- Posts: 1822
- Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2013 4:00 pm
Sat May 11, 2019 9:25 pm
Have you ever imagined playing a SOM online keeper league with guaranteed player contracts, salary arbitration, free agency, and all the complexity of general managing a major league franchise? I have developed a set of rules that allows for the establishment of a keeper league that models the real world conditions of managing a major league franchise. Have a look at the rules and let me know if you are interested in committing to this new concept SOM online franchise keeper league. I'm looking to 10 managers to join myself and HVEED in developing this experiment in franchise baseball.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lKjb_-RIB4EOxPtXdbN8t25pBvUUQ5jYzUH0kT2-OEg/edit?usp=sharing
INTRODUCTION
The Moneyball Baseball League, hereby referred to as the MBL, is an online Strat-O-Matic baseball league (hereafter referred to as SOMO). The purpose of the league is to assemble a 40-man roster, while operating on a $140 million salary cap. Each owner will be the general manager of their franchise.
Each General Manager will take over all current contract situations as determined by the Strat-O-Matic Online 365 salaries at the time of the inaugural draft.
Immediately after the inaugural draft, owning teams are able to, but are not obligated to, sign each eligible draftee to a contract extension as per the CONTRACT RULES established in Article IX below.
Cot’s Baseball contracts will be used for determining a player’s term of service, rounded up, for the purposes of offering contract extensions after the inaugural draft (https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/c ... tion/cots/).
Draftees must have more than three years of service time in order to be eligible for a contract extension.
Contract extensions take effect prior to the start of season 1 and count toward the inaugural salary cap.
Example 1: Byron Buxton is drafted in the inaugural draft at a salary of $500,000. He has 2.16 years of service time, rounded up to 3 years, so he is ineligible for a contract extension but remains under team control for three more years.
Example 2: Miguel Sano is drafted in the inaugural draft at a salary of $530,000. He has 3.07 years of service, rounded up to 4 years, so he is under team control for two more seasons and is eligible for a contract extension. Miguel Sano could have his contract renewed for four years at the annual salary determined by Section 9.09(a).
Example 3: Michael Brantley is drafted in the initial draft at a salary of $6,020,000. He has 9 years of service time. Since he has more than 6 years of service time the owner is free to extend the contract any number of years as long as the contract minimums in Section 11.07 are met.
INAUGURAL DRAFT
The inaugural draft is a 41 round live draft. Rounds 1-40 are for players; round 41 is for the stadium.
Only those players who were issued SOMO cards this year (2019 for 2018 season) are eligible for the inaugural draft. Unleashed cards are not permitted for the inaugural draft.
The initial draft is serpentine; all subsequent free agent drafts are non-serpentine based upon the previous seasons regular season combined records, worst to first, NFL style.
There is no clock for round 1 of the supplemental free agent draft. Rounds 2 and 3 will operate with a 3-hour clock. 10am-10pm EST, Monday thru Friday. The Clock will be turned off over the weekend, but there is a strong preference for all owners to try and make timely picks over the weekend.
PROSPECT DRAFTS
There is 1 prospect draft during each season.
The yearly prospect draft is 3 rounds, to be held immediately after each year's winter free agent signing period, here after called Spring Prospect Draft.
Prospect Eligibility: Prospects are defined as any player who has signed a contract with an MLB organization but who has no MLB experience prior to the start of the current MLB season.
The initial prospect draft is serpentine. Draft order for this initial prospect draft will be the reverse of the draft order for the Inaugural draft. All subsequent prospect drafts are non-serpentine, and draft order is based on the previous year's regular season records, worst to first, NFL style. Season champions draft last. Ties are resolved as determined in the tie-break rule in Article IV Section 4.05 of the General Rules.
There is no clock for round 1 of the supplemental free agent draft. Rounds 2 and 3 will operate with a 3-hour clock, 10am-10pm EST, Monday thru Friday. The Clock will be turned off over the weekend, but there is a strong preference for all owners to try and make timely picks over the weekend.
The maximum number of prospects allowed on each roster is 10.
Prospects are not counted as part of the 40 man roster while they maintain their prospect status.
Owners control the rights of their prospects for no longer than 3 years. At the end of 3 years (from time of draft) a prospect must either be promoted to the 40 man roster or released.
Prospects can be traded, but the 3 year timeline remains constant for each prospect.
Owners lose rights to all prospects that they release; released prospects are eligible to be drafted if the prospect was never issued SOM card, or signed as a free agent if they were issued a SOM card for the current SOM season. Un-carded players are not eligible for free agency.
Individual owners are responsible for their own prospect research.
Prospects can be promoted to the major league roster at any time, provided there is roster space available. Once promoted all prospects lose their prospect status, and cannot be demoted back to prospect status.
GENERAL RULES
A year is defined as a calendar year comprising two SOMO seasons. There will be 2 seasons played each year; Season 1 will begin after the winter free agent signing period is over. Season 2 will begin in August.
Divisional assignments will change each season.
