AM-NAT FINAL DRAFT (what will the next wrinkle be?)

[honestiago1]

REECENT CHANGES:

#1: I killed all NDT 5y's (see #6, below), so think carefully when drafting your teams. If certain teams slip into the NDT mode, we might lose some very good franchise players.

#2: The "by team" screen is now the ONLY place you can go to get FA's.

#3: There is a special rule concerning Daryl Boston (see #10, below)

I hope this is as clear as it can be now. If people can't hang with the "actual players with actual teams" idea, oh well. I think we'll be fine, actually, provided SEA ends up an NDT (are there ANY 5y SEA's?). Is there any REASON for ANYONE to pick SEA?

[b:1ad7ee741b]Synopsis:[/b:1ad7ee741b]
-80M, DH league
-Managers drafted one NL and one AL team. Players only play for the teams they actually appeared for (with ONE exception [[i:1ad7ee741b]trades[/i:1ad7ee741b], see below).

[b:1ad7ee741b]1) BASIC PREMISE AND DRAFT ORDER:[/b:1ad7ee741b] Each manager selects an American League and a National League team. The manager may only draft players from those two teams during the initial draft phase. These teams are selected in a serpentine draft. Draft order is determined randomly. I will conduct the random draft via lotto (explained after I get twelve managers).

EXAMPLE: After lotto, I select Boston in the first round and St. Louis in the second (lucky me!). This means I can only draft players from these two teams, using the "team" selection tool on the free agent sort screen. All of these players will be selected in the autodraft phase.

[b:1ad7ee741b]2) BALLPARKS:[/b:1ad7ee741b] The manager's team must play in the ballpark of one of the teams he picks.

EXAMPLE: In my Boston-St. Louis combo, I'd have to play either in Fenway or Busch Stadium.

[b:1ad7ee741b]3) TEAM NAMES AND LOCATIONS:[/b:1ad7ee741b] The team's name must clearly reflect the team's home site (place name) as well as the other team taken in the draft (mascot). We will try to place teams in their proper divisions, according to the parks people have chosen.

EXAMPLE: Boston-St. Louis. My place name is determined by the stadium I took. If it was Fenway, I am the Boston Cardinals. If it was Busch, I'd be the St. Louis Red Sox (quite a mouthful there). Depending on which park I took, I could end up in the EAST (Boston) or CENTRAL (St. Louis). If, however, there is a plethora of CENTRAL placenames, St. Louis could slide to the west (I can't imagine any scenario where Boston is in the Central).

[b:1ad7ee741b]4) DETERMINING PLAYER OWNERSHIP, PRESEASON (AUTODRAFT) PHASE:[/b:1ad7ee741b] Many players played for more than one team, and will appear on two or more team screens. When determining if you own a player during the DRAFT PHASE, click on his card portrait. If the player played three or more years for your drafted team, he is yours. If he played two with your team, two with another, and one with someone else, then the team name that appears FIRST on the card gets the player (the team name of the team that had the player TWO YEARS). This holds true even if the years are non-consecutive. Finally, if a player appeared for 5 different teams, that player belongs to the team that appears FIRST on his card.

EXAMPLE: Fred Lynn's card shows he played for BOS (2 years, or 2y), BAL (2y) and CAL (1y). According to the rules above, he belongs to Boston for draft purposes. Kevin McReynolds portrait shows that his first two years were with SD, his last three with NYM. Because he played THREE years with NYM. He counts as a MET (or a "3y-MET).

[i:1ad7ee741b]NOTE #1: “Ownership” of players in the above manner is only applicable during the autodraft phase. After autodraft, managers may select ANY players that appear on their “by team” rosters.[/i:1ad7ee741b]

[i:1ad7ee741b]NOTE #2: For the purposes of clarity, a player who played two years with two different teams is called a "2-2." A "franchise player" is one who played all five years with one team. PRIOR TO THE SEASON STARTING, YOU CAN ONLY DRAFT PLAYERS THAT FULLY "BELONG" TO YOUR TEAMS (as detailed above).[/i:1ad7ee741b]

[b:1ad7ee741b]5) FRANCHISE PLAYERS:[/b:1ad7ee741b] Players who played ALL FIVE YEARS for their selected (drafted) team(s) are considered "franchise players," and CANNOT be traded to other teams. They must either remain on the active roster, or in the franchise's "minor league system." As they are 5y players, they are always untouchable by other franchises.

