League Rules

Revision 10/17/24
Commissioner-qunellk


LEAGUE PHILOSOPHY (Pickin' the Franchise Corn Field)

Ever wonder what your team would be like with a few great historic franchise players planted in with your current franchise roster? NATL gives you the opportunity to fulfill that dream! Consequently, franchise roster purity is the main emphasis with limited trades and no free agent acquisitions. Historic franchise players (think of it as YOUR PERSONAL franchise free agent pool) can be added to the active roster to give opportunity to see how teams would fair with a mix of these players joining the players of today (NOW and THEN).

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************

LEAGUE SUMMARY

This is a keepers league. There will be no contracts. As each real MLB season ends, your team will acquire rookies in coordination with the beginning of the next NATL season. It is important, from a strategic viewpoint, to understand the 2 types of seasons in NATL: Import and Non-Import. Different options for player availability and development are available for each. Options are explained further in the rules.

The league began with all the teams from the 2022 MLB season with rosters of 26/10 and a 5 man pitching rotation playing
162 Games. Up to 7 historic franchise players can be added to the roster depending on your franchise (see HFP rules under Player Availability). If you like the history of baseball and pouring over stats, pickin' players from the franchise field will give you plenty of opportunity to support that addiction. Baseball-reference.com will become your best friend, if it isn't already. The season schedule used is from the real MLB schedule as each real season concludes in conjunction with the next NATL season.

This is a slower paced league, than most, for good reason. Sims games are available every 10 hours. The sims are spaced further apart than most leagues so that not too many NATL non-import seasons are completed before the next real MLB season concludes and new rookie imports are added to rosters. This keeps the NOW players playing together at the same age as in real MLB (see progressions below).

********************************************************************************************************************************************************

CONDUCT

Please keep all conversations clean
Please don't be rude to fellow owners
Treat others as you would like to be treated. Unless you like to treat yourself poorly.
Please be active, if not active for 14 days you may be removed from the league. Please notify the commissioner if you are going to be gone for extended periods.
We all love baseball and that's why we're here. So Just have fun and enjoy!

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************

PLAYER AVAILABILITY

ROSTERS
Prior to the 1-round Supplemental Draft, all teams will be required to have their roster at no more than 26/10 in their Majors/Minors. A Roster Requirement Review (RRR) will be conducted by the Commissioner's to assure this compliance prior to turning on ranking for the supplemental draft. Any teams found to be out of compliance by the stated deadline will have players removed by the the Commissioner's office based upon lowest rank until in compliance and will not be eligible for NOW Boosts (under Player Development) the following season. Owners will then need to drop 1 player by 1st pitch if their supplemental draft pick put them over the roster limit. Failure to do so will result in the same NOW Boost penalty.

HISTORIC FRANCHISE PLAYERS (HFP)
Pickin' The Franchise Cornfield. Historic Franchise Players (HFP) can be selected and/or changed for the current roster every NATL season as long as they meet the specific qualifications and restrictions set forth below. After the inaugural NATL season, HFP selections/changes will be made after progressions and/or imports. Once selected, HFP's will progress/regress with all other players on the current roster. Owners will request their selection for a new HFP by notifying the Commissioner's office. The request should include the player's name and player to replace if applicable.

HFP Qualifications
* Maximum # of HFP's per team will vary depending upon the length of time the franchise has been in place. Franchises that existed before 1961 will adhere to a maximum of 5 players. Expansion teams from the 1960's will be allowed a maximum of 6 players. The 1977 and 1990's teams will be allowed 7 players.

1960's EXPANSION TEAMS (6 HFP's)
Angels
Twins
Mets
Astros
Royals
Nationals
Padres
Brewers

1977 & 90's EXPANSION TEAMS (7 HFP's)
Mariners
Blue Jays
Rockies
Marlins
Diamondbacks
Rays

* SP and RP maximum is 2 each. Position player maximum is 3 except for the 77 and 90's expansion teams which will be a maximum of 4.
* An HFP must begin his franchise tenure in a year that was played for your franchise and that meets the following criteria. The season to be selected will be the first season where the batter had 125 AB's, SP 85 IP or RP 30 IP. All HFP's will play (or not) their first NATL season with the their first real season that meets these minimums. If a player played for more than 1 team in a given season, the team that had the most AB's or IP's is considered the franchise team for that season.