For the initial season the divisions will be formatted in the 1-4-7-10, 2-5-8-11, 3-6-9-12 set up based on the initial draft order.
Cumulative team records will determine the divisional assignments for Season 1 of each new year.
Divisional assignments for season 2 each year will be determined by the final won/loss records of the previous season in a randomized way East 1-4-7-10 Central: 2-5-8-11 West: 3-6-9-12
All transactions must be posted on the individual league thread.
The league Commish shall maintain a record of all drafts, transactions and player movements and provide a copy to any owner upon request.
All ties between teams will be broken by the previous season's head-to-head win/loss records including playoffs. If this does not break the tie, cumulative win/loss head-to-head records from the previous card seasons will be used. Failing that, ties will be broken buy a coin toss.
All rule changes must pass by a super majority - 8 owners or more.
There are no specific rules against "roster dumping." Owners no longer in a pennant race can use their best judgement in determining the makeup of their team, provided that all general roster size limits are met. However, it is expected that all owners will act in the best interests of the game.
All leagues will be set up using the DH, advanced skill level, 5% FA drop penalty, and super advanced injury rules.
STADIUM RULES
Each player will draft a stadium during round 41 of the initial free agent draft.
Stadium draft order will be the reverse of round 1 of the initial free agent draft.
Stadiums are unique and belong to each owner for the duration of the league.
Replacement owners will be allowed a one-time option to change stadiums upon joining the league.
Owners can choose to change their stadium after 3 years (or 6 SOMO seasons).
There will be a separate stadium draft immediately following the spring FA draft each year.
Owners wishing to change stadiums must drop their stadium PRIOR to the spring FA draft.
Stadiums can also be changed through trade. Players may trade stadiums with other players at any time except while a regular season is in progress.
If the BP effects change by +/-6 in one category or by +/-15 in all four categories combined the owner may change stadiums.
SEASON ROSTER RULES
SALARY CAP: The salary cap is a hard cap of $140 million. Teams over the salary cap can only make trades resulting in a loss of salary cap. Teams under the salary cap cannot make deals resulting in exceeding the cap. Once a team is under the salary cap, they are not allowed to exceed the cap again.
Each team must carry no more than a 40-man roster. In the event a transaction sends an owner's roster above the 40-man limit, said owner is allowed 1 day to release as many players as necessary to get back to the 40-man limit.
However, the owner is responsible for the player’s salary for the duration of their contract.
If an owner has less than 40 players due to uneven trades, the owner cannot bring his roster to the full 40 until a free agent signing period, whether winter or supplemental. (see player movement).
Each team must carry a 26-man league roster during each season.
Each will carry a 14-man minor league roster during each season.
Each team may add an additional 2 players (to a maximum of 28 players) to their MLB roster once game 132 has been played.
Each team is set up with a $200 million dollar roster for game play purposes; all roster transactions will use the 5% free agent penalty.
There are no limits to transactions between an owner's major and minor league rosters except those internal to the SOMO game engine.
Injured players can be kept on a team's major league roster for the duration of their injury. Players promoted to the major league roster as injury replacements must be returned to the minor league roster once the injury has healed. There is a 2-game grace period to return injury replacement players to the minor league roster - this allows each owner to maintain a constant 26 man roster at all times. We will be using the honor system here - please don't keep players beyond their authorized time!
The minimum roster size is 30 players. The only exceptions are during the supplemental and free agent draft periods.
All teams must meet SOMO roster requirements at all times while in season.
PLAYOFF ROSTERS Any players eligible to play in the regular season can play in the post-season. Playoff rosters are locked for the series. Adjustments can be made between series.
PLAYER MOVEMENT
There will be no pickups of free agent players except through the Annual Winter and Supplemental free agent singing periods.
Prospects can be activated and promoted to the major league roster during the regular season provided there is roster space available to do so. Players with a full 40 man roster cannot promote a prospect until there is room available to do so.
Regular players on the 40 man roster cannot be released in order to promote a prospect while a season is in progress.
Regular players can be released from the 40 man roster only for the following reasons:
pre-draft release prior to the Annual winter free agent draft
pre-draft release prior to the Supplemental free agent draft
to bring a roster down to the 40 man limit as a result of an unbalanced transaction.
TRANSACTIONS
PLAYER SIGNINGS: All players to be signed as off-season free agents must follow the free agent signing process. Any player released, or signed, during the regular season will have their contract and salary assumed by the team signing the player.
TRADING: Teams can make trades with any team as long as the parameters of the salary cap are met. Teams may not name, “player to be named later” in any trade. Teams may not trade salary cap space. Trades can be agreed upon between two General Managers. Both teams must send in a confirmation for the trade to take effect.
WAIVER CLAIMS: Players who have been cut by a team, but who are still under contract, are eligible to be claimed by any other team assuming the team has roster and salary cap space available. The waiver claim priority is determined by the draft order of the most recent prospect draft.
No transactions will be allowed after game 131 until the conclusion of the active season.