[b:1ad7ee741b]6) NON-DRAFTED (NDT) TEAMS:[/b:1ad7ee741b] Two AL teams will be undrafted after the team draft phase. Players from these two teams are available to franchises, provided they appear on the GM’s “by team” screens. “Franchise players” from non-drafted teams are simply not available at all. They all died in that terrible plane crash, and are thus buried and forgotten.

EXAMPLE #1: SEA ends up being an NDT (wanna bet this is actually what happens?). Richie Zisk, a 3y-SEA player not available during autodraft, is still available to the TEX franchise, as he has 2y in TEX. He won’t be available to anyone else, however.

EXAMPLE #2: MIN also ends up an NDT, as everyone is completely afraid of taking on their pitching staff. There are still plenty of MIN players available out there (like the immortal Ron Davis, who is still available to the Yankees). Unfortunately, all those wonderful 5-MIN stalwarts (among them Viola, Puckett, Gagne, Hrbek and Gaetti) are all simply unavailable. They’re gone – poof! Finito. (Too bad they boarded the death plane that day.)

[b:1ad7ee741b]TO REITERATE: you MUST use players that appear on your “by team” screens ONLY. That’s IT (exception, TRADES, below)[/b:1ad7ee741b] :D

[b:1ad7ee741b] 7) WAIVER PERIOD:[/b:1ad7ee741b] Because everyone’s draft picks are free and clear, there is no reason to observe a waiver period. Waiver order would not be fair to anyone, anyway (as we ALL got ALL our players). GM’s will wait until the waiver period ends before picking up any free agents. Trades are allowed during this time, however (see #9, below). Rules concerning free agency are detailed in #8, below.

[b:1ad7ee741b]8 ) FREE AGENCY:[/b:1ad7ee741b] After autodraft and waiver period, any player listed on a manager's team screens may be picked up. It does not matter how many years they have had with that particular team. All players that show up on "by team" screens are fair game, as per the normal game rules.

EXAMPLE: OAKLAND. I have drafted my team, but do not like all the pitchers I selected. The autodraft runs, so I check out the free agency list on my "by team" screen to see if anyone fell through the cracks. I notice that Joaquin Andujar, a 4y-STL player that the STL player passed on is available to me, since he is also a 1y-OAK player. STL's loss is my gain. I drop a player and pick up Andujar in free agency prior to beginning the season.

[b:1ad7ee741b]9) TRADES:[/b:1ad7ee741b] In order to as much as possible maintain the “players only play with their actual teams” theme, franchises are allowed only ONE TRADE PER SEASON. These trades may include any players on the active roster EXCEPT franchise players. Obviously, any players acquired in this manner are not held to their actual team” status. As a courtesy, the commissioner requests that teams conducting such trades announce them via broadcast message to other teams in the league. REMEMBER: ONE TRADE PER SEASON.

[b:1ad7ee741b]10) Special Daryl Boston rule:[/b:1ad7ee741b] Because he is the ONLY player with a COL entry on his card, Daryl Boston is hereby barred from competition in this league. He is hereby post-boarded on the death plane of NDT-5y’s and considered very, very dead. (I’m not kidding – NO ONE gets Boston! [grrrrr….]).

[MoCrash]

Leave it to me to come up with an issue (I should have been a lawyer :roll: ).

As the trades rule now read, each franchise is only allowed one trade for the season. Does this mean only one trade for a player which did not play for the franchise's teams (which is how I understood the original proposition)? Or does that limitation also apply to those who trade players who had played for the franchise? For example, if player A with Montreal drafts David Palmer, a 3y for the Expos, and player B with Atlanta drafts Pascual Perez, a 2-2 belonging to the Braves, if they trade those players with each other then they can make no other trades during the season? I would suggest that there be no limitation on trades as long as no team have no more than one non-franchise player on the roster acquired by trade. Using the previous example, if team A picks up Perez from team B in exchange for Dennis Martinez -- who never played for one of team B's clubs -- then A could still trade for a non-franchise player but B would be restricted to trading only for players who appear on his teams' screens.

