by BC Manager » Sat May 08, 2010 1:14 pm
as posted in league mail:
Ok, I've done some research into what it would/will look like to turn this into a 3-decade league. First I did some analysis of players who played in the 70s and 80s, and who had cards in both games and who didn't.
When it comes to hitters, the analysis was fairly straightforward. I looked at games played, as this was simple and seemed to be a reliable criteria. For 70s players, I looked at how much they played from 1981 on, as this also seemed like the most reliable predictor of whether a player would have an 80s card. The criteria I came up with was:
1) 500 games played from 1981, onward
When it came to pitchers, establishing criteria was more difficult. There seem to be more and more extreme aberrations -- see Tom Seaver and Phil Niekro. However I was still able to establish reasonable criteria for starters and relievers:
2) 120 games started from 1981-
3) 200 relief appearances, 1981-
There are of course exceptions to all three criteria -- players who reached the criteria and don't have 80s cards, or players who have 80s cards despite not reaching these levels. Still these are fairly good predictors of which 70s players would have an 80s card.
So I then applied this criteria to 80s players who played in the 90s. For the purpose of this league, I only looked at players who's last card in the 80s is earlier than 1989. That's because my purpose was to determine who's retirement dates we would have to adjust. Players who's last card is 89 or later, won't retire while we're using the 80s set, so we don't need to predict if they'll have a 90s card. The following are all the players that met any of the above criteria (current retirement year in parentheses):
Dave Winfield (88), 572 games (1991-95)
Andre Dawson (88), 609 games (91-96)
Gary Gaetti (88), 1141 games (91-99)
Tony Pena (86), 638 games (91-98)
Scott Sanderson (87), 129 games started (91-96)
Fernando Valenzuela (87), 122 games started (91-97)
Rick Honeycutt (83), 306 relief appearances (91-97)
Jesse Orosco (87), 539 relief appearances (91-99)
So, it looks like only 8 players would have their retirement years adjusted on the assumption that they'll have 90s cards. Of those 8, only one has already retired (Honeycutt). Pena is due to retire after this season. The rest in 87 or 88.
If we plan to use the 90s in this league, I propose that we use the criteria I've established and adjust the retirement years for these players only. As Honeycutt was a FA at the end of his last season, I think he should be unretired in 87 as a free agent, eligible for the autodraft.
Now, based on this research, what do we think about planning to make this a Triple Decade league?
BC