League Rules

I. TEAMS, ROSTERS AND LEAGUE STYLE

A. The teams' rosters will consist of real major league players from the MLB teams of the era starting with the 1920 season (and with players from 3 seasons prior to that for roster purposes) and expanding with rookie drafts and free agent selections each successive year. The league also features players from the Negro Leagues of the era, with top players from those leagues selected from various sources and brought in as rookies over the span of the league's history. (See rules for rookie drafts and free agent selections below, and also more about importing Negro League players.)

B. The league features Major League teams starting from the 1920 season, and progressing for the next four decades through the 1959 season. Team names, logos, and ballparks are made accordingly. Teams will move to cities and ball parks each year as in "real life." Park factors for 1920 are set according to historic dimensions but can be adjusted for that initial season by an owner. (Contact Commish if you wish to do so.) After that initial season, park factors can be changed for either or both RH or LH hitters by request each season but ONLY by one factor. (For example, from Big Boost to Mild Boost, or Mild Boost to none, etc.) When a team moves to a new historic park (Giants to San Fran, for example) the owner can use the historic park dimensions (as set by Commish) or alter them.

C. League schedule for 1920 will be based on the real 1920 MLB season (154 Games). Future seasons will be based on that same schedule but with teams swapped so that each team gets a ?new? schedule each year. At least once a decade a new ?real? MLB schedule will be imported and used. The post-season will feature a best-of-seven playoff series featuring the top 4 teams in each league (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3) and a best-of-seven World Series between the AL and NL winners. (See Schedule and Post-Season below.)

D. All team rosters must have a 25-man active roster at all times, with a minimum of 12 position players and a minimum of 10 pitchers. The league will feature a 4-man pitching rotation so you must have a minimum of 4 SP on your active roster at all times. Each team will also have a 6-player minor league, including 2 slots available for Reserve Players. (More below.) A team may not have more than 25 players under contract each season. (Number of contracts expanded from 20 to 25 in 1925. Further expansion possible as the player pool expands.)

E. Injuries will be limited to max of 10 days in the early seasons due to limited reserve pool of players. That may be expanded in future seasons. Stats boost for slumping players will be active, with a max of 30 days per slump buster.

F. At the mid-point of each season, there will be an all-star "break" and All Stars from each league will be selected by computer rankings. There won't be an actual break in the action but all teams will get 3 days of rest. There are no rewards for all-stars, just a nice asterisk on the player?s career listing.

G. If an owner does not check in with his team over a period of 5 days, the commissioner will send two messages asking the owner to do so. If there is no response to either message, the owner will be dropped from the league. If you are going to be out of touch for a period of time, please let the commissioner know so that you won't be removed. The Commissioner also reserves the right to remove owners who are not active and who don't participate in league activities, including Drafts and free agent bidding. If you are unavailable for a draft or bidding process, please let the Commissioner know and make arrangements to rank players or submit bids privately. Please stay active.

II. TRADING

A. There will be no limit to the number of trades between teams during the season. Trading will be suspended during the last 30 "days" of a season and will be resumed immediately after the end of the World Series.

B. Trades are automatically approved. However, trades that don't benefit one team in any way or which are blatantly one-sided will be reverted by the commissioner, even if games have been played using those players, and subject to review by a group of other owners selected by the Commish.

C. Draft picks in the Rookie Draft can be traded but only for the next season beyond the current one. Draft picks cannot be traded once the Draft Room has been opened for a draft. Salary cap money cannot be traded.

III. CONTRACTS

A. Each team may have a maximum of 25 players under contract each season. (Number of contracts expanded from 20 to 25 in 1925. Further expansion possible as the player pool expands.). All teams have a salary cap of $150 million. Expiring contracts do NOT count against your team budget total, which is shown under the contracts page link (and which reflects your budget total for the next season). Owners must stay within that contract total and any contracts which put the owner over budget, either awarded contracts or FA bidding contracts, will be voided. Owners are expected to monitor their contract status and stay under budget for the current season and future seasons.

B. Players will be inked to a set number of years and monetary value when first signed. Player contracts are limited to a maximum of 10 years, including the player's first year if you draft or acquire him and then sign him to a contract. Player contracts will include a raise when you sign them, but there will be a league MAXIMUM of $2 raises. If you sign a player on your contracts page and his raise is more than $2 contact the Commish for adjustment. Re-signing players after their contracts have expired is not allowed. Those players will be returned to the free agent pool at the end of their contracts. Teams MAY NOT GO OVER THEIR CAP for the current season or future seasons when making trades or signing free agents to contracts. Any signings or trades which put a team over their salary allotment will be voided. Free agent bids that cause a team to go over their cap will be disallowed.

C. Rookies and free agents acquired during the pre-season drafts or via trades must be signed by the end of the season in which they are acquired if the owner intends to keep them. The signings will take place prior to player and team progression at the end of the year, and their season with that team WILL count against the 10-year maximum contract limit should they be signed to a long-term contract.

