About The Game

All-time Greatest Players

Updated in May 2015

The All-time Greatest Players set gives you a great way to play games using more than 4500 of the best players in baseball history.

All of the players have been selected and rated based on their best series of peak seasons (more on this below), with each season evaluated relative to the norms for that era and adjusted for park effects. The players are organized into two separate databases of 48 teams each based on the real-life franchises they were most closely affiliated with during their peak periods.

Everything is in place to allow you to start playing games the moment you install the set, but remember that there's almost no limit to the ways you can use these players and teams. You can also run a draft, restructure the league, generate a new schedule, change the manager profiles, and move players and teams to/from other Diamond Mind seasons.

The All-time Greatest Players set is priced at $29.95 per volume or buy the All-time Greatest Players 2015 Volume 1 database together with the All-time Greatest Players 2015 Volume 2 database and get the All-time Greatest Players 2015 Volume 2 database for 35% off the regular price.  Add both items to your cart and use shopping code AGP2015BUN to apply the discount at checkout.

Organizing the teams

The players are organized into teams based primarily on real-life franchises. Certain franchises (e.g. New York, Boston, Chicago) have too many stars for one team, so we split them into two or three. Other franchises are too young to have accumulated a full and balanced roster, so we combined them.

Every team has a manager profile with starting rotations, bullpen assignments, starting lineups against left- and right-handed pitchers for both DH and non-DH games, and depth charts for each of those starting lineups.

During our testing, we autoplayed a number of seasons and found these teams to be remarkably balanced. Some are better than others, of course, but it was rare to see a team with a winning percentage above .600 or below .400. Most of the divisional races were hotly contested, often decided during the season's final series.

Player ratings

We rated the players based on their best series of consecutive peak years that met a minimum playing time threshold. Let's take a moment to go over what that means.

To select each player's best series of seasons, we began with his rookie year, collected enough future seasons to meet or exceed our minimum playing time threshold, and evaluated that group of seasons. We repeated the process for the seasons beginning with his second year, then his third year, and so on. The group of seasons that provided the highest level of league- and park-adjusted performance became the basis for that player's ratings.

We used consecutive peak seasons rather than unconnected peak seasons because players change with age. A player may start out as a superior fielder with great speed and enough hitting skills to be an asset at the top of the order. As he matures, adds muscle, or recovers from a serious injury, he might move to a less demanding fielding position, run less, take more walks, and add power. If we rated such a player based on a mix of early, middle, and later years, we might end up creating a power hitter who could also play great defense and steal bases, even if that player never did all of those things at the same time at any point in his career.

We chose to use peak years rather than entire careers because some all-time greats had mediocre-to-poor seasons at the start or end of their careers because they were called up at a very young age and/or they kept their jobs after they had lost much of their ability. If we used entire careers, these stars would not stand out from the crowd as much as they should.

We felt it was important to include a lot of playing time. That way, lesser players with one or two really good seasons wouldn't rank as highly as others who sustained their success over a much longer period.

If a position player had a short career -- less than 4000 plate appearances -- he was not eligible for this set. If he reached that threshold but fell short of 6000 PA, we used his entire career. If he exceeded 6000 PA, we used his best run of consecutive seasons that include at least 6000 PA.

Similarly, we had two thresholds for pitchers. To qualify for the set, a pitcher needed at least 200 career starts, 400 career relief appearances, or a suitable combination of the two. To qualify for the peak-years treatment, those limits were raised to 250 starts or 500 relief appearances.

This approach favors players with longer careers because their weaker seasons are excluded. We feel that's appropriate. The best players start sooner and last longer than everyone else.

This set also includes over 100 players from the Negro Leagues who didn't also play in the majors along with some of the All Time Great Japanese League Baseball Players.

All-Star Teams

Replay All Star Game History

The newest addition to our range of seasons, team and player sets is a collection of all AL and NL All-Star teams from 1933, the year the first All-Star Game was played, to 2023. The collection comprises six sets, each covering 15 years: 1933-48, 1949-63, 1964-78, 1979-93, 1994-2008, 2009-2023.

Rosters and Roster Sizes

Roster sizes will vary from year to year, showing a gradual increase in size as time passed. Reserve roster players are those players who were chosen to play in that season’s game but were replaced due to injury or other reasons. All teams have been set up with strict, computer-generated, three-man pitching rotations. If the actual starter was included in the rotation, he was moved to the number one spot on the list. If he was not, he replaced the third pitcher on the list and then was slid to the number one spot. Two sources (The Midsummer Classic, baseball-almanac.com) indicate that in 1971 the AL roster was 29 while the NL was 28. So be it.

The DH

Initially, there was no designated hitter (DH) in the All-Star Game. Starting in 1989, the rule was applied only to games played in American League stadiums. Since 2010, the DH has been used by both teams regardless of the game's location. In seasons in which the DH was not used in the all-star game, the first two lineups in the Manager Profile, vs LHP and vs RHP, are the same. They are the lineup that was used in the actual game. DH lineups are also provided, and are computer-generated. In seasons in which the DH was used in the actual game, the first two lineups are computer-generated. The two DH lineups, vs LHP (DH) and vs RHP (DH), are identical, and are the starting lineup that was used in that year’s game.