CONTRACTS
PLAYER CONTROL: Franchise owners control players for six years of service time starting at the time of their promotion to the 40 man roster.
Carded players who are drafted in the inaugural draft are controlled for the period remaining as determined by Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
Carded players who are undrafted during the inaugural draft become free agents after the draft.
After the inaugural season, newly carded players who are not controlled by any franchise become eligible for free agency regardless of their real life service time.
Unleashed cards are ineligible for free agency, although owning teams can continue to hold such players on their rosters.
Prospect control is determined under Article III.
SERVICE TIME: The service time clock for each player begins with his promotion to any team’s 40-man roster. The exception is the inaugural draft, whereby Cot’s Baseball Contracts is used to determine service time for the purposes of determining team control and offering contract extensions. For example, if Byron Buxton is drafted in the inaugural draft for 2018 SOMO season he would have 2.16 years of service time, rounded up to 3 years, and would be under team control for four years including the inaugural 2018 seasons.
CONTRACTS: Carded player salaries are determined by their SOMO 365 price at the time of their inaugural draft. After the inaugural draft player salaries are determined by the following rules.
PROSPECT SALARIES: Prospects are carried at $500,000 per year renewed annually until they are promoted to the 40-man roster or dropped.
MAJOR LEAGUE SALARIES: Players with less than 6 years of service time use the following contract schedule.
Up to 1 year: $500,000
Up to 2 years: $600,000
Up to 3 years: $700,000
Up to 4 years: $2,000,000
Up to 5 years: $3,000,000
Up to 6 years: $4,000,000
Any player with an expiring contract that has less than 6 years of service time, but makes more than the salary scale above can be renewed for another year at the same salary. Players with more than 6 years of service time and an expiring contract are eligible for free agency.
CUTTING PLAYERS: Players with under six years of service time can be released during the offseason at any time. Teams are not obligated to the next season’s salary until Opening Day. Any player under contract, with less than six years of service time, who is released during the season--that team is responsible for the player’s salary for the remainder of that season.
GUARANTEED CONTRACTS: Teams are responsible for the salary of any player on a long term contract, or over six years of service time, even if they release them. MLB contracts are guaranteed. You cannot just release a player and be “forgiven” for their bad contract (ie, If the Orioles released Chris Davis, they would still be responsible for his contract, and it would count against the salary cap).
CONTRACT EXTENSIONS Teams wishing to extend the contract of a player can do so in two ways.
Extending Young Players: Players between 3-4 years of service time can be given a 4 year contract at the league average price for their primary position. The league average price is defined as the average price of the top 50% of players by salary at the same primary position on league 40 man rosters at the time of the contract offer, rounded down to the nearest whole number of players. This will eliminate their eligibility for the fifth and sixth year exceptions. Once a player has over 4 years of service time, they are no longer eligible for this extension.
Extending Players 2: Players with one year before free agency are eligible for an extension. Extensions must be at least five years long but can be longer. Salary scale is determined as the league average price of the top 25% of players by salary at the same primary position on league 40 man rosters at the time of the contract offer, rounded down to the nearest whole number of players.
Any player who has a salary that exceeds this structure, can have their contract extended (for at least 5 years), at the current salary they make (ie. Mookie Betts makes $13.6 million, he could be extended for 5 more seasons at this rate).
Both extensions must be offered prior to the beginning of the start of the first season of the year. Once the regular season begins they are no longer eligible. Teams who are over the salary cap are not permitted to extend contracts, or increase payroll, until they are under the salary cap.
ARBITRATION: A player with an expiring contract who has more than 3 years and up to 6 years of service time qualifies for arbitration if the owner declines to offer a contract extension. If the owner chooses arbitration the player will be renewed at his major league salary based on service time or the salary established for his SOMO card for the following season, whichever is higher. The owner must decline to offer a contract extension prior to the release of the SOM card set for the upcoming season or the player will be automatically renewed for one year at their qualified major league salary as determined in Sections 9.05 and 9.06 above.
CONTRACT AMNESTY:
Condition #1: A new owner (owners who join the league after the trade deadline of the current season) to the league can amnesty one player and their contract on their roster, no questions asked. They are assuming someone else's mistakes. They get a "get out of jail free card." The player amnestied becomes a free agent. Must be done by December 1st.
Condition #2: Any owner who has a player under contract that passes away is relieved of any contractual obligation once the player is released. You have to meet one of these conditions in order to take advantage of the rule.
CONTRACT EXAMPLE:
Year 1: Tim Anderson is drafted in the 2016 inaugural season and assigned a salary of $750,000. Anderson has 0.1 years of service in 2016 which is rounded up to 1 years of service.
Year 2: The 2017 season will be Anderson’s second so he is eligible to be renewed at $600,000, however his salary at the time of the draft was $750,000 so the owning team can renew his contract for one year at a salary of $750,000.
