League Rules

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" Merlin League Rules

First, and foremost, no one is assigned a team upon entry. There will be a draft for both of your teams, and you may not choose the Yankees, or any expansion team that began play after 1980. You may choose the Dodgers, but you cannot choose a starting season between 2020 and 2025. You may choose the Braves, but not a starting year between 1997 and 2005. This league will run, at maximum, for 50 seasons.

Once you pick your teams, you will also pick the season you start with. You will get all the players on your entry season roster with 50 AB and 25 IP. Thereafter, you get all players on your roster with 35 IP or 100 AB. Duplicates will be allowed in the league, but not on your team. YOU MUST PICK A SEASON WHERE YOU HAVE AT LEAST 9 ELIGIBLE PITCHERS, 2 CATCHERS, AND ENOUGH POSITION PLAYERS TO FIELD A TEAM. IF YOU DON'T, CHOOSE ANOTHER YEAR.

No contracts.

2020 will be skipped.

No trades and no waiver claims. Full imports.

Imports: At the start of the second season, you will get all of your team’s players on their previous season's roster. At the start of the 3rd season, you will get all of the players on the previous, previous season's roster. In short, we are going backwards in time.

Progression: At the beginning of year 2, you can have your choice between your player’s initial season's stats, progressed, or the player’s previous season's real stats (and age), as long as they appear on your previous season's roster. So, players start old, they then, and then (maybe) they get old again. Classic Progression: progress to age 29, and regress beginning at age 33. Because of how the league is structured with many different teams with different season, it will be impossible to be able to do any kind of stat change in this league.

5-man rotations. 26 on ML roster, 40 on franchise roster.

Expect 162 regular season games.

SP can be switched to RP each offseason, or the reverse, with no change to stamina. Primary and secondary positions can be switched, if the player played half his games that season, or at least one-fourth of his games in his career, at the secondary position. Also, DH can be switched with the secondary position if the player has a fielding percentage. A player can always be switched to the position he played the most in his career, but any of these changes have to occur during the offseason.

Making the playoffs: Seed playoff teams by record. If teams tie for a playoff spot:
⇒ If both teams would be “in”, use head to head record as a tiebreaker, then run differential.
⇒ If one is in, the other is out, 1 game playoff (@ head 2 head winner)

Playoffs elaborated:

3 division winners and 4 wild cards make the playoffs. The 4 wild cards engage in best-of-3 series using the 2-2-1 format until one wild card team remains. The 4 remaining teams will be seeded based on regular season record; the wild card team must be seeded 3rd or 4th. The remaining 2 rounds will both be best-of-7.

⇒ Your teams will not play each other unless they both make the playoffs.

MY BASIC EXPECTATIONS OF EACH OWNER:
⇒ Your commitment is season to season. When you join, you will be expected to actively run your team until the end of the season, which is when the regular season ends for non-playoff teams, or when your playoff team is eliminated.
⇒ 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:

Empty the free agent pool.

Classic progression after world series. Plateau: 29 - 33.

Imports: You get all the imports from the “previous” season (35 IP/100 AB minimum). No 2020 imports

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. In the event that some owners own more teams than some other owners, it will be the best combined winning percentage.

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	1900 - 2025
Roster Size (Majors)	26
Roster Size (Minors)	14
Keepers
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(25 games max)
Pitcher Injuries	(25 games max)
Use Pitcher's HR Allowed Stats
Allows Max Surprise Bunts
Min Batters Pitcher Must Face	0
Slump Buster	(1unlimited days)
On Fire	Classic
User Sims