Does this clarify things :twisted: ? It may not seem so, but it seems pretty simple to me, although it may not appear to be in my convoluted explanation.

By the way, Bruce Bochte ... a pretty decent LH hitter ... was a Seattle 5y.

[LMBombers]

QUOTE: "I think we'll be fine, actually, provided SEA ends up an NDT (are there ANY 5y SEA's?). Is there any REASON for ANYONE to pick SEA?"

There are four 5yr Seattle players. They are Bill Swift, Alvin Davis, Harold Reynolds and Dave Valle.

Bruce Bochte has 2 card years with Oakland.

[honestiago1]

I still think SEA is going undrafted, so it's bye, bye Harlod and the Blue Notes.

Okay, Mo, here's the rule and my thnking:

THE RULE: One trade of ANY type. The actual teams the players played for are inconsequential. If you want a player that played for, say, one other team, then my advice is to either (1) wait for the player to be dropped, or (2) make an agreement with the opposing coach to drop your player if he drops his. Then both of you go to the team screen and pick up the FA's. Granted it costs you money, but that's the price you pay.

REASONING: I want to limit (as much as possible) player movement to franchises for which they did not play. If unlimited trading is allowed, then we could (not that we would) end up with a league like any other league. Restricting the number of trades limits player movement (unless teams make deals involving huge numbers of players).

The reason I DON'T dig the "unlimited trades between owning teams" is that is seems to add another needless layer of rules. As my first attempt at running this was so incredibly complicated, I am trying to avoid adding anything that complicates the issue.

What I AM open to is expanding the number of trades allowed per year. Would a trade limit of 2 or 3 be enough? There would be absolutely no stipulation on player ownership in players involved in trades (with the exception of 5y's, which remain, forever and always, yours).

I would like to add here that, in my limited experience in the leagues (a total of 4 now), I haven't seen very many trades at all. I would surmise that one trade per team might actually be enough for an entire season.

To be honest, I am perilously close to saying "No Trades." The only reason I haven't is that I don't want to lose managers. So, I'll ask:

Who would bolt the league if a "No Trade" clause were enacted?

Second: Is a 2 trade limit acceptable to everyone? There would be absolutely no stipulations on team ownership for players involved in trades. Franchise players coould not be traded, of course, but any team could acquire any other players in the trade, and place them on their team regardless of whether or not the player actually played for that team. Again, this could be done only TWICE per year.

[MoCrash]

Oops! Maybe I should have looked first. Always thought of him as a career Mariner.

[honestiago1]

Screw it. The rules are as they are. ONE TRADE per year, no stipulations on traded players (other than the 5y rule). I want to stay true to the theme while allowing a wrinkle, and that's the wrinkle.

Hope you all stay with us. It WILL be an interesting draft.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Now let's play ball!

[roofinghorse1]

i,m cool with that...lets see what this leads to.interesting to say the least...

[1st Command Commando]

Was it Danny Tartabull who said, Baseball been berry, berry good to me?
Most Kingdome players thought so too, since homeruns flew out at an amazing rate.

Kingdome is an excellent homerun park. Teamed up with a powerful NL homerun hitting club, Harold Reynolds, a 1 at 2B, would be icing on the cake.

[honestiago1]

Just after typing in "why wouldn ANYONE draft SEA," I thought..."huh...the Kingdome." Well, I ain't gonna try it, that's for sure.

[honestiago1]

honestiag-TX
adamphoenix-NY
Genevajack-IL
bigdinkent - OH
LMBombers - DC
Billings Ballers - ID
YellowDog - NM
Sogcomando (AKA 1st Command Commando) - MN
MoCrash - MO
Rich Swerb - VA
Roofinghorse-KY
Jablowmi - FL

Draft order will be low to high.

2 rounds -- make sure you have an NL and an AL team at end of round #2.

Teams placed geographically after team draft (be sure to check how you name your team [rules, above]).

We will skip waiver period.

Once free agency begins, it's catch as catch can on your "by team" screens.

Thank you for shopping Wal Mart. :)