League Rules

1947 GoBots League Rules

1. Basic Pitch: All the teams have franchises in the league. Some may be owned, some may be un-owned. This is a non-contract league.

At the outset, each player will have, at most, 2 teams in the league. You may not trade players between your own teams, and you may not trade with an un-owned team.

The owners who exist at inception will pick two teams upon joining that meet the following criteria: a) 1 AL and 1 NL team; and 2) one first division team and one second division team.

Afterwards, owners will not be allowed to trade their owned team for an unowned team, but they may trade teams with another owner. Expansion teams will join the league at the appropriate time, but will not play games until they have amassed enough players to do so.

Between seasons, you can designate 1 player of your import class to stay with the team; the others will go into the free agent pool for a draft each offseason.

When a team is not owned, it gets all its’ imports, so that when someone comes along to own it, its’ best players will not have been pirated. The commissioner may, at his discretion, cut the worst players from unowned teams to comply with roster regulations.

2. How are players acquired?

We will begin with the 1947 season. For this initial season ONLY, we will use pitchers with at least 12.5 IP, and 50 AB. Afterwards, player minimums will be 100 AB and 35 IP.

Duplicate players will be allowed in the first season, but not in import classes: a player goes into the import cohort of the team it played for the most (based on AB or IP). Original season duplicates will be weeded out when possible.

ANY ISSUE ABOUT WHICH TEAM A PLAYER BELONGS ON MUST BE RAISED PRIOR TO THE FIRST GAME (in 1948), OR PRIOR TO THE DRAFT IN SUBSEQUENT SEASONS, OR THE RIGHT TO APPEAL IS WAIVED. After these deadlines, I will not make the switch.

3. Updating personnel:

Progressions: Unpredictable, with plateau range of 29 - 32.

Imports and draft: With imports, each team can select one (1) player from their import class to keep; the rest go into the free agent pool in anticipation of a draft, the number of rounds to be determined. You can determine this player by Baseball Reference, and/or using the search feature on the league homepage.

Teams that are NOT owned will get ALL of their imports, and will NOT get draft picks. When someone comes along to own that team, they should get them without someone else’s mistakes.

The draft order will be the reverse of last season’s finish, with 2 exceptions:

The Champion always picks last; and
The worst half of the teams in use, overall (ie. regardless of whether they are AL or NL) will be entered into a lottery for first pick. The worst record gets 8 chips, 2nd worst gets 7 chips, etc, and 1st pick will get selected first. Note: Some playoff teams will be entered in the lottery.

Waiver claims will follow once the season starts.

Stat changing: Teams will be allowed 2 stat changes in the first year, and 1 per year after that. These can be banked if not used.

Trades: Are allowed, as many as you want, as long as they are not between your own teams, or with an unowned team.

Anyone can question the fairness of a trade, and forward a review request to the trade review committee. BabeRuth21, 54Pete54, and Rosilver will be the members of this committee, and majority rules. If for some reason there is a tie (as with an abstention), the Commissioner will break the tie. The Commissioner will oversee the performance of this committee. Requests to have trades reviewed must be made within 1 week or 20 games from the trade, whichever comes first.

4. League set up, number of games, rotation size, injury length, and roster size:

The league set-up will look like Major League baseball that season: all teams will be in use. The teams that are actively owned will take part in the draft; unowned teams will amass their players and be excused from all facets of the draft.

Seasons will consist of 154 regular season games until the 1961-1962 offseason, at which time it will change to 162 games. We will use a 4-man rotation from 1947 - 1975, and a 5-man rotation after that. Everyday players can be injured up to 5 games; pitchers can be injured up to 10 games. A team’s roster must be reduced to 30 prior to the draft, including the player from the import class you wish to retain, but can expand to 26/9 after the season starts. Failure to reduce to 30 by the deadline before the draft will result in the Commissioner doing it for you. Note: I will not spend much time or thought on this task.

Owners will be given a day’s grace (24 hours from first pitch) to fix their rosters; after 24 hours, and after game 2, any team that is over roster limits will be trimmed by me. I can trim them by any process I choose, but I cannot leave you with fewer than 9 pitchers, or 11 position players when I am finished (i.e. I cannot cause a forfeit.)


5. Playoffs: Depending on the number of teams:

In the NL, or in the AL, if the regular season champion has a 10 game lead, or better, at the end of the regular season, then that regular season champion has an automatic World Series bid: wild card standings are irrelevant in that league.

16 teams: 2 8-team leagues. 2 regular season champs, who get byes until the LCS. 4 wild cards per league, who play best-of-3 playoffs until one wild card team remains to go to the LCS against the regular season champion. The LCS and the World Series will be best-of-7. I want as many people as possible paying attention to their team for as long as possible.

