questions about new amd old...

does anyone know if strat has a limit on the mystery game decade expansion limits? ex. will 60's game will include years from 1958-72 or 55-75 or 57-73? second question. example 90's ken caminiti card. strat leaves out 95,96,97,98 which are most of his best years plus his MVP. don't understand this especially when 3b is such a weak pool anyway? then they include sosa's 2001 year but not bonds?

I don't think there is a hard limit set when they create a mystery card set.

The only response I can give to you other questions is to point that this is, after all, a "mystery" game!

There does not seem to be any set limit to the span of years used for the cards. If I remember correctly, Ed Farmer's Back to the 80's card includes his 1973 season.

I like to go to sites like baseballreference.com and look up the career stats and transactions of players, so I end up looking a lot at what players did each season, and often try to surmise why certain seasons were or were not included, or why a certain players may not have been included at all. As general suggestions, I would say that those who pick which seasons appear on a player's mystery card:
--- try to include seasons with the most plate appearances/innings pitched. SOM stretched this idea a lot more with the 90s set, most likely because the player pool ended up being too limited in the 70s, and especially in the 80s.
--- try not to include "monster seasons" as much as possible, especially when that season was far and away better than any other seasons of that player's career. Obviously, there are a LOT of exceptions to the previous statement in all of the "BTT" mystery games, but keep in mind that in many of those instances, the player might not have had enough other qualifying seasons to choose from.
--- try to include at least one "down" year. We often seem to see either the player's first season in the league, when maybe he struggled more than he did later in his career, or his last season, when his play deteriorated to the point that he was out of MLB the following year.
--- since the 80s set was created, try not to include too great of a span of years. Cards like Farmer's had years all over the place. There seems to have been an effort made in the last 2 sets to get the seasons used to be closer together... unless the card could be made more "balanced" by excluding a span of years in the career of the player (ex: Caminiti). I've noticed that a lot of players who make it to the majors for a few years, disappear for a few years (minors, injury, play overseas, etc.) seem to be excluded altogether from the player sets.

--- try not to include "monster seasons" as much as possible, especially when that season was far and away better than any other seasons of that player's career.

So you would chose to NOT include the 1961 card of Norm Cash for example? I remember lots of complaints that Brady Anderson's 1996 50 HR card was not used in the 90s game.

I totally agree with bomber. I think strat needs to include more monster seasons especially for higher cap leagues.