[joshuaaaaaa]

In my current league, I took over the 46-116 Mets in 2025. In 2025 I 'improved' them by about 7 or 8 wins (its in the Joey McKinley thread and I'm too lazy to look right now). In 2026 they were 18 games over .500 in August before totally collapsing. They finished 2nd in the division at 82-80. With the huge amount of young talent I've acquired by trading away overpriced stars (what does a team that won 46 games need with an ace making $9 million per season), I should have a good chance at winning the division in 2027.

The basic house rules I use are:

1. Keep maximum payroll around $50 million (sometimes it creeps up towards $55 million, never over that).
2. At the end of each season, any player in the minor leagues with a non $100,000 contract that doesn't expire in the current year is moved to A ball. This encourages retirement of aging veterans.
3. At the beginning of preseason, Any player with a minor league contract who is 28 or older in AA or 25 or older in A ball is released. The only exception is if the guy has a green arrow and is only in a lower level of ball because his upward progress is blocked. This keeps only the best prospects active. I don't fill the minor leagues with fictional players.
4. League totals recalculated at the beginning of each season.
5. Computer manager run on all teams on the 1st of each month (although I've been known to forget).
6. I will initiate trades, and will trade 2 or 3 for 1 or vice versa, however I do my best to make sure I feel both teams are getting good deals.
7. The draft is five rounds each year. I choose for my team in the 1st 2 rounds, the computer picks in the last 3. This prevents me from stocking up on great MR prospects that the computer undervalues.
8. Financials are on, coaches and scouts are off.
9. I had been going through and setting coaching tendencies for each team based on their personnel. I got away from that and plan to pick it up with their next season.
10. I use the StickWare schedule generator, 18 interleague games per season, unbalanced schedule.

I think that's all of them.