League Rules

Welcome to the Global Baseball Federation
The goal of this league is to provide owners with a realistic baseball league with in depth record keeping. As the league progresses, we hope to expand and add teams around the globe. The league will begin with 32 teams (8 divisions of 4 teams each)

This is a serious league that will have advanced record keeping (found on history page), almost daily news stories, and a high difficulty due to the level of GMs here. As commissioner, I expect you to be working to improving your team at all times. If I feel you are intentionally losing, or ?tanking?, I may take action against you or your team. All GMs must be active

Expansion teams
Osaka Buffaloes (Season 1)
London Lions (Season 1)

Commissioner: TexRangersWS14
Vices: Sammy-Z (interim commissioner) and Loser63

Player Management

Service Time
After being drafted, any player under 70 rank/26 years old can have his rookie contract extended if he stays under 50 ABs, 25 IP for SP, and 15 IP for RP. Meaning if you have a player who might not be ready to contribute at the major league level yet (and is under 70 rank), you can hold him in the minors and delay the start of his rookie contract. Once he surpasses those limits, his clock will start. For players above 70 rank, you might as well play them in the majors immediately as their clock cannot be delayed.

——All prospects must now be signed at age 26 regardless of their ranking, skill, or being called up. If they’re not signed by season end, then they will become free agents at the end of their age 26 season. So any prospect that reaches/is currently 27+ in your minor leagues should be under contract.
—This is to prevent guys wasting away their prime blocked in someone’s minor league system, and to help add depth to the free agent pool.
--this will be monitored by loser63

--Rookie Contracts
-Players drafted into the league with a rank above 70 will be given a rookie contract of $1/6yrs/+$2 raise
-Players below 70 rank will be given a contract delay tag, and these players must be signed to a PC contract after they reach 70 rank, or earlier if the team owner wishes. The max $$ amount these players can ask for is $5, the minimum is $1. If your player is asking for something other than between $1-$5, notify the commish. Max contract length is 6 years. Flat contract, no raise.

--Franchise Tag: Every offseason, each team can use a franchise tag on one expiring player. The franchise tag will be a $20 contract with $1 raises, for 1-2 years depending on what the owner wants. Each player can only be franchise tagged once in their careers.

--Position Changes: If you want to make a players secondary position his new primary position, it will come at a cost of -1 dWAR.

If you want to make a players primary position a completely new position (not his secondary), it will come at a cost of -2 dWar. Example: 0 dWar player, LF(3B) ---- SS(LF) -2 dWar

-Changing a players secondary position to one of the specific parameters listed below does not cost dWar:
--A primary SS or 2B can have their secondary position changed to any IF position or corner OF (1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF, RF)

--A primary 1B, 3B, LF, RF can have their secondary position changed to any of those four positions

--A primary catcher can have their secondary position changed to any corner OF/INF

--A primary RF or LF can have their secondary position changed to CF. However this move will come with a -1 dWar adjustment. (Meaning if he is +2.3 and switches to CF, his dWar goes to 1.3)

*Primary position changes are limited to one per offseason per team.
*Secondary Position changes are limited to 3 per team.

******—SS and 2B who have 0.9 dWAR or less can be changed to a different INF primary position. If their secondary is OF or C, they are eligible to be changed to them, but could still choose a INF position if preferred. The new costs for those two positions will be:

-incur a 25 point drop in fielding percentage.
-lose 0.2 dWAR (even if already negative)
-lose 2 Fire
********

*Teams can only do this for one SS/2B per offseason.

Schedule of Events (starting with Opening Day)

Day 1 -- Opening Night -- one game simmed

Day 2 through Day 120 -- game simulated every 3 hours

After Day 120 -- Trade Deadline (1 real day of no sims to allow teams to trade)

After Day 145 -- Add/Drop players turned off

After Day 162 -- regular season ends
--team awards given
----(year) Northeast Champion
----(year) Southeast Champion
----(year) Mideast Champion
----(year) Great Lakes Champion
----(year) Central Champion
----(year) North Champion
----(year) Southwest Champion
----(year) West Champion
----(year) Wild Card #9
----(year) Wild Card #10
----(year) Wild Card #11
----(year) Wild Card #12

Playoff Format

Seeds 1-4 receive First Round bye
--5 vs 12
--6 vs 11
--7 vs 10
--8 vs 9

-Lowest seed (1=low) plays highest remaining seed (12=high)

--1 day off given
--stats archived
--poll put up regarding CY's, MVP's, and RoY's

-- First Round simmed (7 game series)
--Day off after games 2 and 4

--one day off after First Round

-- Second Round begins (7 game series)
--Day off after games 2 and 4

After Second Round ends -- 1 day off given

3rd Round begins -- 1 day off after games 2 and 5

After 3rd Round ends -- 2 days off given

World Series starts -- 1 day off after games 2 and 5

World Series ends
--award trophies to team
----(year) World Series Champion
----(year) World Series Runner Up
----Teams will receive a Star for every award besides winning the World Series, which will get a trophy.

