Personally, I don't believe the smaller number of teams is the greatest reason for the offense in these leagues. I believe the reason is the way the game is set up making it much easier to platoon your lineup than it is your pitching staff. We have an edge on real life managers in that we know ahead of time how a player does against righty or lefty pitching/hitting. However it is much harder to take an advantage of that knowledge when it comes to pitching. Anyone who understands the vsR and vsL lineup settings can set up a productive lineup from average level batters even on the road. At home, a manager has some control over platooning pitchers but when it comes to road games a pitching staff is at the mercy of the computer, making your average pitcher a little less effective than your average hitter. I think this lesser control over pitching platooning gives the batters an edge in this league and may account for some of that "15 percent" increase.