League Rules

Please make sure you clearly communicate your moves/decisions with a commissioner as some options and tools available to you in this league require commissioner assistance.

League At a Glance

• Teams have $100 base budgets, unspent cash rolls-over to the next season!
• 4 Pitcher starting rotations
• 26 player major league roster and 9 minor league spots
• Teams may trade draft picks, cash and players
• Players peak age 28 until 31
• 96 game season, aiming for 4 games per real life day, 6hr users sims. Playoff schedule is accelerated.
• Features: Franchise Player, Prospect Player with accelerated progression, separate rookie drafts, post season bonuses, bottom team stat boosts, loosely historic player base

Season Schedule Of Events

Pre-Season

1 Yearly revenue Granted
2 Blind auction for top 10 Free Agents (Limited Free Agency)
3 Live Draft, from remaining player (free agent) pool
4 Trading/drops turned on
5 Five rounds of waiver claims
6 Rookies generated, placed on rookie holding team

Regular Season

The regular season is split into two parts. The first 66 games is made up of two 3-game series against every other team in the league (one series home, one away). The last 30 games consist of two 3-games series against every other team in your division (again one series home, one away).
Day 1 - Games begin, 1 round of waiver claims run after each game
Day 5 - Open Free Agency turned on
Day 42 - Games stop for Rookie Draft*, Free Agency pause
Day 66 - All-Star Break and Bonus Progression for eligible prospects
Day 72 - Foreign Player Auction**, Trade Deadline, Open Free Agency ends
Day 96 - Regular season ends

Rookie Draft* (Day 42)

The midseason rookie draft will consist of either 2 or 3 rounds mostly based on the amount of viable talent entering the league for that historical year. Draft order is by "team strength" as determined by the PC draft order tool. (often differs from Stats> Power Rankings)

Foreign League Player Auction** (Day 72)

At each Trade Deadline, one Foreign League Player will be available for auction in the league homepage Chat Box. The Auction will run for a 24 hour period. Owners may bid cash for the rights to negotiate with the player. The team that wins the rights will have the player placed on their roster. It is then up to the owner to sign a contract to keep them past the end of the season or possibly have them tagged as a Prospect if eligible. If unsigned they will then join the free agent pool in the following offseason.

Tie Breakers

During the regular season, ties will be broken by run differential, then runs scored, then a one game playoff if absolutely necessary with a coin flip determining the home team.
Ties for records and any other issues will be broken by run differential. This includes draft order.

Playoffs

Finish in the Post-season and get an instant, one time $5 boost in cash added to your team's budget. Win the World Series and that $5 cash boost will be permanently added to your yearly income.
6 teams make the playoffs: 2 division winners, and 4 wildcard teams.
Round 1 - Wildcard 1 vs. 4, Wildcard 2 vs. 3 BEST of FIVE series
Round 2 - Division winners vs. Wildcard winners (randomly matched) BEST of SEVEN series
Round 3 - Championship Series BEST of SEVEN series
2 days off granted between rounds

Contracts must be signed by World Series start.

Running a Team

Team Details

Team details, including stadiums, can be edited by messaging a commissioner during the offseason. Teams' locations should could be a small town or a fictional place (or use a nickname of a real place) and names can be goofy but should be plausible.

Rosters

Caps: 26 Major league spots / 9 Minor league spots. Additionally in majors: 16 positional max / 13 pitcher max
Slump Buster: Max of 5 real life days
Injury & Fatigue: Batters max of 5 game days injured, pitchers max of 8. Fatigue is ON, most players will require rest based on their ENdurance rating.

Minors

Take advantage of your 9 minor league slots and fill them with young players. Being in the minors has the benefit of being eligible for a Prospect Tag, and the player progressing (improving) at an accelerated rate while not having to be under contract. Stock up on some good young talent in your minor leagues and you will have good players coming up year after year to feed to your team. It will keep your Dynasty from running out of steam!
You may move any player to the minor leagues, that does not make them an eligible Prospect. See requirements in the Prospect section below.

