SYSTEM LEAGUE - rules discussion/pls check in

[BC Manager]

Existing rules:

My vision here is for a league with two elements:
1) the opportunity to manage a "system", as in a Major league team, with a minor league or farm team;
2) a decade-like keeper league with players retiring and new players to be drafted

So, I've come up with The System: 70s to 90s

The rules that follow are open to changes based on other people's suggestions, etc, however I reserve the right to set the final rules (though, of course I will endeavor to create a league that attracts the most quality participants).

BASIC STRUCTURE

Major and minor leagues

There will be two leagues with each owner having a team in both leagues -- the Major league and the Minor league. Teams will be able to transfer players between their major and minor league teams, with some restrictions.

70s, 80s, and 90s seasons

This will be a 9-season keeper league. The first 3 seasons will be using the 70s game, the next 3 seasons will use the 80s game and the final 3 seasons will use the 90s game. Players who are in more than one card set can be kept from one decade to the next. Players will either retire when they no longer have a card, or become a rookie in the season when they first have a card.



RULES

Designated State

When signing up, everyone will choose a state (or province) -- if two people want the same state, they'll just have to compromise. The state will serve two purposes. For one, it will be your pick 3 draft state for determining draft order (so it will have to be a state with a pick 3 draw). It will also determine where your teams are located (for naming purposes, not for ballparks). Your Major league team will be located in a major city in your state and your minor league team will be located in a minor city in your state. So for example, if you have Pennsylvania, your Major league team should be Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, and your farm team would be in a smaller city such as Harrisburg, Allentown or Eerie. [I'm willing to give a fair bit of discretion in terms of what people decide are major/minor cities but they should be cities large enough that people know what state they're in. The purpose of having both teams in the same state is so that we can tell which farm team goes with which big league team. It defeats this purpose if the cities chose are really obscure.] In the example, I gave above, the big league team may be the Pittsburgh Pigeons and the farm team could be the Allentown Steelers.

The states will also be used for a pick 3 draw on a designated night to determine draft order. The draft order will be LOW pick 3 number to HIGH.

70s Draft

The first draft will be of 70s players. All 720 players and 24 ballparks will be drafted. That means each team will draft 60 players and 2 ballparks. The draft will take place on the draft site and a clock will be used for pick after the first few rounds -- length of time for picks to be determined. Will be a snake draft, as usual.

Roster

Total players - Organizations will need to carry a minimum of 50 players (including major league team, minor league team and reserves).

Catchers - Organizations will need to draft a minimum of 4 catcher and no organization will be allowed to carry more than 6 catchers at one time.

Relievers - Organizations will need to draft a minimum of 6 'pure' relievers and no organization will be allowed to carry more than 10 'pure' relievers.

These rules are to ensure every organization can have a viable team in both leagues.

Rosters - in season

Each organization must be able to field a viable team in both leagues. As organizations will start with 60 players each and be unable to put all players on a team, organizations maintain the rights of players even if they're not on either the major league or minor league teams.

Salary Cap

MAJOR LEAGUE TEAM - $100 million

MINOR LEAGUE TEAM - $80 million

I know some will suggest making the caps 80/60. One reason for not doing this is that I don't think owners will be able to put 2 teams together if the caps are 80/60. I know in the 80s the grand total of salaries for all players works out to an average of 79.3 million if you divide the total into 24 teams, and there's slightly less players in the 80s. The other thing is I want there to be additional flexibility for teams to make moves (with some restrictions, as I'll explain shortly). If the caps are 80/60, or 80/80 it will be too much of a juggling act trying to make moves between teams.

Transactions - in season

When organizations are making moves between their big league and farm teams, they must make the moves such that no player plays for both teams on the same night. If I'm dropping Ed Figueroa to the farm and calling up Doc Medich, I need to have both players on their right teams before lineups are set for the next games. Owners must make these type of moves simultaneously in both leagues (for instance, drop Figueroa and pickup Medich in the Major league and drop Medich and pickup Figueroa in the minor league).

Having said that, the rules say that a player doesn't have to be on either roster to be reserved. So, you could drop a player off of either of your teams without immediately adding them to your other team. What must be avoided is having a player on both your teams at the same time.

Players can be called up to your Major league team from your minor league team (or from reserves) with no restrictions. There are, however, restrictions on dropping players to your minor league team, as follows:

GAMES 1-42

Players can be dropped from your Major league team without restrictions.

