League Rules

Commissioner: msupatrick
Vice: Open

This league is up and running for many reasons. First off we want to give a fun and enjoyable, yet competitive league for any user PC has to offer. We accept owners of any kind as long as they aren't proven cheaters, or disrespectful bad rep users that the league does not want to join us. We want to create a unique experience that will make this a great league on the site. In order to sustain the success we are looking for, the Owner/GM must do his best at all times in the league. If he/she cannot live up to this expectation he/she will be booted. This league is for competitiveness and fun. Without every owner being 100% active in this particular league, it ruins the fun and competitiveness feeling. That's the only requirement in this league. This league is for 30 GM's battling each other day in and day out, going for the Ultimate Goal, of the World Series Title!

Managerial Expectations:

All 30 GM's and their workers must be active each day. This league is trying to create a competitive and fun league. If all 30 GM's aren't active it ruins the level of competitiveness the league wants. If a user is to be gone for an extended period of time (5+ days) they should message the league office saying so and the predicted amount of days they will be gone.

If there are any open teams at a certain point of the season, the commish will do his best to maintain the team so they compete at the high level the league would like to maintain at all times.

Stadium modifications:

Organizations are allowed to modify their stadium dimensions (Park Effects, RH/LH Batters) by a single increment each season by written notice to the Commissioner during the offseason (after progression and before the regular season begins). Choosing either Park Effect for RH or LH Batters, ownership can adjust up or down in a single increment e.g. Mild Boost can be enhanced to Big Boost or Mild Boost can be dampened to No Effect. Similarly, Big Disadvantage (LH Batter) can be modified to Mild Disadvantage.

Peak Age
-28 years old is Peak Age
-Players will regress at age 29
-U Progression is Used (this is to resemble a realistic MLB league, where you don?t know whether a player will improve or not from year to year. Even with U players under 28 tend to get better, while players over 28 will tend to get worse, but there is more randomness involved)
-Players will retire at age 40 or older
-If player is 40 or older and is above thresholds below, player may be asked not to be retired(only has to pass 1 of thresholds to be applicable):
BATTER: .270 BA, .800 OPS, or 25+ HR
PITCHER: Sub 1.30 WHIP

This league requires a 5 man rotation

New Owner Contract Cut
New owners will be allowed to eliminate two (2) contracts. This request is only available during the first season of ownership. Cut players will remain on your roster as an expiring contract. This is the only assistance awarded to new owners.

Budgets

Each team is given a budget of $160 to start the league with. This should be plenty enough (U/F players ask for less money than a classic C player potential wise). Cap can be traded, $5 max per trade. Money can also be traded to cover the cost of a player?s contract, and then be returned to the team when the contract expires. For example, if Player A has a $20 million/5 year contract, and Team B trades for Player A, Team A can offer $15 million per year until the expiration of the contract to help cover the cost. When the contract expires, $15 will be given back to Team A.

Each team is expected to finish within 10 wins of the previous seasons result. In this league, we are trying to avoid the concept of ?the rich get richer?. To combat this, any team who made the playoffs will not be given any budget reward of any kind. Congratulations on a solid year, your reward is satisfaction :) It should not become easier for you however to keep dominating though. So any team in the playoffs will not be subject to any cap gain/loss. If a team finishes with 11 or more wins from their previous record, they will gain $6 million if they don?t make the playoffs (such as a 60 win team becoming an 80 win team, but no playoffs). If a team finishes with 11 or more losses, they will lose $4 million from their budget. This is to discourage tanking. While rebuilding is obviously going to be part of the league, if you are smart about rebuilding, losing $4 million one year won?t hurt you too much, and you should be able to earn it back before becoming a playoff team. This will also only be a factor if you decide to totally blow up a competitive team into a rebuilding one.

LUXURY TAX: This is a small component to the budget that is key to the league. Any team that spends $150 million or more is subject to lose 5% of their budget each year they exceed that threshold. This is something that exists in the real MLB, and while it is much different and more simple in this league, it is there to make it harder on the better teams and easier for the rebuilding teams. 5% of 160 million is $8. Anytime to exceed 150 million will lose $8 million. This $8 million will be distributed randomly to 4 of the bottom 16 teams in the league. If there is more than one team who exceeded the 150 mark, we will distribute to 4 more teams, and so forth until all 16 bottom teams have been given money. If there is still more money to distribute, we will start over in distributing until all luxury tax money has been distributed. If you are at or below $150 million each year you will not lose any cap (unless you finish 11 wins below the previous year).

***If you make the playoffs, you can't gain/lose any cap due to record***

Budget adjustments will be made after the World Series is completed, before contracts are advanced. The team you finish the season with is the team that will affect your budget luxury tax wise.

Every team must be within budget by the start of Spring Training.

The last player acquired will be removed from your team. If this does not get you under budget, a player with the same contract $$ as amount of money you're over budget (meaning if you're over budget by $7, a player with a contract of $7/4y will be removed).

