[Eugene Church]

Originally Posted by RMc

And, yes, there will be promotion and relegation in the The Baseball Leagues, with four teams moving up/down between the levels each year. Here's how it works:

The Cup Winner (champion of each level), automatically gets promoted, taking the place of the lowest-rated team (determined by power ratings) of the next-highest level. The other three Cup semifinalists each play "Survivor Series" against the bottom three teams in the next-highest level. So four teams move up and four move down every year.

Example: Billings (MT) wins the AA Cup, and is automatically promoted to AAA, replacing Yonkers (NY), who finished dead last in AAA. The other three semifinalists in AA are Simi Valley (CA), Ann Arbor (MI) and Trenton (NJ); the next lowest-rated in AAA (after Yonkers) are Jersey City (NJ), Fort Wayne (IN) and Little Rock (AR). Simi Valley plays Jersey City, Ann Arbor plays Fort Wayne, and Trenton plays Little Rock; the winners of the three series play in AAA next year, while the losers play in AA.

Exemptions: The current real 30 MLB franchises are forever exempt from relegation; they cannot drop down, ever. (Don't worry, Mets fans...your team is safe.) In addition: the World Series champion is exempt from relegation for the next ten years, and a minor-league Cup Winner is exempt for the next three years. So if the Dayton Dragons win the AAA Cup in 2006 and join MLB in 2007, they cannot be relegated back into AAA before 2010. (Other ideas may include individual league winners -- remember, each level has at least eight leagues -- getting a one-year exemption or something.)

Promotion/relegation will probably include just the all-professional levels (MLB through A) at first, then expand into the semi-pro B and C leagues later. The R, X and Y leagues are designed for smaller towns that can't really support pro baseball, and will probably be left out of it.

Again, good grief!

I could be wrong,Rmc, but I don't think teams can change leagues in OOTPBM 2006.

How are you going to promote and demote teams?

I hope I am wrong as it seems a lot of people want promotion and relegation to be part of the game.