20 teams: 2 10-team leagues. 1 regular season champion, and 4 wild card teams per league. The wild card teams play best-of-3 series until 1 is left, and that team plays the regular season champ in a best-of-7, followed by the World Series. The regular series champ gets byes until the LCS.

24 team league: take the 12 team league rules, and double it for 2 leagues. “12 teams: 3 4-team divisions. 3 division winners, 4 wild cards. Wild cards play best-of-3 series until 1 is left. Division winners and wild :card play best-of-7 until a champion is picked.”

Rules about ties for a playoff spot:

A wild card team never hosts a series against a non-wild card team.

If teams tie for a playoff spot:
⇒ If both teams would be “in”, use head to head record as a tiebreaker. Run differential is the 2nd tie-breaker.
⇒ If one is in, the other is out, 1 game playoff (@ head 2 head winner)

In addition to a Cy Young and a MVP Award, there will also be a Manager of the Year Award given to the owner with the best combined record. In the event that some owners own more teams than some other owners, it will be the best combined winning percentage.

MY BASIC EXPECTATIONS OF EACH OWNER:

⇒ Your commitment is season to season. When you join, you will be expected to actively run your team until the end of the season, which is when the regular season ends for non-playoff teams, or when your playoff team is eliminated. If you quit mid-season without my blessing, I will share this information with other commissioners.

⇒ Actively running your team means that you read messages once per day, meet all deadlines, and communicate any difficulties to the commissioner.

⇒ I will provide a minimum of 48 hours between a posting of a deadline, and the deadline. Ignorance of the deadline will not be an excuse for failing to meet the deadline.

⇒ If you will be away, and unable to get your messages, give the commissioner advance notice. Inactivity for ten (10) days, or repeated failure to meet deadlines, may result in your being booted from the league.

⇒ Every owner is expected to field a team (9 pitchers and 11 fielders) every game. Failure to do so, making the sims not run, results in a forfeit.


⇒ Read and be familiar with the rules immediately upon joining: it may affect your desire to be in the league, or your desire to pick a certain team.

Please keep all conversations clean
Please don't be rude to fellow owners
Please be active, if not active for 14 days you may be removed from the league
We all love baseball and that's why we're here. So Just have fun and enjoy!


General rules:

Each offseason, you can switch a SP to RP, or a RP to a SP, but stamina will remain “as is.”. You can change it back the next offseason if you like, but no changes between first pitch and the last out of the World Series.
You can switch a player’s primary and secondary positions if they played 50% or more games THAT season at their secondary position, or at least 25% of their games for their career at their secondary position.
During an offseason, a player can be switched to the position they played most in their career, regardless of the requirements of General Rule #2.
You can switch a DH to his secondary position, as long as he has a fielding percentage.


Off season duties:

Partial emptying the free agent pool: At the commissioner’s discretion, any player with a rank of less than 10 can be deleted/retired.

Unpredictable progression after world series. 29 - 32 plateau; 33 starts regression.

Imports: Between the end of the regular season, and the last game of the World Series, owners can choose 1 player from their teams’ import class to retain (35 IP/100 AB minimum); the rest go into the free agent pool. Once the deciding game of the World Series has been completed, IT IS TOO LATE TO NAME A PLAYER TO BE RETAINED – DON’T ASK.

Stat changes: 2 in your bank account for the offseason following the first season, one per year thereafter for owned teams. Unowned teams will have 2 in the bank when they become owned. Stat changes can only occur during the offseason.

Cuts must be made to the roster limit before the draft, and there must be room for one player per round of the upcoming draft. IF CUTS ARE NOT MADE BY THE PRE-DRAFT DEADLINE, I WILL MAKE THEM. No arguments will be tolerated: make the cuts by the deadline, ask for an extension of reasonable length, or accept the consequences. There is no 4th choice.

Opening Day: If for any reason a team begins the season with too many players on their major league or minor league roster, Owners will be given a day’s grace (24 hours from first pitch) to fix their rosters; after 24 hours, and after game 2, any team that is over roster limits will be trimmed by me. I can trim them by any process I choose, but I cannot leave you with fewer than 9 pitchers, or 11 position players when I am finished (i.e. I cannot cause a forfeit.)

Elastic Clause: I reserve the right to create new rules as necessary to deal with problems as they arise.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1951 - 1951
Roster Size (Majors)	26
Roster Size (Minors)	9
Keepers
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency	(waivers)
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(6 games max)
Pitcher Injuries	(6 games max)
Use Pitcher's HR Allowed Stats
Allows Max Surprise Bunts
Min Batters Pitcher Must Face	1
Slump Buster	(1unlimited days)
On Fire	Classic
User Sims	(every 3 hours)