*If you are over the 25 man majors roster maximum at the start of the regular season you will lose $1 per player you are over. This is a permanent deduction.*

Contracts:

Every rookie is eligible for a Rookie Contract ($3/2y/+1). This gives each rookie a 3 year development period to fan out into a quality player that a)you would like to extend or b)not worth more money and dropped.

Player?s are allowed to be resigned in this league. The max contract length in the league will be 5 years. We will use the expiring contract feature in this league. With the ability to resign any player, any time, there will be no rule ensuring young players stay in the league besides a Rookie Contract. Any rookies will automatically be given a rookie contract (can be unassigned at the request of any owner).

Offseason Order of Operations:

Below is the order of a normal offseason:
(NOTE, ANY PLAYERS THAT ARE ELIGIBLE TO STAY ACTIVE AND NOT RETIRE MUST BE SENT IN BEFORE WORLD SERIES CONCLUSION)

1.World Series Concludes
2.Rosters are cleared (All expiring Player contracts and Rookies MUST have new contracts by this date or they'll go to Free Agency)
3.Trading Turned On
4.Players Progressed (Peak Age is 28)
5.Players 40+ are retired (if not applicable to stay active)
6.Free Agent Bidding Round 1 (split into two phases)
7.Free Agent Bidding Round 2 (24 hours of blind bidding)
8.Rookie Draft Takes Place (rookie draft released no later than 1 week before draft)
9.Supplemental Draft (order based of PC Power Rankings, Best FA still available)
10.Auto Draft Turned On (fills gaps of teams with openings at positions)
11.FA Free For All (signing and dropping players turned on for public)
12.Spring Training (30 simulations, any injuries during ST do not count for season)
13.Last Minute Organization Needs applied
14.Regular Season begins, 162 Games for each team

Free Agent Bidding:

Free Agent Bidding will be split up into 2 different rounds. The best talent available will be up for bidding in the 1st round and any player left will be up for bidding in the last round.

Please submit bids in this format: Position Last Name, First Name $(per year)/years/+raise (if any)=$total
Ex-SP Doe, John $10/5yrs/+$1=$60

No $0 bids. No 0 term / "expiring" bids i.e. all bids must be 1 year or more.

Maximum raise is +2. This is to avoid owners with short term vision singing long term contracts that blow up teams for possible future owners.

1st Round of Bidding: Split into two phases during a 72 hour time span, bidding is BLIND! The first 48 hours anyone can bid on the players listed on the homepage. At the 48 hour mark the bid board will be updated. The board will list the most money spent (the leading money amount, not the team however) and all the teams who bid on that player. ONLY THE TEAMS WHO BID ON THAT PLAYER ARE ALLOWED TO BID AGAIN IN PHASE 2! Any bids sent in before bidding starts or not followed by set format will be ignored with no warnings. Also key rule: if a team bid on a player is $50 or more than the 2nd place bid, he will automatically be rewarded to the first place team at the 48 hour update. This allows lower markets to get a possible steal on a player if monster markets bid low.

The 2nd round of Bidding: Lasts only 24 hours. Once again blind bidding. You have one chance to get your bids in on the remaining free agents. This is just to get remaining free agents and no talented player will be left (most likely, as always there might be exceptions).


Rookie Draft:

Each year a Amateur Rookie Draft will take place:

-Draft will last 3 rounds

-Draft Order will be based of previous season's record

-Each year the talent in the class will vary (one year may be a ton of talent, followed by a year of few talent and a lot of development guys)

-If Talent Level in league is getting too high, draft classes will get noticeably weaker until problem is fixed

-If Talent Level in league is too low, draft classes will be stronger until problem is fixed

-There will be around 5 players each class (hopefully) that will become stars in the future, age will vary however. These are probably going to be the picked in the Top 10

-3rd round picks are all development players or future right bench players, don't trade a good player for a 3rd round pick. It will be a waste!

-Early 2nd round picks may have future starters, mid 2nd rd will vary from starters to quality bench players. Late 2nd round picks will be quality bench to average.

-All rookies will be drafted with a rookie contract. You can request to have a rookie contract removed during the off-season of the year the player was drafted. However, keep in mind you cannot get that contract back and take advantage of the cheaper price that a rookie contract offers.

-Rookie name change. Each owner is allowed to change the name of one of their drafted rookies to a friend or family member if they would like.

Position Changes:

SP to RP Conversion-
Once a Starting pitcher hits 30 they can be converted to a reliever. This is only available during the offseason. 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 by est. 1, K?s/9 will go up by est. 2, 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.

RP to SP Conversion-
A little bit of a different concept but any RP with a Stamina over 50 can be converted to an SP. This is a manual process with some pretty steep reductions and is best used only if you really need any extra SP or if you have any elite young reliever that can redevelop into an elite SP. I would view it like Cashner in real life. Early on he was a Great RP. When converted to SP he was barely a number 5 started. He had to redevelop as a SP to become what he is. General guidlines: H9 will go up 2-4 based on the player's current ability and age, K9 will drop 3-5 based on current ability and age, stamina will jump to 85-100, and a small bump in BB9. This is not something that should be jumped into lightly as there is no turning back.

