League Rules

The WAR Room : 2015 (Season 1)


COMMISH - JaySlater1223
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1st VICE - Mattyred
2nd VICE - vacant


CODE OF CONDUCT:
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Trash talk is permitted but please be respectful and have a sense of humor when doing so. Any owner who unnecessarily disrupts the league will be booted. Don't take advantage of newbies [new owners that recently joined pennantchase]. Rather help them, encourage them, and give them advice when necessary.


ACTIVITY:
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Owners will be active.
If no activity for 7 days without notification = Penalty
If no activity for 14 days without notification = Booted
Activity = Logging into the league
Notification = Letting the Commish know you will be away for extended period.


ROSTERS:
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Roster size will be 50 players maximum.
Must have 25 players in Majors at all times. At least 12 hitters and 11 pitchers. Must have 5 SP's. Must maintain a valid lineup at all times. One of each infield spot is mandatory. It is encouraged to keep at least 2 catchers and two SS's. Those two positions will rack up errors quickly if PC plays a different position player there because you don't have a proper backup.

TEAM PAYROLLS:
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Team payroll is currently set at $240 but that can change later.


BUDGETS:
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Going over budget - Teams are TEMPORARILY allowed to be over budget over the course of the offseason. If a team is STILL over budget following Spring Training, then that team will lose the most recent player won in Free Agency until they are under budget. The player removed will go to the next highest bidder. If a team goes over budget during the season, due to a trade or similar situation, that team has 24 HOURS to get back under budget, or risks having their trade vetoed.


SCHEDULE:
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Spring training - 30 games
Regular season - 162 games
*Summer International FA - Day 60
All Star break - Dependant upon schedule, Day 106
Trade deadline - Day 120
Playoffs - 'First Round'is 5 game series with four division winners opposing four WC teams. Division winners maintain homefield advantage regardless of W-L records. Series runs 2-2-1 with #1 vs. #8 and so on.. Divisional Round and Championship Series follow the same seeding and are 7 games (2-3-2)
World Series Same as MLB, Best of 7 games (2-3-2)
Postseason Reward $$ Issued
Start offseason
Sign eligible player contracts
Progressions
Trading back on
Rookie Draft (3 Rounds)
*International Free Agency (starting in 2016)
FA bidding (Round 1)
FA bidding (Round 2)
Offseason requests - stadium renovation, EN/FLD% boosts, position switches.
Free Agency Free For All (Open add/drop)

SLUMP BUSTER:
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Will be allowed to be utilized in a player for 72-hours (3 days)

FIRE POINTS:
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Maximum for any player is Thirty (30).

PROGRESSIONS:
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Players peak at age 28, stay the same until age 32, then start to regress at age 33.

EN/FLD% BOOST:
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Each offseason you can request two players you would like to have receive Endurance or Fielding Percentage boosts. Requirements are:

-Must be 27 or younger
-To improve EN, GP must be 140 or lower
-To improve FLD%, FLD% must be less than 0.985%.


DRAFT:
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Draft will be 3 rounds with newly created rookies (mimicking current MLB Draft prospects, or top H.S./College prospects set to enter draft the following year.) and drafted based on previous season final standings. In case of tie we will go by run differential. No slow draft.

Note: For innagural 2015 season, rookies will be 2016 MLB Rookies and some players from 2016 MLB Draft class, For 2016, rookies will be 2017 rookies and some players from 2017 MLB Draft class, For 2017, rookies will be 2018 MLB Draft Class or Draft Prospects, depending where our league and real-life MLB are on timeline.

Teams will then have the choice of either :
A. Leaving player unsigned, player will become FA following the season.
B. Signing a shorter, cheaper $3/3yr Rookie Contract for 1st Rd Picks, $2/3yr for all others. Or
C. Signing player to whatever the PC generated rate is for up to 10 years.

INTERNATIONAL FREE AGENCY
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There will be no International Free Agents for 2015. In 2015-2016 offseason, we will have our first wave.

FREE AGENT BIDDING:
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2 rounds of Free Agency. Both will occur following our league's rookie draft. Bids will done by private bids to the commish. I will send my bids to a vice.

For the first round, a select group of players (TIER 1) will be bid on exclusively. Initial (secret) bids will be accepted for 24-36 hours and then the top 3 bidders will be posted to the homepage. Bidders will be posted in order of best offer. Only the top 3 bidders will be invited to rebid. This will be a 24-hour period. Then winners will be posted to the homepage.


The second round, you will be allowed to submit bids for the next tier of FA's. (TIER 2) Same rules as above apply. Again, bidding will be private bids.

Bids must be sent to the commish with the following subject, "Team Name FA bids". The format must be the following, OF Player Name "money/years/raise=total" EXAMPLE: OF Andrew Benentendi $6/8yrs/$0=$48. It is your job to do the math. Incorrect bids are VOID.

Bids can be max 10 years. No expiring bids accepted. Bids must be for a minimum of $1 per year. Players over 37 can only be signed to three (3) years or fewer.


PLAYER CONVERSIONS:
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ONE OF THE MOST ANNOYING RULES ON PC HAS BEEN ABOLISHED HERE AT THE MLB EXPERIMENT !!!