Year 3: The 2018 season will be Anderson’s third season (2.1 years of service rounded up to 3 years) so he is eligible to be renewed at $700,000, however his salary at the time of the draft was $750,000 so the owning team can renew his contract for another one year at a salary of $750,000.
Year 4: Prior to the start of the 2019 season Anderson will have 3.1 years of service, rounded up to 4 years. He is eligible for arbitration so the owning team is confronted with two choices: offer Anderson a contract extension or go to arbitration.
Based on the rule in Section 9.10 Anderson could be offered a four year extension at a salary of $5,500,000 which (hypothetically) is the 2018 average salary of all short stops on league 40-man rosters.
Alternatively the owning team can seek salary arbitration, in which case the team would have to pay the year four salary of $2,000,000 or the player’s 2019 SOMO price, whichever is higher. Let’s assume the team chooses arbitration and Anderson is awarded a SOMO salary of $1,850,000, the team will be deemed to have won arbitration and will pay $1,850,000 for 2019. If Anderson’s 2019 SOMO came in at $6,000,000 the owning team would have lost the arbitration case and will have to pay the higher $6,000,000 for 2019.
FREE AGENCY
INTRODUCTION: Teams may obtain free agents during the free agency signing periods. When free agency begins, teams are welcome to post a player on the free agency page. In their message, they should state their team, the number of years being offered and the total value of the contract. The first team to post a bid on a free agent must have their offer beat by succeeding bids.
Example: New York Yankees offer Derek Jeter a two-year, $10 million contract ($5 million per season). If a team makes a contract offer to a player, and no one beats the offer in 24 hours, that team is awarded the player for the contract they offered. All messages on the message boards are time stamped and strictly enforced.
FREE AGENT ELIGIBILITY: Unsigned carded players and players with more than 6 years of service time and an expiring contract are eligible for free agency.
FREE AGENT SIGNING PERIOD: All free agents for the coming winter will be posted by December 1 on the Free Agency page. Only teams under the salary cap may bid on free agents. No team may make a bid for a free agent that will result in their team exceeding the salary cap. Free Agency will begin on the first weekday after January 1st. Free agent bidding will be closed and settled at midnight each day from Monday to Friday with no exceptions. The winning bids will be posted as soon as the commissioner can clear the ledger. The winter free agent signing period ends at midnight on January 31st.
BIDDING: In order to obtain a free agent, a team must bid more money per year AND at least as many years as anyone else. Money for contracts are divided evenly among all years. Once a bid has been placed for a player, a team must match years offered and exceed money per year to obtain the player. Teams can offer an "option" year. It counts as 0.5 of a year when deciding what team gets a player.
Example: a two-year contract + option would beat a two-year offer. It would not beat a three year offer.
Option years cannot be offered on one-year contracts. If a team declines an option on an expiring contract, the team is obligated to pay 50% of the salary as a buyout.
Example 1: Derek Jeter is a free agent. Team A bids 2 year, $10 million contract ($5 million per year). Any team placing a bid after Team A, must match the years offered and exceed the money per year offered to pass Team A for their rights.
Example 2: Derek Jeter is a free agent. Team A bids 2 year, $10 million contract ($5 million per year). Team B bids Jeter a 3 year, $12 million contract ($4 million per year). Team A would be awarded Jeter because when Team B countered, they did not match money per year.
Example 3: Derek Jeter is a free agent. Team A bids 2 year, $10 million contract ($5 million per year). Team B offers Jeter a 1 year, $6 million contract. Team A would be awarded Jeter because Team B did not match the number of years offered. It pays to make your offer first.
CONTRACT MINIMUMS In order to offer a certain amount of years to a player, you must also offer a certain amount of money. The longer the contract, the more money you need to offer. These are minimums to offer, regardless if another team has made another offer. Contract minimums are intended to prevent unrealistic contract signings such as five years for $0.50 a year.
1 year = $500,000 per season ($0.50)
2 years = $1 million per season ($1.00)
3 years = $2 million per season ($2.00)
4 years = $3 million per season ($3.00)
5 years = $4 million per season ($4.00)
6 years = $5 million per season ($5.00)
7 years = $6 million per season ($6.00)
All owners must have a full 40-man roster upon completion of the annual winter free agent signings.
Un-carded players are ineligible for free agency. If you have them on your roster you can keep them for the duration of your control, but they cannot be signed as free agents.
SUPPLEMENTAL FREE AGENT SIGNING PERIOD
A supplemental free agent signing period will be held between seasons 1 and 2 of each calendar year.
All owners must announce their roster drops, up to 3, prior to the supplemental signings. Dropped players who are still under contract will have their salaries count toward the salary cap for the remainder of their contracts.
Owners may drop up to 3 players, but do not have to drop any. Owners with less than a 40-man active roster may use the supplemental signing period to get back to a full 40-man roster under the following conditions:
They have salary cap money available to do so;
They do not drop more than 3 players;
Eligibility for the players to be signed follow the same rules as the Winter Free Agent draft for that year, which is any player with a SOMO card that is not currently owned by another team.