Budgets

If a team doesn't use all of their budget for a year THE REMAINING BUDGET WILL CARRY OVER to the following year's budget effectively allowing teams to save for the future. Owners should think of their budget as a yearly income and any money they save from the previous year must be spent carefully so they don't find themselves over budget in following seasons.
In the hopefully rare event a team goes over their budget the Commissioner will give that team a few days to bring the team back under budget. During that time the owner should organize a trade or make a deal with other teams to remedy the situation. If after period the team is still in breach of their salary cap then they will be penalized by losing their number 1 draft pick for the following season AND the Commissioner will decide which player or players will be removed from the team and auctioned off to the highest bidder. We'll try to be reasonable, but it's best not to put commissioners in a position to have to act on this.

Free Agency

Limited free agency

At the beginning of each season a Limited Free Agency blind, silent auction will be run for a set amount of time. The top 10 available players will be offered up for teams to bid on. Bids will be submitted by message to the commissioner in the form of a dollar amount to be deducted as a signing bonus should you be the highest bidder. This money is only the immediate cost of acquiring the player should your bid win, the player is not automatically signed to a contract. PLEASE RANK YOUR BIDS in order from MOST desired at the TOP of your list, to LEAST desired at the BOTTOM. This prioritizing of bids will allow managers to bid without fear of going wildly over budget should they end up with too many winning bids. Winning bids at the end of the Limited Free Agency period will see players placed on the rosters of the respective winning teams where they may then be dropped, traded or signed at any time, the same as any other acquired free agent. In the event of a tie a quick second round of bidding on tied players, open to ALL teams for renewed bids, will be run. If there's ever another tie after that, a coin-flip will represent the players wishes and best interests.

Open Free Agency

The signing of free agents during open free agency will be based on waiver priority (by team strength), waivers are processed after every round of game sims and there will be a cap at (1) on the number of players you can pickup per cycle. Be careful not to go over your Max Roster size (26 majors, 9 minors). Move players to your minor league system to store youth and depth for your team. Teams that are over their Max Roster size will be given a warning to remedy. Repeated offences will result in a $5MIL Fine and eventual league discipline.
Each season an assortment of historical players from the current year the league is in will be added to the player pool. Most young players will head to the rookie team for a separate draft.
Prospects age 25 will become free agents unless signed that season.

Trading

Basically unlimited (99 per season) between game days 5 and 72, possible allowances during offseason with Commish approval.
Teams may trade draft picks (1 or 2 years in advance), cash and players. Unfair trades may be commissioner reviewed.

Special/Tagged Players

Franchise Players (FP)

Each team is allowed to nominate 1 player as a Franchise Player. This player will be specially tagged as a Franchise Player (FP). The players age will be set to 21 and his Potential stat set to F, he will age normally from there and remain on the team until the owner decides to nominate a new FP.
FPs can only be nominated/changed during the off season. The FP plays at no cost to the team (a free player that sits outside the team's budget). FPs cannot be moved. In order to move them you may declare one new Franchise player during an off-season, the current FP must be age 22 or older for a new FP to be named. You may then drop, trade or sign your previous FP to a Standard or Club Control Contract (see Contracts section). Current and former Franchise Players are never eligible to become a prospect.

Prospects

Some players are eligible for a Prospect Tag. Tagged prospects must be age 24 or younger and do not require a contract to remain on your minor league roster. To be eligible for the tag, a player must
- Be 24 years of age or younger
- Not have a contract
- Not have played ANY major league games
- Not be a current or former Franchise Player
This gives each prospect a development period to become a player that you will want to keep, or trade or drop if they don't pan out. Players may be on a Prospect tag through the age of 24, so a Prospect signed at 18 years of age can have up to 7 years with the Prospect Tag and a player signed at 24 can only have 1 year of the Prospect Tag. When a Prospect turns the age of 25 a manager must negotiate a contract with them or they will be lost to free agency at the end of that season. To promote a Prospect to the Major League Roster or sign them to a contract you must notify a Commissioner to remove the Prospect Tag. A Prospect Tag player may have his tag removed and be promoted to the Majors any time. A manager then has the additional option of signing him to a Club Control Contract (see Contracts section), and as with all contracts upon ending he is released to free agency. WORTH NOTING: Because of the way PC contracts work, a Club Control contract may effectively be one year less than advertised if signed BEFORE end of year progression as opposed to pre-season of a new year this mostly affects Former Franchise Players going the club control contract route.
A promoted prospect may instead be signed to a traditional contract at the demanded rate for up to 5yr as normal with any player. Reach out to a commissioner to sign club control contracts, or to remove a player's prospect tag if signed normally.
Player Development is vital, and there may be some prospects that you think would develop nicely with a little push. Or maybe you just want to keep improving that stud prospect so he becomes a total star. Below is an additional option for your blossoming prospects:

Upgrading Prospect potential: A manager may opt to upgrade the "Potential" (P stat) rating of a minor league Prospect player to the next potential rating. F to U, U to C, C to A, and A to S. The cost to upgrade a potential rating is $5 per step increased. You must message the commissioner with this request so they can edit the player and deduct from your team budget accordingly.

