by BDWard » Sun Aug 30, 2009 5:49 pm
I don't mind so much having a bad season or two among the mystery cards. What bothers me about the season distribution on the cards is the randomness of why some players have 5 good seasons as part of the mystery card and others have less with no rhyme or reason for such. For example, Joe Morgan has one bad season included among his mystery cards. Yet, Bench and Stargell, two similar caliber stars from the same era, who also had a down year where they hit in the .230s, have no bad years included among the mystery cards. On the low end, Rich Auerbach has a year where he hit .327 among his mystery cards, whereas Bill Stein, who hit .330 & .310 in a couple of years with Texas and had far more plate appearances than Auerbach in the .327 year and was a much better hitter, has nothing above .270 among his mystery cards. I could go on ad nauseum with similar examples (I will only add that I think Billy Williams, Boog Powell and John Mayberry, three of the most feared hitters of their era, were shorted at least one good season each.).
The fact of the matter is that everyone wants access to the best cards. One fair way to resolve the situation is to give HOFers or near HOFers 4 very good years and then one year most reflective of his lifetime numbers instead of a terrible year as in the cases of Morgan, Jackson, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Schmidt, Gaylord Perry, Sutton, Niekro, Gibson, Jenkins, Carlton, etc. The same formula could be used for lesser players, except they could get two or more seasons reflective of their lifetime numbers, depending on their playing performance. That way the stars would remain stars, would not be given a bad year as a result of decrease in abilities with age, and just like real baseball, a lesser player would occasionally have a better year than a star.
I hope this thread stays up for a while, as I've got a few other ideas for improving the game but haven't had time to put them on paper.
May the Strato gods be with you. - Bernie W