D. A new owner who joins the league may drop one contract from his roster upon joining the league UNLESS a contract had already been dropped for that team during the course of the season. (In the case of two owner changes during the course of a season.)

IV. PLAYERS, PLAYER PROGRESSION AND PLAYER CONVERSIONS

A. This is a player progression league with performance built on the stats a player has when he first comes into the league as a rookie (or his "new" stats line if Reserved and activated later). Players? stats will progress each year to age 28, plateau between the ages of 28-33, and then regress from age 34 until their retirement.

B. Players from the Negro Leagues of the era are brought in each year as rookies but since no MLB stats exist for them, their stats line is based on a comparable MLB player of roughly the same era and are imported into the league based on that player's stats. (A site called "Seamheads.com" which has a tool to compare Negro League players with comparable MLB players is used for that data.) The NL player's stats may be from a year other than the actual year they are imported into the league, and so those NL players names will include the year they are coming into the league. (For example, Oscar23 Charleston.)

C. RESERVE PLAYERS: Starting with the 1920 class, players that are drafted may be put on a reserve list (tagged in your minors as ?Reserved?) and held there for up to 3 seasons beyond his rookie season without being played or signed if the owner wants to hold him and use a stats line from one of the next 3 of his ?real? MLB season stats. That will allow players who came in with weak rookie stats to mature and have an improved stats line to be used for his baseline for progression.

It is up to the individual owner to research players brought in to see if they would benefit from the Reserve status. The owner must notify the Commish when he is ready to have the player removed from ?Reserve? and placed on the active roster. Years on the Reserve List DO COUNT AGAINST the 10-year max for a player on a team?s roster. When an owner selects a season to activate a Reserved player, his rookie stats that he came in with will be replaced with the "real" stats from that year in MLB and his future performance and progression will be based on those numbers. When activated, the owner MUST sign him to at least a two-year contract. NOTE: The player's contract value WILL increase based on his new stats line as opposed to his stats line as a rookie.

If a player is drafted, or picked up as a FA, and is used in a game at any time, he cannot later be placed on Reserve by any team. A Reserved player must be activated and signed to at least a two-year contract within 3 seasons after the season he is drafted and placed on Reserve. A max of 2 players can be on ?Reserve? at any time. They will count against your allowable limit on your minor league roster.

CLARIFICATION: If you place a player on reserve, you can change your mind WITHIN THAT SAME SEASON and drop him or sign him as is. But that has to be done before the end of the season in which he was drafted. Once we move into a new season, any players on a team's reserve list have to be kept and signed to a contract at some point during the 3-season window. (They can also be traded as Reserves but the new owner is then responsible for the player's Reserve status.)

MODIFICATION: A player who comes into the league but never appears in a game as a rookie CAN BE PICKED UP AND RESERVED IN A LATER SEASON IF the action is taken within his first 3 seasons in the league, and IF he has qualifying MLB stats in the year he is going to be activated. This can be done even if the player was on a team's roster at some point, as long as he never appeared in any games. It is rare that a qualifying reserve candidate would slip by, but if he does, then he is still eligible under this modification. He has to be held on reserve for at least 1 season, though. Can not pick up a player and ask for his stats to be updated for the current season.

NOTE: Former Negro League players who come in as rookies MAY NOT be reserved. Since they come into the league with a stats line based on another MLB player they have no "future" stats to progress on.

D. The Rookie Class that is brought in each year will consist of players in that year who produced stats of at least 125 Abs and 35 IP. Starting pitchers who come in with less than 100 IP with have stats doubled or be converted to RP before they are made available.

E. All players -- regardless if they are on teams or in free agency -- will be retired at the end of the season in which they turn age 41. If a player begins a season at age 40 he will complete that season with the team.

F. Teams may change the starting position of one position player once each season, but this can only be done by making a player's secondary position his primary position. The secondary position must be a specific position, not just ?IF.?

G. Pitcher Conversions

1. A team may convert one pitcher per year from starting pitcher to relief pitcher.

2. In order to convert a SP to a RP, the player must be at least 30 years old heading into the season in which the conversion is requested. Stats for the pitcher will be reduced roughly in half to reflect IP and number of hits, runs, etc. ERA and WHIP numbers will remain about the same. Stamina will also be reduced in half.

3. In rare circumstances, an owner may request that a RP be converted to SP. There must, however, have been historic precedent for such a change in "real" baseball (player started as RP and then became SP for MLB team), and the pitcher must have been used mainly as a SP in MLB for at least 3 years in his career (based on G and GS posted for those years). The baseline stat to be used for the pitcher conversion will be the career per game averages for all games, according to baseball-reference.com. A pitcher's stamina and on fire statistics will be determined by looking at the imported historic figures used by Pennant Chase for that player and averaging those numbers during the years in which the pitcher was used primarily as a starter. The commissioner reserves the right to deny the conversion request if career stats overvalue a player due to statistical quirks.

