New OOTP League

[CR5]

Very experience Commissioner below is the information!

Rules: http://dynastysportshq.com/attachment.php?aid=35

Sign Up: http://dynastysportshq.com/thread-18462.html


Read up and hope to see you join! This is going to be a great league.

Sim Baseball Classic Basic Agreement
This agreement, effective April X, 2017 is between the 30 Major League General Managers and
the Commissioners of Sim Baseball Classic (hereinafter referred to as “general manager” and
“commissioner” respectively).
In making this Agreement, the general managers of the league agree to abide by all rules herein
and the commissioners of the league agree to follow these rules in all decisions, making
decisions based on the best interest of the league.
Sim Baseball Classic is run through OOTP 18; the league will stay with OOTP 18 until 3/4 of the
league votes to use an updated version. In the case where the league moves to an updated
version. The switch from versions will happen after the World Series. Sim Baseball Classic will
not reset and will continue play as long as the league stays competitive and fun.
The league forum will be DynastySportsHQ and the chat room will be AIM. All members must
be a part of the chat room in AIM.​ The reason for this is that it is where the majority of league
discussion will take place and it will be a chatroom that is specific to this league. This is
important as OOTP plays out much faster than fantasy leagues.
ARTICLE I – INTENT AND PURPOSE
The intent and purpose of Sim Baseball Classic is to bring simulation baseball to a new and
competitive level. Sim Baseball Classic strives for realism as it relates to Major League Baseball,
but also understands that OOTP is a leisure activity and should always be fun and relaxing for
the general managers. While Sim Baseball Classic holds its members to a high standard, it holds
its commissioners to an even higher standard. While the league strives for realism as it relates to
Major League Baseball, the league does intend to evolve over time, either due to issues that arise
to make the league competitive and fun.
ARTICLE II – BASIC RULES
Scouting Options
Use Complete Scouting System – OFF
Coaching Staff Options
Use Complete Coaching System – OFF
Financial Modifiers
Financial Coefficient – 1.000
Suspensions, Injury & Fatigue Options
Enable Suspensions – ON
Suspension Frequency – Normal
Enable Drug-Suspensions – OFF
Enable Injuries – ON
Injury Frequency – Normal (OOTP Classic)
Delayed Injury Diagnosis – Never
Hide Injury Rating – OFF
Position Player Fatigue – Average
Rating Scales
Player Actual Ratings Scale – 20-80
Player Potential Ratings Scale – 20-80
Other Players Ratings Scale – 20-80
Show Ratings > Max – NO
Show Potential < Actual – NO
Overall Potential Rating – Stars
Overall rating based on AI evaluation, not pure ratings – OFF
Overall rating based on all players, not positions – ON
Coach / Scout Ratings Scale – N/A
Report Options
Top Prospect List – Annually
Preseason Predictions – Automatic
Misc. Options
Enable storylines – OFF
Player Options
Batter Aging Speed – .750
Batter Dev. Speed – 1.000
Pitching Aging Speed – .750
Pitcher Dev. Speed – 1.000
Disable Player Development – OFF
Disable Development for draft eligible players – OFF
Show & Use Player Personality Ratings – ON
Show & Use Player Morale System – ON
Keep career L/R splits – Major League Stats Only
Keep career fielding stats – Major League Stats Only
Keep career postseason stats – Major League Stats Only
Retiring Player Options
Delete those who never reached majors – OFF
League Rules
American League Designated Hitter – ENABLED
National League Designated Hitter – NOT ENABLED
Roster Rules
Age Minimum – NONE
Age Maximum – NONE
Active Roster Size – 25 Players
International Complex Six – 50 Players
Foreign Players Limit – No Limit
Expanded Roster Size – 40 Players
Roster Expansion Date – September 1, 20XX
Post-Season Roster Rules – Enabled
Secondary (40-man) Roster Size – 40 Players
Min. Days of Service for 1 Service Year –172
Waiver Period Length – 7 days
*this length will change when Sims last longer than 7 days
DFA Period Length – 14 days
*this length will change when Sims last longer than 7 days. This is 14 and not the usual 10 so
that the commissioner will not have to stop mid-simulation in case somebody forgets to move a
player who has been DFA’d.
Minor League Option Years – Enable Option Years
Disable right to refuse minor league assignment – OFF
Allow incomplete minor league rosters (ghost players) – No. There’s so many players in OOTP
that teams should have a full minors
Rule 5 Draft – Enabled
Rule 5 Draft Date – December 13, 20XX (During Winter Meetings)
Disabled List Length – 15 days
Trade Rules
Player Trades – Enabled
Trading Deadline Date – July 31, 20XX
Trades with other Major Leagues – Disabled
Allow trading of recently drafted players – NO
10/5 Rule (veterans have right to veto trades) - NO
Allow Draft Pick Trading – NO
Amateur Draft Rules
Amateur Draft – Enabled
Amateur Draft Date – First Monday of June. This way the sim will not need to be stopped in
order to input the Draft Results.
Amateur Draft Number of Rounds – 30
Generate Players for X Rounds – 35
Amateur Draft Pool Reveal Date – 75 days prior to draft (The earlier the better here so that we
can do as many rounds of drafting as possible)
Enable Advanced Draftee Signing (Signing Bonus Negotiations) – Enable
Slot Bonus Baseline - $1,500,000
2012 Collective Bargaining Agreement Rules
Enable 2012 CBA rule changes – Enable
Attendance Settings
Average Attendance per game – 31,000
Average Ticket Price - $25.00
Visiting team’s gate share (%) – 20%
Financial & Free Agency Settings
Financial System – Enabled
Minimum Service Years for Free Agency – 6 years
Allow Free Agents from other leagues – Enabled
Allow Free Agents to leave league – Enabled
Draft Pick Compensation for lost FA’s – Enable Compensation
Service Years Required for Arbitration – 3 years
Minimum Service Years for Minor League FA – 6 years
