MLB Expansion

[hogzilla]

The fields are groomed, the grass is cut, and the smell of pine tar is in the air, folks! MLB Expansion is proud to open it's doors for the inaugural 2020 season. With a realistic experience in mind, this MLB Modern format league will feature some rule changes to maximize OOTP's capabilities, unique financial requirements, and strict guidelines to ensure each GM is put to the test, all the while having some serious baseball fun. Refer to the league constitution at the bottom of this listing for more information. Play ball!

Some things MLBEXP has that others might not:

• Shortened regular 2020 regular season, adjusting for realism from 162 games down to 120
• Upon league creation, every ML manager will be released and made available for hire from any of the 30 ML clubs.
• Coaches and Scouting are ON, Scouting is set to NORMAL
• Owner Goals are ON
• To give each club a chance to start on equal footing from the jump, Baltimore, Miami, and Pittsburgh have had their budgets increased to $100 Million.
• The league has plans of expansion by, at the earliest, the end of the 2021 season.

League Email: Mlbexp@yahoo.com
League Website: In Progress*
StatsPlus Link: In Progress*
League Reports: In Progress*
*Our Commissioner is currently handling the administrative duties to make this an enjoyable experience for all. We will be utilizing multiple tools such as Slack, StatsPlus, our very own MLBEXP website, and more.*

Sim Schedule:
IN SEASON: Daily sim, 2 in game days per sim
OFF SEASON: Daily sim, 7 in game days per sim

Available Teams:
Teams Open
CURRENTLY FULL

Interested?

Send us an email at mlbexp@yahoo.com with the following information:

Full Name
Email Address
Top 3 Teams
A short write up on each choice, how you plan to run them and intentions for the future.

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MLB Expansion Constitution

• MLBEXP League Set-Up
• GM Responsibility
• Roster Rules & Regulations
• Amateur Acquisitions
• Trades
• Offseason Events

__________________________________________________ ________
League Objective & Set Up
MLB Expansion is created and run as a computer simulation expansion of Major League Baseball, or as close as we can possibly get. By joining MLB Expansion and choosing to run a MLB Organization as the General Manager, you have agreed to follow this league constitution and make decisions that do not go against MLB Expansion.

All the decisions made by the League Office (MLBEXP Commissioner, NL Commissioner, AL Commissioner) will be made with consideration to these factors:

I. Realism: The League will intend to give each GM a Major League Baseball experience as a GM in an expanded version of the MLB. Thus, the rules for the league will try to promote things that will resemble the real MLB as close as possible.
II. The OOTP Game Engine: The game is limited in certain aspects of what it can do. This has led to the creation of some rules that will try to make as such that the game engine limits are limited as much as possible.
III. Time: the amount of time and effort required by the League Office and by the GMs to make a change.
IV. Detriment to the League: The pros and cons of the decision and how it will affect the MLB Expansion will be considered.

The MLBEXP is meant to be fun but trying to give as an authentic experience and as competitive of a league as possible. The competitiveness of it will create emotions and feelings that could take away from the experience, and while it is encouraged to be exciting, there should be nothing that should be viewed as egregious. This means that any egregious acts such as but not limited to: gain an advantage, make any comments that stray from a friendly rivalry, will not be tolerated, and will lead to a removal from the league. Egregious acts to gain an advantage include, but are not limited to, exploiting the limitations of the OOTP Game Engine (some of which will be addressed later in the constitution) and lying (in trade negotiations, game strategy, etc.). If you are unsure if an action you are about to make is exploiting the limitations of OOTP, or unrealistic, ask your designated member of the League Office, which is by Division according to the team you have.
MLBEXP Set-Up

The league is meant to be as close to the MLB as we can possibly get. Therefore, 26-man active rosters (28 expanded) with a 40-man reserve. The minor league teams will have a 30-man roster limit, while the Rookie league will be limited to 37. International complexes will be capped at 15 players.

The 2020 season will be shortened to 120 game due to the large gathering ban from COVID-19 in the United States, but subsequent seasons will return to the normal 162 games, following the MLB schedule. The trade deadline will be July 31, with expanded rosters coming on September 1. The number of days of service time to count as 1 year in the 2020 season is 125 days.

The waiver period will be 4 days, with the DFA period set to 10 days. Players that you acquire off waivers may not be waived again for 20 days in game. Minor league option years are turned on, and players can refuse minor league assignment.