Bidding rules remain the same as the winter free agent signing period.
Collective Bargaining Agreement
The commissioner reserves the right to make changes to the rules in order to bring them into alignment with the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement should it be changed in the future.
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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lKjb_-RIB4EOxPtXdbN8t25pBvUUQ5jYzUH0kT2-OEg/edit?usp=sharing
INTRODUCTION
The Moneyball Baseball League, hereby referred to as the MBL, is an online Strat-O-Matic baseball league (hereafter referred to as SOMO). The purpose of the league is to assemble a 40-man roster, while operating on a $140 million salary cap. Each owner will be the general manager of their franchise.
Each General Manager will take over all current contract situations as determined by the Strat-O-Matic Online 365 salaries at the time of the inaugural draft.
Immediately after the inaugural draft, owning teams are able to, but are not obligated to, sign each eligible draftee to a contract extension as per the CONTRACT RULES established in Article IX below.
Cot’s Baseball contracts will be used for determining a player’s term of service, rounded up, for the purposes of offering contract extensions after the inaugural draft (https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/c ... tion/cots/).
Draftees must have more than three years of service time in order to be eligible for a contract extension.
Contract extensions take effect prior to the start of season 1 and count toward the inaugural salary cap.
Example 1: Byron Buxton is drafted in the inaugural draft at a salary of $500,000. He has 2.16 years of service time, rounded up to 3 years, so he is ineligible for a contract extension but remains under team control for three more years.
Example 2: Miguel Sano is drafted in the inaugural draft at a salary of $530,000. He has 3.07 years of service, rounded up to 4 years, so he is under team control for two more seasons and is eligible for a contract extension. Miguel Sano could have his contract renewed for four years at the annual salary determined by Section 9.09(a).
Example 3: Michael Brantley is drafted in the initial draft at a salary of $6,020,000. He has 9 years of service time. Since he has more than 6 years of service time the owner is free to extend the contract any number of years as long as the contract minimums in Section 11.07 are met.
INAUGURAL DRAFT
The inaugural draft is a 41 round live draft. Rounds 1-40 are for players; round 41 is for the stadium.
Only those players who were issued SOMO cards this year (2019 for 2018 season) are eligible for the inaugural draft. Unleashed cards are not permitted for the inaugural draft.
The initial draft is serpentine; all subsequent free agent drafts are non-serpentine based upon the previous seasons regular season combined records, worst to first, NFL style.
There is no clock for round 1 of the supplemental free agent draft. Rounds 2 and 3 will operate with a 3-hour clock. 10am-10pm EST, Monday thru Friday. The Clock will be turned off over the weekend, but there is a strong preference for all owners to try and make timely picks over the weekend.
PROSPECT DRAFTS
There is 1 prospect draft during each season.
The yearly prospect draft is 3 rounds, to be held immediately after each year's winter free agent signing period, here after called Spring Prospect Draft.
Prospect Eligibility: Prospects are defined as any player who has signed a contract with an MLB organization but who has no MLB experience prior to the start of the current MLB season.
The initial prospect draft is serpentine. Draft order for this initial prospect draft will be the reverse of the draft order for the Inaugural draft. All subsequent prospect drafts are non-serpentine, and draft order is based on the previous year's regular season records, worst to first, NFL style. Season champions draft last. Ties are resolved as determined in the tie-break rule in Article IV Section 4.05 of the General Rules.
There is no clock for round 1 of the supplemental free agent draft. Rounds 2 and 3 will operate with a 3-hour clock, 10am-10pm EST, Monday thru Friday. The Clock will be turned off over the weekend, but there is a strong preference for all owners to try and make timely picks over the weekend.
The maximum number of prospects allowed on each roster is 10.
Prospects are not counted as part of the 40 man roster while they maintain their prospect status.
Owners control the rights of their prospects for no longer than 3 years. At the end of 3 years (from time of draft) a prospect must either be promoted to the 40 man roster or released.
Prospects can be traded, but the 3 year timeline remains constant for each prospect.
Owners lose rights to all prospects that they release; released prospects are eligible to be drafted if the prospect was never issued SOM card, or signed as a free agent if they were issued a SOM card for the current SOM season. Un-carded players are not eligible for free agency.
Individual owners are responsible for their own prospect research.
Prospects can be promoted to the major league roster at any time, provided there is roster space available. Once promoted all prospects lose their prospect status, and cannot be demoted back to prospect status.
GENERAL RULES
A year is defined as a calendar year comprising two SOMO seasons. There will be 2 seasons played each year; Season 1 will begin after the winter free agent signing period is over. Season 2 will begin in August.
Divisional assignments will change each season.
For the initial season the divisions will be formatted in the 1-4-7-10, 2-5-8-11, 3-6-9-12 set up based on the initial draft order.
Cumulative team records will determine the divisional assignments for Season 1 of each new year.
