[Ben E Lou]

Posted this over at SportsMogul a few minutes ago....

I did a 100+ season sim with 8.09. Things are now progressing nicely, but I still see a few small issues. My comments...

• Player development curves are much better, and player average age is solid. However, it is now still too rare for a 37-40 year old to be productive. I'd hate it if things got too predictable, and right now it is looking like it might. I looked through all of the HOFers in this career, and for the huge majority of them, the last productive year was either at age 36 or 37. Looking at the current players in the league as of 2107, the same is true: a few productive 36-year-olds, but then a *huge* drop-off in ratings and performance among the 37-year olds. As it stands right now, this is *far* too predictable. When deciding what length of contract to offer a 33-year-old, there needs to be some element of the unknown there. As it stands right now, there's not. You *know* within one year how long he'll be productive. I realize that it is tricky to do this and keep the average age appropriate, but maybe by varying the peak years this could be accomplished. Maybe let 10% of players have a 24-to-31 career peak, 5% have a 23-31 career peak (A-Rod, Pujols, Andruw...), 5% have a 25-to-33 career peak, and 2% have a 25-34 career peak. (For those that don't know, as it stands now, every career peak is 25-to-31.)
  
• When did more unpredictability in the draft sneak its way into the game??? Good job! In my current league, I see a 25-year-old pitcher drafted 1(2) with a 100 peak at the time, who now is only an 81 peak, a 32-year-old catcher who was only a 78 at draft time and drafted in the third round, now rated 92 and a two-time All Star, and a CF, taken late in the fourth round and rated 72 peak at the time, who is now rated 89 overall, with contact, speed and range all over 95, and one of the game's best leadoff hitters. Also, there are a whole bunch of guys in their prime years who are 5-15 points away from their draft projection. Looks pretty good, as there also look to be enough guys who are very near their projection so that it doesn't feel completely random, either.
  
• Much better distribution of championships and winning seasons. Every team made the playoffs at least once, the Yanks only won 24 World Championships, and no team averaged more than 100 wins or more than 100 losses.
  
• There is still the stray 86-or-so rated player left in the FA pool when April 1st rolls around, but nothing nearly like in the past. For me, the main goal here has been accomplished: I didn't want to know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I could wait until April 1st and sign a cheap one-year deal for a player at any position where I had need. As far as them staying in the pool, that is no longer happening much (if at all) either. By May 1st, I'm seeing just about every useful player being signed. I wish this were a bit better, but I can live with it as it is.
  
• Trade AI still seems to be a bit too stringent at Mogul level. I'd rather see financial constraints at Mogul level, but have a fair trade AI.
  
• I'm going to have to agree with the too-many-injuries crowd. I think this still needs a tweak. Too many guys are getting multiple two-week-or-more injuries per season. The guy who holds the all-time record for games played in my league never played in as many as 159, and in his 21 seasons as a FT starter, played in 145 games or less 11 times. By comparison: it only happened to Rose twice in 21 years, Yaz 3 times in 18 years, and it never happened to Aaron until he was 37, and sitting out games to rest.
  
• We'll see what happens as we get into the steroid-testing era this year, but my gut is that homers should be toned down. There were 19 60-HR seasons over the career, and 20 guys who hit 600 or more.
  
• Other than homers, I think the stats "boundaries" look pretty good. Single-season records look quite reasonable.

That's all for now. I'm going to attempt to start my first serious career now, and see if there are any other major issues.