League Rules

Welcome to Around the Horn 2020!

This is an MLB type league - same playoffs, season, etc. 162 game season

Commisioners: JoeyRex

Trade Committee: twolvesfan (Vote on if a fishy trade is fair)

THIS LEAGUE IS FOR ACTIVE OWNERS ONLY:
Inactive owners will be given a deadline to meet or team is subject to becoming vacated. Owners are responsible for lineups, contracts and roster management. Owners unable to be active will be released.

Commissioner:
If anyone has any questions or concerns, please feel free to message Joeyrex, BucsBall & atleskovec. We will do our best to answer any questions you may have or attempt to resolve any problem that a commissioner would need to fix.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LEAGUE RULES:

ROSTERS:
- All teams will have a 25 man active roster and a maximum of 25 players in the minor league system.
-any player on your team can be in either the majors or minors.
-drafted players, team submitted prospects and time machine free agents are automatically given a prospect tag. Prospects are free their first year. Prospects stay on your roster without a contract until: 1) the offseason after which they have appeared in a game and/or 2) 25 years of age. Note 1: there are no minimum stats a prospect must eclipse to relinquish their tag. Simply appearing in a game does the trick. Note 2: Prospects lose their tags at age 25 but they do not become free agents until after that season. Therefore, a 25 year old player who loses their tag can play that season for free but will become a free agent when progressions are ran at season’s end.

POSITION CHANGES:
-During the off-season you may request 1 player to swap his primary and secondary stats at no cost to you. No player request allowed or processed during the season. (FORMER) If SP is converted to a RP, their stats will be divided until their innings pitched is between 40-79. H/9 will go down by about 1.5, bb/9 will go down by about 1 and so/9 will go up by about 2. Stamina will equal 25. (SP to RP conversion rates were edited PRIOR to 2031 season) If SP is converted to a RP, their stats will be divided until their innings pitched is between 40-79. H/9 will go down by about .5, bb/9 will go up by about .5 and so/9 will go up by about 1. Stamina will equal 25.
(SP to RP conversion rates were edited PRIOR to 2032 season) If SP is converted to a RP, their stats will be divided until their innings pitched is between 40-79. H/9 will go down by about .3, bb/9 will go up by about .5 and so/9 will go up by about .5. Stamina will equal 25.
Position players may only change to their secondary positions. Their defense will worsen as a result.
-Secondary position can be switched to another position as follows: SP -> RP; 1B -> LF; 2B -> 3B or LF; 3B -> 1B or RF; SS -> 2B or 3B; OF -> 1B. (INF rule edited PRIOR to 2032 season) If secondary position is INF, team must claim any INF position (1B, 2B, 3B or SS) as new primary. INF may not be claimed as a primary position.

CONTRACTS:
- Only 1 player per year can be re-signed once their contract ends - the rest will become free agents. Players can be signed to a max of 10 years.
- Players won't ask for raises once a contract is signed. They will be paid the same amount for every year of their contract.
- Extended contracts - Player controls salary per season, owner controls contract length (up to 10 years). Owner must confirm they agree to deal by league deadline.

NEW OWNERSHIP:
- when a new owner takes over a team the new owner can DELETE an entire contract or REDUCE the number of years of a contract of up to 3 existing contracts of any player on their team.

PLAYER PROGRESSION:
- Players will reach their prime at 28 years old. Their stats remain the same from age 28-34 and then get worse every year after 35+ until they retire.
- Players retire between the age of 35-43. When they turn 35, there is a tiny chance that they retire. As they get older, they are more likely to retire. At the end of their 43 year old season, they are guaranteed to retire, no matter how good they are. Players are also less likely to retire if they are better. so if they is a 35 year old 3B who is still great, he will not retire. But if there is a 35 year old 3B who isn't signed by anyone because he isn't good, he will have a high chance to retire. Also, if a player is 35 or older and is hitting under .175 or has a WHIP above 1.75, he will retire.

BUDGET RULES:
- All teams have $250 of budget.
- Teams may go over budget as a result of FA bidding (off-season or Time Machine). However, team must be back under cap before 1st game following (either opening day or first games following Time Machine FA). Penalty if not- loss of latest pick in next draft for that team (if they have no draft picks in next two drafts than the 3rd) at the time of violation (in other words, you can?t acquire a pick after the violation that is at the end of the 3rd round to ?sacrifice?) and commissioner will drop a player(s) that get team under cap with fewest moves and highest ranking (ex- $10m over cap; commissioner will drop a player from the team that has $10m+ yearly salary with highest ranking regardless of age/position/team need).