--Individual Player Awards given After the regular season, individual player awards for MVP, Cy Young, and Rookie of the Year candidates will be voted on. There will be 5 MVP, 5 Cy Young candidates, and 5 Rookie of the Year candidates. The stat cutoffs for Rookie of the Year eligibility are 150 career ABs, 50 innings for SPs, or 25 innings for RPs prior to the current season. Other non-voting individual player awards include:
1: World Series MVP
18: Silver Slugger (2 best offensive players at each position)
1: Batting Title (AVG)
1: Stolen Base Champ (SB)
1: Delivery Man of the Year (Best RP)

Offseason Tasks

--progress players
----27 or younger: Progression
----28-29: No progression
----30 or older: Regression

Age to Peak:
28

Age to Regress:
30

--age players (Players above 40 will usually be retired with possible exceptions. Players in their mid-late 30’s may be retired at commissioner discretion due to skill, lack of interest, stat balancing, or narratives).

--turn trading on

--Announce Awards Results

Rookie Draft Picks: Draft picks may only be traded for the upcoming Rookie Draft

Cash: The budget for all teams is $160 and cash can not be traded

--clear team rosters (expiring players or anyone not signed to a contract)

Rookie Draft -- During the offseason. 2 rounds. 65-80 players:
C: 4-6
1B: 4-6
2B: 4-6
3B: 4-6
SS: 4-6
OF: 15
SP: 25
RP: 15

--Stat Ranges
All rookies will be created using the quick create player tool. I will alter some of them to add variety to the draft, but a large amount of them will be merely tweaked and remain as they were generated. Just like in real life, the quality of the draft classes will not always be consistent. Some years may wind up loaded with good players while others don?t feature much star power. Some may have a lot of GBF-ready college players who make immediate impact, while others might be more heavy on kids coming out of high school. Whatever happens happens. The stat ranges are used as a general guide, but I don?t adhere strictly to these exact ranges. There will be some players who have outliers in certain stats. Those stat ranges are:

For position players:
Potential: RANDOM
Set a min and max for each stat below.
Age: 20 to 23
Games:130 to 155
AB: 575 to 650
Hits: 120 to 180
Runs: 30 to 90
HR: 0 to 25
RBI: 30 to 100
2B: 15 to 50
3B: 0 to 10
BB: 30 to 80
SO: 80 to 200
SB: 0 to 30
HBP: 0 to 15
On Fire: 0 to 18

Starting Pitchers:
Potential: RANDOM
Age: 20 to 23
Wins: 0 to 25
Loss: 0 to 25
IP: 170 to 220
HA: 180 to 220
BB: 40 to 90
SO: 120 to 200
CG: 0 to 10
SV: 0 to 0
WP: 0 to 20
Stamina: 85 to 100
On Fire: 0 to 18

Relief Pitchers:
Potential: RANDOM
Age: 18 to 23
Wins: 0 to 10
Loss: 0 to 10
IP: 80 to 110
HA: 80 to 100
BB: 20 to 55
SO: 70 to 100
CG: 0 to 0
SV: 0 to 40
WP: 0 to 15
Stamina: 20 to 25
On Fire: 0 to 18

--Rookie Contracts
-Players drafted into the league with a rank above 70 will be given a rookie contract of $1/6yrs/+$2 raise
-Players below 70 rank will be given a contract delay tag, and these players must be signed to a PC contract after they reach 70 rank, or whenever the team owner wishes. The max $$ amount these players can ask for is $5, the minimum is $1. If your player is asking for something other than between $1-$5, notify the commish. Max contract length is 6 years. Flat contract, no raise.