Team Revenue Settings
Average National Media Contract - $25,000,000
National Media Contract Fixed? No, based on team market size
Average Local Media Contract - $25,000,000
Average Merchandising Revenue - $10,000,000
Team Owner controls Budget? Yes
Revenue Sharing – Luxury Tax
Soft Cap (% of average payroll) – 120
Tax Above Soft Cap (%) – 20
Cash Maximum - $10,000,000
Team Expenses & Salary Settings
Average Player Dev. Budget - $0, feature turned off
Average Coach Salary – N/A
Player Salary Cap - $0
Minimum Player Salary - $535,000
Super Star Quality Player typical Salary - $20,000,000
Star Quality Player typical salary - $15,000,000
Good Quality Player typical salary - $11,000,000
Above Avg. Quality Player typical Salary - $8,000,000
Below Avg. Quality Player typical salary - $3,500,000
Fair Quality Player typical salary - $2,000,000
Poor Quality Player typical salary - $800,000
International Players
Generate International Amateur Free Agents – Default (30 per year)
International Amateur FA Signing Cap - $3,000,000
International FA Reveal Date – First Monday of July. This is so that the FA reveal date will be
when the file is put up and owners can get their offers in.
International Scouting Discoveries (per team) – Default (11 per year)
Generate International Established Free Agents – Default (10 per year)
Generate Free Agents from Independent Leagues – Default (6 per year)
Dynamically Evolving League Options
Enable automatic evolution of the league – OFF. League Evolution (expansion teams) is
something that could be looked at in the future if there is interest.
Tracked Statistics Detail
Select Stats Detail – Very High Detail
Inaugural League Injuries
When the league is formed, all injuries and fatigue will be reset.
ARTICLE III – SCHEDULING
Length of Season
During the term of this agreement, each club shall be scheduled to play 162 games during each
championship season.
Spring Training
During the term of this agreement, each club shall play 4 weeks of Spring Training.
Post Season Play
Following completion of each championship season, ten Clubs shall qualify for Post-Season
play: The three Division Champions in each League and the two other Clubs in each League with
the highest percentage of wins in the championship season (Wild Card Clubs). In each Major
League, the two Wild Card Clubs shall play a single elimination game. Thereafter, the three
Division Champions in each league and the winner of the Wild Card Game in the League shall
engage in best of five Division Series. The winners of the Division Series in each League shall
then engage in a best of seven League Championship Series, and the winners of the two League
Championship Series shall engage in a best of seven World Series.
SIM Schedule I like the sim schedule written out like this, very nice
**For these purposes we will begin with opening day
SIM 1 – Opening Day until next Monday
SIM 2 – Monday to Monday
SIM 3 – Monday to Monday
SIM 4 – Monday to Monday
SIM 5 – Monday to Monday
SIM 6 – Monday to Monday
SIM 7 –Monday to Monday
SIM 8 – Monday to Monday or First Year Player Draft
***SIMs could change depending on when the First Year Player Draft is
SIM 9 – First Years Player Draft
SIM 10 – First Years Player Draft to Monday
SIM 11 – Monday to Monday
SIM 12 – Monday to Monday
SIM 13 – Monday to Monday
SIM 14 – Monday to International FA Signing Period Begins
***SIMs could change depending on when the International FA Signing Period Begins is
SIM 15 – International FA Signing Period Begins to Monday
SIM 16 – Monday to Monday
SIM 17 – Monday to Monday
SIM 18 – Monday to Monday
***SIMs could change depending on when the All Star Game is
SIM 19 – All Star Game
SIM 20 – All Star Game to Monday
SIM 21 – Monday to Trade Deadline
SIM 22 – Trades are put through that are made before the deadline
***SIMs could change depending on when the Trade Deadline is
SIM 23 – Trade Deadline to Monday
SIM 24 – Monday to Monday
SIM 25 – Monday to Monday
SIM 26 – Monday to Monday
SIM 27 – Monday to August 31
SIM 28 – Trades are put through that are made before the deadline and we sim to September 1
SIM 28 – September 1 to Monday
SIM 29 – Monday to Monday
SIM 30 – Monday to Monday
SIM 31 – Monday to Monday
SIM 32 – Monday to End of Season
***SIMs could change depending on when the End of Season is
SIM 33 – Simulation of all Play-in-games, Wild Card Round of Playoffs & Divisional Series
SIM 34 – Simulation of Conference Series
SIM 35 – Simulation of World Series
SIM 36 – End of playoffs until November 19 (Last chance to make arbitration offers and
awards announced)
SIM 37 – November 19 – November 23 (Last chance to re-sign potential FAs)
SIM 38 – November 23 – December 1 (FA Bidding Starts)
SIM 39 – December 1 – December 7 (FA Bidding)
SIM 40 – December 7 – December 13 (FA Bidding – Winter Meetings Start)
SIM 41 – Winter Meetings / Rule 5 Draft
SIM 42 – December 13 – December 17 (FA Bidding)
SIM 43 – December 17 – January 9 (FA Bidding)
SIM 44 – January 9 – January 22 (FA Bidding)
SIM 45 – January 22 – February 1 (FA Bidding, Pre Season Starts February 5)
SIM 46 – February 1 – February 12 (FA Bidding)
SIM 47 – February 12 – February 25 (FA Bidding)
SIM 48 – February 25 – March 5 (Start of Spring Training, Pre Season Predictions Published)
SIM 49 – March 5 – March 10 (Spring Training)
SIM 50 – March 10 – March 17 (Spring Training)
SIM 51 – March 17 – March 24 (Spring Training)
SIM 52 – March 24 – March 30 (Spring Training)
SIM 53 – March 30 – April 6 (Annual Baseball America Top Prospects List Published and
Opening Day)
This schedule is just a guide as to what the league schedule will be close to looking like. Sims
will almost always be one week at a time.
**All SIMs are subject to change depending on when important dates in game land. The actual
schedule for the entire season will be published before Opening Day of the upcoming season.
SIM times are at 8ET unless the league is told otherwise. The league will be emailed if the SIM
