King of the Pyramid
The Project
Find out who the best teams in baseball history are. This project wont definitively find the single greatest team in history, but there will be many teams that consistently rise to the top.
Software
Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) 27 will be used for all simulations (until the next seasons version of OOTP is released). The Historical Exhibition feature will be used which allows for teams from different seasons to play against each other.
Teams
End of season rosters will be used for each team. Midseason trades or free agent pickups will therefore be accounted for. The intention is that the construction of the team that would have been used in the playoffs that year should be used in this simulation. The following teams are eligible for the simulation:
· Any team that made it to a World Series, regardless of whether they won or lost
· Any team with a 0.586 winning percentage or better (equivalent to 95 wins in a 162 game season)
· No World Series was played in 1904 and 1994, but teams with winning percentages of 0.586 or higher were included per the above rule
One issue with some teams in the early 1900s is that they have very small rosters, perhaps only 20 players. No adjustments will be made to account for this. The end of season roster provided by OOTP 27 will be used for all teams.
Pyramid of Leagues (PL)
There are 5 Tiers of leagues, with Tier A being the highest league and Tier E being the lowest set of leagues:
Tier A 1 league
Tier B 2 leagues
Tier C 3 leagues
Tier D 4 leagues
Tier E 5 leagues
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A |
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B |
B |
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C |
C |
C |
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D |
D |
D |
D |
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E |
E |
E |
E |
E |
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Each league consists of 16 teams resulting in a total of 240 teams in the PL.
Additionally, there are 2 play-in leagues where teams can play their way into the 5 tier PL.
Initial League Placement
The list of included teams are sorted by World Series status (Won WS, Lost WS, did not play in the WS) then by winning percentage. The top 16 teams are placed into the Tier A league, then next 32 teams are placed into Tier B leagues, and so on. Teams are then randomly placed into one of the leagues within their Tier.
League Play
Each team plays all other teams 10 times each (5 home, 5 away). In total, each team will play 150 games over a 175 day schedule.
Fixed settings will be 25 man rosters and no injuries.
Randomly selected settings each season will be DH (yes or no) and year settings (automatically uses tendencies from the year chosen such as bunting and stealing frequency and pitching stamina or relief pitcher use).
The first season will use a DH and a generic Modern Era setting for the year.
No playoffs will be played, only won/loss records will determine a teams placement within each league and any applicable promotion and relegation.
Promotion and Relegation
Based on each teams placement within each league, they will get promoted to a higher Tier, relegated to a lower Tier, or stay at the same Tier. Teams will be placed into a Tier for the next season based on the following table:
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Current Tier |
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Place |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
P |
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1 |
A |
A |
A |
B |
D |
E |
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2 |
A |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
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3 |
A |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
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4 |
A |
A |
B |
C |
E |
E |
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5 |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
E |
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6 |
B |
B |
C |
D |
E |
E |
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7 |
B |
B |
C |
D |
E |
E |
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8 |
B |
B |
C |
D |
E |
E |
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9 |
B |
B |
C |
D |
E |
E |
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10 |
B |
C |
C |
D |
E |
E |
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11 |
B |
C |
C |
D |
E |
X |
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12 |
B |
C |
C |
D |
E |
X |
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13 |
B |
C |
D |
D |
X |
X |
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14 |
B |
C |
D |
E |
X |
X |
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15 |
C |
D |
D |
E |
X |
X |
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16 |
C |
D |
E |
E |
X |
X |
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Double Promotion |
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Promotion |
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Relegation |
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Double Relegation |
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Successfully played their way into the PL |
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Knocked out of the PL |
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Remains in the same Tier |
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P |
Play-in Leagues |
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X |
Team is knocked out of the PL and placed into the pool of teams that will be selected for play-in leagues |
Teams knocked out of the PL by finishing in the bottom 4 in the standings in a Teir E league can play their way back into the PL by finishing high enough in a play-in league.
Each season, there will be 224 teams that are not currently in the PL and 32 will be randomly selected for the two play-in leagues. The chances that a team will be randomly chosen is weighted using a formula based on the winning percentage the team had in real life. A team with a 0.716 winning percentage (116 wins in a 162 game season) will be roughly twice as likely to be chosen compared to a team with a 0.586 winning percentage (95 wins in a 162 game season). World Series status will not have an effect on the chances of being chosen.
Any team not chosen in a given season will have their weighted chance of being selected increased slightly. Teams that are selected will have their weight reset to a baseline weight. The baseline weights will be the original weight determined at Season 1, but will be reduced each time they get knocked out of the PL (finish in the bottom 4 of a Tier E league). If a team is knocked out of the PL enough times, they will be eliminated from the project and will no longer be selected for a play-in league. Teams with higher real life winning percentages will need to be knocked out of the PL more times before they are eliminated from the project compared to teams with lower real life winning percentages.
Ties are broken by real life winning percentage, simulation head to head record, real life playoff success, then coin flip.
Point System
A point system will be used to award teams for finishing high within their league and are awarded more points in higher Tiers. Only teams playing in the PL will be awarded points, no points will be given for play-in leagues. If two teams tie for a particular spot in the standings, all points will be added up and split evenly amongst the tied teams and all fractions will be rounded up (eg. three teams tie for 7th in a Tier B league, (350+324+299)/3 = 324.33, each team will receive 325 points).
|
Place |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
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1 |
665 |
527 |
405 |
299 |
209 |
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2 |
629 |
495 |
377 |
275 |
189 |
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3 |
594 |
464 |
350 |
252 |
170 |
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4 |
560 |
434 |
324 |
230 |
152 |
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5 |
527 |
405 |
299 |
209 |
135 |
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6 |
495 |
377 |
275 |
189 |
119 |
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7 |
464 |
350 |
252 |
170 |
104 |
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8 |
434 |
324 |
230 |
152 |
90 |
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9 |
405 |
299 |
209 |
135 |
77 |
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10 |
377 |
275 |
189 |
119 |
65 |
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11 |
350 |
252 |
170 |
104 |
54 |
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12 |
324 |
230 |
152 |
90 |
44 |
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13 |
299 |
209 |
135 |
77 |
35 |
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14 |
275 |
189 |
119 |
65 |
27 |
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15 |
252 |
170 |
104 |
54 |
20 |
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16 |
230 |
152 |
90 |
44 |
14 |
A running total of cumulative points won and points won in the last 10 seasons will be recorded for each team.
Although thought was put into the structure of the point system, it is completely arbitrary and therefore after enough seasons have been played, the point system may be restructured if the current system does not seem to work well and points will be recalculated retroactively for all previous seasons.