GAMES 43-81

Players with salary equal to or greater than $5 million must clear waivers if dropped from the Major league team, (to the minor league team or to reserves). Other players (<$5 million) can be dropped from the Major league team without restrictions.

GAMES 82-141

Any players dropped from the Major league team must clear waivers.

I'll explain waivers next. The reason for these restrictions is to keep Major league teams as Major league teams. I want to avoid having teams load up their minor league team once they realize their Major league team is not in contention. This should also create some player movement and keep owners interested even if they're out of contention.

TRADES

All trades are allowed, including trading minor league players and players on reserve. Teams can trade minor league/reserve players for major league players, etc. The only restrictions are the ones listed above -- that is, if a team acquires a player from another team's major league team, the above waiver restrictions apply if the team getting the player on a Major roster wants to put the player in the minors. For example, if I acquire Willie Randolph in a trade from a team that has Randolph on their major league team, and I want to demote Randolph to my Minor league team, since I already have a 2B, then I have to put Randolph on waivers, if we're after game 81 (for this example, I'm using the 70s in which Randolph's salary is $4.97 million, in which case he could be demoted before game 81, since he's below $5 million).

WAIVERS

As explained above, between games 43-81, players over $5mil will have to clear waivers to be dropped from a major league team (no waivers needed for minor league drops), and all players will have to clear waivers if dropped after game 81. If a team is wanting to drop a player who needs to clear waivers they must declare it first with a league email -- the email should have something in the title alerting the league that a player is on waivers. The player (or players -- you can put several players on waivers at the same time) remains on the dropping team during the waiver period. The waiver period is 24 hours. Over this 24 hour period, all other teams can place a claim on the player. Claims are also made by league email and should include "WAIVER CLAIM" in the email title. When the 24 hours are over, the team with the worst record - at the time waiver period ends - that has made a claim gets the player. If no teams have made a claim, then the dropping team can move the player to their minor league team or to reserves.

Waivers are not recallable. The team making the drop must release that player within the 24 hour period. They can wait until that night's games are played, but the player must be off their roster by the end of the waiver period, presumably replaced by a minor league player (who must be removed from the minor league team at the same time) or reserve player. The team cannot put the demoted player on their minor league team until the waiver period has passed and unless no one has claimed them. This is where reserve players may come in handy - you may have to fill a roster spot on your minor league team while you wait for the major league player to clear. You can wait to do all this maneuvering until the end of the waiver period, but must make the moves at this time.

If a team successfully claims a player off waivers, they will have 24 hours to make room for that player on their major league team. This may involve putting another player on waivers, which starts the whole process again. If the team fails to make room and add them to their roster within 24 hours, then the player defaults to the team with the second worst record who made a claim, and this team now has 24 hours to make room.

When determining who has the worst record between teams making claims, if there is a tie for worst record, then run differential will be the tiebreaker (worse differential is considered the worst team). If this is also a tie, the team with the worst record in head-to-head matches between the two teams will be considered worst, and if still tied, runs against will be used (higher runs against is considered worse).

BALLPARKS

Ball parks will be drafted in the initial 70s draft. As there are 24 parks, all will be drafted. Teams can wait until after the draft to determine which park will be their Major league park and which will be their Minor league park. These will remain your Major/Minor parks throughout future seasons -- or at least the parks that belong to that Real Life MLB team will be. For example, if you draft Jarry Park (Expos) and make it your major league park in the 70s, Olympic will be your Major league park in the 80s.

The exception to this will be regarding the expansion team parks that will be introduced in the 80s and 90s (don't know which ones will be in the 90s, yet). During the 80s draft, you can draft Exhibition or Kingdome and then drop of your parks (must declare which park you're dropping as soon as you draft the new park). The park you drop will then be available to be drafted by a team in that same draft who will then have to declare what park their dropping, and so on... If you want the new park to be your Major league park, you must drop your Major league park, and vice-versa.

DESIGNATED HITTER

DH will be used in all leagues.

I'm partial to the DH, but if there's support I can be persuaded to make Pitchers hit in the 70s season or in the Minor leagues

Keepers and off-season

The players on either of your teams at the end of the season or on your reserve list, are your keepers that you carry into the next season. Between season 3/4, 6/7 your keepers are the players you own that have cards in the next decade. You're free to make any moves between your teams during the pre-season, but must have mutually exclusive, viable teams as of opening day.