I'm KEEPING this rule I enacted over in MLB Experiment for this league as well, you're welcome ! :)

Position players can only be switched from primary to secondary position,or to real-life position switch, or any conceivable position. (Ex. A 2B/SS becoming a 3B) A small drop in RF may occur. Hitting stats will stay the same.

This process is manual, but here are 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.


STADIUM RENOVATION:
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Often a point of contention, I've decided for this league to do something different. Every team will start of with no alterations. You will be allowed to move up or down 1 level every offseason, for a $5 fee. However, park factors will also be calculated for all 32 stadiums at the end of each year. If an edited park plays differently than it's factor suggests for two straight seasons, commish reserves right to alter park to match data. This shouldn't happen often at all.

Also, every three seasons, park data will be used to calculate a rolling 3-year park factor. Your stadium may see adjustments based of of this.

PENALTIES:
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You will lose cap space for penalties including: too many players, over budget, inactivity, too few players in majors, intentionally tanking, and unfair trades. As well as any other infractions that the commish (along with vices to ensure fairness) deems as punishable offenses.


REWARDS:
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You will gain cap space for achieving goals including:
Make playoffs - $2
Make World Series - $3
Win World Series - $5

You can only receive 1 of these rewards.


TRADES:
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Trade Committee is Commish, along with vices. The Trade Committee will decide the fairness of all trades. If they decide a trade is fair/unfair, their final decision will be the outcome of that trade.

TRADABLE ASSETS:
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? Any player on your roster
? Draft picks (for following season's draft, as well as one year from now's draft as well.) For 2015= 2015, 2016 picks are tradable.
? Prospect Rights for forthcoming year only
? Cash


"BACK TO DRAFT" PLAYERS ACQUIRED MID-SEASON EXEMPTION:
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(Brought over from MLB Experiment)

This was implemented for both sides..
*Teams looking to buy, or rent players for a playoff run are less likely to pull the trigger when they know they're only getting a player for 50-60 games. This gives an owner some piece of mind knowing he has an option of an extension on the player he's acquiring.

*Teams looking to sell, either to retool,rebuild, clear cap, are more likely to gain something of value rather than just watch their players walk away with them getting nothing in return.


RULES FOR CUTTING CONTRACTS:
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Since the league is in it's infancy, there will be no contract cutting at this time, considering YOU are more than likely the owner that signed it in the first place !

CONTRACT EXTENSIONS:
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Similar mindset as with cutting contracts, were still in our infancy, there's no reason to have an extension process in place at present time. We will vote on the matter in a few seasons.

PROSPECTS:
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Each season, each team will select a prospect for creation from their team's real-life counterparts. None of this "one year this league, another year that..", A.I think those commishes are just lazy, and B. What, teams only have prospects coming up in certain years ? Get outta here ! YOU GET ONE EVERY YEAR.

Prospect creation and statistics are weighed by several factors :

*Real Minor League/MLB Stastics
*MLB 'Equivalency' tools
*Real Scouting Reports/Hype

RULE CHANGES/LEAGUE VOTES:
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Every offseason, we will bring to a vote any issues we may incur along the way in the previous season, this can include rule changes, proposed team relocation, expansion, and any other matter we may encounter.

NEW OWNERS:
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*Doesn't include any owner from inaugural 2015 season or any of those same owners moving forward.

New owners taking over for a team will be allowed to modify/cut up to 3 contracts.


ROOKIES:
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Will be tagged and remain tagged through their Rookie year or Rookie Contract if one was signed.

For 2015 = 2015 MLB Draft Class and 2016 MLB Rookies
For 2016 = 2016 MLB Draft Class and 2017 MLB Rookies
For 2017 = 2017 MLB Draft Class and if possible, 2018 MLB Rookies.


PLAYER REWARDS:
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The following will be the reward system for Awards and In-season achievements such as no-hit games and hit for the cycles...

AWARDS-------

All-Star Appearance : +1 Fire Point

LCS MVP/WS MVP: +1 Fire Point

ASG MVP : +1 Fire Point

MVP: +1 Fire Point

Cy Young Award: +1 Fire Point

Manager of the Year: +$3 cash to your team's cap space (not transferrable if you ever switch clubs.)

Rookie of the Year: +1 Fire Point


All rewards will be added prior to progression..

ALL-STAR BREAK FESTIVITIES:
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There will be an All-Star Game played in a Sandbox setting, with all respective payers being imported just as they are.

There will also be a HR Derby, this will feature 8 of the top HR hitters in the league for THAT particular season.


RETIREMENT:
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When player reaches 40, he will have to carry above a .200 AVG or below a 1.70 WHIP to stay active. Age 45 is mandatory retirement age for any and all players.

After 3 + seasons, depending upon FA Pool size, Players who reach ages 37 and older that also go two or more seasons without being on an active MLB roster will also be retired to help with player logjams.

ADDITIONAL RULES:
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More additional rules to come:

***ALL RULES ARE SUBJECT TO LEAGUE VOTE. POLLS REGARDING RULES CHANGES WILL BE SENT OUT VIA LEAGUE MESSAGE AND DISPLAYED ON LEAGUE HOMEPAGE FOR OWNERS TO CAST THEIR VOTE.***

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