League Rules

MLB The True Experience 2015:

League Office:
Head Commish: thanos
Vice Commish 1: mattyred
Vice Commish 2: ironman_2632

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Contents
1) Logistics & Expectations
2) Schedule of Events
3) Contracts & Player Management
4) Transactions & Player Movement
5) Season & Post Season League Tasks
6) A Note From the League Office

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1) Logistics & Expectations

A) MLB The True Experience is a traditional league that uses 2015 rosters with 2015 stats.

B) Once you've joined "The True Experience" you are required to be active or you will be removed. If there is a situation where you can't be online in 5, send a message to the league office and let them know. Once you've been inactive for 5 days, you will be removed from the league. Before the beginning of each off season I will do an activity check that last seven days. If you don't reply YOU WILL BE BOOTED. NO EXCEPTIONS (unless stated in mail before hand)

***You can also be booted for not participating in off season events and for overall not taking care of your team and making the effort to field a competitive team each season.***

C) At any point if you have ANY issue or problem with anything that pertains to the league, a message to a member of the league office is required. The league office will ignore any issue unless extremely major that is brought up in the Chat Box. The Chat Box is used for friendly conversations or very basic questions and at no point should become hostile. Generally, the league office will be able to respond to any situations and problems in a much quicker manor if you directly message them because it will be right in front of them in their inbox. A check of the league chat box is done quite infrequently.

D) League Polls will be utilized to resolve major issues within the league and a League Message will be sent 24 hours prior to explain the poll. Owners can then discuss the topic of the poll in the Chat Box or via private message until the poll is opened.

E) The League office has the ability to remove any owner from the league without any warning if that said owner breaks any rules, promotes breaking rules, or in all creates a negative atmosphere. They are also allowed to ban said owners from ever entering the league again.

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2) Schedule of Events

A) Spring Training Begins (4 days, 5+10+10+10 sims a day)
B) Regular Season Begins (8 sims per day)
C) All Star Break (Day 100)
D) Trade/Extension Deadline (Day 132)
E) Free Agency Ends/Drops End (Day 155)
F) Season Ends (Day 180/Game 162)
G) Playoffs (1-5-7-7)
H) Offseason begins & Contracts must be signed for players you intend to keep.
I) Player Tenders Deadline (currently inactive)
J) Players & contracts progressed, aged and retired. Position changes, SP to RP conversions, prospect creation, and Stadium renovations are open.
K) Trading Open
L) Winter Ball (45 games)
M) Free Agent Bidding (Two 48 hour periods)
N) Rookie Draft
O) Free for all free agency Open
P) Spring Training Begins

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3) Contracts & Player Management

A) CAP SPACE- Teams in this league all start with the same parameters of 40 keepers, $200M in Cap Space. Maximum MLB roster size is 25, max in your organization is 40. GM?s are responsible for monitoring this, the site does not. This is different than pro baseball with the intention of starting every GM on a more even playing field. Cash can be traded, penalized for infractions, etc causing this number to go up or down so be sure to get comfortable with the concepts of payroll, and leverage veteran GM?s or your leadership team for any items you are unsure before you act. Team's are given additional roster spots in the minors to hold their draft picks and any draft picks they acquire. Draft picks do not count as players, and thus do not take a roster spot.

B) PENALTY FOR GOING OVER BUDGET
You may go over budget during the offseason by up to $15M, but by opening day you must be at or under budget or you will be penalized. Once the season starts, you must remain within your budget for the entire season. This will be strictly enforced and you will not receive a warning or time to get back under budget.

First offense for going over budget (during the season or over $15M over budget during offseason) will result in the most recent player(s) acquired that resulted in you going over budget will be removed from your roster AND your teams salary cap will be reduced by half of whatever amount over budget you went. For example, if you go over budget by $10M during the season, in addition to losing the player, your payroll will be reduced by $5M.

Second offense will result in the same as above and the loss of 1 third-round draft pick (from upcoming draft). If you do not have a 3rd round draft pick, you will lose your upcoming 2nd (or 1st if you have no 2nd). If you have no upcoming picks, you will lose your NEXT draft pick.

Third offense will result in removal from the league.

