League Rules

1974 Unpredictable Andrew Jackson League Rules:

Welcome! This league is designed to make your experience different than any other you have had in the past, even if you had a team from this season before, and, designed to incorporate as many different facets of managing/general managing as possible without blowing your mind. Also, it’s designed to keep every team competitive every year, and to keep the league from turning into a collection of all-star teams as long as possible.

1. When you join, put the name of your desired teams, one winning team and one losing team, in the chat box. First come, first served. For our purposes, .500 teams are winning teams.

2. You will get all the players on your roster with at least 100 AB and 25 IP. In the initial season, we will allow duplicates: both the Yankees and the Angels can have Billy Cowan. With imports, a player goes to the team he played for the most, as measured by AB or IP. Players will have stats doubled, as needed, to allow for progressions.

3. There will be waiver claims and trades during the season, to your heart’s content, as long as you don’t trade between your own teams. A player cannot play on both of your teams during the same season. This is a bootable offense.

4. At the end of the season we will use unpredictable progression, so that even if you played in a 1969 league before with the same teams, your 1970 season here will be different than the others.

5. You will get your imports: all players with 100 AB or 35 IP, as long as they are not currently in the league, and as long as they only played for 1 team during the incoming year. If a “rookie” (imported player) played for 2 or more teams, he goes where he played the most, in terms of AB or IP. If you think I messed up, if you did not get a player you think you should have, you must raise your objection prior to first pitch. Once a player has been in uniform for a “wrong” team for a game, he belongs to that team: the right to appeal has been quashed.

6. As a general rule we don’t allow stat changes. However, we allow 1 (one) stat change per season to make up for a rookie who had a great career and a lousy rookie season (see Mike Schmidt, 1973). If you do not use your 1 stat change in a given year, you can “bank” it for a subsequent year, but you cannot “borrow” one from a subsequent year. Use them judiciously. You cannot take back a stat change once you use it (like, if you don’t choose that player for your 20-man retention list, you can't get the stat change back.) In 1974, you will have 2: one for 1974, and 1 “banked” change for 1973.

7. Draft: During the offseason, after imports, you can select (up to) 20 players to keep. You do this by signing them to a 1 year contract: when I advance contracts, the others will be washed into the Free Agent pool. We will then draft the players in the pool in reverse order of last years’ finish. 6 rounds is usually enough. (Waiver claims will follow once the season starts.) Once the season starts, I will erase the contracts.

You get to keep whichever 20 players you want, you keep each player as long as you want, as long as they fit into the 20 player reserved list, and there is no bidding nor worry about budgets. Note that when games begin, you must have enough players of the right type for sims to run. This would be 11 position players and 9 pitchers. If you don't have these minimums, your team's sims won't run, and you will forfeit games until you do (yes -- we will do waiver claims once the season begins.).

DRAFT LOTTERY: To discourage tanking, there will be a number of teams involved in the lottery for the first picks, to exceed the number of teams that don't make the playoffs. There are 10 teams in each league, and 7 teams per league make the playoffs, then the worst 8 records (plus any team in the best 12 records that do NOT make the playoffs) will be involved in the lottery. You can make the playoffs and still get first pick in the draft: PLAY TO WIN!

League composition & Playoffs: There are 2 10-team leagues. 7 teams per league make the playoffs. In the Play-in round, seeds 4 - 7 in each league play a best of 3 series. In round 1, the play-in winners and seeds 2 and 3 play a best-of-three round. In round 2, these two remaining wild card teams play a best-of-5 round. The winner, in round 3, meets the regular season champion in a best-of-7 round, and the World Series (best-of-7) pits the 2 league champions against each other. The Goal is to make winning your division mean something and prevent an early exodus for the season’s best performer, while keeping most owners engaged because they have a chance to win the championship.

Ties: If teams tie for a playoff spot:

⇒ If both teams would be “in”, use head to head record as a tiebreaker.
⇒ If one is in, the other is out, 1 game playoff (@ head 2 head winner)

⇒ Your teams will not play each other unless they both make the playoffs.
⇒ You may not trade players between your teams. This is a boot-able offense. However, you can choose to not retain a player on one team, and then draft him on another one of your teams.

Teams: 26/36 rosters; 4 man rotations through 1974; 5-man from 1975 forward. Rosters must include, at minimum, 11 players (incl. 2 catchers), 9 p minimum. Minimums: 35 IP, 100 AB going forward.

At, or about, game 100, I will turn drops off. I will then expand rosters to 40 players, in case you need to add a player (in case of injury) during the season. At game 140, waivers and trades will be turned off until after the World Series. If I forget to turn them off, I will revert trades and waivers after that point.

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 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. A player can always be switched to the position they played most in their career. You can switch a DH to his secondary position, as long as he has a fielding percentage.

CONDUCT
MY BASIC EXPECTATIONS OF EACH OWNER:
⇒ Actively running your team means that you read messages once per day, meet all deadlines, and communicate any difficulties to the commissioner. If you will be away, and unable to get your message, 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.
⇒ 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!


OFF SEASON DUTIES:

Emptying of the free agent pool.

Unpredictable progression after world series. 30 is peak; 34 starts regressing.

Imports: Your next year’s players will be imported on your roster as long as they are not already in the league. 100 AB, 35 IP minimum.

Requests for stat changing: 1 player per team per offseason (unused changes can be “banked”). You cannot take back a stat change once you use it (like, if you don’t choose that player for your 20-man retention list.)

Retention designation: Owners will select the 20 players they want to retain by "signing" them to a 1-year contract. Rosters will then be cleared.

Draft of free agents.

Turn drops and trades on, and return rosters to 26/36

Trades (all season 99) Trade deadline is game 140. No trades are permitted between game 140 and the end of the World Series.

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.

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	1978 - 1979
Roster Size (Majors)	26
Roster Size (Minors)	9
Keepers	(20 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency	(waivers)
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries
Pitcher Injuries
Use Pitcher's HR Allowed Stats
Allows Max Surprise Bunts
Min Batters Pitcher Must Face	1
Slump Buster	(1unlimited days)
On Fire	Uses WAR
User Sims	(every 3 hours)