The schedule
When the draft ends, the league gets a 162-game schedule made of three-game series. Each league has its own schedule, and the standings are split into the American and National leagues.
Playing a game
- Open your league. The season hub shows your next game with Play Ball! and the upcoming schedule.
- Choose Play Ball! to start the game.
- For each plate appearance, you can:
- Simulate the at-bat and see what happens.
- Walk the batter intentionally.
- Call a sacrifice bunt. It works about 70 percent of the time and is an out otherwise.
- Make a substitution from your own roster: a pinch hitter, a pinch runner or a new pitcher.
When the game ends, a box score is saved and season stats are updated. Open your league's page for the standings and leaders.
Simulating games
Simulate Rest of League on your league page plays every scheduled game in your league on your next game date. Play your own game first if you want to, then use it to finish the day for everyone else. Standings and stats update as each game is played.
Simulated games build their lineups automatically. See The clubhouse for what your saved choices do today.
How an at-bat is decided
For each plate appearance, the engine takes the batter's real rates for walks, strikeouts, home runs and hits, and the pitcher's real rates for the same things. It compares each one to the league average for the batter's season, using a standard method known as log5, and then rolls weighted odds to pick the result: a walk, a strikeout, a single, a double, a triple, a home run or an out.
Because the comparison uses each season's own league average, a hitter from 1911 and a pitcher from 1968 meet on fair terms. A .300 average means something different in each era, and the engine accounts for that.
What you will not see yet
Steals and hit-and-runs are not separate plays yet, and there are no injuries or bullpen roles. The game tracks a starter's pitch count but does not pull him for fatigue on its own.