C) NEW GM RULES - The following rules have been instituted to make mis-run organizations manageable. Requests should be made to the League Office prior to conclusion of season in which you join, or during same off season as you join whichever applies. The commissioner observes the right to allow or disallow this rule as s/he sees fit based on the when the new owner joined and when the request was made.

-EXTENDING CONTRACTS- Again, for new GM's only, and timing as listed above. As a new owner you have the ability to extend players contracts. This is a tool for GM's to keep their talent in the event the previous GM gave a great player a short contract. For Example: John Smith's current contract is 15milx3yrs. You may extend that contract any where from 15milx4yrs to 15milx10yrs. *Note - the League Office has the overall discretion on permitting the extensions and the maximum extension permitted.

-REDUCING CONTRACT YEARS- Contract amount stays the same.

-UPGRADING PLAYERS - you permitted to improve the EN or FLD % or FLD Range of 3 players, or 1 player 3 times.
Must be 28 or younger
-To improve EN, EN max is 160 game or 83-EN
-To improve FLD%, FLD% must be less than 0.985%.

-# OF PLAYERS ELIGIBLE- Only 3 players total are eligible for either extending contracts or cutting contract years. This is a combined 3.

**This rule will not be shared freely with new owners. One of the benefits and good things about reading the rules or at least glancing at them long enough to see a section for new owners will result in the above rules being carried out for the individual owner. The commissioner reserves the right to not say anything about this rule to new owners until the owner approaches the commissioner. The commissioner also reserves the right to refuse this treatment to any owner for any reason.**

Additional Clause: You cannot extend a players contract as a new owner that would have that player be a part of your organization for 10+ seasons. You may only extend up to the tenth season. You may however, take advantage of the extended contract option open to all owners.

D) CUTTING CONTRACTS: You are now allowed to cut players signed to contracts. You may ONLY cut contracts during the off season and cut up to 3 total contracts. Each off season you will have the chance to cut contracts and pay 50% of the contracts total value when cutting that player. This total will be rounded up, so $41.5M will become $42M. This is paid by reducing your salary cap until the total is paid off. At that point your cap will go back to what is was prior. You have the option of spreading the cost out up to 5 seasons. Players whose contracts are cut will immediately become free agents and the team cutting them cannot resign the players until the next offseason free agency period. Players who are cut may be put into a "special free agent bidding" situation at League Office's discretion.

E) IMPORTANT FYI FOR ROOKIE GM?S: In Pennant chase when a player shows up on a contract page (the immediate page after clicking on your team name from league page, standings or anywhere else for that matter) he?s always on your team one year longer than what the number actually says. I.E Expiring means 1 (or at the end of the current season he?ll be FA), 1 means 2, 2 means 3 and so on and so forth. This is because the contracts on your ?My team page? actually show what your budget is going to be for next year. Odd nuance indeed, but it is what it is it?s a great site in spite of this oddity.

F) PLAYER PROGRESSION: Progression will take place for all players. Players progress until 28, plateau until 32 when they then regress.
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4) Transactions & Player Movement

A) DRAFT- The amateur draft will take place after the playoffs. Teams will need to rank their draftees list (top right of my team page), to insure that they may get the players they want if they choose to automate their picks. Picks may be traded, but no more than 1 year in advance of the current season. Players will typically be between 18-23. There will be 3 rounds in the draft as a default, but case by case we may choose to add or remove rounds to balance to talent pool. The draft order is determined in two parts. Part I is worst record previous year up to best record of non-playoff teams. Tie-breaker for teams with the same record is run differential....the worse run differential gets the better pick. Beginning in draft 2021 - Part II is for playoff teams they are seeded based on round of playoff exit, with the tie-breaker for teams leaving in same round being regular season record. Thus team winning world series obviously getting last pick.
To enter a live draft, click on the ?draftroom? link in red bar to top right of page. Lastly, any undrafted rookies will go into the free agency pool.

A) DRAFT CLASS AND CONTRACTS- New in 2020... Even rookies who do not play need signed to a PC contract or they will be moved into FA.

