League Rules

BASEBALL LEAGUE RULES (1998 Update)

Notable Changes:
- new system for determining draft order
- Added one-for-one swap between varsity and JV at beginning of playoffs


TEAMS and ROSTERS
Each owner will have two teams. Where applicable within these rules, for each owner the team with the better record is defined as the “Varsity” Team and the team with the worse record is defined as the “JV” Team.

Major league roster: 26 players (maximum 17 position players, maximum 17 pitchers)
Minor league roster: 6 players.

Teams are allowed to sign free agents from the end of the draft through the start of game 17. After this point teams will not be able to sign any free agents. A waiver process will be used from the draft through then end of game day 8 during where each team is limited to one player claimed per game day. Waiver priority will be based on standings as of the end of each game day. From the end of game day 8 through the end of the free agency period teams there is no limit on the number of free agents signed per day.
Trade deadline goes into effect with the start of game day 129 (after having played 80% of the season).
After the end of the regular season and before the opening game of the playoffs each owner is allowed to make a single one-for-one swap of players between his Varsity and JV teams.
From opening day to the transaction deadline each team is limited to a total of 25 trades (including both trades between an owner's two teams and trades with teams belonging to other owners). From the end of the playoffs through the opening day of the following season there is no limit on the number of trades a team makes.

KEEPERS/CONTRACTS
Keepers will be maintained through contract system.
Owners have a budget of 100 per year to spend on players.
Owners may have up to 10 players on a contract at any time.
Contracts can be for up to 5 years.
Contracts may not be renewed at the end of the contract. Once the contract is over the player goes back into the draft pool for the following season.

It is best practice to not sign any new contracts during the season and owners should wait until after the season to sign any new contracts.
Each season after the playoffs each owner should move all their players under contract for the following year and any players they wish to sign to a new contract to a single team prior to signing any new contracts.
Once the league has progressed to the next season there are no restrictions on whether contracted players for a given owner are on their Varsity or JV teams. Owners are not allowed to make trades that would result in any Owner having more than the max of 10 contracts in a future year or max of $100 in salary for a future year.


SCHEDULE
Each team will play the 8 teams belonging to other owners 20 times (10 home and 10 away) for a total of 160 games for each team. A day off is automatically granted to all teams after every 8 games.
The All-Star break will be after game day 80 (at which point each team should have played 80 games). All teams in the league will be granted 4 days off at the All-Star break.


PLAYOFFS
The top 8 teams based on record will make the playoffs. For playoff seeding purposes any ties in the standings will be broken by the tiebreakers in the following order with the higher placement based on: (1) better Pythagorean Record, (2) better playoff seed of the owners' other teams, (3) better head-to-head record between teams.

Four days off will be granted to all teams between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs. One day off will be granted to all teams between each round of the playoffs. All series will be 7 games with games 1,2,5,7 at higher (e.g. #1) seed. If any series in a given round extends beyond 4 games a day-off will be granted to all teams between games 4 and 5.

First round: The the playoff matchups in Round 1 will be determined as follows: the owner of the #1 seed choses which of the teams seeded 5-8 he would like to play, but cannot pick the other team he owns. Next the owner of the #2 seed choses which of the remaining teams seeded 5-8 he would like to play, but cannot pick the other team he owns. Finally the owner of the #3 seed choses which of the remaining teams seeded 5-8 it would like to play with the caveats that (a) he cannot pick the other team he owns, and (b)he cannot leave the #4 seeded team having to play the other team from the #4 seeded team's owner. The #4 seed will play the last remaining team seeded 5-8.

Second round: The highest remaining seed after Round 1 will play the lowest remaining seed from Round 1. Other two winners from Round 1 will face one another. If two teams with the same owner meet in the second round of the playoffs the owner of the two teams has the option of considering it a bye with the higher seeded team automatically advancing.

Final: Winners from second round.

END OF YEAR AWARDS
TEAM AWARDS:
Playoff Champions: awarded to team winning the playoffs
Regular Season Champions: awarded to team finishing first overall in regular season. Ties broken per playoff seeding rules.
JV Champions: awarded to the team with the best record among all teams with second best record for owners. Ties broken per playoff seeding rules.
Constructors Champions: Awarded to the owner who has the most combined wins across his two teams. Tiebreakers: (1) most combined pythagorean wins across the two teams, (2) most wins by team with fewer wins for the owner, (3) head-to-head record between tied owners.
PLAYER AWARDS:
MVP: Best offensive player. Determined by Pennant Chase Award Standings.
Cy Young: Best pitcher. Determined by Pennant Chase Award Standings.
Rookie of the Year: Best first year player (pitcher or hitter) as determined by the Commissioner. Generally awarded to first year player with highest standing for MVP or Cy Young award.
Rolaids Relief Man: Best relief pitcher as determined by the Commissioner. Generally awarded to relief pitcher with highest standing for the Cy Young award.
Goldenest Glove: Best defensive player. Awarded to the player with the highest D+/-. Ties broken by fewer errors.
Tettlebull Award: Awarded to the player who has exceed his expected performance by the greatest amount as determined by the Commissioner.


PLAYER POOL TO START SEASON
At the end of each season retired and ineligible players are removed by the system and where applicable players previously retired are "unretired". Prior to the draft players from the new season who had not played in the prior season will be added to the pool of players. Free agents will be considered eligible to participate in the new season if they have a minimum of 200 AB or 50 IP. Players under contract to teams are not subject to the AB or IP minimums.


DRAFT
The draft will consist of 24 rounds proceeding in a snake fashion with the order of picks reversing each round.

Draft picks will be assigned as follows:
- Picks 5 & 10 will go to teams belonging to the owner of the playoff champions.
- Picks 4 & 9 will go to teams belonging to the owner of the regular season champions if the regular season champion belongs to a different owner than the playoff champion
To determine the other picks owners will be assigned a “Draft Score” based on the standings at the end of the prior season. The Draft Score for each owner will be 2x the rank of their Varsity team plus the rank of their JV team. [Example: if an owners Varsity team finished 3rd and the owner’s JV team finished 8th Draft Score would be 14 (3x2 + 8).]
- Picks 1 & 6 will go to the teams belonging to the owner with the highest Draft Score among owners not winning regular season or playoff championship.
- Picks 2 & 7 and picks 3 & 8 and (if necessary) picks 4 & 9 will be assigned to remaining owners in descending order of Draft Score.


PITCHER TYPE SWITCH
Between the draft and the start of game 17 of the season each owner may take up to two SP and have him converted to an RP. Any converted pitcher will be an RP for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs and is not eligible to be converted back to an SP.
After the end of the regular season each team may take one additional SP and have him converted to an RP. The pitcher will be an RP for the playoffs and is not eligible to be converted back to an SP.
Any conversion from SP to RP is for the current season only and will not impact the pitcher's status for any subsequent seasons.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1871 - 2019
Roster Size (Majors)	26
Roster Size (Minors)	6
Keepers	(10 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(30 games max)
Pitcher Injuries	(50 games max)
Use Pitcher's HR Allowed Stats
Allows Max Surprise Bunts
Min Batters Pitcher Must Face	0
Slump Buster	(1unlimited days)
On Fire	Classic
User Sims