League Requirements: The league requires all managers to own the latest version of Action Pc Baseball and the most current data disk.
Gameplay: The league encourages head to head play but it is not required. The home team is responsible for playing the games. Either manager may send an email to your opponent to setup head to head play. If the visiting team declines, the home team will play the games vs the computer. Every manager is expected to play at least their home games. A manager that fails to play their games is subject to removal from the league.
Rookie/Free Agent Draft: All rookies and players not on rosters will be eligible for the draft. The draft will be held before the season. All teams must cut their roster to at least 25 players before the draft. The draft will consist of 15 rounds or whatever it takes to fill out the rosters. Each team will draft enough players to have a 40 man roster. All teams must stay under the salary cap during the draft and have enough money to draft 40 players. The major league roster must stay under the salary cap at all times. If you make a trade and the trade puts you over the salary cap, you must release enough players to stay under the cap. Draft picks for future drafts can be traded.
Rosters: The major league roster will consist of 25 active players from March to August. The roster can be expanded to 40 active players for September. Rosters can be adjusted every week. The roster must have at least one backup for every position. Players with multiple positions can be counted for your backups. The roster must have at least 162 starts for your starting pitching. There is no minimum relief innings for your pitching staff. You must have enough relief innings to get thru the whole season. The playoff roster will consist of 25 players. Grapefruit League action will consist of 40 active players on the roster.
Schedule: Each team will play a 162 game schedule. There will be 20 teams with 4 divisions. You will play each team in your division 18 times and all other teams 6 times. The weekly schedule will run from Tuesday thru Monday. There will be 2 deadlines every week. Each team will play 2 3-game series per week. The first 3 game series will be due by 12:00 midnight pst each Friday. The second 3 game series will be due by 12:00 midnight pst each Monday. Manager files can be turned in at anytime during the week. They will be imported into the next league file. The new league file will be sent out on Friday and Monday evenings. There will be 2 league files distributed each week. Each team will have an off day after playing 2 series. Games can't be played out of order in the schedule. Each team will play 3 games with each league file. The season will run from March thru September.
Salary cap: The salary cap will be 155 million for all teams. Teams must stay under the salary cap during the season and prior to the draft. Teams will be given an additional 10 million during the season to allow for trading.
Trades: Teams will be allowed to make trades until the trading deadline. The trading deadline will be July 31st. All trades must be approved by the trade commishioner. Teams must stay under the cap after all trades.
Special Rules: A starting pitcher can not be used in relief if he did not pitch in relief in real life. A relief pitcher can not be used as a starter if he did not pitch as a starter in real life.
Player usage: Starting pitchers will be limited to 110% of starts. Relief pitchers will be limited to 110% of relief innings. Relief pitchers who made starts will be limited to 110% of starts and innings. Postion players will be limited to 110% of actual at-bats. All players will become inactive after 110% usage and can't be used anymore. They can be used in the playoffs if they meet the playoffs qualifications. Player usage will be monitored by the commissioner.
Playoff Usage:
Batters must have a minimum of 50 at bats in real life to be eligible for a playoff roster. Pitchers must have a minimum of 25 innings pitched in real life to be eligible for a playoff roster.
Starting Rotation: Teams must use a minimum 3-man rotation in any playoff series.
Starting Pitchers: Must have a minimum of 10 starts in real life to be eligible to start in a playoff game.
Players will be prorated for playoff usage.
Team names: Managers may use any team name for their team.
Lineups: The DH will be used in the American League.
All-Star game- The league will hold an annual all-star game with all-stars from each league competiting in the game. The managers will be determined by the team with the best record at the All-Star break from each league. The game will be played head to head. Each manager will vote for 14 players from their league. This will consist of a C, 1B, 2b, SS, 3B, LF, CF, RF, 5 SP, 1RP. The players receiving the most votes will automatically make the team. The remaining players will be chosen by manager of each league. The roster will consist of 32 players. The site will determine whether or not a DH is used. We will use the same site as MLB. The rosters will contain at least one player from each team. The winning league will determine home field edge for the World Series.
Playoffs: The 2 division winners and top 2 wildcard teams will qualify for the playoffs in each league. Teams will be seeded from 1-4. The division winners will be seeded from 1-2 and the wildcard teams will be seeded from 3-4.
First round playoffs will be best of 5. The pairings will be 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 in each league. The second round playoffs will be best of 7. The top seed will play the worst seed and so on. The World Series will consist of the National League champ vs the American League champ in a best of 7 game series. All playoff games will be required to play head to head.
Tie-breakers: All ties for playoffs will use major league baseball tie-breaker rules. The goal of this league is to have fun.