Single Team Theme 4 Decades

Rules Change / Clarification

I had originally intended the 3 round draft to be exclusively for players that had at least one carded year for your team in that decade. Unless there is a major objection, I am changing that to allow each team to draft one free agent that is not carded to any of the 12 teams in our league. And you can start the season with that one free agent. For example, no one picked the Twins, so you can spend one of your draft picks on Harmon Killebrew and he can be on your opening day roster. But the only teams that can draft Frank Robinson are the Reds or the Orioles. I think we need this rule to avoid a free agent frenzy after opening day.

After opening day, you may have up to 3 free agents on your roster. So, suppose you already have Killebrew, then after opening day, you can pick up 2 more free agents. You can replace a free agent any time after opening day, but you can't trade one. Also, after opening day, there is no such thing as an exclusive rights player - if the Giants decide to leave Willie Mays off their roster, after opening day, any team can pick him up. Before opening day, only the Giants can have Mays on their roster.

Divisions:
I know most "coastal" citizens think Cincinnati/Ohio is in the mid-west but, we are actually in the mid-eastern part of the USA.
Geographic divisions would be more like:

Dodgers. Tigers. Yankees
Giants. Pirates. Orioles
Angels. Braves. Red Sox
Cards. Reds. Senators

But, may I suggest divisions redrawn each decade alternating teams by wins:

Orioles. Giants. Yankees
Cards. Tigers. Dodgers
Red Sox. Braves. Pirates
Reds. Angels. Senators

This would provide some competitive balance.

Having grown up just off Vine Street/Springfield Pike, I know exactly where Cincinnati is! I can proudly say that I attended many games by taking the city bus to Riverfront using my free tickets from getting straight As (if you happen to remember that promotion). And, as I mentioned, I used to swim at the PowellCrosley YMCA in Finneytown. In any case, I'm trying to match divisions by historical accuracy. Since we're playing the 60s, and the only year in the 60s with 4 divisions was 69, we have 5 teams from the AL East, 4 from the NL West, 2 from the NL East and 1 from the AL West. I put the 4 NL West teams in the West division for historical accuracy (which also happens to match my childhood memories of the Reds playing division rivals LA, SF and Atl). I made the East from the AL East but had to boot out the Senators one decade early (they moved to the West in 1972 with the move to TX). That left the Central as a grab bag division. I'm open to revisions if the majority of owners would like - but I think this is the most historically accurate version.

I think I need some clarification. There are lots of references to opening day below...and I take opening day to be the 1st day of games. But the note below makes it sound like we can only pick up our additional free agents after that time. I would assume we can pick up the 3 free agents during the preseason like any other league and potentially draft 1 of them on the boards in the 3 round draft. So I'm thinking your reference to opening day is really for preseason.....

After opening day, you may have up to 3 free agents on your roster. So, suppose you already have Killebrew, then after opening day, you can pick up 2 more free agents. You can replace a free agent any time after opening day, but you can't trade one.

I was also under the impression that we'd own our exclusive rights players. It seems like it would take away a bit from the theme if those players ended up on other teams as free agents. Most leagues where you pick a franchise you own the rights. The only free agents are usually from the undrafted teams. And again...the reference below to opening day....preseason or really the 1st day of games.....

Also, after opening day, there is no such thing as an exclusive rights player - if the Giants decide to leave Willie Mays off their roster, after opening day, any team can pick him up. Before opening day, only the Giants can have Mays on their roster.

Delbird, First, let me say that I'm open to changing any rule if there is a consensus among the owners that the rule should be changed. However, you are correct about the current rules and "opening day" has its usual meaning. My intention was (1) to make the teams as historically accurate as possible; and (2) still allow every team to have a reasonable chance of making the playoffs.

(1) Historical accuracy - I originally wanted every single player on a roster opening day to have been a member of that team. That would be the most historically accurate. I also want to have rules that provide a strong incentive to start the season with all your superstars. I have played in too many theme leagues where teams start the season without their exclusive-rights superstars so that they can first rifle through their scrubs to search for unusually good years; but that is not realistic. The Giants should start the season with Mays and Marichal on their roster. So, I agree that Willie Mays belongs on the Giants, but I don't think the Giants should be allowed to scam the system by leaving Mays off of their opening day salary cap. Use them or lose them.

(2) competitiveness - The top teams have higher salary players and allowing them to stash their exclusive rights superstars in reserve gives the top teams an unfair advantage that the worse, lower salary teams don't have. That's why I made the rules without granting exclusive rights after opening day.

The purpose of having free agents is to enhance competitiveness, but there is no need to open the season with free agents. However, there are a small number of potential free agents (like George Brett and Mike Schmidt) who are so great that they need to be fairly distributed - so I think we need to let each team have the option to draft one free agent in the preseason (which also avoids a frenzy after the results of opening day).

Finally, we are playing 4 seasons. If we find that there is a problem with the rules in the 60s league, we can change them for the 70s league.

So are we drafting yet?

Yes, the draft is underway in a separate thread. Owners can skip ahead if they have a guaranteed pick (Frank Robinson and Joe Torre have already been drafted).

Also, let's give everyone some time to show up for the draft. So, we'll wait at least 3 days for a round 1 pick before replacing anyone.

Done! Yankees turn!

i've updated the first post in this thread to show the rules change that allows free agents (that is, nonfranchise players) to be traded.

This league has completed the 60's and is ready to move on to the 70's.

Need two replacement managers.

Great group of managers very different theme, check it out!