When player ratings are inaccurate for a historical season, this is probably the reason: ratings are based on the player's overall career, not their stats in any single season. This is an intentional design choice. Football Mogul and Baseball Mogul are "general manager simulations". If player performance matched historical performance on a season-by-season basis, it would be too easy to build a dominant team every year.

For example, Terdell Middletown was a mediocre running back for Green Bay in 1977, coming off the bench and rushing for only 2.8 yards per carry. In 1978, he rushed for 1,116 yards and 11 TDs and made the Pro Bowl. Knowing this, it would be easy to trade for him at the end of the 1977 season — and just as easy to trade him away after 1978, before his performance falls off a cliff.

*Because of the lack of historical stats for offensive linemen, several years around the current season are used to calculate ratings for guards, tackles and centers.

The shortened 60-game schedule starts July 23rd, but with a few new rules. On the financial side of things, player salaries will be pro-rated for the shortened season. A player contracted to earn $1,000,000 with have that salary multiplied by (60/162) — dropping his 2020 earnings to about $370,000.

On the field, the first change you'll see is that the National League will be using the Designated Hitter this year. Major League Baseball claims this is a temporary change, but I'm skeptical.

The second change only affects extra inning games, where every half-inning after the 9th will start with a runner on second base. The traditionalist in me hates this rule, but I have to admit that it will have the desired effect: the average length of an extra-inning game will drop from 11.1 innings to 10.4 innings — with roughly 2/3rds of extra-inning games ending after just one extra frame.

All of these rules changes are now included in the current version of Baseball Mogul. If you already own Baseball Mogul 2020, you can download the newest patch here.

Otherwise, you can buy Baseball Mogul 2020 for 50% off using the coupon code "2020".

Baseball Mogul 2020 now includes a 60-game schedule* for this season. You can download a text version of the schedule here.

The newest patch includes this schedule and some additional features for the shortened season.  For example, the Roster Rules now have a checkbox to prorate player salaries — as is being done for the current season. And the League Editor has an option to start each inning after the 9th with a runner on 2nd base (also a new rule this year).

To play the 60-Game season (which includes these rules changes) in Baseball Mogul 2020:

1. Start a New Game.
2. Click the "Custom" button.
3. Click "Load Database".
4. Choose "Database File" and click "PLAY".
5. Select "60-Game Season (2020)" and click "Open".

You can still play the full 2020 season (with the official 162-game schedule) by starting a new game and clicking "Modern".

*Note: The 60-game schedule is not the official MLB schedule, because I don't currently have access to this data. If you are able to find (or build) the real schedule matching this format, email it to me and I'll include it in the next patch. Thanks!

In response to the overwhelming feedback to my blog post about the Thanos Snap, I've added a "Thanos Button" to Baseball Mogul 2020:

Clicking this button randomly disintegrates half of the players in the database. It also eliminates half of everyone on earth, with corresponding adjustments to the population  level of each team's fan base.