The ball park thing is a major, major problem. While I agree that park effects are large, the normalization and salary algorithm does not adjust for the park effects of the player in real life. The WIS guys told me in an email--unless I misunderstood--that Tod Helton, for example, will normalize as a slightly worse hitter than his RL numbers, because he plays in the modern lively ball era. But he is not adjusted any differently than, say, Bobby Crosby in the same season, even though he played in Coors, versus Crosby in Network.
This is a gaping, cavernous hole in the sim.