TRADING:
- You can trade draft picks up to 1 year into the future - so if it is the 2020 season, you can trade your 2020 and 2021 picks.
- The trading deadline will be Day 122.
- Teams may trade their rights to create a prospect from their real MLB team?s system. If traded, team receiving the additional prospect rights will create a 2nd prospect from their own system.
- If a trade is deemed to be unfair, commission office will message owners involved for attention. If needed, a league poll will be created asking if the trade is unfair and if 50% or more vote that the trade is unfair, the trade will be vetoed. If a team owner believes a trade is unfair, they can send a request for attention to the commissioner.

AWARDS:
-GIVEN TO AMERICAN AND NATIONAL LEAGUES
- MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the year (ROY), Silver Slugger Award, Triple Crown award, (if applicable) Reliever of the year, Gold Glove, Hank Aaron Award (voted on by all league owners), Comeback Player of the year,
-MESSAGE ANY COMMISSIONER IF YOU THINK AN AWARD SHOULD BE ADDED

ALL-STAR BREAK:
- There will be an all star break after Day 90. Players will also be granted 4 days off to emulate the real all star break.
-Beginning in season 2021, a "Time Machine Free Agency" will be held at the All-Star Break. 4-8 past players will be bid on.

OFFSEASON:
1) World Series Ends and Championship Ring is awarded
2) Contracts are advanced and any player unsigned or with an expiring contract is released to Free Agency
3) Player Progression is applied
4) Rookie and Free Agency Draft occurs
5) Set Lineups and Minor League System
6) Open Team Editing
7)Start New Season

FREE AGENCY - Off-Season:
- Free agents will be signed through a bidding system. Round 1 bidding system total contract value must be $25m or greater ? Everyone will send their bids via message sent before deadline. Total contract value (years x $) wins! (ex: if the Mets give a 5 year, $10 each year deal, and the Nationals give a 2 year, $20 each year deal, the player will take the Mets deal because he gets more overall cash there.). Round 2 bidding system may be any total contract value. Both rounds are a one bid system (unless we have a tie) so make your bids count!

-Teams may go over Budget during off-season/Time Machine FA. See Budget rules for deadline to be back under Cap and penalties if deadline not met.

-Time Machine Free Agency will be conducted during the all-star break. This will consist of 4-8 past mlb players reappearing in the league. Chat room bidding will be conducted for those players.

DRAFT:
- The Draft will go for 3 rounds on a select night voted on by all the owners.
- Draft picks are tradable.

PROSPECT SUBMISSION:
- At the end of each season, you will be allowed to submit 1 player from your actual MLB team's farm system or majors that are rookies and not in the Around the Horn PC League yet. As part of the off-season tasks, owners will message the commissioner their selections.
1. They must have played in Triple A or the majors for at least one full season - or triple A + majors combined for a season.
2. They must not be in the game (or retired). Please search the league database via the homepage to ensure the selection is not already in the game or has already retired.
IMPORTANT:
-Prospects will attempt to mirror their real life selves. If they are strikeout pitcher, their created PC stats will lean that way. If they are high stolen base player, their PC stats will lean that way....etc. However, every submitted prospect will end with an overall rating between 38-42 and be age 20. Regardless if they are the #1 prospect in MLB or unranked. The goal is that each team will have a 20 yo player in the overall rank range to develop.

DETERMINING THE DRAFT ORDER:
-Team with the worst record in the previous season gets the 1st pick, best team gets the 30th pick, etc.

PLAYOFFS:
- The playoffs will be run the same way it is run in the MLB 2020.
- Division Winners = #1-#3 in each league
- Division Runner-Ups = #4-#6 in each league
- Wildcards (next two best records) = #7-#8
- Format = Round 1 (best of 3) > #1 v #8; #2 v #7; #3 v #6; #4 v #5
- Division Series (best of 5) > reseeded (ex- #1 v highest remaining team; #2 v second to highest remaining team...)
- League Championship Series (best of 7)
- World Series (best of 7) Sims will be every 2 hours to march quickly through the playoffs. 1 round/series per day. 1st game at 8am each day.

-In the case that 2 teams are tied, tie breaker system is:
For Divisional Winners/2nd Place/Wild Cards >
a) Head to Head Season Series
b) Divisional Record
c) Intra-League Record
d) Inter-League Record
e) Tie-Breaker Game

Good luck and HAVE FUN!

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	2020 - 2050
Roster Size (Majors)	25
Roster Size (Minors)	25
Keepers	(50 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(30 games max)
Pitcher Injuries	(15 games max)
Use Pitcher's HR Allowed Stats
Allows Max Surprise Bunts
Min Batters Pitcher Must Face	3
Slump Buster	(15 days)
On Fire	Classic
User Sims