I'd actually tend to agree with jonas' hypothesis.

I'm not sure any of us can say (with any certainty) HOW the engine works. We just know what it spits out, and defenders turn outs into hits (and vice versa) all the time with the increased frequency of the +/- plays at every position.

Like I've been saying . . . pitching and defense is the new power.

for my sample-size-of-1 example, I know that I had been loading up on those "cheap" all power guys (30-99-40-40-60) for the HRs

After the update, I didn't leave them in the lineup because the OPS just wasnt' there ... so for my guys, I have no idea if "their" former HRs would turn into singles or doubles or triples, because I got those turds out of the lineup now that they aren't hitting HRs

point being, people (or at least me) reacted to the change by playing different types of players ... so you can't assume the 1/4/09 data has the same lineups as the 11/2/08 data

I've been talking to WIS quite often during the past couple weeks, and they insist that HRs are turning in 3Bs, 2Bs, and 1B. If a player with good ratings is having a poor season, WIS is saying that's simply a flukey year for that player.

That may be true (and I'm hoping), but I can identify at least 15 premium hitters in my league who've averaged .825 OPS to .925 OPS over the last 3 seasons who are now in the .600 to .720 OPS range this season. Coincidence? Maybe. Just seems very strange. These are really good hitters.

That is actually a rather telling statement. Some owners have ******* and moaned while keeping their players out there. Other owners, spotting the trend, removed the guys they knew were overperforming and replaced them with a different type of player.

A very simple way to look at this is average HRs for the LEAGUE per year. We are about 10 games from the end of season 10 in Mattingly. Season started on 11/11, so the full year has been played under the new update. Here are the average HRs per team, league wide, for seasons 6 thru 9.

Season 6 218

Season 7 216

Season 8 211

Season 9 220

This year, season 10, the team average for HRs is 152! That's with 10 games . So it should end up at about 160 average HRs per team. The average team BA for seasons 6-9 was between .268 and .270. Season 10 average league BA is .267, so that's remained pretty much the same.

I know it's just one league and one season, but that's a 50 to 60 HR drop per team, on average. That's over 1900 less HRs, league wide, from season 9 to season 10! That's significant.

Well, FWIW, I posted the HR leaders from MG(played the entire season under the new engine). They were all high power rating guys. So high power rating guys are still hitting the most homers. So that's not a problem.

As a world, not much has changed from last season other than homers.

S14(pro-rated as we've played 134) per team:
.265/.332/.405 230-2B 24-3B 172-HR

S13 per team:
.268/.336/.441 232-2B 25-3B 234-HR

So, in essence, were seeing the following:
.003 decrease in BA
.004 decrease in OBP
.036 decrease in SLG
2 less doubles
1 less triple
62 less homers

Over the course of 162 games for 32 teams, that is NOT a huge change in anything but homers.

Uh, the objective of the update was to decrease homers.

Quote: Originally Posted By MikeT23 on 1/06/2010Uh, the objective of the update was to decrease homers.

Well, then they accomplished their goal. But a 1900 HR decrease leaguewide from pre to post update indicates to me that it's affecting more than just the elite power guys, even if it is affecting them the most.

Quote: Originally Posted By MikeT23 on 1/06/2010Uh, the objective of the update was to decrease homers.

Yes, and most people think that's a good thing. The question is "is it working like it's supposed to" because some of the data doesn't reflect what they say should be happening. We all know that WIS has a history of saying things are working fine without actually looking into anything, only to come back later and admit that it wasn't really working right and they make additional changes (see the training bug for example).

MLB 2009

NL .259/.331/.409 288/36/156
AL .267/.336/.428 295/28/183

Given that ML teams are probably ran a little bit better, as a whole, than HBD teams, I'd say WifS is doing a fine job of simulating baseball in HBD.

harthj, care to look at the stats I produced from MG? What is different other than homers/slugging?

torre, HBD is producing MLB-like stats. Who the update is affecting shouldn't be the issue. The fact that HBD now closely mirrors MLB should be something we're seeking.

Seriously, who plays Madden on easy so they can have a 3000 yard rusher?

Quote: Originally Posted By MikeT23 on 1/06/2010harthj, care to look at the stats I produced from MG? What is different other than homers/slugging

Nothing. That doesn't mean it's working as they intend it to, that just means the end result is what they intended. There's a difference.

Would that be considered nitpicking? From a personal standpoint, I saw some pretty big hits on 90+ power guys, smaller but significant hits on 80+ power guys and virtually no change in the rest. However, 81 still seems to have more power than 79. As well it should.