B) PROSPECTS- One fictional prospect age 19-21 on even draft years (2020, 2022, 2024, etc)

C) OFFSEASON FREE AGENTS- contracts expire at the end of the season, will become free agents. Those free agents will be put into a bidding fashion, players going to the largest overall offer (i.e years x dollars equals amount, thus a 3 yr 6M offer will over a 4 yr 4M offer). Bids of zero dollars are not available. Bidding is open, not blind. Each player will receive their own 24 hour time limit. When a bid is posted, each other teams in the league will have 24 hours to place a bid that is higher. If another team does so, the clock is reset and the process begins again. If a player receives no higher bid, the player is then won and signed by the team that placed the bid 24 hours previously. In order to bid on a player you have to have an open contract, if you have 40 players under contract you can not bid on a free agent. The maximum contract length you can offer is 10 years or up to the players 40, whichever is less. (cannot offer a 10 year deal to a 35 year old player, only a max of 5) There will be a definite start and end period announced by the leadership of the league.

D) MIDSEASON FREE AGENTS- after a player is released he will be placed in the league free agent pool (i.e red tab at top of any page that says free agents). These players are first come first serve. Important to remember again it is your responsibility to ensure your maintain the max 25 MLB players and max 40 overall at all times or you are forcing the leadership to correct it for you as it creates an unfair advantage for you, and we owe it to the other 30+ GM?s to account for this swiftly.

E) TRADE DEADLINE- The trade deadline will be day 120 but may move forward or backward slightly based on the sim schedule. The league office will announce the trade deadline. Any further trades after this day will be voided. Trades will be reinstated immediately after the playoffs for that season. All trades will be monitored by the league office for fair and balanced trade. If the trade includes a draft picks, the trade notice will need to be immediately sent to the league office for approval. Trades that seem unfair or lopsided maybe subject to a review by a 5 man Trade Committee before being processed. If a player that is traded for has a contract, the new owner team is responsible for the remainder of the contract. You may however trade cap space also through an email to the commissioner or vice, just be aware this trade is long term and not just for the season. Draft Picks can be traded for current year and upcoming year only.

F) PLAYER POSITIONS- Owners may be allowed to change player positions in the offseason. These will be done on a case by case basis. In order for a player to be considered for a position change they must fit one of the following stipulations.
-An infielder with a secondary position of INF
-Catcher to 1B or 1B to Catcher
-Can only change positions once a career

The exception to this is that a player must have played a minimum of 100 games or have been in the league for two seasons. If for some reason you would like to change an OF position those will be a case by case.

G) DISABLED LIST- Teams can use there Minor league squads as injured reserve fill-ins. A player that gets injured is allowed to be put into the minors system as an Injured Reserve roster.

H) OFFSEASON PLAYER PROGRESSION- Players will be progressed 1X after each season. Players in the majors and minors are progressed the same amount. This will allow the players to have realistic stats throughout their careers. A player will reach their peak at 28, begin to decline at age 32, And will retire after the season at age 40. (will play at age 40 / will not play at age 41) **Only unsigned players will retire**

I) PLAYER TENDERS ?NO TENDERS AT THIS TIME - MAYBE COMING SOON -

NO TENDERS AT THIS TIME - MAYBE COMING SOON
Max Resulting Contracts per position:
SP/1B - $15M
3B/OF - $13M
SS/2B - $12M
C/RP/DH - $10M


J) PLAYER EXTENSIONS ? Extensions maybe added to a player on an expiring contract at any point during their final season. Add $2 raise for every year the contract is extended...
1) This offseason (2022/2023) only: You may ONLY extend any player that has been on your team for two archived seasons or more (2021, 2022 [ignore "current"]) this solves the problem of traded players before the rule took effect.
2) A contracts can only be extended a max of 5 years... and a max of 3 years for anyone 30 and above.
3) Raises will be reserved for extensions only... in other words you can not bid a raise on a player in FA.
4) Players cannot be extended multiple times. So choose the length of extension wisely.
5) Extended players do not get an "Expire Year"

I.E. - SP Matty Red signed to a $8/expire contract can be extended for $10 the first year, $12 second, and so on for a max of 5 years


K) STARTING PITCHER CONVERTED TO RELIEF PITCHER ? most importantly, know it is a permanent move. Teams may convert up to 2 pitchers per offseason.