time changes at least 24 hours in advance.
Article IV – SIM Procedures
SIMs will be run by a commissioner at the specified time. Exports are due at this time. The
commissioner will pull exports at the specified time and will conduct the simulation soon after.
The simulation will never take place before this time, only after. Depending on the type of SIM
the commissioner will run a live sim on our website or tell the people in the chat room what is
going on during the SIM. Normal SIMS during Spring Training, the Regular Season & Playoffs
will be run via live SIM. The All Star Game will also be run via live SIM for everyone to watch.
Other SIMs where no games are taking place will be ran and the commissioner running the sim
will let all general managers know what is taking place. What the commissioner tells the general
managers is at the commissioner’s discretion.
After the SIM is ran, the Commissioner will first put through any trades that happened since the
last SIM. The commissioner will then send out the league wide e-mail through OOTP, and will
upload the file. The Commissioner will then update the HTML reports on the league’s main
website and update the league utilities. After each step is performed, the commissioner will let
people in the SIM know.
Provision Simulation Schedule:
Monday - 8PM ET
Wednesday - 8PM ET
Friday - 8PM ET
Sunday - 2PM ET
**SIM procedures are subject to change depending on who is running the SIM and time
constraints. General Managers will be told though if anything is changing before the SIM is run.
Article V – First Year Player Draft
The First Year Player Draft will happen on the first Monday of June each year. Players eligible
to be drafted will be revealed 75 days prior to the draft. The Draft order will be determined by
OOTP, based on the opposite order of teams’ records in the previous year (just like what is done
in real life). The draft mode is straight, meaning teams select in a fixed order each round. There
will be 30 rounds in the First Year Players Draft. The First Year Player Draft will begin shortly
after the draft pool is released.
The draft will take place on DynastySportsHQ and there are 3 options for how it will be
conducted. This will be the first vote that the league has and here are the 3 options listed in the
way that I prefer them. The biggest thing to take into account is that we make it through the
draft. We will be nowhere close to finishing 30 rounds, but we will go as far as we can so that
people can still get quality talent and not be autodrafted. IMPORTANT: Once the draft does
go on autodraft if you would like to continue picking you can send your picks to the
commissioner and they will be made in place of the autodrafted picks.
1) Set draft time slots: With this, there will be a certain amount of draft slots during the day
and you must make your pick during your allotted time slot. An example of this is 1 hour
time slots running from 10am until 10pm. There are 12 hours in that span so the first
team up has from 10am-11am to pick, the second has from 11am-12pm and so on. These
do not have to be 1 hour time slots and can be more or less time.
2) Set amount of time per pick: This is the most common way that drafts are done, as a team
has a set amount of time to make their pick. The most commonly used one is 8 hours per
pick, but we would need to most likely use a shorter time. Another way to save time is to
send your pick to the commissioner so that if you will not be around to make it, he can
for you.
3) Fast Draft: This is the least desirable of all of the options and would be a scenario where
the majority of the draft would take place in just a few nights. It would be run like a
fantasy league draft where teams have 2-3 minutes to make a pick and then the next team
is up. I don’t prefer this as it means everybody has to be on at the same time which is
simply unrealistic.
After the draft, the commissioner will enter the results into the game by either exporting the draft
results into the game or manually entering them.
The First Year Player Draft order will be determined by the following rounds
1
st
Round
1
st
Round – Comp Picks
1
st
Round – Lottery Picks
2
nd
Round
2
nd
Round – Comp Picks
2
nd
Round – Lottery Picks
3
rd
Round
4
th
Round
…ect
30th
Round
See comp pick rules and lottery pick rules for further explanation
Article VI Rule 6 Draft Rules
The league will have a competitive balance lottery. The lottery gives organizations with the
lowest revenues and smallest markets a chance to obtain extra picks and stay competitive in the
league. After the World Series game, the commissioner will go through every team and rank the
top 10 lowest teams by revenue according to their financials and top 10 lowest teams by market
size (**market size is subjective but the commissioner will do the best job he can. If teams are
close, the commissioner will use total revenue as the tiebreaker, meaning the team with the
lowest total revenue will be ranked higher than the team with the higher total revenue.
The top 10 teams in both categories will then go into a lottery for the six picks after the first
round, and the six picks after the second round. The league will use
http://www.draftpicklottery.com/lottery.php to complete the results. Below are the number of
balls each team will get based on their ranking as lowest team by revenue and lowest team by
market size (% based on 100 balls).
Top 10 Lowest Team by Revenue / Top 10 Lowest Team by Market Size
1. 25% - 25 balls
2. 20% - 20 balls
3. 15% - 15 balls
4. 10% - 10 balls
5. 8% - 8 balls
6. 7% - 7 balls
7. 6% - 6 balls
8. 4% - 4 balls
9. 3% - 3 balls
10. 2% - 2 balls
The team names will be entered in along with their number of balls. Some teams may be entered
twice if they make both list. Once the results come out, the commissioner will post and email the
results out to the league. The commissioner will screen shot the results as evidence. The teams in
slots 1 -12 will get picks. 1 -6 will get lottery picks in the first round in that order, and 7-12 will
