Baseball FAQs

One person built and runs this website. I have a normal day job, and I do what I can in my spare time.

This website is "responsive" which means it will fit on any screen. But, we also have a mobile app available in the iPhone and Android App Stores. Just search for the Baseball Sim app from PennantChase!

You manage your team by setting the lineup, deciding on strategy, etc., and the game results are determined by computer simulation.

In earlier years, I loved PC games like Earl Weaver and MicroLeague. I wanted to move my league online, so I built my own simulator and website. In recent years, I tried other online leagues out of curiosity, but wasn’t thrilled with the cost, and I always had complaints about the results, limitations and usability.

That depends on the league your commissioner has decided to set up, or which league you join. It could be All-Time Greats, modern players, or completely fictional – or a combination. We can use real baseball stats because baseball sim, much like fantasy baseball, relies solely on real-life stats, which are public-domain material.

I am listed as the commissioner for all Auto Leagues, but they essentially run on auto-pilot. I do not monitor these leagues, but there are rules in place to try to keep them as fair as possible. Contact me via one of the many forms on the site if you're having issues with an auto league.

Yes, but it takes a lot of work and dedication, and it's bad for the site if we have commissioners who aren't really dedicated. That's why we now require a donation before you can run a league. You should first visit the Test Drive league to see if you are comfortable running your own league. Then you can create your own league via the link on the homepage of the Test Drive league.

In Auto Leagues, the games start after all teams have an owner and all teams have drafted. For more details on Auto League, please read all the information on your league's homepage. For other leagues, check with your individual commissioner.

For private leagues, this is at the discretion of your commissioner, and whether the commissioner allows user's to sim games. For Auto Leagues, barring any issues with the servers, there are auto-sims run about every eight hours. Users in the league can trigger games every eight hours as well. See your league homepage or "My League List" for more details.

I personally don't like salary cap leagues, because it usually means one player can show up on multiple teams, or it's used to help "inactive" owners remain competitive. In our leagues, active owners have the advantage, as it should be. Also, if you draft the player, he's on your team alone - there are no duplicate years for one player in a league (with the execption of "Favorite Team" leagues).

The Quick Draft is a quick way to draft and results in leagues starting the fastest. You are offered a small sample of players at each position. The intent is to keep the teams relatively balanced. The Daily Draft is more like a standard draft that takes place over several weeks. One round is run every eight hours, and you rank players before each round.

A batter’s and pitcher’s stats are taken into consideration, as well as a few other variables, to determine a result for every at bat.

Some sim games use arbitrary ratings instead of logical baseball stats to determine results. I prefer using stats because they are not arbitrary, and because real-life stats have been ruled by law to be public domain.

No, I have decided not to do any era adjustments. This means a .400 hitter is considered a .400 hitter, period. (The All-Time Greats Leagues do not include any players before 1900 for this reason.) I know there are lots of debates and arguments around this, but my goal with this site is to keep it simple and understandable. If you disagree with this, I suggest sticking with the single-era leagues and avoid the All-Time leagues.

Because you aren’t very smart. Just kidding! Hey, this is a game, don’t take it too seriously. It takes some time to learn how the simulator works – and even when you think you’ve figured it out, it doesn’t always play out as you expect. Baseball is just like that. Shocking teams often come from nowhere and strong teams on paper don't always win. It won’t always make sense, but that’s part of why we love the game.

First off, consider the competition in your league. If you’re playing with All-Time Greats, no players will perform equal to their real stats. If you’re frustrated with results, I highly encourage you to browse the other active leagues to get a feeling for how players perform. Secondly, keep in mind baseball is a streaky game. Streaks happen naturally in the simulator. I’ve seen many great players have lousy seasons, only to bounce back the next season with an MVP performance. Many will bounce back within the same season.

See the answer to the previous two questions. One thing is certain about sim games – there will always be complaints about the accuracy of results. I can’t help that. And no two simulators are the same, they all have their quirks, so if you've played in other leagues, you may have to adjust to the tendencies of this game. After running my own league for over seven years, I am very pleased with the results. For the most part, the great players play great, the weaker players play weak, and there’s enough random variation to keep it interesting. I will stress, the more games in your schedule, the more the stats tend to drift back toward the "mean". Shorter seasons don't always leave enough time for the great players to get on a hot streak. As more people play and send me feedback, I can make adjustments to get the results even more consistent. Having said that, I wouldn’t want the results to be so consistent that there is no element of surprise. That would be boring.

I think in general the game follows what baseball is all about: good pitching tends to beat good hitting. Nothing is more valuable in baseball than a top-flight starting rotation, and I think that tends to play out in this game. But keep in mind, baseball is about long-term trends, not short-term results. Don't give up on your best players right away. I've seen teams struggle out of the gate and come roaring back later in the season.

This number is based off a formula using the player's other stats. It represents what percent of the time the player is "On Fire" (for example, "15" means the player has a 15% chance of being "On Fire" during any game). When a player is "On Fire" he has a better chance of getting hits or pitching well. Think of it as being "in the zone" for one game. Although keep in mind, there's no guarantee of success - even players who are "On Fire" can go 0-fer.

Rank is a new number introduced in early 2018. It's meant to give an idea of where a player ranks amongst the competition in that league. Use it as a guide post, but not the letter of the law. Always do your own research on how a player performs historically in your league.

Not really. Much like real life, you gotta wait for your best players to break out of it. Although, sometimes you can get lucky by just shaking up your lineup and putting in a new player. But statistically speaking, there's no benefit to benching someone who is slumping.

For one thing, I believe injecting too many stats into the equation makes it difficult to evaluate players. Secondly, I only have so many stats in the database. If I'm not using a particular stat, it's probably because I don't currently have it in my database, and it takes a lot of work to import such data.

I appreciate baseball tradition as much as anyone. But I only have so much free time to put into this project, so for now, I chose to implement the easier option first.