V. SCHEDULE AND POST-SEASON

A. The schedule will be 154 Games and is based on a real MLB schedule from that era.

B. During the regular season, 6 Games will be simmed Per Day. There will be 2 days of games at 8 am, 2 at 3 pm and 2 at 10 pm (all ET). Off-days in the schedule count toward a day of games. Sims may be spaced out more in the final two "weeks" of the season so that teams in playoff races will have more opportunity to adjust their rosters.

C. At the end of each season there will be a best-of-seven playoff series featuring the top 4 teams in each league (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3) and a best-of-seven World Series between the AL and NL winners. Home field advantage in the league series games will go to the team with the best record. Ties in the standings between 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 3rd will be determined by head-to-head meetings between those teams, or the team with the best run differential if tied in season head-to-head games. In case of a tie for fourth place in a division, there will be a one-game playoff to determine who advances to the playoffs. The one-game playoff will be held at the home park of the team which won the head-to-head matchup during the season, or the team with the best run differential if tied in season head-to-head games. Home field advantage in the League Championship Series will go to the team with the best overall regular season record or, if records are the same, to the team which won the head-to-head meetings between those teams or the team with the best run differential if tied in season head-to-head games. The World Series will open at the NL Park in even years, and at the AL Park in odd years. Playoff teams will get a 2-day rest between the end of the regular season and the start of the first-round playoffs. If a one-game playoff is needed to determine a playoff spot, the advancing team will only have a 1-day rest before the DCS. There will also be a day of rest between games when teams travel from one site to another in a series, and a two-day rest period between the scheduled game 7 of a series and the start of the next round of playoffs. If a series ends in less than the full 7-game series, those extra days will be given as rest days for the winners.

D. At the conclusion of the season, awards will be presented in each league for MVP, Cy Young Winner and Rookie of the Year, either via voting by owners, by computer selection or by commissioner.

VI. OFF-SEASON

A. After the season has concluded, teams will need to sign players that are not under contract. Any players not signed or that have a contract that expires will be put into free agency.

B. A Rookie Draft will take place shortly after the end of each season (after team rosters are cleared and player progression stats have been run), with the draft order based on the previous year's W-L records. WS champs will pick last and WS runners-up will pick next-to-last. Other teams will pick in order based on regular season record (worst picks first). If two teams have the same regular season record, selection will be based on run differential. The Rookie Draft will be 3 rounds and will be a live draft at a day and time to be set at the end of the season. Owners will be given a minimum of 24 hours to pre-rank draft lists for use in auto-selection of their draft picks if they are unable to attend the live online draft.

C. Following the Rookie Draft, free agents will be available in a four-day bidding process. Owners may submit bids to the Commissioner on any free agent that is in the pool, within the limits of the team's remaining contract money and number of contracts available. Free agent bidding will be over 4 days. All bids posted on a player will be posted each day so that everyone can see how everyone else is bidding. Bids may include raises but the maximum raise is $2 on a player. (Leading bid each day will include years/bid/raise (if any) and total. Other bids will just show total.) To win a player, you have to have the top bid for a 1-day period, from one update to the next. Bidding will close each day at 10 pm ET and if you are not outbid during the previous 24 hours, you win the player. If you are, you have the next period to re-up your bid. On the last day (Day 4), the team with the leading bid gets the player. On Day 2, or 3 or 4, if your bid was not the leading bid on a player you can choose not to re-bid and use that money on another player. But if yours is the leading bid, you can not alter or reduce that bid even if no one else is bidding. You also CANNOT re-up your bid if you have the leading bid, except on the final day of bidding. If you are the leading bidder going into the final round (Round 4) you MAY up your bid in anticipation of other owners submitting higher final round bids. If you do up your bid, AND NO OTHER OWNERS SUBMIT NEW FINAL ROUND BIDS FOR THAT PLAYER, then your winning bid reverts to the earlier leading bid you had submitted.

D. Following the Free Agent Bidding process, there will be a Supplemental Free Agent Draft, of 2 or 3 rounds, for owners to select free agents for their rosters. Selection will be in reverse order of the previous year's finish. (See rules under rookie draft for rules on order of selection.) The Supplemental Draft will be a live draft at a day and time to be set at the end of the season. Owners will be given the opportunity to pre-rank draft lists for use in auto-selection of their draft picks if they are unable to attend the live online draft.

E. Following the Supplemental Draft, the free agent pool will be opened at a set day and time for owners to log in and select players on a first-come, first-served basis. The free agent pool will remain open until the last 30 "days" of the regular season, and then will be closed until the next season's Free Agent Bidding and Draft process is concluded.

F. Play nice; play fair; don?t try to game the system or bend the rules, please. Thanks!

League Settings