get lottery picks in the second round in that order. These picks can then be traded any time
before the draft. Lottery picks are the only draft picks that can be traded by teams.
Article VII – International Free Agency
International Free Agency will be revealed July 1, 20XX of each season. Each team has a FA
signing cap of $5,000,000 per year. For all intensive purposes, the league will follow OOTP
rules on how this will be conducted. The OOTP defaults will be used. International amateurs
cannot be traded ​for 1 year after being signed. This is the same rule that applies to drafted
players and makes it so that a team cannot sign a top amateur prospect in July just to use
immediately as trade bait.
Article VIII – All Star Game
All-star voting is a time in the year when teams get to celebrate their players who are doing well
and honor those players from other teams who are playing at a high level. Like all voting,
All-Star voting is mandatory of all general managers. All-star voting will begin in early June and
the all-star will be announced a week before the All-Star game.
The World Series home field advantage shall be awarded each year to the team representing the
League that prevails in that year’s All-Star game.
The roster for each All-Star team shall be 34 players, with 21 position players and 13 pitchers.
Pitchers qualify if they have at least 1 inning pitched per team game played in the first half.
Hitters qualify if they have at least 3.1 plate appearances per team game played in the first half.
The All-Star game will get simmed on its own and will be a slowed down SIM so everyone can
watch the game unfold.
Article IX – Trading
This league is not meant to tell general managers how to run their team, everyone has their own
style and own valuation process. Some general managers view veterans more highly than
prospects in rookie ball, and vice versa. What differentiates online leagues and offline leagues is
the ability to trade with a human general manager and not AI. Having said that though, it is all
too common for leagues to have problems when teams begin making very poor decisions and
ruining the future of an organization. While having a high standard of general managers combats
this problem, it does not alleviate it. Because of this, the league does have some rules in place to
make sure that there are checks and balances and trades deemed unfair by the majority of the
league do not happen.
I would really still like to see a CAP (Commissioner Approval Process). There are 5 players at
each position who are auto CAP players. Except 15 SP, 15 RP, and Top 15-20 prospects. If they
are included in a deal that deal is automatically reviewed by the commissioners (not put to a
vote). If the commishes veto the deal, both teams can appeal and it is then put to a league vote.
The questions to be answered by the commissioners while reviewing the trades are:
Is collusion suspected?
Is it fair?
Is it detrimental to the league?
How would each team’s owner react to the trade?
I would still really like a trading committee
Commissioner Approval Process (CAP)
Not all deals will have to go through a rigorous review, and a majority of them will pass easily.
The Commissioner Approval Process (CAP) is to make sure that star players are not traded for
bad returns. There are a list of “CAP players” who if traded will trigger an automatic review.
Please Note: A review does NOT mean that a trade will be vetoed until found to be
approvable. This is NOT a “guilty until proven innocent” type of scenario. ​This just makes
sure that those players are being traded for fair value. The players that are decided are done by
top in WAR the previous season. So….
Top 5 Catchers in WAR
Top 5 1B in WAR
Top 5 2B in WAR
Top 5 SS in WAR
Top 5 3B in WAR
Top 10-15 OF in WAR
Top 25 SP in WAR
Top 10 RP in WAR
Current Year’s Top 25 Prospects
PREVIOUS Year’s Top 25 Prospects
10-15 “Wildcard” players. For example if Mike Trout misses half of the season he won’t make it
on the CAP list. He would be a wildcard because he clearly is a CAP player who has just had a
down season or missed a large part of a season.
The CAP list will be released to the league in the offseason and before the season starts. It will
be put into place on opening day, so the 2014 CAP list players are observed until opening day
2015. Don’t think that these deals would not be reviewed if this process wasn’t in the rules. All
trades will be reviewed and not blindly approved, but for these trades the CAP ruling will not
simply say “Approve” or “Veto” but must be accompanied by a writeup of why.
The questions to be answered by the commissioners while reviewing the trades are:
Is collusion suspected?
Is it fair?
Is it detrimental to the league?
How would each team’s owner react to the trade?
Once a trade is posted and accepted by both general managers, league members have a chance to
“challenge” a trade. To challenge a trade, the general manager challenging must message a
commissioner and put in his challenge. The challenging GM must all give an explanation as to
why he is challenging the trade. The challenging GM must also have at least two individuals
from the league who agree that the trade should not be passed. If the explanation is detailed
enough to warrant a vote and the challenging GM has at least two general managers from the
league who also tell the commissioner there should be a vote, the commissioner will halt the
trade and make a thread to vote on the trade being passed or vetoed. All votes must have an
accompanying writeup that is detailed and not simply “Approve because this owner knows what
he is doing.”
Once the thread is up, both general managers who made the trade will have an opportunity to
post why they want or do not want the trade to go through. As well, general managers in the
league will have the opportunity to voice their opinion about the trade. This situation needs to be