- Past their prime pitchers are eligible every offseason until they retire to be converted from Starting pitcher to Relief pitcher. (30 OR OLDER)

- Once a Starting pitcher hits 30 every offseason a GM can message the league office with the subject ?SP to RP Conversion?, & the full name of the pitcher he wants to convert.

This process is manual but a few general guidelines to have some idea of what to expect. Stamina will drop significantly (est.50-70%), ERA & WHIP will drop (est. 10-15% with worse WHIP?s & ERA?s potentially improving at slightly higher percentage), W, L?s and IP?s will drop as needed to make sense (est. 50%) , BB?S/9 will drop slightly, K?s/9 will go up slightly, and of course stats like CG will zero out. As a best practice, you may want to wait until after player progressions take place to have a more clear picture of what you have.

L) RELIEF PITCHER CONVERTED TO STARTING PITCHER - occasionally, in MLB a relief pitcher is converted to a starting pitcher. If this occurs, and if the team with such a player wants to also use the player as a starting pitcher, the team must notify the league office during the offseason to request a change. All requests will be reviewed. ONLY those pitchers who were used as a starting pitcher 50% or more of the time in the most recent completed MLB season, or the majority of the current MLB season will be subject to a conversion. So, if a pitcher has 9 starts and 25 relief appearances in MLB, said player IS NOT eligible for conversion. If the player does meet the conversion criteria, the players will be edited to reflect the change to a starting pitcher. Teams may convert no more than 1 pitcher per offseason.

This process is manual but a few general guidelines to have some idea of what to expect. Stamina will increase significantly (est. 50-70%), ERA & WHIP will increase (est. 10-15%), W, L's and IP's will increase as needed to make sense (est 50%), BB's/9 will increase by est. 1, K's/9 will go down by est. 2. As a general rule, an elite relief pitcher will be a good starting pitcher but will not maintain the same dominant stats.

L) WINTER BALL

Winter Ball is designed to allow for young undeveloped players to develop their stats a bit more. During the off season following the draft two teams will be set up. We will come up with creative names but for the moment we will just call them Team A and Team B. The owners that participate in the World Series the previous year will have the ability to operate one of the Winter Ball teams if they so desire. If one of the owners declines it would fall to the runner up of the league championship series and then so forth until we find two willing owners. Any players nominated by either of the participating owners will be placed on the opposite roster to insure no unfair advantage.

Each team will have the ability to nominate 4 players to be a part of Winter Ball. 1 SP, 1 RP, and 2 position players. Players will be placed at random on the two teams rosters and the last name will be edited to include the team from which the player has been moved from. That way at the end of Winter Ball the players can be returned safely to their original rosters. A list of players participating will also be posted on the home page to further reduce the risk of a mix up. The acting owners of the two teams will be encouraged to involve as many players as possible by setting different RH and LH lineups as well as encouraging pinch hitting, pinch running, and subbing pitchers in and out with regularity. They goal will be to play as many players as possible.

Winter Ball will be composed of 45 Games. This will be broken down to cover a total of 4 days, meaning 10-15 games will be simulated each day. This will be done while other off season tasks take place, most likely free agency, so this way it doesn't bog down our off season and make it take longer. The 60 Games is a number that should allow near all of, if not all of the players participating to get into a simulated game and thus increase their chance of boosting their stats.

Players that are eligible must fit the following:
1.) 27 or younger
AND
2.) Have less then 400 AB for position players, less then 150 IP for SP, or less than 80 IP for RP
AND
3) 79 rating and below

In addition any player who was drafted last season regardless of ABs and IPs can participate. (CLICK DRAFT ROOM to see last year's results prior to new slow draft starting)

Players are eligible for any and all upgrades based on COMPILED stats during Winter Ball NOT REAL stats, the only exception potentially being stamina for pitchers if an upgrade takes them beyond the set maximum. Upgrades are as follows:

