Timeless Baseball League · the card pool
Card eras
Every card is one real season: the top 200 players by playing time from each year since 1985, with the batting or pitching line exactly as it happened. The commissioner picks how far back the vault opens, and that single setting changes the draft, the run environment and which categories are winnable.
Default · tightest pool
2000–present
Roughly the last twenty-five seasons of top-200 cards. Deep enough that every owner lands stars, shallow enough that the draft has real scarcity. Recommended for first leagues and for owners who want to recognise most of the names.
In play: Pedro Martinez 2000 · Barry Bonds 2001 · Ichiro Suzuki 2004 · Justin Verlander 2011 · Mookie Betts 2018 · Shohei Ohtani 2024
Middle ground
1990–present
Adds the early-90s and the full high-offense stretch that followed. Batting averages and home run totals climb, so rate categories get harder to win and counting categories inflate across the league.
In play: Frank Thomas 1994 · Greg Maddux 1995 · Ken Griffey Jr. 1997 · Pedro Martinez 1999 · Randy Johnson 1999
Everything
1985–present
The whole vault: forty-plus seasons of top-200 cards. Stolen bases become a live weapon again thanks to the late-80s speed game, and the pool is deep enough that even a twelve-team league leaves stars undrafted.
In play: Rickey Henderson 1990 · Dwight Gooden 1985 · Roger Clemens 1986 · Wade Boggs 1987 · Nolan Ryan 1987
Why the era term matters to the math
The sim blends batter and pitcher rates against the league average of the seasons involved, not a single fixed baseline. A 1988 pitcher is not quietly rewarded for pitching in a low scoring year, and a 2000 slugger is not punished for hitting in a high scoring one — the log5 step normalises them before they ever meet.
Browse the pool in the sandbox