Double Franchise League- 1981 - Hak champ! Vote on awards

[BC Manager]

Copied from the Back to 86 thread:

I had a brainstorm today about doing a similar decade keeper league with another twist. I should probably wait until this decade league finishes, but I'm excited about the idea and I'm eager to share it:

TEAM-BASED DECADE KEEPER LEAGUE

- at the beginning a 2-round snake draft will be held, where 24 of the 26 ML teams are drafted (two teams each)

- the league starts in 1980 and rosters are made up from players who actually played on their respective teams that year (different than using the years on their cards)

- so, let's say you have the Dodgers and Indians. For 1980, you will make up your team from players who actually played for the 1980 Dodgers and Indians

- so your team might look like:

C - Yeager, Hassey
1B - Hargrove, Garvey
2B - Lopes
SS - Russell
3B - Harrah, Cey
LF - Guerrero
CF - R.Law
RF - Baker
DH - Cliff Johnson

SP - Barker, Denny, Valenzuela, Sutcliffe, Hough
RP - Howe, Spillner, Stanton,....

- as you can see there will be some challenges to compiling a roster, especially early and late in the decade. But there are a couple of more options.

- 2 teams will not be drafted -- players from these two teams in the respective year will be FA's competed for in the autodraft

- so, let's say Seattle and Texas are undrafted. For 1980, Rawley, Beattie, Bannister, Honeycutt, Comer, Darwin, Kern, Butcher can all be picked up as pitchers. Sundberg, Wills, Bell, Oliver, Zisk, Grubb, Sample, Bochte, Roberts, Paciorek, Beniquez can all be picked up for hitters.

- trades can also be done. This team has an excess of 3B, so they might swap Harrah or Cey for a better CF. Rights to players will last as long as they were with their original team. So, for example, if you traded with the White Sox team for Chet Lemon, you'd only get to keep him through 1981 (his last year with the ChiSox) and in 1982 he'd belong to the Tigers' team.

- ballparks would have to be from one of your two teams, and could only be switched once per decade.

I think this could be fun. Some intriguing decisions -- let's say you have the Padres and it's 1981. It's your last season for owning Ozzie Smith. Do you trade him to a contending team to pick up another player for 82 (knowing you'll have Templeton in 82)? Does the contending team pick up Smith for the stretch run even though he'll be Cardinals property at the end of the year?

There are still some wrinkles to be ironed out, but I think we could make this work. In particular, we'd have to work out the small player pools at the beginning and end of the decade.

Anyway, I wanted to throw this out to this group, as you guys would be the first one's invited. Doing this league will take a bit of research, but it should be worth it.

What do you think? Anyone interested??

[BC Manager]

Right now this is just open to the current Decade League owners:

BC - in
YF - interested?
Runnin' Rebel - interested
BigAlric - in
Albert - interested

Sykes -
Hak -
Sean -
BJS -
Mav -
IMB -
Crossingroads -

I'll take suggestions on replacements once we have the rules worked out and have heard from all of the above.

[YountFan]

BC - in
YF - in
Runnin' Rebel - interested
BigAlric - in
Albert - interested

Sykes -
Hak -
Sean -
BJS -
Mav -
IMB -
Crossingroads -

Q: so it is NOT based on the seasons on the cards, so Jose Oquendo is good for 1983 - 1995. Ellis Valentine 1975 - 1985, etc.

Q: I wonder if YountFan could modify his database to have First and Last years based on the career of player vs their cards. It would make drafting easier.
A: He could be it would be nice to divide and conquer, but with teams and years it could get compleicated, doable, but complicated. but maybe got easier: http://www.baseball1.com/statistics/. I'm downloading it now and will check it out over the next few days.

[BC Manager]

I've done an analysis of all 26 teams that existed in the 80s. It looks like we could only do this league from 1981 to 1989 and have enough players.
81 and 89 would be tight and teams would need to be creative to fill a full and valid roster.

Some other thougths since my original idea:

- was thinking it should be a $100 million league just to allow more flexibility in creating teams. It will be complicated enough without having to squeeze your team under an $80 mil salary cap. Could also create it as a $100 mil league but limit team salaries to $90 mil or something.

- there will be years when two teams (or more) will both have rights to the same player -- if he was traded during the season. In these cases I think the teams would have to compete for these players through the AD or waiver draft, etc.

- in essence each team will have a roster of players being used and some players on the FA wire that they have rights to, (by virtue of having been on one of their two teams in real life MLB for that year). I was trying to think of a system where other teams could claim some of these players, without it being a free-for-all. Haven't figured it out yet. But could do something like allowing teams to pick up FA players who are under a certain salary. This would make it easier to put a roster together.

- as for "rolling over" players so they get more use, I don't think this is necessary. Because we're using the actual years they played, rather than the years on their cards, most players are around for a good chunk of the decade. Rick Burleson for example, who was done after 81 in our other league, will be eligible for different teams through 1987 (when he finished his career with the O's). Willie Aikens will wrap up his careeer in 85 with the Jays.
I'm not crazy about rolling over their years, as this takes away from the theme of reflecting teams as they actually were.

- I had the idea of introducing September callups- allowing teams to add their rookies for next year on the last day of transactions. But not sure this idea serves any purpose.

There've been other thoughts too, but I can't remember them at the moment. Any thoughts?

[YountFan]

I am good with $100 million
I am bad with rolling over. (I never could tumble,. but I sit up and beg quite well).

The research part is a fun aspect. We all like to look at retrosheet.

[Jablowmi]

i'm a replacement wannabe

[BC Manager]

I've actually created an Excel spreadsheet that gives an overview of what players would be available to what teams. I'll share it with everyone at some point.

Jablowmi, I wouldn't hesitate to put you at/near the top of the replacement/alternate list. Will let you know if there are spots, which I expect there will be.

[YountFan]

BC, with a little work I can get the data we need for drafting etc. I'll need to spend some hours on it , but in the long run it will be great. Multiple team can be done also.

[BC Manager]

As for drafting, keep in mind there would just be one draft -- a draft of the 24 teams, at the beginning. Unless we come up with some form of draft between seasons.

[jsam9801]

Could I get on the waiting list after Jablowmi? Thanks! :D