Position Players-
40+ Games = +7 Games (effects ENG) (ADD PO&A to even range factor)
30+ Games = +4 Games (effects ENG)
AVG >.300 = +10 Hits (effects AVG/OBP)
AVG >.267 = +7 Hits (effects AVG/OBP)
AVG >.233 = +5 Hits (effects AVG/OBP)
AVG >.200 = +3 Hits (effects AVG/OBP)
20+ BB = +10 BB (effects OBP)
10+ BB = +5 BB (effects OBP)
20+ Runs = +10 Runs
15+ Runs = +5 Runs
10+ 2B = +5 2B
7+ 2B = +3 2B
5= 2B = +1 2B
5+ 3B = +3 3B
3+ 3B = +2 3B
1+ 3B = +1 3B
10+ HR = +5 HR
7+ HR = +4 HR
4+ HR = +3 HR
25+ RBI = +15 RBI
20+ RBI = +10 RBI
15+ RBI = +7 RBI
10- SO = -10 SO (Must have minimum 50 AB)
20- SO = -5 SO (Must have minimum 50 AB)
SB= (# of SB)-(# of CS)=(Number added to SB)-- if it is a negative number no SB subtracted
<2 E = -1 E
MVP = +2 FIRE

Starting Pitchers-
50+ IP = +6 Stamina
40+ IP = +4 Stamina
30+ IP = +2 Stamina
H/9 < 7.5 = -10 Hits (Must have 20+ IP)
H/9 < 8.0 = -6 Hits (Must have 20+ IP)
H/9 < 9.0 = -4 Hits (Any IP)
BB/9 < 2.0 = -7 BB (Must have 20+ IP)
BB/9 < 3.0 = -5 BB (Must have 20+ IP)
BB/9 < 4.0 = -3 BB (Any IP)
SO/9 > 9.5 = +15 SO (Must have 20+ IP)
SO/9 > 8.7 = +10 SO (Must have 20+ IP)
SO/9 > 7.9 = +5 SO (Any IP)
WP <2 = -1 WP
CG = + Total # of CG during Winter Ball
CY = +2FIRE

Relief Pitchers
25+ IP = +3 Stamina
20+ IP = +2 Stamina
15+ IP = +1 Stamina
H/9 < 7.0 = -5 Hits (Must have 15+ IP)
H/9 < 8.0 = -3 Hits (Must have 15+ IP)
H/9 < 9.0 = -2 Hits (Any IP)
BB/9 < 2.0 = -3 BB (Must have 15+ IP)
BB/9 < 3.0 = -2 BB (Must have 15+ IP)
BB/9 < 4.0 = -1 BB (Any IP)
SO/9 > 9.5 = +5 SO (Must have 15+ IP)
SO/9 > 8.5 = +4 SO (Must have 15+ IP)
SO/9 > 7.5 = +3 SO (Any IP)
WP <1 = -1 WP
SV = + Total # of SV (during Winter Ball) - BS

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5) Season & Post Season Tasks

A) ALLSTAR PROCESS- The all star break is a time where off days are granted to rest up your team so you can revamp your team for the stretch run. There will be 1, 24 hour period with no sims and 3 days of rest will be granted to all teams. After the 24 hour period is over, sims will resume.
We will not play an all star game and all stars will be selected by Ballots. There are no rewards for players who become all stars as we do not want the talent level to get uneven and watch the star players in the league get too good.

B) PLAYOFFS- The playoffs are made up of 5 teams from each league, two wild cards and the three division winners for a total of ten teams. There will be 1 day simulated rest between regular season and playoffs and one day off after the wild card games. Division winners having home-field over wildcards regardless of records. Home-field thereafter is determined by better record. Tie-breaker is first head to head record and then the better difference in runs if there is still a tie. The first series will be a one game series between the two wild card teams from each league. The wild card game winners will both match up against the number 1 seeded teams in each league respectively. In the event of a tie for a wild card spot there will be a one game playoff.

Formats:
Wild Card: 1-1-1
Divisional Series: 2-2-1
League Championship Series: 2-3-2
World Series: 2-3-2

?day off? granted after game 2 in division series
?day off? granted after game 4 in division series
No ?day off? granted in between Divisional round and League Championship round.

?day off? granted after game 2 in championship series
?day off? granted after game 5 in championship series

Two ?days off? granted in between League Championship round and World Series.

?day off? granted after game 2 in world series
?day off? granted after game 5 in world series


C) OFFSEASON AWARDS
Each offseason we will vote on the league MVP & CY YOUNG. Ballots will be created and at least 48 hours will be given to vote. The MVP & CY YOUNG winners will be noted on the history page and will be awarded 1 ON FIRE point.

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League Settings