Normal Never Looked So Good

What many people don't realize is that baseball has had its eras.  Sure, there's talk of records being broken in the "modern era," but it goes deeper than that.  In fact, eras have significant impact on how players' career stats stack up against the rest, and further, their salaries on Diamond Mind Online. 

Let me give you an example:  A player who hit .300 in 1967 during the "Pitchers Era" (1963-68) is likely to hit for a better average in simulation than a guy who hit .300 in 1930, during the early part of the "Standard Era" (1920-1992) -- all other things being equal.  Remember that those players are going up against different competition, in different parks and during different eras than what they faced in real-life, so the end result may differ when playing DMO.

All these factors can be a bit confusing, so we've got you covered by "normalizing" the statistics that players accumulated during their careers, relative to their league contemporaries.  Translation?

Sure. Here's an example comparing two "Leos:"  In 1930, the league batting average in the National League was .303. In 1968, the “Year of the Pitcher,” it was just .243. The Reds shortstop in 1930, Leo Durocher, hit .243; the team’s shortstop in 1968, Leo Cardenas, hit .235, 8 points lower. On a normalized basis, however, Cardenas is better -- he fell just 3% below the league average, while “Leo the Lip” was a whopping 20% lower. 

 - Dayne

Read more about Normalization here

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