League Rules

1. League Concept and Structure

Don't you get a little tired of progressions and astronomical real and/or compiled stats, and having to try to predict how much a player will improve or decline with age. This league is for the baseball fan who wants less statistical variance - who wants to be able to draft Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Cy Young or other greats who don't typically do much in other leagues. It is for the fan who doesn't want to see that no-name guy in the league who hit .385 one year in 200 AB, but otherwise we wouldn't have heard of. This league differs from all others on this website in that the player statistics are customized to reflect their real MLB CAREER statistics. It includes the greatest players in MLB history (based on career accomplishments and/or rankings in significant statistical categories - see section #13 below for more details). The player's statistics are based on a player's AVERAGE SEASON (factoring in any season in which they appeared in at least 1 game). All stats are based on their average quantity per season, and then fudged up or down by 1 or 2 depending on the stat, to make the AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and/or WHIP equal the player's career numbers as closely as possible. League structure (leagues/divisions/teams) is the same as current MLB structure. The DH rule is in effect for all teams and all games.


2. Key League Settings

ENDURANCE:
Use player fatigue = YES. Thus, the Endurance rating for each player will be a factor. The Endurance rating shows how many consecutive days a player can play before becoming fatigued and needing a day off. Your rosters will need to account for a lot of backup players if you have low-endurance ratings. You can either proactively move players in and out of your lineups (will be user-simmed, so there will be time between games), or you can let the computer make those adjustments. It will be a good idea to have each position covered with at least 2 players who can play a particular position with either their primary or secondary position, to account for player fatigue and/or injuries.
INJURIES:
Injuries to both position players (batters) and pitchers is capped at 15 games at a time. I'm seeking realism on the injury front. This setting in combination with the player fatigue usage should force a lot of playing time amongst one's roster (as in real life) and a need for a complete roster, not just 6-7 superstars.
PROGRESSION AND PLAYER AGE:
All players will be 0 years old
No progression.
ON FIRE:
There is no On Fire. They have had their careers and I'm seeking to be true to those career numbers and let them speak for themselves. No mysterious On Fire factors to worry about.
SLUMP BUSTER:
Well pros do have the ability to get extra work in if they are slumping, so we'll stick with the slump buster feature. As of Season 10, it will be limited to 10 calendar days per slump-bustered player (previously it had been available for the whole season (regular and postseason)).


3. League Code of Conduct

Vulgarity as interpreted solely by the commissioner is cause for immediate removal from the league. The Message Center and/or Draft Room chat boxes are no place for taking out grudges or bashing fellow owners who you feel aren't making good draft choices, who aren't good trading partners, etc. Leave the nasty trash talk out of this league and leave it to good-natured jabs at most. Also don't use the message center or chat box to advertise or seek owners for a different league (use the Public Board for that). If you've been asked to refrain from a particular line or style of conversation, and don't, you'll be removed.

Inactive owners will also be dropped from the league if corrective action isn't taken after receiving notice from the commissioner. Owners will be deemed inactive if they haven't signed onto the website within 10 days and their team is performing poorly due to inadequate lineup setting (players out of position, certain positions not filled, etc.). If an owner is dropped, the commissioner will set that team's default lineup until such time that a new owner joins.


4. Roster Size

Each team can have a maximum of 30 players on it (26 in majors and 4 in minors). Maximum number of position players on the active roster is 17 minimum is 14. Maximum number of pitchers on the active roster is 13, minimum is 10. If a team hasn't met the minimum for some reason after the draft/free agency signing periods, the commissioner will select players to get to the minimum.


5. Free Agents and Trades

There will be no limits on the number of times you can drop and add players from your roster. As I've invested enough time just getting the player database created, and don't want to spend a lot of time with trade analysis and tracking, trades will be limited to 5 per season.

After the first 24 players are obtained via the Draft process (see #9 below), all teams are free to alter their teams via free agency as much as desired (as long as the roster size makeup adheres to rule #4 above).

The deadline for aquiring players via Trading or Free Agency will occur at the 140 game mark (when all teams have played 140 games).


6. Park Effects and Team Details

No changes allowed to team name or stadium.
I will personally change logos and stadium dimensions as they occur in MLB.
All logos and stadiums are up to date as of August 2025.



7. Year-to-Year Roster Turnover and the Retained for Next Year tag

We all have our favorite all-time players, and if you don't happen to get that guy in the first draft, don't fret. This league is intended to create an extremely high level of player turnover from season to season, so you'll get your shot at some of your favorite guys in upcoming seasons, because....

At the end of each season (after the World Series), all players on each roster will be returned to the free agent pool. The only exceptions will be the 2 players signed to a one year contract. Each team will be able to sign 2 players they wish to retain for the upcoming season. Once this designation is made, these 2 players will become free agents at the end of that upcoming season.


8. Postseason

For each league, 3 division winners and 3 wildcard teams will make the postseason.

Tie-breaker scenarios will be followed as outlined at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_tie-breaking_procedures.

