League Rules

Welcome to the Hall of Very Good. This is the league that honors those players who have just missed out on induction into the baseball hall of fame.

Commissioner: 56Castle99
Vice Commissioner:
Trade Committee:

162 Games
Division Winners and 2 Wildcards make playoffs in each league
All best of 7 series (2-3-2 Format) - 1 Day off on travel days and between series
6 Hours Between Sims
All Star break after Day 95
Trade Deadline Day 140
Free Agent Signings Day 145

1. Team Names: Owners will be allowed to name their team after any historical or current major or minor league team as long as it is not the same name as any current MLB team. I would like to have a wide range of team locations (Not 4-5 NY teams) but this league is supposed to be fun so we will take it at a case by case basis. Furthermore, stadium names and dimensions do not need to be historically accurate, but I would like to at least use stadiums that have or still do exist.

2. Eligibility: In order to be eligible for, players must have been out of baseball long enough to be considered for the hall of fame (Retired by 2015). Secondly, position players must be in the top 50 in their position according to Baseball Reference WAR for position players, and the top 150 players for pitchers. In order for a season to be eligible for the league, the player must have had 100 or more at bats, 100 innings pitched for starting pitchers, or 30 innings pitched for relievers.

3. Positions: Primary and secondary positions for position players are determined using the positions that player appeared at the most in each individual season. Each players baseball reference page has a section labeled appearances that was used to determine their primary and secondary positions for each season. If a player only appeared at one position in a given season, their secondary position is determined by where they appeared the second most times in their career. If a player only appeared at one position in their entire career they will be given DH as a secondary position. This league does not use OF as a primary position. All outfielders will be either LF, CF, or RF for their primary positions.

3a. IF and OF Secondary Positions: In order to have a secondary position of OF, a player must have appeared at all three outfield positions in that given season. For an IF designation, a player must have appeared at all 4 infield positions, or appear at 2B, 3B, and SS while also playing 1B at some point in their career.

3b. SP and RP: Currently, a pitcher imported because they are a top 150 SP is eligible to be used as a starter as long as they pitched 100 or more innings that year regardless of the role. Likewise, relievers are eligible to be used as relievers as long as they pitched 20 or more innings. In order to switch a pitcher's role, they must have either thrown 100 or more innings as a starter or 20 or more innings as a reliever in the season of interest. (For example, Kerry Wood is in the league for being a top 150 reliever, but he could be used as a starter with his 1998 stats since he pitched more than 100 innings as a starter that year). This will lead us to another poll topic. We will have a vote again after year 1 once we have a season to see how it goes.

4. Draft: For year 1, there will be 25 round snake draft. The plan is to do a live draft which may mean breaking the draft down into multiple days. We will try and run the initial draft so as many owners can attend as possible. The draft order will be determined at random but the league commissioner will take the last pick in round 1 no matter what. Following each season there will be a 2 round supplementary draft with the draft order determined by the standings for that season. This is where we will add new players to the league and remove players who get voted into the Hall. This supplemental draft will be a slow draft with 6 hours per pick.

5. Keepers: Outside of clearing 2 roster spots for the supplemental draft, teams can keep any player they like and we will not be using contracts. The only condition to keeping players is their season must be changed for each season they play on the same team. Once a player has not been on your team for a season, you could obtain them through either free agency or trade and once again use seasons that have been used previously. I will have a spreadsheet that all owners have access to where I keep track of which seasons have been used for a player. Just to be clear, each time a player changes teams, his eligible seasons reset for the new owner. If a new owner enters the league we will reset the seasons for their players. These rules also apply to players who never actually played in a season but were on the roster (kept in the minor leagues for example).

6. Waivers: We will run waivers each day where owners can claim one player. The order for waivers will be determined by team strength in year 1 with following seasons waiver orders being determined by the standings from the previous season.

7. Trades: This league will be largely dependent on trades, and because of the changing seasons aspect, determining player value is much more complicated than just looking at their rank. To try and reduce conflict, we will have a trade committee that looks at trades to try and ensure fairness. If a member of the trade committee is involved in a trade we will replace them with another member of the league. Just remember this league is supposed to be fun. If you have a problem with a trade, the trade committee will look at it, and any further discussion will be allowed as long as it as civil.

8. Postseason: Each league will have the two division winners as the number 1 and 2 seeds with the wild cards being the 3 and 4 seeds. Even if a wild card team has a better record than a division winner they cannot be above a 3 seed. Any ties between division winners or wild card teams will be determined by run differential then head to head record. If still tied, runs scored will be used. If there is a tie for the final wild card spot there will be a 1 game playoff.

***9. New Compensation Rule*** This does not impact year one, but we will be instituting a compensation system when teams with a complete 30 man roster lose more than 2 players due to Hall of Fame induction or changes in WAR ratings. If a team loses 3 or more players, and one of them is lost due to Hall of Fame induction, that team will receive a compensatory pick at the end of the 1st round of the supplemental draft. If a player is lost due to WAR changes they will receive a compensatory pick at the end of the 2nd round. Again, this rule only applies if you began the offseason with a full 30 man roster.

10. Veteran's Committee:
--- 1. I will choose a decade in baseball history from which we will pick candidates from.

--- 2. Eligible players are those who played at least 3 full seasons in that decade and have been retired for at least 5 years.
-for batters use the 3.1 PA per scheduled game, so 502 plate appearances in a 162 game schedule.
-for starting pitchers use 1 IP per team game played, so 162 IP in a 162 game schedule
-for relief pitchers use minimum 30 IP, same as what we use in this league

--- 3. Each owner nominates one eligible player that they believe is Hall of Very Good worthy, meaning they had a career that is noticeably better than average. There are no statistical benchmarks, so I'm hoping to encourage a healthy debate. Please don't simply nominate guys just because they have good stats for the league, I want to use this system to acknowledge great players who are not already in the league.

--- 4. I understand that not all owners will take the time to participate, and if this is the case, I will fill out the ballot to 16 players. Once our candidates are decided, information regarding each will be posted and I will allow time for owners to discuss their preferred candidates.

--- 5. Each owner will be allowed to submit their ballot voting for up to 5 players. Once all ballots are submitted, players with 50% of the vote will be added to the league. If not all owners submit ballots we may need to adjust the benchmark for enshrinement but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

--- 6. Players voted in through this process will not count toward the standard player pool rules. That means that if changes in the WAR lists, or HOF induction leads to one of these players entering the top 50 or 150 for their position they will not count toward that total.

If anyone has any questions feel free to contact me. I will try to answer any messages as soon as I can. Thank you for joining and I hope you have fun in the Hall of Very Good.

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