Moving a player to your minor league roster does not make them an eligible prospect. They must still meet eligibility.

Contracts

You are allowed to have a max of 14 players under contract + 1 Franchise Player.
If you acquire a player already under contract, he will play out that contract for you and then become a free agent.
Players under contract may be released by buying out HALF (rounded up) of the remainder of their total contract. This is a one-time lump sum and will immediately reduce your team budget so be careful that this doesn't put you in a position that you can't pay the rest of your contracts the following year. Please advise the Commissioner if you intend to use this option to free up a roster spot as it requires their assistance.
There are two types of contracts (see below).
Contracts cannot be re-signed/extended.
Contracts must be signed by World Series start.

Standard Contracts

Rank based, 5yr max, no raises

Club Control Contracts

A Club Control Contract can be signed with either:
1) A Prospect in the season they have their Prospect tag removed
2) A former Franchise Player 25 years old or younger

A Club Contract Contract starts at $4/yr and increases $2 per year for a max of 4 years.
During Season 0 - Contract is signed (as late as age 25).
Season 1 - $4
Season 2 - $6
Season 3 - $8
Season 4 - $10, released to free agency at end of season
As with all contracts upon ending he is released to free agency.
Reach out to a commissioner to sign Club Control contracts, or to remove a player's prospect tag if signed normally.

Player Progression

Players peak 28 to 31
Progression: Players will age one year each offseason and their stats will adjust accordingly (P stat). Stats only adjust if player had at least 100 ABs or 20 Ips in their statline, we'll do our best to catch those that need to qualify but don't. Link to P Stat info: https://www.pennantchase.com/PlayerPotential.aspx

Bonus / Double Progression

In order to maximize prospects and their use, the league offers double progression. Some Prospects will start with very weak stats, stats that would be the result if they were put in the major league at that moment. Double progression is used to advance them as they continue to grow and develop how they would normally in minor leagues. There are certain eligibility rules as well:
-Must be age 24 or younger
-Must be in minor leagues, and have a Prospect Tag.
-For both batters and pitchers, a player MUST BE RANK 80 OR BELOW!

Any players who fit within the eligibility rules will have double progression. First progression will happen during the all-star break; at this progression, they will obviously not be aged but will progress based on their Progression (P) stat. The second progression will happen along with all league-wide progression, as normal at the end of the season.

A big part of the player development element is that managers must decide if they should keep a prospect in the minor leagues to stay eligible for bonus progression, or call him up to the major leagues because he could be an impact player at that time. With the right development, a team could turn an average prospect into an impact player, while poor development could turn an all-star prospect into just an average ball player. This makes rebuilding a little more fun. POTENTIAL ( The P Stat; https://www.pennantchase.com/PlayerPotential.aspx ) IS USED FOR PROGRESSIONS! KEEP THIS IN MIND!

Bottom Teams Stat Boost

At the end of every season the 2 worst teams are eligible for a player stat boost on 2 of their players; 1 hitter and 1 pitcher. Those teams may purchase one additional stat boost (for one of their boosted players or a third player) for $5. Any player on your team is eligible! These boosts must be requested, message the Commissioner after Game 86 and before the start of the World Series if your team is eligible.
Bottom Teams can choose from the following STAT Boosts:
Hitters:
Speed (more SB and 3B)
Power (more HR and 2B)
Average (more H and BBs)
Finesse (less K's, better DWAR and more EN)
Pitchers:
Power (more K's)
Control (less BB's)
Movement (less H's)
Endurance (more stamina)

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1950 - 2019
Roster Size (Majors)	26
Roster Size (Minors)	9
Keepers	(14 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(5 games max)
Pitcher Injuries	(8 games max)
Use Pitcher's HR Allowed Stats
Allows Max Surprise Bunts
Min Batters Pitcher Must Face	1
Slump Buster	(5 days)
On Fire	Classic
User Sims	(every 10 hours)