NOTE ABOUT DIVISIONS: Auto Leagues are moving to one division, with six teams making the play-offs. The top two seeds will get byes. The play-offs will be bracket-style, all series seven games. If your league has only one division, you've been moved to the new format.
Why? Over time, as more one-and-done users and bot-teams have entered auto leagues, the division structure became less fair. In some cases, divisions were extremely lopsided, with inactive owners clustering in one division, while the other division was filled with active owners. The one-division format simplifies things for auto leagues and makes it level playing field for all teams. This format has worked great in the other sports, and makes sense to extend to baseball, especially as MLB keeps expanding its own post-season.
1. DRAFT -- The order in which teams draft is irrelevant since the draft is designed to be random. You will be presented with a handful of players to choose from at each position. Select one player from each group. After the selections, your roster is locked until the season starts.
1. CLASSIC FAVORITE TEAMS DRAFT -- You are assigned a team as soon as you join the league. Click the "Draft My Team!" link from your My Team page. (The "My Team" link is in the top banner, just below the website logo.) You will then pick which franchise you want to use, and which years you want to select players from. You will build your roster from those years.
1.a. BUDGET DRAFT -- You pick a franchise that hasn't been used and build your team within the budget allowed.
1. DRAFT -- You are assigned a team as soon as you join the league. Click the "Draft My Team!" link from your My Team page. (The "My Team" link is in the top banner, just below the website logo.) You will rank players, and once the league fills, one round will be run every 8 hours until all teams have 23 players.
2. TEAM DETAILS -- Be sure to modify any team details, such as Name, Logo, Park, etc. before the league fills and the season starts. Team details will lock about one week into the season.
3. SEASON START -- After the final team joins and drafts, games will begin soon, and you will be notified by email. Be sure to set your lineup, strategy and team details if you haven't done so already.
4. FINAL ROSTER SIZE -- When the games begin, the roster limit will be set to a final 26. You MUST HAVE AT LEAST 11 POSITIONAL PLAYERS (NON-PITCHERS). If you do not, the webmaster must make changes to your roster in order to play the season.
5. STARTING PITCHERS -- It is highly recommended you carry five starters. Starters typically need four games to recover, and tired pitchers will suffer on the mound. ** You will not be able to change stats to a season where a starter pitched less than 85 innings. (You may see SPs with less than 85 innings in a single-season league.) In FAV TEAMS leagues, SPs with less than the required IP will be converted into RPs with 40 stamina. You will have the option once they are on your roster to convert them back to SPs with 40 stamina to use as "openers".
6. TRANSACTIONS, FREE AGENCY, ETC -- Note in budget-draft leagues, there are no trades. Some low-quality free agents will be available. Teams can sign free agents via waivers after Game 3 to fill their 25-man roster. Teams cannot drop players until after Game 10 (see rule #7 for more details). Teams can make up to 25 trades, starting after Game 6. When trading, you can involve a maximum of 5 players from each team. These rules are in place to keep things fair since there is no commissioner watchdog overseeing the league. Please act responsibly. Heavy unfair trading or dropping star players could get you banned from the league.
6. TRANSACTIONS, FREE AGENCY, ETC -- Teams can sign free agents and drop players after Game 1 to fill their 25-man roster. Teams can make up to 25 trades, starting after Game 6. When trading, you can involve a maximum of 5 players from each team. These rules are in place to keep things fair since there is no commissioner watchdog overseeing the league. Please act responsibly. Heavy unfair trading or dropping star players could get you banned from the league.
7. SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT -- NOTE THERE IS NO SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT IN FAVORITE TEAMS BUDGET DRAFT LEAGUES. After the season starts, you can begin ranking free agents for the supplemental drafts. The drafts are a way to prevent one team from grabbing all the best remaining players. The drafts take place after Games 2 & 3, and owners will be notified of results by email. The first draft is one round, the second draft is two rounds, and both drafts go in reverse order of team strength as based on the CPU's calculation. If your roster is full, drafted players will be placed in your minor league system. You must rank players if you want to participate in the drafts! After the drafts, free agency is open (via waivers). Waivers lasts until Game 10. You can start dropping players after Game 10.
7. SUPPLEMENTAL DRAFT -- This does not apply in Daily Draft leagues. There is no supplemental draft once the season starts.
8. MINOR LEAGUES -- Once the Supplemental Drafts are over, you'll have three spots in the minor leagues. You can add players until your minors is full, then you must drop a player before you can add a new one.
8. MINOR LEAGUES -- You have 15 spots in your minors once the Supplemental Draft is over. You can add players until your minors is full, then you must drop a player before you can add a new one.
8. MINOR LEAGUES -- Once the season begins, you'll have three spots in the minor leagues. You can add players until your minors is full, then you must drop a player before you can add a new one.
9. TRADING DEADLINE -- At the end of day 129, before the post-season, the Trade Center will close. Free Agency closes before the play-offs.
10. PLAYER HEALTH -- Positional players can get injured, but they will not fatigue, so you don't have to rest them unless they are injured. You'll get an email when a positional player goes down for more than 2 games. The CPU will swap this player at game time if you haven't made adjustments to your lineup. Pitchers can get injured for up to 15 games.
11. SANDBAGGING -- Do not attempt to place players outside of their primary or secondary positions, or you will see a high error rate. A non-catcher playing catcher will allow your opponent to steal bases at will. Sandbag at your own risk!
12. TIEBREAKERS -- Head-to-head match up will be used where possible, otherwise team with highest Power Ranking wins. In case of more than two teams, Power Ranking will be used. (The only time a tie-breaker is NOT used is if a wild card is tied with a division winner. In that case, the division winner gets the higher seed.) Keep in mind, whenever head-to-head can be used, it will trump Power Ranking. (Example: two teams tie for division, and a third team ties those other two for best record. First, head-to-head is used to determine division winner. Then, head-to-head for the division winner is used to determine #1 seed.)
13. SCHEDULED OFF DAYS -- Teams will be granted three days off at mid-season, and three days off before the post-season starts. The wild-card game winner gets one day off after the wild-card game, which means other playoffs teams will get a full five days rest before their first games. Playoff teams will be granted a day off after Game Four of each series, and two days off before the World Series. Teams that win their first round faster than the other series will be given as many extra days off as it takes the other series to finish.
14. POST-SEASON -- New, as of January 2024, all Auto Leagues are moving to one divisions, with six total playoff teams. The play-offs will be bracket-style. The #1 and #2 teams will get a bye. All rounds are seven games. The winner of #4 v #5 will play the #1 seed.
15. QUIT LEAGUE -- Once a season starts, owners cannot quit until their team's season is over.
16. NEXT SEASON -- If this is a KEEPER league, you must sign at least one player to a contract before the season ends, or you'll be removed from the league. (See league homepage for more info.) If this is NOT a keeper league, all players will be removed from their roster a few days after the World Series is over. The league champ and award winners will be recorded in the user details.
Note, in Auto Leagues, some of these will change once the season starts, and as the season progresses.