Players with 10/5 rights can veto trades, as well as any players with a no-trade clause. If you know a player has one of these options, and you'd like to test what teams they would accept a trade to, ask the Commissioner and a list will be provided. Trades Allowed:

1. Draft Picks
2. Drafted Players Immediately Eligible for Trade
3. Injured Players

Scouting and Coaching are Both ON, with scouting set at 20-80 scale, with normal accuracy. Each team will need to hire a Manager. All managers will be released and open to be hired by all organizations.

If there are any other questions regarding anything, please ask your specified Division Commissioner.

GM Responsibility
GM's have several responsibilities:
1. Running of their Team: will be expected to export once every five days. If there are repeated issues with this, the League Office will consider removing the GM from the league. Any extenuating circumstances that would cause an inability to export consistently should be brought up with the League Office and will result in flexibility with the rule.
2. Lineups/depth charts and Rotations/bullpens: filled out completely the entirety of the regular season. Players that are healthy and have served their time on the injured list (IL) must come off the IL within 5 days/sims. Team personnel must be filled through the entire regular season.
3. Respond/Communication: The Slack app will be used for instant communication. The Slack app will be the main place for league communication, checking at least every 3 days should be easy to maintain. When responding to others, keep in mind that any GM who develops indisputable reputations for ignoring, not responding (with substance; “I'll get back to you soon” does not count) or responding with disrespect will be reprimanded. That said, constant badgering of another GM will also not be tolerated.
4. 100% Exports: these are a 100% requirement - Opening Day, Arbitration Filing Day, and day before the Rule 5 Draft.
5. Outside of the Game: these will be done in Slack or Stats+ that will be required- FYP Draft, All-Star Voting, Awards Voting, Winter Meetings and Hall of Fame Voting.
Roster Rules & Regulations

Personnel Rules: Coaches cannot be demoted from a Major League role to a Minor League role, the game usually stops this with them refusing. Any coach or person in the OOTP data base is available for hire.

Contract Rules: Contracts of
1. 3-years or less of length: will be limited to no more than 1 option (Team, Player, Vesting) OR opt-out.
2. 4 or more years of length will be allowed to have UP TO 2 options (Team, Player, Vesting) OR opt-out.
3. Team Options: ONLY be allowed in the final year of a contract and must have a 50% buyout included. If a team option is in another year of the contract, it will become a fully guaranteed contract. The same is applicable if the buyout is less than 50%.
4. Vesting Options: (If a vesting option breaks these limitations, the option will be converted into a guaranteed year.)

Contract Extensions: The allowable length of a contract extension will be directly tied to the player's time spent on the secondary roster. The number of years completed can be found by rounding down to the year count.

1. No Time on the Secondary Roster: May only receive this exact extension, whether or not the player accepts or asks for different terms does not matter, they must accept this EXACT extension or nothing else. This can lead to a player not being happy with the discussions and make it harder later. This is a choice you will make as the GM. The OOTP Game Engine does not handle these contracts well but we wanted to give you ONE option to do (as this can be done in the MLB) so if you do, please know the risk. The contract is the contract that was given to Luis Robert and will be used to be able to offer a prospect:
8 Years 88 Million [YR1 1.5 MIL, YR2 3.5 MIL, YR3 6 MIL, YR4 9.5 MIL, YR5 12.5 MIL, YR6 15 MIL, YR7 20 MIL, YR8 (Team Option) 20 MIL]
2. Less than 3 whole years: may sign an extension UP TO 4 years in length.
3. Completed 3 or 4 years: may sign an extension UP TO 5 years in length.
4. Completed 5 years: No restrictions on a contract extension.

Any violation of the above will result in the immediate voiding of the contract extension and player will be released to free agency upon completing the season to which the illegal contract was made.

Games Played (All Position Players): 80 GP Maximum, Plate Appearances 250 Maximum
Games Started (Starting Pitchers): 20 GS Maximum
Innings Pitched (All Pitchers): 120 IP Maximum for SP/50 IP Maximum for RP

Amateur Acquisitions

The FYP Draft will take place in Stats+, with us attempting to complete as many rounds as possible before the in-game draft date. The Rule 5 draft will take place the same way, with the draft pool being locked 2 days ahead of the in-game date (protecting your players will be your job as the GM).

