Do post-expansion players have a % above league vs. their predecessors.

[PVNICK]

It seems to me that every really good player of recent vintage has a surprisingly higher OPS+ or other % above league than you would expect from their numbers and their rankings among the league leaders. Is is possible that playing in a 14-16 team league rather than an 8-12 team league benefits the good players when compared to their counterparts? Presumably all or almost all of the top players will play in a league of any size but there will be many "lesser player" in the league effectively bringing down the league average.

[Ubiquitous]

Not really sure what you mean. I guess I would need an example to see an OPS+ higher then what his numbers would expect.

[538280]

It seems to me that every really good player of recent vintage has a surprisingly higher OPS+ or other % above league than you would expect from their numbers and their rankings among the league leaders. Is is possible that playing in a 14-16 team league rather than an 8-12 team league benefits the good players when compared to their counterparts? Presumably all or almost all of the top players will play in a league of any size but there will be many "lesser player" in the league effectively bringing down the league average.

I'm not sure what you mean either, by their OPS+ are higher than their numbers would make you think. OPS+ is just OBP and SLG compared to league average. It is a direct measurement from two very basic numbers. A significantly higher percentage of the top relative stat hitting seasons of all time are older, pre-1950 players, not the other way around. Of the top 100 OPS+ seasons of all time, 49 were 1900-1953, and 38 1954-2006 (12 were 19th century). Here it is by decades of the 20th and now 21st century:

1900s: 5
1910s: 13
1920s: 16
1930s: 10
1940s: 6
1950s: 4
1960s: 6
1970s: 2
1980s: 3
1990s: 8
2000s: 9

It's gone up in the 90s/2000s, but overall a lot more top 100 OPS+ seasons were put up by pre-1950 players.

[PVNICK]

Perhaps a very crude analogy would be (assuming the same tests, teachers, grading system and course material) the way things were done in my HS. There were honors lasses, "regents" and general in descending order of difficulty and weight on class rank. Honors genrally had the kids that would be top 20 or so, regents college bound and general everyone. A larger league might be analagous to the general classes whereas pre-expansion would be regents. The "stars" with the general student body. The "smart" kids will still get the same grades and finish in the same order but now they will be the best of 30 instead of twenty.

Of course your chart sort of makes it a moot point, but I figured I'd at least clarify for whatever it's worth.