handled appropriately by general managers of the league and any post deemed inappropriate that
doesn’t add constructively to the vote will be taken down immediately by the commissioners. A
vote will be up for one sim period length. E-mails will be sent out to all members of the league
letting them know about the vote and votes will be encouraged, but not mandatory, as people will
only have 1 day to cast their vote. The only way this process works is if the majority of the
league votes on the matter though. This voting area is for votes only and not for fights to break
out about a potential veto. One reason we have an AIM chatroom is for discussion on things so
that we do not clog up posts on DynastySportsHQ.
The vote will be private so no one can see the results, this will make sure the results are
unbiased. Before the next SIM a commissioner will close the thread and whichever side (yes veto
the trade or no do not veto the trade) has the majority of votes will be the final decision. The
league and two teams will accept this decision as final. The best way to make sure general
manager trades go through is to post a good explanation of why they are making the trade when
the accept the draft on the forums. Below is an example of how a trade must be posted.
TEAM 1 NAME TRADES –
PLAYER A (FIRST NAME LAST NAME) – POSITION – LEAGUE
(MLB/AAA/AA/A/R)
PLAYER B (FRIST NAME LAST NAME) – POSITION – LEAGUE
(MLB/AAA/AA/A/R)
TEAM 2 NAME TRADES –
PLAYER C (FIRST NAME LAST NAME) – POSITION – LEAGUE
(MLB/AAA/AA/A/R)
DRAFT PICK – LOTTERY PICK NUMBER
EXPLANATION
TEAM 1 NAME ACCEPTS THE ABOVE TRADE BECAUSE ….
The explanation is important to the trade. A trade with no explanation at all will not be allowed.
The better the explanation the less likely the trade will be vetoed because general managers
around the league will understand why both general managers made the trade. I am not asking
for an essay to accompany trades, but I would like more than just a sentence or a few words.
Explain how the deal benefits your team.
Trading of draft picks is not allowed.
Recently drafted players cannot be traded until the following draft. Recently drafted players
cannot be used at PTBNL’s (Player to be named later) and PTBNL will not be utilized in this
league. Players can be traded one year after they were drafted.
Three or more team trades are allowed and encouraged, as they are always exciting to see get
done. They are a little funky as far as processing but if the only way to get a trade done is 3
teams do not feel discouraged to do so.
Teams may cover a player’s salary in a trade. The money schedule must be posted by year and
amount.
Players in teams international Complex may be traded, if they are traded the player will be called
up to the Rookie league of the trading teams’ roster and then traded.
Injured player may not be traded unless they are included as PTBNL until they become healthy.
Injured players still must follow the 6-month rule. If a player is injured during a SIM when they
have been traded, the injury will be reset and the player will be healthy. This is the only time a
player who is injured will be reset. Because trades are not put through until after a SIM for roster
purposes, this is a league necessity.
During the season trades will not be allowed to go through in which one of the teams goes over
budget (unless a corresponding move/trade is also in place). Teams may go over the budget
during the offseason but must be under prior to the season.
ARTICLE X – Injuries
Injuries are a part of Major League Baseball. While unfortunate for the teams and the player
himself, injuries are something every team needs to deal with and the best general managers take
injuries as they come and make the best of the situation. If a player is injured, in no circumstance
(except for when they are involved in a trade that is being processed) will they be reset. Career
Ending Injuries will be turned to the same injury and the player will miss 12 months.
ARTICLE XI – Application Process
Many OOTP Leagues simply use first come first serve for picking teams, but SBC will go
through an application process. Again, this will not require an essay or be a difficult task.
A questionnaire will be sent out to each person in the league where they will fill out their
top 3 teams and answer questions about how they would run the team. This is so that we
can match together the best owner for each team.
ARTICLE XII – September Call Ups
Expanded rosters begin on September 1. Teams are allowed to bring up to 40 players to their
major league roster. Roster expansion gives teams an opportunity to bring up young talent from
the minors and old veterans from the minors who otherwise would not see time on the 25-man
roster. September call-ups are great for struggling teams to give some minor league players a
chance to get some major league experience and is great for playoff teams to get fresh players a
chance to help as the team pushes for the playoffs. Team do not need to fill the full 40 players.
Teams may call up as little and as many as they want.
ARTICLE XIII – Playoff Simming
Playoffs are a special time for SBC and will be treated as such. Playoff SIMs will be ran slower
than regular SIMs to give teams a chance to see better how their teams are doing and to bring
some anticipation to each game. Teams will not be allowed to pick their pitchers for each
matchup, to combat issues that might come up with OOTP, teams are encouraged to use 7 day
lineups instead. Every team is up to the mercy of OOTP to make it fair and to take the pressure
off commissioners in case something were to go wrong with a team’s pitching or lineup. I will be
saving after each game of the playoffs and if the owners are in AIM I will make sure that no
mistakes are made like the same pitcher starting consecutive games.
ARTICLE XIV – Awards
Awards are also a special time in SBC and will be treated as such. Awards will be voted on in
OOTPOU and the forums. The following awards will be awarded in OOTP and voted on in
