Historical Rookie question

[SFSteveG]

I just started a game beginning in '45 and, because I'm not really familiar with many players from then I check them out on baseball-reference.com. I noticed that a Carl Linhart who appeared in 3 games in '52 is a 1B in the game but has no fielding stats on the site. I do some searching and discover that he was aparently an outfielder. How does the game handle this. Is it random or is the guy always a 1B?

[Jeff Olsen]

I've only seen DH for historical guys with no fielding stats.

[ohms_law]

AFAIK, the game will keep a player at the position that they started at, in the year that you started the game in. It's better now, since the AI is willing to play players off of thier primary position (too often, as a matter of fact). The fact remains that changes in players positions are not historically accurate after the game starts.
The most extreme example of this can be seen with Babe Ruth. Start a game in 1914 and he's a pitcher. Start a game in 1918 on and he's an outfielder.