-after Rookie Draft: Open Phase 1 of Free Agent Bidding

Free Agency -- Split into 2 Phases. You can bid on any FA. Contract length is up to 6 years. Only the top 3 bidders for each player will advance to the final phase. Phase 1 will last for two days. Phase 2 will last for two days. At the end of phase 1, the top 3 bidders will be listed in alphabetical order on the home page. The leading bid amount will be shown as well, but you will not know whose bid it is. If a team bids more than $25 than the next highest bidder in phase 1, the team will automatically be awarded the player. This includes IFAs. Negative raises are allowed

Player Tenders -- If a player is signed for over $60, the team losing the player will receive a comp pick after the 2nd round. If a player is signed for over $90, the team losing the player will receive a comp pick after the 1st round. This is automatic and requires no action from either team.
-*The signing team DOES NOT lose any picks for signing players above $60/$90*


International Free Agency -- From time to time there will be 1-3 International Free Agents, or players coming from other countries wanting to play in the GBF. In order to win these players, you must bid from your cap space. If you win the player, you will lose the cap space that you bid for one season, then regain it after the season ends. (Example: TEX bids $20 cap for Ohtani, TEX budget goes from $160 to $140 for one season) Keep this in mind when bidding because you are not allowed to be over budget when the season begins. IFA's follow same bidding process as regular FA's (Top 3 announced after Phase 1).

International Free Agents:

(After Season #)
(1) SP/RF Shohei Ohtani
(1) CF Julio Pablo Martinez
(4) SP Miles Mikolas
(4) 2B Yoan Moncada
(4) SS Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
(5) SP Yusei Kikuchi
(5) OF Victor Victor Mesa
(23) SP Takahiro Norimoto

--vote on Hall of Fame (Players are required to have played 10 seasons to be eligible for the Hall of Fame. Process will be determined when it's needed in the future)

--Clear Game Results

Live Supplemental Draft to fill rosters to 25

Opening Night -- must be back within budget by this time or risk losing players to suspension

Odds and Ends

--Tanking
??Tanking is NOT allowed. All teams are expected to be putting their best lineups out during the season, even non-contending clubs. All players should be playing their primary/secondary positions (no players should ever be out of position), and your best hitter shouldn?t be batting 9th or on the bench. If you don?t have a player to fill a certain position, (especially up the middle), free agency has more than enough placeholders. Players should never be having 40-60 error seasons. Loss of draft picks or worsened draft position could be used for repeat offenders.

--Stat Levels
----Rank of Star Hitters: 86
----Rank of Star Pitchers: 89

Park Dimensions
Dimensions were determined using Baseball Prospectus 2017 Park Factors by handedness. This accounted for the amount of runs scored in each park by both home and away teams for both lefties and righties. The boosts/disadvantages were given as follows:
1-12 = big boost
13-24 = mild boost
25-36 = no effect
37-48 = mild disadvantage
49-60 = big disadvantage
Link used: http://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/sortable/index.php?cid=2021306

It will cost $10 budget for one season to change either side of your stadium one move. For example.....: to change LH Batters from Big Boost to Mild Boost would cost $10. That $10 will be deducted from your budget for one season, just as if you were bidding for an IFA. Your budget for that season would go down to $150, and you would get that $10 back at the end of the season.

--Keepers
40 keepers for each team

Major League Roster
26 players allowed on the major league roster. 15 allowed on minor league roster

--Tie-Breakers
Ties in postseason seeding and draft order will be determined based on head to head match-ups, followed by run differential. Play-in games are used to determine who makes the postseason or wins a divison

--Slumpbuster
No slumpbuster used

--Injuries
Maximum 50 games. Injuries do carry over from the regular season into the playoffs, but not into the offseason. However, injuries/fatigue in spring training *DON?T* carry over into the regular season.

NOTE:??An asterisk -> * <- on a player card indicates that player won a World Series that season. In most leagues this represents he was an all star, however we do not have an all star game here, so we use it for something different.

--History Page
The history page in this league is the best you will find on PC. We keep a table showing the standings for every season, as well as another table showing playoff history/results. We also track no-hitters as well as a number of other individual performance milestones. All time team records are kept there as well. This league is going to last a long time and this will only get more interesting to look at as time passes. The Hall of Fame will add to this as well once it is up and running. We heavily encourage owners to occasionally take time to check out the league?s history and interesting facts. It really adds another layer to the PC experience. If you enjoy stats, then this is the league for you.

--New Owners
New owners will be allowed to eliminate two (2) contracts. This request is only available during the first season in the league. Cut players will remain on your roster as an expiring contract

--Player Database
This league began with 2017 player stats. Only Major League players with at least 25IP(RP), 50IP(SP), or 200AB's have been imported. Duplicates have been resolved by keeping the player on their most recent Major League roster in 2017. Position players under 300 ABs were doubled, as well as RP's under 40 IP and SPs under 100 IP.


And as always, ask if you have any questions/suggestions

League Settings