OOTPOU.
AL MVP
NL MVP
AL CY YOUNG
NL CY YOUNG
AL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
NL ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
AL RELIEVER OF THE YEAR
NL RELIEVER OF THE YEAR
GM OF THE YEAR AWARD
Gold gloves will be awarded by OOTP. Voting will open up the beginning of the playoffs and
close after the World Series. Voting is mandatory by all general managers. This is important to
get everyone involved. Award winners will be announced the SIM after the World Series by one
of the commissioners.
ARTICLE XV – Hall of Fame
The Hall of Fame is an important feature in OOTP and in SBC. The Hall of Fame is one of the
greatest honors a player can receive in baseball. The Hall of Fame induction rewards players for
an outstanding career. Sometimes this feature is overlooked in OOTP, but not in SBC. On
November 23 when FA bidding begins, the Hall of Fame process will begin. The Hall of Fame
process is open to all retired players. To begin the process GMs will have 1 week in real time to
post players they nominate for the Hall of Fame. It is encouraged that teams nominate their own
players from their organization for the Hall of Fame, but any general manager can nominate any
player for the Hall of Fame. Once the player is nominated, it is encouraged that other general
managers give their thoughts on the player, on why or why not that player should be in the hall
of fame.
After the week is over voting will open up on OOTPOU. Players will be eligible for the Hall of
Fame 5 years after retiring.
Once the voting begins, general managers will have two weeks to cast their vote and continue
discussion in the forums. Once the two weeks are up, voting will close and a commissioner will
gather the results and announce the new Hall of Fame inductees at the next SIM. General
Managers will be given incentive points for having players get inducted into the Hall of Fame
(Team the player goes in the Hall of Fame as). Players need at least 75% of the votes to be
elected in the hall of fame. Hall of fame voting is mandatory for all general managers.
Article XVI – Draft Pick Compensation for Lost Free Agents
In OOTP, when a team loses a player to free agency and that player is signed by another team,
the original team potentially receive two types of additional draft picks in the upcoming
first-year player draft as compensation for that signed the free agent. These picks are
'compensatory' picks - from the team that signed the free agent - and 'sandwich' picks - added
onto the end of the draft round, as they usually are in real life. For a Type A free agent the team
losing the free agent gets the other team's first round pick as well as a sandwich pick after the
first round. (With the exception that if the first round pick is in the top half of the draft, they get a
second round pick instead). For a type B free agent the team losing the free agent gets a
sandwich pick after the second round only. There is a formula similar to the Elias one (but not
exactly the same) that computes who the top free agents at each position are in order to rank the
Type A or B classifications. A team will receive no compensation for a player classified as "No
Compensation". SBC will use OOTPs system for Draft Pick Compensation for lost free agents.
In real MLB, if two Type As are signed by the same team, what should happen is the higher
ranked Type A free agent based on the scoring system should be rewarded with the first round
pick, while the other gets a second round pick. In OOTP it is based off of which free agent signs
first.
In order to qualify for draft pick compensation for a lost free agent, general managers must offer
salary arbitration to pending free agents before they file for free agency. This can be done via the
Salary Arbitration page, which is visible from the League Menu starting on the first day of the
offseason.
ARTICLE XVII – Salary Arbitration
Players who have at least three years, but fewer than six years, of major league service time as of
the day after the playoffs end are eligible for salary arbitration. Additionally, players who are in
the top 17% of service time among players with at least 2 years of service time are also eligible
for salary arbitration. These are known as "Super 2" arbitration cases. They behave exactly like
normal arbitration cases.
The "Arbitration Offer Period" lasts from the day after the final playoff game until the Salary
Arbitration Hearings. Salary Arbitration Hearings are typically held in November, but of course,
this could vary depending on your schedule. As soon as the Arbitration Offer Period begins, a
new screen becomes available for general managers in the League Menu, and also on the
Manager Portal, called "Salary Arbitration"
This screen lists all players that are available for salary arbitration during this offseason. On this
page, general managers submit a one-year contract offer to any player that they wish to take to
salary arbitration, by entering a number and clicking the Submit Offer button. If you do not offer
salary arbitration to a player before the Salary Arbitration Hearings, they will become free
agents, and you will lose them! You can withdraw an offer by clicking the Withdraw button.
During the Arbitration Offer Period, you can negotiate a contract with players who are eligible
for salary arbitration. If a player agrees to a new contract, they will no longer be eligible for
salary arbitration.
When the Salary Arbitration Hearings are held, arbitrators will rule individually on each
arbitration case, deciding between the team's offer and the player's demand. For each case, you
will receive individual messages indicating the player's salary for the next year, and whether the
team or the player "won" the case:
ARTICLE XVIII – Rule 5 Draft
A player is eligible for the Rule 5 draft if he meets the conditions listed below. Follow the links
to learn more about some of the terms used below:
• The player has at least three but fewer than six years of professional service time, and the
player was age 19 or older when he first signed a contract.
• The player is not on the team's secondary roster.
Note: Players who were age 18 or younger when they entered the league are eligible if they have
at least four, but fewer than seven years of professional service time. In other words, young
players get an extra year before they become eligible for the Rule 5 draft.
A player not on a team's secondary roster is eligible for the Rule 5 draft if the player was age 18
or younger when he first signed a contract and this is the fourth Rule 5 draft since he signed, OR
if he was age 19 or older when he first signed a contract and this is the third Rule 5 draft since he
signed.
Players who are eligible for the Rule 5 draft are designated by a pound sign (#) on the
Transactions page:
You can also see a player's Rule 5 eligibility on the Contract and Status sub-screen:
In addition to the players on the 40-man roster, the game automatically protects players on the
MLB DL. Players on the minor league DL are not automatically protected. Accordingly, to
prevent an abuse of this automatic protection by GMs in online leagues it is suggested that all
uninjured players on the MLB DL whose time on the DL is up are assigned prior to the Rule 5
draft. For players on the minor league DL GMs will need to check their Rule 5 eligibility status
on the player's contract & status page because they will not appear on the transaction screen.
Once the Rule 5 draft pool is announced, teams will have one sim to pull back players from their
system.
The rule 5 draft will work the following way in SBC:
1. The draft pool for the rule 5 draft will be announced
2. Teams have until the SIM before the Winter Meetings to contact the commissioner
in charge of running the Rule 5 Draft with the players they would like to claim. The
list should be in order of how the team would like to claim the players. 1 being first
claim, 2 being second claim, and so forth. The team should also let the commissioner
know if they have any special cases like if they want a player only if they do not get a
certain player. Teams must have secondary spots available on their roster to draft a
player. IF they do not they will not be allowed to make that selection and their pick
will be skipped.
3. Once the deadline has passed to get picks in, the commissioner in charge of the rule
5 draft will begin going through them and putting the draft together. The Rule 5 draft
progresses in reverse order of the team's final record in the previous season. The draft
process is just like any other player draft in OOTP, with one notable difference: only a
team with an available slot on its secondary roster can select a player. If a team does
not have an available slot, its turn is skipped. The draft continues either until all teams
have selected a player or had their turn skipped. Most Rule 5 drafts are relatively short
affairs, with only a few teams selecting players.
4. During the winter meetings SIM the commissioner in charge of the Rule 5 Draft
will announce the draft and selections.
Once the draft is completed the following rules must be followed.
• Players drafted in the rule 5 draft cannot be traded until the end of the following season
• A player selected in the Rule 5 draft must spend 90 days on the active roster. This rule
prevents teams from picking players and then dumping them on the disabled list for an
entire season to avoid using an active roster spot.
• IF the player does not remain on the selecting team’s active roster or disabled list for the
entire season, the player will be given back to the team he was drafted from.
ARTICLE XIX – Baseball Cards
The baseball cards feature will be on in OOTP. This will have no effect on the game, but is a
cool feature to honor players who earn them. Players who earn them include players who get
nominated onto the All Star game and players who win awards.
ARTICLE XX – Exports
A league cannot function without teams making their exports and staying active. The league
understands that people have lives and have other priorities outside of OOTP, but the league will
not let teams got un managed for long periods of time. Missing the occasional export is not a
problem, but when a team begins to miss multiple exports without posting in the Vacation
section of the forums or letting a commissioner know they will be missing some exports for
reasons they do not need to tell us, then the following actions will be taken.
• Teams missing multiple exports or mandatory votes will be given a warning and will be
contacted to see what is going on and see if they are still in the league
• Teams who contact back will be ok, but if teams continually need to be warned then that
general manager could face the possibility of losing his spot in the league.
• Teams who do not contact back in a week will face the possibility of losing his spot in the
league. General Managers with more time in the league will be given more time than new
general managers. Patience is earned by time in the league.
The league does not want to kick general managers out. The league will do everything it can to
contact general managers and get things straightened out, but the league also has to look into the
best interest of the team. The commissioners also put a lot of time into the league and deserve
people to put the little effort asked of them, which is to export on a regular basis and make the
following mandatory votes : All Star voting, Awards Voting & Hall of Fame voting.
ARTICLE XXI – Free Agent Contracts & Extensions
As with trading, it is not the leagues desire to tell people how to run their teams. A league best
ran is a league in where the general managers of the league can govern themselves appropriately.
The problem though is that this idea is not always possible, and sometimes general managers’
use OOTPs flawed logic to game the system. The following rules to Free Agent Contracts &