Each off-season a team GM or manager can choose to have one player change positions. The position change must make sense and be approved by one of the commissioners. If the player is over 32 years old (the first year of regression) the player is unlikely to be able to move to another position except 1B, unless he is a SS moving to 3B or 2B.

Regular Season and Playoffs:

-Regular Season lasts 162 games with a tiebreaker game at game 163 if necessary. Days off will be granted.

-The top team in each division (record wise) will win the division and get a playoff spot. Two teams from each league will get a Wild Card Spot.

-The first four seeds will be awarded to the division winners, tiebreaker by record

-Next two seeds are the Wild Card winners, tiebreaker by record

-The Wild Card Round will consist of the two divisional winners with the worst records, and the wild card holders in a Best of 5 Series.

-The Divisional Series will be a best out of 7 Series between the winners of the Wild Card Round and the Top Two Divisional Seeds.

-The Championship series and World Series will be best out of 7 (first one to 4 wins)

PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

Regular Season ends
2 Days off or tie breaker game(s) if nec
I. Wildcard Series (days off after games 2, 4)
1 Day Off
II. Divisional Round, 7 game series (day off after games 2, 5)
2 Days off
III. ALCS and NLCS, 7 game series (day off after games 2, 5)
2 Days off
III. WORLD SERIES, 7 game series (day off after games 2, 5)
** World Series Team with the best overall regular season record hosts WS **
-Any questions feel free to ask!

Relocation/Expansion:

Due to all teams starting with the same budgets, relocating would be simply for fun, so we will stick with the original 30 teams. We expanded as the league opened, having 32 teams, the two expansions teams being Montreal and Mexico City.

Prospects:

Due to how we started the league, prospects will be introduced into the league via the rookie draft. This is the most fair way to distribute the prospects in my opinion, and will give us some realistic names in the rookie draft. These players are not eligible for name changes.

All Star Break
Each All Star Team will be chosen by a member of the respective league that has been deemed active enough to choose. Once they choose the commissioner or vice commissioner will look them over and look for any obvious snubs and make any adjustments needed. They will then be rewarded. There won?t be an actual All-Star game played. 5 Games will be granted, one day will be taken off from sims.

Trade Deadline
The Trade Deadline will come at Day 120 each year.

If a user has had continued success with the same team and wants a change of environment and there is a team open with either a bigger payroll (meaning he will be rewarded for hard work) or wants to move and have a more challenging job (moved to a smaller payroll) he must message the league office once world series concludes requesting a switch. Switches will go through front office and may either be declined or accepted based on the success.



*IF YOU DO NOT MAKE AN EFFORT TO EITHER IMPROVE YOUR TEAM OR AT LEAST KEEP A DECENT TEAM ON THE FIELD YOU WILL BE BOOTED! IF YOU DO NOT LOG ON FOR MORE THAN 7 DAYS WITHOUT MESSAGING ME BEFOREHAND YOU WILL BE BOOTED!


*THE COMMISSIONER RESERVES THE RIGHT TO EXECUTE WITH DISCRETION IN ANY EVENT TO ENSURE FAIR PLAY, AND A FUN EXPERIENCE FOR ALL! IF ALL GOES WELL THIS WILL BE VERY FEW, AND FAR BETWEEN BUT AS GM MUCH OF THIS IS IN YOUR HANDS TO WORK WITH GOOD INTENTIONS. LASTLY, COMPETE, HAVE TONS OF FUN, BE ACTIVE, AND KEEP THE DRAMA IN THE SOAP OPERAS! IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS, IT IS MANDATED YOU FIRST EMAIL THE LEAGUE OFFICE. THE PUBLIC FORUMS SHOULD ONLY BE UTILIZED WHEN THE LEAGUE DOES NOT PROPERLY ADDRESS YOUR CONCERNS! IT?S JUST THE RIGHT THING TO DO AND THUS I EXPECT THAT OF ANYONE IN OUR LEAGUE!

*THE LEAGUE POLL WILL BE UTILIZED AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE RULES CHANGES, INITIATIVES, OR RESOLVE POTENTIAL ISSUES

*ALL RULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS WELL...

*This league is for fun, please do not stay in the league and ruin the fun for others if you are not currently having fun!

*All players are from 2013 stats with the exception of some players who had a down season in 2013 compared to their usual stats (they may have a slight change of stats to make it more realistic to what they will probably be the next season).

Thanks and any questions message the commissioner.

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	2013 - 2013
Roster Size (Majors)	25
Roster Size (Minors)	15
Keepers	(40 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(32 games max)
Pitcher Injuries	(32 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	(every 8 hours)