HFP Restrictions
* HFP's cannot be selected if the are still playing in the current MLB season.
* HFP's cannot be traded
* When an HFP is dropped, he cannot be selected again for a roster spot.

An HFP could be on multiple current rosters depending on how many times he was traded during his career. Example: Alex Rodriguez could easily be on the Mariners, Rangers and Yankees current roster at the same time but he would be starting his tenure on a different historic season in each case. HFP's will all be tagged as an historic player and have the following designation for historic NATL purposes. ARod would be designated as:
Rodriguez, Alex-SEA +
Rodriguez, Alex-TEX +
Rodriguez, Alex-NYY +

ROOKIE IMPORTS
Imports will take place after progressions for the NATL season that directly follows the conclusion of the real MLB season. A player that played for more than 1 team in a given season will be imported to the team that they finished the MLB season with per the standard PC import process. Minimums requirements: Batting: AB-125 Pitching: IP-35

SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT
Beginning with the 2023-3 season, there will be a 1 round supplemental draft prior to the opening games of the season. This will allow players in the free agent pool to re-enter the league and allow owners the ability to fill a hole on their NATL roster. Eligible players to be drafted must be in a current MLB franchise system. The FA pool will be filtered to assure eligible players prior to player ranking being turned on. Players must be ranked to be drafted. There will be NO AUTO PICKS. Draft order will be based from the previous season's record (worst to first).

TRADES
Opens after the rookie imports. Only 2 players per season per team may be traded to maintain as much franchise purity as possible. HFP's cannot be traded. Trade Deadline is after Game 120.

DROPS
Drops are available after rookie imports. There are NO free agency signings. That is reserved for the pickin' that you do in your franchise cornfield. Once a player is dropped, he is done in the league for that franchise. So choose WISELY.

INJURIES/FATIGUE
Hitters maximum is 8 Days and pitchers is 15 days. Player fatigue is on so make sure you have enough backup at your key positions.

Retirement
There is no retirement age. If a player is on a roster, they will stay in the league until they are dropped by the owner.

********************************************************************************************************************************************************

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

PROGRESSION/REGRESSION
Random Classic progression each NATL import season. Players will only age in seasons when rookie imports (import seasons) are added to the roster. Non-import seasons will use Unpredictable progression because, just like real baseball, you mostly never know (Yogiism) how a player will produce.
Example: NATL season 2022-1 through season 2022-4 all players progress/regress unpredictable each season but do not age. MLB 2023 season concludes and rookie imports occur with the next NATL season with 2022 players and HFP's aging 1 year during classical progression/regression.
Players will progress through age 28 and begin to regress after 32.

NOW BOOST
For every NATL non-import season, boosts are available for NOW players that have a 35 rank or lower. Each team may select 1 batter and 1 pitcher per each non-import season. This gives an owner the opportunity for non-import seasons to develop a low ranked prospect or offset an Unpredictable progression that went south. Players are tagged as "NOW Boost" and may not be selected for any other boost the remainder of their career. Historic Franchise Players (HFP's) ARE NOT eligible for boosts.

NOW BATTER BOOST OPTIONS:
OB Boost
Greater than 250 AB = 15% increase to hits/walks
150-250 AB = 10% increase
Less than 150 AB = 7% increase

Power Boost
75% increase to extra base stats (maximums: 21 doubles, 5 triples, 18 homeruns)
5% increase to hits

Speed Boost
Double stolen bases (maximum 30)

Defense Boost (Choice)
.75 increase to DWAR (max 2.50)
or
50% reduction to errors

NOW PITCHER BOOST OPTIONS:
WHIP Boost
Greater than 125 IP = 15% decrease to hits/walks
90-125 IP = 12% decrease
50-89 IP = 10 % decrease
Less than 50 IP = 7% decrease