Divisional assignments for season 2 each year will be determined by the final won/loss records of the previous season in a randomized way East 1-4-7-10 Central: 2-5-8-11 West: 3-6-9-12
All transactions must be posted on the individual league thread.
The league Commish shall maintain a record of all drafts, transactions and player movements and provide a copy to any owner upon request.
All ties between teams will be broken by the previous season's head-to-head win/loss records including playoffs. If this does not break the tie, cumulative win/loss head-to-head records from the previous card seasons will be used. Failing that, ties will be broken buy a coin toss.
All rule changes must pass by a super majority - 8 owners or more.
There are no specific rules against "roster dumping." Owners no longer in a pennant race can use their best judgement in determining the makeup of their team, provided that all general roster size limits are met. However, it is expected that all owners will act in the best interests of the game.
All leagues will be set up using the DH, advanced skill level, 5% FA drop penalty, and super advanced injury rules.
STADIUM RULES
Each player will draft a stadium during round 41 of the initial free agent draft.
Stadium draft order will be the reverse of round 1 of the initial free agent draft.
Stadiums are unique and belong to each owner for the duration of the league.
Replacement owners will be allowed a one-time option to change stadiums upon joining the league.
Owners can choose to change their stadium after 3 years (or 6 SOMO seasons).
There will be a separate stadium draft immediately following the spring FA draft each year.
Owners wishing to change stadiums must drop their stadium PRIOR to the spring FA draft.
Stadiums can also be changed through trade. Players may trade stadiums with other players at any time except while a regular season is in progress.
If the BP effects change by +/-6 in one category or by +/-15 in all four categories combined the owner may change stadiums.
SEASON ROSTER RULES
SALARY CAP: The salary cap is a hard cap of $140 million. Teams over the salary cap can only make trades resulting in a loss of salary cap. Teams under the salary cap cannot make deals resulting in exceeding the cap. Once a team is under the salary cap, they are not allowed to exceed the cap again.
Each team must carry no more than a 40-man roster. In the event a transaction sends an owner's roster above the 40-man limit, said owner is allowed 1 day to release as many players as necessary to get back to the 40-man limit.
However, the owner is responsible for the player’s salary for the duration of their contract.
If an owner has less than 40 players due to uneven trades, the owner cannot bring his roster to the full 40 until a free agent signing period, whether winter or supplemental. (see player movement).
Each team must carry a 26-man league roster during each season.
Each will carry a 14-man minor league roster during each season.
Each team may add an additional 2 players (to a maximum of 28 players) to their MLB roster once game 132 has been played.
Each team is set up with a $200 million dollar roster for game play purposes; all roster transactions will use the 5% free agent penalty.
There are no limits to transactions between an owner's major and minor league rosters except those internal to the SOMO game engine.
Injured players can be kept on a team's major league roster for the duration of their injury. Players promoted to the major league roster as injury replacements must be returned to the minor league roster once the injury has healed. There is a 2-game grace period to return injury replacement players to the minor league roster - this allows each owner to maintain a constant 26 man roster at all times. We will be using the honor system here - please don't keep players beyond their authorized time!
The minimum roster size is 30 players. The only exceptions are during the supplemental and free agent draft periods.
All teams must meet SOMO roster requirements at all times while in season.
PLAYOFF ROSTERS Any players eligible to play in the regular season can play in the post-season. Playoff rosters are locked for the series. Adjustments can be made between series.
PLAYER MOVEMENT
There will be no pickups of free agent players except through the Annual Winter and Supplemental free agent singing periods.
Prospects can be activated and promoted to the major league roster during the regular season provided there is roster space available to do so. Players with a full 40 man roster cannot promote a prospect until there is room available to do so.
Regular players on the 40 man roster cannot be released in order to promote a prospect while a season is in progress.
Regular players can be released from the 40 man roster only for the following reasons:
pre-draft release prior to the Annual winter free agent draft
pre-draft release prior to the Supplemental free agent draft
to bring a roster down to the 40 man limit as a result of an unbalanced transaction.
TRANSACTIONS
PLAYER SIGNINGS: All players to be signed as off-season free agents must follow the free agent signing process. Any player released, or signed, during the regular season will have their contract and salary assumed by the team signing the player.
TRADING: Teams can make trades with any team as long as the parameters of the salary cap are met. Teams may not name, “player to be named later” in any trade. Teams may not trade salary cap space. Trades can be agreed upon between two General Managers. Both teams must send in a confirmation for the trade to take effect.
WAIVER CLAIMS: Players who have been cut by a team, but who are still under contract, are eligible to be claimed by any other team assuming the team has roster and salary cap space available. The waiver claim priority is determined by the draft order of the most recent prospect draft.
No transactions will be allowed after game 131 until the conclusion of the active season.
CONTRACTS
PLAYER CONTROL: Franchise owners control players for six years of service time starting at the time of their promotion to the 40 man roster.
Carded players who are drafted in the inaugural draft are controlled for the period remaining as determined by Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
Carded players who are undrafted during the inaugural draft become free agents after the draft.