International Free Agency: There will be a document outside of the game which tracks the maximum amount a team can spend in INT FA. Teams will start with a budget of $5 million. Any team who gets a Competitive Balance Round A pick will get $5.25 million and those with a Competitive Balance Round B will get $5.5 million. This amount can be traded in increments of $100,000, with teams being allowed to acquire up to $10 million. The INT FA period will start the same day as the draft in-game and will end 2 weeks before the next year's draft (allowing for time to scout and adjust budgets.) If a team spends over their allotted amount, all their INT FA signings from that season will be placed back in INT FA, and the team will lose their budget for the following season.

Trades
These things can be traded in our league: Players, Cash, INT FA money, and Draft Picks. In a trade, there is a maximum number of 3-pieces to 1-piece ratio. There is also a maximum of 8 pieces sent by either team in the trade. Attempting to circumvent these rules will result in a voided trade and loss of the trade allowance.

Each team will have a MAXIMUM OF 4 TRADES before Opening Day. This will help to make teams focus on the players and pieces they are trading and add to the realism of the game play. After Opening Day each team will be able to make 2 trades a day if needed, trades will not accumulate to have more trades on a day. The last week before the deadline the trade per team will jump to 3 per day.

Any player on the 26-man roster or in the top 100 prospects must be on the trade block for 48 hours before a trade can be posted involving said player. This is done to allow full access to offers from the entire league.

Only Trades (and reply of reasoning) will be posted in the section #Trades in the Slack App with the following format. Once the post is made, both teams should make a comment on the post with their rationale for the trade.

*Team 1:* :team_emoji:
Pos. First_name Last_name (Level) – % Retention
Pos. First_name Last_name (Level)
$ Cash, $ INT FA, Draft Picks
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*Team 2:* :team_emoji:
Pos. First_name Last_name (Level)
Pos. First_name Last_name (Level)
$ Cash, $ INT FA, Draft Picks

• Cash can only be traded in increments of $100,000.
• The maximum amount of salary retention in a deal is 50%

Offseason Events

There are several things that will happen in the offseason that are meant to make the league more realistic and keep some participation in the offseason.

Rule 5 Draft, held in the Offseason. Teams will have 2 days before the draft to set rosters and draft pool will be locked.

Ability to hire coaches from other organizations. Each organization will be asked to protect 1 minor league manager, hitting coach and pitching coach. Any coaches left unprotected can be hired by another organization for a Major League position with a 3-year contract at $1 million for managers, $650k for hitting/pitching coaches, $400k for bench coach. The team that loses the coach will get cash from the hiring team at a total of 50% of the total contract.

[naturaldopamine]

Count me in!

I'll take the Red Sox. If they're not available then I'd love to have the Royals or Orioles. Thanks!

naturaldopamine@yahoo.com is my Slack

[naturaldopamine]

I emailed you. Red Sox !

Very excited about this league. I love the idea of realistic trade limits.

[hogzilla]

Updated with taken teams.

[chapo]

I'd like to join.

[Bennyboy288]

Hi, I'd like to join

Team of interest would be: 1) SD, 2) TB and 3) Mets

[hogzilla]

Email the address above @Bennyboy288 @chapo

[BigRigs33]

Ootpcommish23@gmail.com

Interested teams: 1) Angels 2) white Sox 3) Phillies

[BigRigs33]

Originally Posted by BigRigs33

Ootpcommish23@gmail.com

Interested teams: 1) Angels 2) white Sox 3) Phillies

I’m very interested!!

[BigRigs33]

Email sent.

[CoachNewman]

Make sure to email as it states to join.

[naturaldopamine]

Teams Open
Phillies
Reds
Cardinals
Pirates (budget increase to 100 million)
Blue Jays
Red Sox
Orioles (budget increase to 100 million)
Indians
Tigers
A's
Rangers

[Sin44]

Attention Online OOTP GM's, we still have several available teams. We'll get started as soon as we can fill.

Looking for SIM GM's, who are responsive.

Teams Open
Atlanta
Phillies
Reds
Cardinals
Pirates (budget increase to 100 million)
Blue Jays
Orioles (budget increase to 100 million)
Indians
Tigers
A's
Rangers

[hogzilla]

we are 4 away from being FULL

Rangers
Cards
Pirates (100 Million Budget)
Blue Jays

EMAIL THE ADDRESS ABOVE WITH THE REQUIRED INFORMATION

[hogzilla]

2 teams left
Pirates
Cards

EMAIL THE ADDRESS ABOVE WITH THE REQUIRED INFORMATION

[hogzilla]

Get an email in today if you want the LAST TEAM - ST. LOUIS!