Power Boost
50% decrease to homeruns allowed

K Boost
25% increase to K's

Pitch Count Boost
25% increase to endurance

REAL STAT CHANGE
Each import season you will be able to change all your NOW player stats to the current year. After HFP's first season in NATL, they can be changed to the stats of any of their future real seasons (past seasons cannot be selected at any time). When doing this, their age will increase the number of seasons that they were moved forward with the stat change. Additionally, HFP's cannot go backwards in age. This can possibly come into play when an HFP has increased in age during classical progression which, in turn, passes up a future season for stat change. The season might still be in the future but his age is not. Consider changing HFP's with caution. They may get to regression much quicker. Thus, causing more franchise players to perhaps be picked sooner than originally planned. Also keep in mind that a player's position may change when changing to their real stats. So make sure to look at their entire line. It cannot be reversed.
Minimums to change to current year real stats:
AB's 125
Starter IP 85
Reliever IP 30

POSITION CHANGE
Requests will be granted to players who either played 33%+ of their career games at the desired position and/or 50%+ of the current season at that position. Contact the Commissioner's office for this change.

FIELD DIMENSION CHANGES
Field Dimension changes can be requested any time during the offseason.

SLUMP BUSTER
5 days maximum allowed

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************

POST SEASON

3 days rest granted to all teams prior to game 1 of a 5 or 7 game series. 1 day rest will be granted after games 2 and 5 for these series. For Wild Card series, only 1 day rest will be granted prior to game 1.

In each league, teams are seeded as follows:

No. 1 seed: Best league record
No. 2 seed: Second-best division winner
No. 3 seed: Third-best division winner
No. 4 seed: Best record among Wild Card teams
No. 5 seed: Second-best record among Wild Card teams
No. 6 seed: Third-best record among Wild Card teams
The No. 1 and 2 seeds will receive first-round byes and advance directly to the Division Series.

Seeding Tiebreakers
Be it a tie atop the division, a tie for the final Wild Card spot, a tie between two division winners (with postseason seeding at stake) or any other tie that would affect the postseason field, tiebreakers will be determined in this order.
1. Head-to-Head Record
2. Intradivision Record
If the head-to-head record is also a tie, then the involved clubs’ records within their division will break the tie. This applies even if the tie is for a Wild Card spot between two teams that do not reside in the same division. The team with the superior intradivision record would win the tiebreaker.
3. Interdivision Record
In the event of a head-to-head and intradivision record tie for the involved teams, then the tie would be settled based on how they fared against teams within their league but outside of their division. So for an AL East team, it would be the record against teams from the AL Central and AL West.

Wild Card Series
The No. 3 seed will face the No. 6 seed, and the No. 4 seed will face the No. 5 seed. Best of 3. Higher seed gets homefield for all games.

LDS
Winner of 4/5 WC will face the No. 1 seed. Winner of 3/6 WC will face the No. 2 seed. Best of 5 with 2-2-1 format and home-field advantage going to the higher seed.

LCS
Winners of LDS. Best of 7 with 2-3-2 format and home-field advantage going to the higher seed.

World Series
Winners of LCS. Best of 7 with 2-3-2 format and home-field advantage going to the team that had the best regular season record. In the event of a tie, run differential will be used.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************

SEASON PREP SCHEDULE

* Award Championship Trophy and Ring
* Clear Compiled Stats
* Clear Game Results
* Complete Unpredictable Progressions for All Teams (NON-IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Requests for NOW BOOSTS (NON-IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Complete Classic Progressions for All Teams (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Update Other Seasons Available for NOW Players (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Import AL East Rookies (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Import AL Central Rookies (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Import AL West Rookies (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Import Nl East Rookies (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Import NL Central Rookies (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Import NL West Rookies (IMPORT SEASON ONLY)
* Turn On Drops
* Requests for HFP Real Stat Changes
* Requests for HFP Adds/Drops
* Requests for Position Changes
* Reset Player Ranks
* Conduct Roster Requirement Review (RRR)
* Turn On Player Ranking
* Supplemental Draft (1 Round)
* Turn On Trades

League Settings

Year Range of Stats	2025 - 2025
Roster Size (Majors)	26
Roster Size (Minors)	10
Keepers	(36 keepers)
Change Stats Allowed	(not allowed while under contract)
Free Agency
Drops
No-Drop List
Player Fatigue
Batter Injuries	(5 games max)
Pitcher Injuries	(10 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