SOM Negro League plans: League format

My Stratomatic Replay of the 2013 MLB season has been on a rather long hiatus, first due to other projects, and now I've lost access to the game stats and scoresheets I had stored on the iscore website after a refresh of the tablet I use to score :( I'm not sure yet whether and how I will continue the 2013 replay (I could just continue with the standings I have documented here, and the limited stats and game history I have recorded on paper, or I could redefine the games I played so far as a kind of spring training and start the regular season over again).

But the pause in the 2013 MLB replay made me think about other, possible projects, and I revisited the stack of Negro League player cards that I bought some time ago. The idea would be to create a handful of teams via some kind of draft of players, and then play a short (fifth of a full) season with a similar approach as for the 2013 replay schedule.

However, even if I go for the smaller rosters of about 15 players per team, the cards in the set will only be enough for about six teams, so I'll have to look at was to make that work (without any reference to historical league structures, the players are a mix from five or six decades, anyway...). So here are a few options I've been toying around with.

The goal would be to come to 32 or 33 total games per team so I can compare the resulting counting stats with the benchmarks one has in mind for modern day 162 day MLB seasons by simply multiplying with five.

I could also try to play a double header or three and squeeze the whole schedule into a calendar month to keep the pitching rotations busy and avoid that teams have the chance to start their aces nearly every day.

1. Six teams, one division (35 games per team, 105 games overall)

If each team plays each other team seven times, there is a 35 game season for everyone - a bit too much for the simple comparison but manageable total of games.

2. Six teams, two divisions (32/33 games per team, 96/99 games overall)

To get closer to the easy "x5" comparison to a 162 game season, I'd need each team to play nine games against the two teams in their own three team division and five games against each of the other teams.

Having two divisions would also allow for a nicer championship finals between the division champs.

An alternative could be to play 7 games within the division and six outside for a total of 33, but that would mean the intra- vs inter-division games are too close, or ten games within and four outside for a total of 32, but that way many of the team-against-team series could be tied.

3. Five teams, one division (32 games per team, 80 games total)

This would mean 8 games against each other team for a total of 32 (again, many chances for tied team-vs-team series) and a more manageable total. It would also mean more rest days for pitchers because each day one team will have to sit out.

Obviously, splitting five (or less) teams into divisions doesn't make sense anymore.

4. Four teams, one division (33 games per team, 66 games total or 39 games per team, 117 total for a fourth of a full season)

This would allow larger rosters, but also less differentiation between teams (e.g. pitching heavy, offensive vs defensive focus etc.), and less variation as most teams will rely on the HOF level stars and not need the rest of the players so much.

Now that I look at the list, the option 2 (six teams in two divisions) looks best, even though such small divisions look a bit artificial on paper.