After the inaugural season, newly carded players who are not controlled by any franchise become eligible for free agency regardless of their real life service time.
Unleashed cards are ineligible for free agency, although owning teams can continue to hold such players on their rosters.
Prospect control is determined under Article III.
SERVICE TIME: The service time clock for each player begins with his promotion to any team’s 40-man roster. The exception is the inaugural draft, whereby Cot’s Baseball Contracts is used to determine service time for the purposes of determining team control and offering contract extensions. For example, if Byron Buxton is drafted in the inaugural draft for 2018 SOMO season he would have 2.16 years of service time, rounded up to 3 years, and would be under team control for four years including the inaugural 2018 seasons.
CONTRACTS: Carded player salaries are determined by their SOMO 365 price at the time of their inaugural draft. After the inaugural draft player salaries are determined by the following rules.
PROSPECT SALARIES: Prospects are carried at $500,000 per year renewed annually until they are promoted to the 40-man roster or dropped.
MAJOR LEAGUE SALARIES: Players with less than 6 years of service time use the following contract schedule.
Up to 1 year: $500,000
Up to 2 years: $600,000
Up to 3 years: $700,000
Up to 4 years: $2,000,000
Up to 5 years: $3,000,000
Up to 6 years: $4,000,000
Any player with an expiring contract that has less than 6 years of service time, but makes more than the salary scale above can be renewed for another year at the same salary. Players with more than 6 years of service time and an expiring contract are eligible for free agency.
CUTTING PLAYERS: Players with under six years of service time can be released during the offseason at any time. Teams are not obligated to the next season’s salary until Opening Day. Any player under contract, with less than six years of service time, who is released during the season--that team is responsible for the player’s salary for the remainder of that season.
GUARANTEED CONTRACTS: Teams are responsible for the salary of any player on a long term contract, or over six years of service time, even if they release them. MLB contracts are guaranteed. You cannot just release a player and be “forgiven” for their bad contract (ie, If the Orioles released Chris Davis, they would still be responsible for his contract, and it would count against the salary cap).
CONTRACT EXTENSIONS Teams wishing to extend the contract of a player can do so in two ways.
Extending Young Players: Players between 3-4 years of service time can be given a 4 year contract at the league average price for their primary position. The league average price is defined as the average price of the top 50% of players by salary at the same primary position on league 40 man rosters at the time of the contract offer, rounded down to the nearest whole number of players. This will eliminate their eligibility for the fifth and sixth year exceptions. Once a player has over 4 years of service time, they are no longer eligible for this extension.
Extending Players 2: Players with one year before free agency are eligible for an extension. Extensions must be at least five years long but can be longer. Salary scale is determined as the league average price of the top 25% of players by salary at the same primary position on league 40 man rosters at the time of the contract offer, rounded down to the nearest whole number of players.
Any player who has a salary that exceeds this structure, can have their contract extended (for at least 5 years), at the current salary they make (ie. Mookie Betts makes $13.6 million, he could be extended for 5 more seasons at this rate).
Both extensions must be offered prior to the beginning of the start of the first season of the year. Once the regular season begins they are no longer eligible. Teams who are over the salary cap are not permitted to extend contracts, or increase payroll, until they are under the salary cap.
ARBITRATION: A player with an expiring contract who has more than 3 years and up to 6 years of service time qualifies for arbitration if the owner declines to offer a contract extension. If the owner chooses arbitration the player will be renewed at his major league salary based on service time or the salary established for his SOMO card for the following season, whichever is higher. The owner must decline to offer a contract extension prior to the release of the SOM card set for the upcoming season or the player will be automatically renewed for one year at their qualified major league salary as determined in Sections 9.05 and 9.06 above.
CONTRACT AMNESTY:
Condition #1: A new owner (owners who join the league after the trade deadline of the current season) to the league can amnesty one player and their contract on their roster, no questions asked. They are assuming someone else's mistakes. They get a "get out of jail free card." The player amnestied becomes a free agent. Must be done by December 1st.
Condition #2: Any owner who has a player under contract that passes away is relieved of any contractual obligation once the player is released. You have to meet one of these conditions in order to take advantage of the rule.
CONTRACT EXAMPLE:
Year 1: Tim Anderson is drafted in the 2016 inaugural season and assigned a salary of $750,000. Anderson has 0.1 years of service in 2016 which is rounded up to 1 years of service.
Year 2: The 2017 season will be Anderson’s second so he is eligible to be renewed at $600,000, however his salary at the time of the draft was $750,000 so the owning team can renew his contract for one year at a salary of $750,000.
Year 3: The 2018 season will be Anderson’s third season (2.1 years of service rounded up to 3 years) so he is eligible to be renewed at $700,000, however his salary at the time of the draft was $750,000 so the owning team can renew his contract for another one year at a salary of $750,000.
Year 4: Prior to the start of the 2019 season Anderson will have 3.1 years of service, rounded up to 4 years. He is eligible for arbitration so the owning team is confronted with two choices: offer Anderson a contract extension or go to arbitration.