Extensions are meant to be as easy to remember and follow and will keep the league from issues
that could hurt the competitiveness. Each rule comes with a penalty if it is not followed.
• When offering a free agent contract or extension teams are allowed to use as many player
options as they would like and can place them anywhere in the contract
• When offering a free agent contract or extension teams are only allowed to use 1 team
option and the team option may only be at the end of the contract. The team option must
have a buyout at least 50% of the team option year.
• If a team breaks this rule every team option will become a guaranteed year. There
will be a little leniency when the league begins, but the contract rules are very
important.
• When offering a free agent contract or extension every year must stay equal to the
previous year or go up in value. Example: Year 1 – 5M, Year 2 – 5M, Year 3 – 6M
• If a team breaks this rule the year the contract goes below the previous year will
be changed to 1M + the previous year and the remaining contract will stay the
same as long as it doesn’t break the rule again in which case the year that breaks
the rule will be changed to 1M + the previous year.
• Players cannot be offered a multi-year extension until they have 4 years and 172 days of
service time. This is for all players who come up as prospects and are on “prospect
contracts”. For example if a player joins the league from Japan and signs a 3 year deal, he
can be extended in that scenario. This rule is to keep people from extending young
players to long dirt-cheap contract.
• If this rule is broken the contract extension will be null in void
• After signing a free agent during the offseason, they may not be traded until the All-Star
Break. Players who are signed as a free agent can be put through waivers at any time
though.
• If a player signs an extension of 2 or fewer years, they cannot be traded until the All-Star
Break or 60 days after signing the extension (whichever is longer). This is to prevent
rule-bending where someone will sign a player to an extension a week before the All-Star
Break in order to get around the rules.. If they sign the extension after the All-Star Break
but before the end of the season, they cannot be traded until Opening Day.
• If a player signs a multi-year extension that is 3 or more years, they may not be traded for
one year following the extension.
• Incentives cannot be included in contracts. Any contract with incentives will be nullified.
ARTICLE XXII – Expansion Teams
Expansion teams will not currently take place in SBC but are something that will be explored in
the future if there is enough interest in the league.
ARTICLE XXIII – General Manager Behavior
OOTP is a game and something for people to do as a hobby away from the real world. We expect
people in the league to hold themselves to a high standard. If anyone begins to become a problem
for the league they will be asked to leave. If anyone has any complaints about anyone in the
league please let a commissioner know. We do not want to kick people out and we expect people
to govern themselves, but hurting the league because of your behavior will not be tolerated. We
are all adults and can have some fun while talking trash, but everything needs to stay appropriate.
If you ever have a problem, bring it to the commissioner.
ARTICLE XXIV – Evolution of Rules
As the OOTP league goes on, there will end up being scenarios that are not covered in this
constitution and its rules. When the time comes, we will have a discussion about the problem in
question and if it is a simple fix the commissioner will insert a rule to fix the situation. There
may also be a time where a rule is implied but is not specifically stated, and the commissioner
will make a ruling. In the future if the commissioner would like to make a rule change he will
have to put it to a vote. I am not a tyrant and will not change rules without a league vote. The
league vote will need to be a majority vote in these scenarios.
Article XXV - Podcast, Articles, and League Activity
Everybody is encouraged to do writeups during the year. These are not mandatory but are highly
encouraged to keep up league activity! They can be anything, such as draft recaps, trade recaps,
season recaps and previews, predictions, preseason power rankings. Anything that you all would
like to do would be greatly appreciated!
There will be a podcast during the season that will run by the commissioner. Anybody can be a
part of this if they want and one feature will be interviews with managers around the league. I am
not sure what the podcast schedule will look like but I would like to do it often and hopefully it
will be enjoyed by the league! Any suggestions as the podcast goes on will be greatly
appreciated.

[mavericktango]

Phew, big read lol but nice to see it all set out. Not the league for me as I never use Aim, much prefer Slack it's a more permanent method of communicating and issuing announcements.

Also would have liked to see full stats kept for minors to aid evaluation of players through the levels

[jasonzimmie]

I would be interested in taking the cubbies

[CR5]

Originally Posted by mavericktango

Phew, big read lol but nice to see it all set out. Not the league for me as I never use Aim, much prefer Slack it's a more permanent method of communicating and issuing announcements.

Also would have liked to see full stats kept for minors to aid evaluation of players through the levels

We are now using slack, as most of the signups preferred slack instead of Aim

[sirotka33]

Originally Posted by CR5

We are now using slack, as most of the signups preferred slack instead of Aim

Are the White Sox available, I would be interested in joining if so.

[CR5]

Originally Posted by sirotka33

Are the White Sox available, I would be interested in joining if so.

14 people signed up so far.

It does appear the White Sox are available.

I like Mike Sirotka too