Two Games In One Season

Four times in the history of the all-star game there have been two games in one season: 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962. For all four years, the starting lineup given in the Manager Profile is that used in the first game for that particular season. In 1960, the games were played with only one day in between (July 11th and 13th). Identical 30-man rosters were used. In 1959, 1961, and 1962, the two games were played weeks apart and there were some roster changes. Those players who played in the actual first game are active on the DMB roster. Players who were on the rosters for the second game but not the first game are also on the DMB roster, but are farmed out. Actual game two rosters for these years can be found at http://baseball-almanac.com/

The price of each database is $14.95, or buy any two All-Star Teams databases and get the third for free! Add three All-Star Teams databases to your cart and use shopping code ALLSTARBUN to apply the discount at checkout.

Classic Past Seasons

Features of Classic Past Seasons

Our Classic Past Seasons share most of the features of our Current and Deluxe Past Seasons. They include leagues, schedules, complete team rosters (in almost all cases), extensive batting/pitching/fielding statistics, detailed ballpark information, complete player ratings, and manager profiles tailored for the rosters of each team. In short, you get everything you need to start playing highly-realistic games the moment you install a Classic Past Season.

For modern seasons, we have the advantage of working with play-by-play data that enables us to compile and use certain modern statistics that are not available in baseball's historical records.

For older seasons, we have access to various encyclopedias that provide the batting, pitching and fielding statistics that are set out in the official rules of baseball. And, for some seasons, we have augmented those official statistics by going through every boxscore.

The lack of play-by-play data does not affect your ability to play highly-realistic games, but it does lead to some differences between our Classic Past Seasons and Deluxe Past Seasons.

A comment on left/right splits

Some people feel that the lack of left/right splits inevitably leads to a less-realistic experience than they would get using any of our season disks that include those splits. In some ways that is true, but we contend that there are plenty of good arguments in favor of using standard splits, too.

The use of left/right splits is a plus when you have a player who has established a consistent pattern of succeeding with the platoon advantage and failing when at a disadvantage. For example, some left-handed batters hit righties quite well but are at a complete loss against lefties. And some left-handed pitchers are very effective against lefty hitters but are pounded by righties. Those players tend to be relegated to platooning on offense or being used only in a specialized bullpen role.

On the other hand, every season produces a significant number of players who happened to compile very good or excellent stats against one side or the other in a limited amount of playing time. It's not hard to show that many of these extreme performances are due to chance, not some talent of the players. And many DMB managers are more than happy to take advantage of these fluky performances to give these players a much more important role on their teams than those players would ever get in real life.

The use of standard left/right adjustments for our Classic Past Seasons has the virtue of dramatically reducing the number of players who fall into this category.

Suppose a right-handed batter was 10-for-30 (.333) against lefties and 10-for-60 (.167) against righties. Overall, he was 20-for-90, good for an overall average of only .222. And let's suppose this pattern was not representative of the player's long-term performance but rather a one-year anomaly.

On a Deluxe Past Season, a manager might look at that player and get very excited about the idea of using him only as a pinch hitter against lefties and saving those 30 atbats for critical late-inning situations.

On a Classic Past Season, a manager would look at him as a .222 hitter who could reasonably be expected to bat something like .235 against lefties and something like .215 against righties. For many players, this is a much more reasonable view of that player's ability to contribute.

So there are some good arguments on both sides. The standard splits skew our outlook of certain players who have not shown that they can hold their own when the left/right matchup is unfavorable. But they eliminate a large number of situations where a DMB manager might be able to use 20/20 hindsight to give a mediocre player an important role.

There's no simple answer to the question of which is better.

Pricing

Classic Past Seasons with transactions and lineups are $19.95 each. Classic Past Seasons without transactions and lineups are $14.95.

Deluxe Past Seasons

Update to a DPS Season Database

Our Deluxe Past Seasons share all of the features of our Current Seasons.

All of our Deluxe Past Seasons were developed with the help of pitch-by-pitch and/or play-by-play data from various sources, including STATS, Inc., Total Sports, The Baseball Workshop, and Retrosheet. Using that information and a growing collection of sophisticated computer programs that we have developed, we compile modern statistics and analyze player performance in all areas of the game.

Content

Because these seasons are so similar to our annual Current Seasons, we won't repeat all of the features here. If you're not already familiar with this list of features, please review the information on the Current Seasons page.

Pricing

All Deluxe Past Seasons include a full set of real-life transactions and game-by-game starting lineups and are priced at $24.95.

Current Season Databases

Diamond Mind's Annual Season Database Is Ready Every December

Since 1987, we have been releasing the just-completed season in December of the same year.

Contents

Each Current Season includes:

- basic information about every player who appeared in the big leagues that season: names, birthdates, batting and throwing hands, primary positions, and real-life salaries

- two versions of the inter-league schedule (as-scheduled and as-played)

- updated ballpark information, including physical characteristics, weather patterns, and statistical park factors

- a complete set of batting, pitching and fielding statistics, including many modern statistics such as holds, inherited runners, run support, and defensive innings

- full left/right splits for all batters and pitchers

- games started at each position versus left- and right-handed pitchers

- detailed ratings for all players

- manager profiles for every team

- a complete set of real-life player transactions

- actual starting lineups used for every game that season

We are able to provide all of this information and develop highly-accurate player ratings because we license pitch-by-pitch and play-by-play data from Major League Baseball. Using that information, a growing collection of sophisticated computer programs that we have developed, and an extensive database of player notes that we compile during the season, we analyze player performance in all areas of the game.

Pricing and availability

The 2021 Season is priced at $29.95 and was released December 16th, 2021.