CTStough wrote:While we are waiting, I have some history questions for Andy;
1. How did you come up with this idea?
Long story short: but I have always loved baseball history, franchise history, etc. As a kid, I liked to set up leagues, play seasons, do drafts etc. I had a Strat-o-matic set, but developed more interest in Sherco Baseball Simulation, and built a wooden game board for Sherco, along with building all the old-time stadiums to fit on the Sherco game board (Sherco had a generic game board “field”, with charts on how each stadium fit on the generic field, and my dad helped me cut wood scraps to make the Polo Grounds, Fenway, etc). With Sherco, I could "see" the game on a field, which appealed to me, although Strat is much more statistically accurate than Sherco was. So I developed an MLB league, beginning play in 1940 with actual rosters, but doing trades and drafts and moving chronologically forward.
That experience was always in the back of my mind when I found Strat online about 10 years ago, but I couldn't figure out how to make it work, especially since the early days of Strat online didn't have a big enough pool to try something like this. While I was setting up all kinds of other Franchise Leagues, I just kept thinking about a way to create a league where we could really be the GM, yet keeping some semblance of Franchise Integrity. Then in 2013, I had been toying for over a year with the idea of a Keeper League where new players would be able to be drafted as the Seasons moved along, but I couldn't ever put it together. Never could make the idea work with a Keeper League format. Then, the idea came to me to incorporate real MLB Franchises, using the Franchise Player Selection process to keep some of the historical accuracy of MLB, and this league was born.
CTStough wrote:2. How much time it did it take to divy up the player pool into 5 year increments? Explain that process- 'cause it looks like it would take forever.
Well, I created an Excel file and looked up each player on baseball-reference.com, determining when they began play in MLB and when they retired.
CTStough wrote:3. How much time did it take to create the special league sets we use; and, will the 2.0 etc sets be deleted?
In the early days of ALTS, before you started playing, I guess early in ALT1 and ALT2, I had to post which players were eligible for a given season, because we had to use the entire player set. I finally approached Strat, told them what I needed, and they told me how to set it up. Now, I have an Excel file of each ALT season's eligible players, and all I have to do to create a Player Pool or change an existing Player Pool it is email that file to Strat. The file is the same Excel file that you get if you click "Download ATG 8 player list as Excel spreadsheet" on the Free Agent page for any league. All I did was copy the Excel file, and then, for season 7 for example, I deleted every player ineleigible for Season 7 and sent the remaining file to Strat, where they created the specific player pools.
CTStough wrote:4. Why didn't you have a 1915-1920 league- too small a pool of players to pick from?, too many seasons?
The pool was small, plus I didn't want to create so many seasons that I couldn't get anyone to want to play. 
CTStough wrote:5. More a statement of thanks than a question. This Alt History league encompasses so many elements that I love; chronology, a keeper format, yet with a draft for parity. The concept of scarcity forces trades. Players perform against their contemporaries; There is flexibility in how you choose your rosters; One has to do research to have a fucking prayer of being successful. I get to learn new player cards. The escalating salary cap. The idea and execution is pretty close to perfect. Well done!
Well, I appreciate the kind words. It is my favorite concept; in fact, my interest has waned in regular leagues, but this concept never gets old to me. I'm glad you guys like it and enjoy playing it, but I really did it for ME! 
Tue Jun 07, 2016 6:36 pm