I'll go through the ones I've already done from that era and post them all for your use over the next few days.

[luckymann]

Knowlington on his birth certificate, which would explain the "Buddy". Decent enough slap-hitting OF with some good wheels.

[luckymann]

A deceptively good control pitcher whose excellent changes of pace set up his vast array of other mediocre pitches. Think Eddie Lopat. No ace by any stretch but a perfect SP3.

Fairly gentle profile starting at around 75%.

[luckymann]

Renowned almost as much for his fiery and troublesome personality as his prodigious skills at the plate, Beck was one of the all-time great NeL sluggers, and even the severe shift utilised against his extreme tendency to pull the ball failed to corral him. Moved around the field over the course of his career but principally a corner infielder.

Straight 80-110% profile. He's killing it in my Bucs save, with 150 career jacks at the time of writing, currently in his age-27 season.

[luckymann]

Another one of the GOATs, not much I can tell you about him you don't already know. Just a true superstar of the game.

Straightforward profile.

[luckymann]

And finally for today one of my personal faves. Not regarded among the elite but made it all the way to the bigs in his late career phase, playing three seasons for the Braves in the '50s and even winning the 1950 RoY. Nicknamed "The Jet" for obvious reasons, one player described him as being able to "outrun the word of God".

Started off playing catcher and spent some time in the IF, but was predominantly a CF with great range but only an average arm. More gap than HR power, but a great player.

Straight up 80-110% profile.

[luckymann]

Sam should be just hitting your game so hopefully this profile comes in handy for you.

[luckymann]

A spitballer who used the emery board but also had a fairly solid array of legal pitches and good control, Neck will be joining the Bucs save a year late after I somehow missed him for the '28 Draft.

[luckymann]

A fairly nondescript 1B from the 30s / 40s who also played a bit in RF.

Flattish profile due to advanced rookie status.

[luckymann]

"Big Boy" McClure started late and died young. In between, he was a consistent winner mainly for the Black Barons.

Appropriately flat profile.

[luckymann]

A really strong defensive catcher who also did well with bat in hand, although not much power.

Standard 75-110% profile.

[luckymann]

Another who started relatively late and didn't play for long, "Soup" Reeves was an underrated hitter with a bit of lightning in his bat.

Hit a bit by the MLEs, presumably for the brevity of his career. I've given him an 85-110% profile.

Another one for you, Pelican - he comes in 1937-8.