80s and 90s Drafts

The order for the draft of 80s and 90s players, after seasons 3 and 6, will be based on pick 3 numbers, just as the original draft was. Standings will have no impact on draft order (which should remove the incentive for teams to tank if they're out of contention).

Organizations will have a varying number of players they carry into the 80s and 90s seasons. Teams can draft for the 80s season until they have a total of 55 players (including keepers). This will mean that some teams draft more players in the 80s draft than others. The numbers for the 90s will have to be determined later. Teams with more keepers will make less picks at the end of the draft, but not lose picks at the beginning of the draft.

[BC Manager]

I'll start with 3 ideas I've had to enhance the league:

1-After you put a player on waivers, you can trade him before the 24 hours is up. Arguably, there's nothing stopping this in the current rules, but I'd like to make it a clear that it's a legitimate move. This may make people less reluctant to use waivers and generate more trade talk.

2- Injury reserve. I'd like to propose that teams can temporarily remove a player from the major league roster if he's injured, without waivers. We'd have to work out some details around this.

3- "Rule 5" At the start of the season, players not on a major or minor league season could be picked up by another team, as long he remains on that team's major league roster. This would be similar to the real life rule 5 draft (does it still exist?). It would force teams to put more thought into who they keep on reserve.

What ideas do others have?

[wesleyeugeneclark]

I would like to be able to pull players back from waivers. Maybe if you pull someone back from waivers they can't be traded or placed on waivers again for the remainder of the season. I think it would add more movement and increase trade talk if I thought that I wasn't going to 100% lose a player I place on waivers.

Also, if you claim a player on waivers, do they have to immediately go onto one of your active rosters? If not, what is to stop one player from claiminn every player placed on waivers and just stockpiling players on reserve?

[BC Manager]

[quote:36ff41d478="Wesleyeugeneclark"]I would like to be able to pull players back from waivers. Maybe if you pull someone back from waivers they can't be traded or placed on waivers again for the remainder of the season. I think it would add more movement and increase trade talk if I thought that I wasn't going to 100% lose a player I place on waivers.

Also, if you claim a player on waivers, do they have to immediately go onto one of your active rosters? If not, what is to stop one player from claiminn every player placed on waivers and just stockpiling players on reserve?[/quote:36ff41d478]

Thans Wes. Your idea is worth discussing.

As for your second point -- if a team claims a player and then tries to put them on reserves, or their minor league team, that team would have to put the player on waivers, too.

[Hakmusic]

I know there was some talk about only playing one season at each level, but others thought that would defeat the purpose somewhat and wanted to stick with three. I could see us going to two seasons for each game as a compromise.

just thought I would throw that out there.

[BC Manager]

I thought I should get everyone to check in here to see if they're interested in continuing with this theme, and to find out where everyone stands with regard to the number of seasons.

Please confirm whether you're still "in" for this theme and whether you want to do 3 seasons per card set or 2:

1. BC - in, (undecided about # of seasons)
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[bigdinkent]

I thought I should get everyone to check in here to see if they're interested in continuing with this theme, and to find out where everyone stands with regard to the number of seasons.

Please confirm whether you're still "in" for this theme and whether you want to do 3 seasons per card set or 2:

1. BC - in, (undecided about # of seasons)
2. bigdinkent in (3, but ok with 2)
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[djkalle]

I thought I should get everyone to check in here to see if they're interested in continuing with this theme, and to find out where everyone stands with regard to the number of seasons.

Please confirm whether you're still "in" for this theme and whether you want to do 3 seasons per card set or 2:

1. BC - in, (undecided about # of seasons)
2. bigdinkent in (3, but ok with 2)
3. djkalle - in (2)
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[wesleyeugeneclark]

I thought I should get everyone to check in here to see if they're interested in continuing with this theme, and to find out where everyone stands with regard to the number of seasons.

Please confirm whether you're still "in" for this theme and whether you want to do 3 seasons per card set or 2:

1. BC - in, (undecided about # of seasons)
2. bigdinkent in (3, but ok with 2)
3. djkalle - in (2)
4. Wesleyeugeneclark - In (also 3, but OK with 2)
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[sphilipp8]

1. BC - in, (undecided about # of seasons)
2. bigdinkent in (3, but ok with 2)
3. djkalle - in (2)
4. Wesleyeugeneclark - In (also 3, but OK with 2)
5. sphilipp8 - In (3, but ok with 2)
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