Based on the rule in Section 9.10 Anderson could be offered a four year extension at a salary of $5,500,000 which (hypothetically) is the 2018 average salary of all short stops on league 40-man rosters.
Alternatively the owning team can seek salary arbitration, in which case the team would have to pay the year four salary of $2,000,000 or the player’s 2019 SOMO price, whichever is higher. Let’s assume the team chooses arbitration and Anderson is awarded a SOMO salary of $1,850,000, the team will be deemed to have won arbitration and will pay $1,850,000 for 2019. If Anderson’s 2019 SOMO came in at $6,000,000 the owning team would have lost the arbitration case and will have to pay the higher $6,000,000 for 2019.
FREE AGENCY
INTRODUCTION: Teams may obtain free agents during the free agency signing periods. When free agency begins, teams are welcome to post a player on the free agency page. In their message, they should state their team, the number of years being offered and the total value of the contract. The first team to post a bid on a free agent must have their offer beat by succeeding bids.
Example: New York Yankees offer Derek Jeter a two-year, $10 million contract ($5 million per season). If a team makes a contract offer to a player, and no one beats the offer in 24 hours, that team is awarded the player for the contract they offered. All messages on the message boards are time stamped and strictly enforced.
FREE AGENT ELIGIBILITY: Unsigned carded players and players with more than 6 years of service time and an expiring contract are eligible for free agency.
FREE AGENT SIGNING PERIOD: All free agents for the coming winter will be posted by December 1 on the Free Agency page. Only teams under the salary cap may bid on free agents. No team may make a bid for a free agent that will result in their team exceeding the salary cap. Free Agency will begin on the first weekday after January 1st. Free agent bidding will be closed and settled at midnight each day from Monday to Friday with no exceptions. The winning bids will be posted as soon as the commissioner can clear the ledger. The winter free agent signing period ends at midnight on January 31st.
BIDDING: In order to obtain a free agent, a team must bid more money per year AND at least as many years as anyone else. Money for contracts are divided evenly among all years. Once a bid has been placed for a player, a team must match years offered and exceed money per year to obtain the player. Teams can offer an "option" year. It counts as 0.5 of a year when deciding what team gets a player.
Example: a two-year contract + option would beat a two-year offer. It would not beat a three year offer.
Option years cannot be offered on one-year contracts. If a team declines an option on an expiring contract, the team is obligated to pay 50% of the salary as a buyout.
Example 1: Derek Jeter is a free agent. Team A bids 2 year, $10 million contract ($5 million per year). Any team placing a bid after Team A, must match the years offered and exceed the money per year offered to pass Team A for their rights.
Example 2: Derek Jeter is a free agent. Team A bids 2 year, $10 million contract ($5 million per year). Team B bids Jeter a 3 year, $12 million contract ($4 million per year). Team A would be awarded Jeter because when Team B countered, they did not match money per year.
Example 3: Derek Jeter is a free agent. Team A bids 2 year, $10 million contract ($5 million per year). Team B offers Jeter a 1 year, $6 million contract. Team A would be awarded Jeter because Team B did not match the number of years offered. It pays to make your offer first.
CONTRACT MINIMUMS In order to offer a certain amount of years to a player, you must also offer a certain amount of money. The longer the contract, the more money you need to offer. These are minimums to offer, regardless if another team has made another offer. Contract minimums are intended to prevent unrealistic contract signings such as five years for $0.50 a year.
1 year = $500,000 per season ($0.50)
2 years = $1 million per season ($1.00)
3 years = $2 million per season ($2.00)
4 years = $3 million per season ($3.00)
5 years = $4 million per season ($4.00)
6 years = $5 million per season ($5.00)
7 years = $6 million per season ($6.00)
All owners must have a full 40-man roster upon completion of the annual winter free agent signings.
Un-carded players are ineligible for free agency. If you have them on your roster you can keep them for the duration of your control, but they cannot be signed as free agents.
SUPPLEMENTAL FREE AGENT SIGNING PERIOD
A supplemental free agent signing period will be held between seasons 1 and 2 of each calendar year.
All owners must announce their roster drops, up to 3, prior to the supplemental signings. Dropped players who are still under contract will have their salaries count toward the salary cap for the remainder of their contracts.
Owners may drop up to 3 players, but do not have to drop any. Owners with less than a 40-man active roster may use the supplemental signing period to get back to a full 40-man roster under the following conditions:
They have salary cap money available to do so;
They do not drop more than 3 players;
Eligibility for the players to be signed follow the same rules as the Winter Free Agent draft for that year, which is any player with a SOMO card that is not currently owned by another team.
Bidding rules remain the same as the winter free agent signing period.
Collective Bargaining Agreement
The commissioner reserves the right to make changes to the rules in order to bring them into alignment with the MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement should it be changed in the future.
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Last edited by sociophil on Sat Feb 22, 2020 8:59 pm, edited 3 times in total.