League Averages

League averages play an important role in determining the performance of players in simulated games (see How Basic Probabilities are Calculated, How Ratings are Calculated, and Explaining Normalization).  Digital Diamond Baseball comes with all of the league average files for the seasons from 1871 to present day, including separate average files for the National League and American League starting in 1973.  As a result, in most cases you will not have to worry about creating or editing league average files. 

However, in cases when you are playing with players that did not play in the major leagues (e.g., minor league baseball, the Japanese league, little league baseball) you will need to create your own league average file using the League Averages Editor.  The League Averages Editor makes it easy to create, edit, or delete league average files.

The League Averages Editor is accessible from the Options->League Averages menu item.

Creating a New League Average File

You can create a new league average file by clicking on the New button located in the top-left corner of the League Averages Editor.  After entering a name for your new league average file, you will be able to enter the totals in all categories.  For example, if you have a minor league library whose players have their year value set to 1990PCL, the league average file that applies to those players should be called 1990PCL.  In addition, the LgAvFile field for each player in the library should also be set to 1990PCL (see Browsing Players in a Library for information about how to change a player's LgAveFile field).

By default, league average files are located in the Averages folder located inside the Digital Diamond installation folder.  However, the location can be changed using the Normalize Options dialog box.  To use a folder other than the Averages folder, you must create the new folder inside the Digital Diamond Baseball installation folder before you specify the folder in the Normalize Options dialog box. 

The league average folder must have a league average file for each year represented in the current player library.  In other words, if your library has players from the 1993 and 2007 seasons, there must be a ML1993 and ML2007 league average file in the current league average folder.

Viewing and Editing an Existing League Average File

To view or edit an existing league average file, simply select the name of the file from the League Average File drop-down list box.  After selecting the file you can freely view and edit the totals.  Depending on what files you change, you must restart Digital Diamond Baseball for your changes to take affect.

Deleting a League Average File

To delete an existing league average file, click on the Delete button located in the top-left corner of the League Averages Editor.