It BETTER be OPTIONAL.

Posted by sallyleaguer on 10/2/2022 5:48:00 PM (view original):
It BETTER be OPTIONAL.

Definitely.

Posted by ramonshaw on 11/1/2022 1:15:00 PM (view original):

Posted by sallyleaguer on 10/2/2022 5:48:00 PM (view original):
It BETTER be OPTIONAL.

Definitely.

Definitely II.

I would not want a DH. I love the strategy with having the pitcher hit. And concerns of having pitchers hit (injuries, tiring them out, using wrong mucles) aren't as prevalent in HBD.

I'm in the 'No DH in the NL' camp.

I'm somewhat indifferent to this particular rule but I wonder at what point the version of MLB we're simulating in HBD no longer aligns with actual MLB. Universal DH rule, 26 man rosters, 10 day DL for position players, comp picks for FA, etc. I realize it's impossible to implement every change but some of these things have been around for years.

I agree - the idea is to engage in roster construction like the majors, and the majors use DH's. The opportunities for "strategy" aren't much when we don't manage in-games, you know?

Far as I understand it this game was built/developed to emulate Major League Baseball in the early 2000s. Question then becomes, at what point does it become unrecognizable to a baseball fan under the age of 30? Counterpoint; there are no baseball fans under the age of 30.

I think the DH should be optional, if for nothing other than competitiveness. The NL is at a disadvantage with older hitting free agents. There are some older players, that still have hitting value, that have completely lost their defensive value other than 1B. An AL team could pick these guys up on a regular basis with only half the league competing for them. They can offer 5 year deals to a 33 year old 2B,3B or OF, knowing they will DH them in the last 2 seasons. A NL team can't do that.

I agree with not getting rid of the DH, if a league chooses, but a universal DH option is needed.

I'll go one better, what if you could start a world with no DH as ML started. Then after a number of years, you could go for the real number or an abitrary number of years you switch to a DH in the AL. And then at another designated number of years you switch to the universal DH.

Personally I'd also like to start with the original 16 teams and then add expansion to include additional teams as MLB has done. Obviously, I've played a long time and am looking for things to change it up a bit and add a twist to the game.

Admin would probably never stand for smaller worlds to start because of the loss of revenue but it would be and interesting change for old dudes like me that are enamored with the history of the game and the early days when only 1 team from each league made it to the post season.

HBD was released in 2006 which means most of the development was done in 2005. It was originally based on the MLB collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that was in place in 2005. Over the years WIS has been bought/sold 2 or 3 times. The parent companies have never given WIS a large budget because it has historically only produced a small profit. Currently there are only 2 or 3 staff (programmers) keeping all of the WIS games going. There have been a couple larger updates to HBD but mostly it is just little tweaks because that is all a limited staff has had time to do.

2ish years ago WIS was again sold/bought and new staff put in place. They inherited a HBD game that at its core was programmed and is currently running on 2005 era software. Making any major changes now would be very time consuming when working with the older software. Correct me if I am wrong but I remember a post from WIS admin 1.5ish yrs ago that said they would do a complete overhaul/re-write of the core software for HBD using the latest software and hardware technology. No major updates to HBD would be done until this core overhaul is complete. There has not been a recent update as to the progress. Given the history of understaffing WIS, I'm guessing they are running behind schedule getting it done.

Most HBD users would like to see the game updated to reflect the current MLB CBA. That will not happen until this core update is complete.

They're planning on it from what I hear, but the games are being done in order of popularity. So apparently HD is being done first, its getting a complete overhaul. Then I imagine SLB, GD or HBD would be somewhere 2nd through 4th. SLH and Sim league football are probably an after thought.