World Series home field advantage will be determined by the league with the advantage in the interleague play games, based first on winning percentage, and if equal, then on run differential, and if still equal, then on final regular season power rankings (league with the best avg power ranking per team is home team).

Introduced in Season 2, two wildcard teams (in each league) will play each other in a single game showdown. This will occur one day after the last regular-season game (including any one-game tie-breaking playoff games). The winner of this game advances to the next round. The home team for this single-game playoff is the wild card team with the best regular season record. If both teams have the same number of wins and losses, tie-breaking procedures are used (no additional games are played).

The division winners receive a bye as they await the result of the Wild Card Showdown. The winner of the Wild Card Showdown game will always face the division winner with the best record, regardless of division

After the conclusion of Wild Card Showdown there will be another off-day before the remainder of the playoffs begin. Thus the playoffs will follow the format of MLB as noted below:

Last Regular Season Game
OFF-DAY
Wild Card Showdown
OFF-DAY
LDS: Game1, Game2, OFFDAY, Game3, Game4, OFFDAY, Game5, OFFDAY
LCS: Game1, Game2, OFFDAY, Game3, Game4, Game5, OFFDAY, Game6, Game7, OFFDAY
WS: Game1, Game2, OFFDAY, Game3, Game4, Game5, OFFDAY, Game6, Game7


9. Draft


Planning note: It is always a good idea to have a fair (if not exhaustive) level of player rankings in the supplemental draft feature. Click on a free agent and then the "Add Player to Draft List" option. From there, you can arrange your picks in desired drafting order. That way, if you wind up not being able to make a draft pick, have connection issues, or otherwise miss your draft pick in a round, the auto-pick feature of the draft room will utilize the top available player from your rankings.

a) Draft Order is based on order of finish of the previous season. The Draft will be conducted in snake order, so the last team to pick in round 1, will be the first team to pick in round 2, etc.

b) First we'll open the Draft Room and have a 3 round slow draft where everyone has 8 hrs to make a selection from the time you receive a message from the commissioner. You'll get an automatic message when it is your turn to draft. When the commish logs in and notices a new owner on the clock, he'll update the message box in the draft room with the deadline for that pick (not counting Midnight to 6AM Eastern)

c) Next we'll transition to a Daily Draft until each team reaches a roster size of 24 players. The Daily Draft allows you to rank players, and a round is run every 12 hours, giving you more control over the team you end up with. The daily draft only takes about 12 days to finish since it drafts two rounds per day. No one will be skipped in this league's draft. If you haven't pre-ranked players via the Supplemental Draft mechanism, you'll still get a player auto-picked for you.

d) With 24 of 30 roster spots completed, Free Agency will be opened up at a set date/time, allowing owners to select remaining Free Agents (on a first-come first-served basis) to round out your team.


10. Regular Season Simulator/Schedule

Each team will play a 162 game schedule, based on the actual 2023 MLB schedule for year 1, after that teams in same division will be swapping schedules so they are altered each season. This will be done at a user-simmed pace. Since the real MLB schedule is utilized, built-in off-days are worked into the schedule, so your 4th and 5th starters will not get as much work as 1 thru 3, etc. But it is probably advisable to have a 5 man starting rotation for those times when your team is playing more than 5 consecutive days. Also the All-Star break will be factored into the schedule at the appropriate time.


11. SP to RP conversion

None.


12. Awards

All Stars will be picked day 103 to comply with 2023 MLB Schedule. (4 days rest all teams)
After the season is completed, MVP and Cy Young will be picked by owners.



13. Player Database

All player data was derived from www.baseball-reference.com.

Prior to each season and before the draft, I will allow each manager to request one additional player for inclusion in the database. New players added will be announced on the front page. Once a draft starts, new player creation must wait until the next off-season. The player must meet the specifications listed below.

To qualify for this league, a player must have met the following criteria:
a) Batter had at least 3000 career At-Bats.
b. Starting Pitcher pitched at least 7 seasons with at least 1000 Career Innings Pitched.
c) Relief Pitcher pitched at least 5 seasons with at least 325 Career Innings Pitched.

Player ratings/positions:
a) No DH's in this league. Players who were primarily DH's in their careers will be listed at the position on the field they played most.
b) All Outfielders are listed as OF so there is no need to be concerned with specific OF positioning.
c) All player defensive fielding averages are based on their career marks at their primary position.
d) To qualify for a secondary position, the player had to have played at least 10% of their total career games at a position other than their primary position. In some cases, the IF or UT designation was granted if the total number of games outside the player's primary position was varied enough amongst several positions to warrant such a designation.
e) Pitcher stamina was calculated in the following way: SP's - (Actual career IP divided by Actual Games Pitched in) multiplied by 18; RP's - (Actual career IP divided by Actual Games Pitched in) multiplied by 20
f) Pitcher SP vs. RP determination - if 50% or more of their career appearances were starts, they were made a SP.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	1871 - 2024
Roster Size (Majors)	26
Roster Size (Minors)	7
Keepers	(2 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(15 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	(1unlimited days)
On Fire	Classic
User Sims	(every 8 hours)