Third season playing the WISC. The bingo theme is the best theme we've had in that time. Figuring out which card works best in two different ways for two very different caps was really challenging, but not defeating.

Thanks. I like developing themes for Round 1 where there are lots of different options.

FYI - redcped, ronthegenius and I have discussed all the proposed themes thus far and we've narrowed it down to two very different options. I will be posting these two themes, along with a poll tomorrow morning to let the participants vote on which of the two choices gets selected.

If your theme idea didn't get selected, don't be too disappointed. A few of the theme ideas we may use for round 2. Some of the ideas were too similar to current round 1 themes. Some were just a bit too complicated to research and/or too difficult to validate rosters. Some suggestions were better suited for a stand-alone league.

The $120M theme has been finalized via vote and added to this thread officially. Thank you to all who submitted ideas and who voted! Congrats to discodemo!

For the $100 million theme, what if none of the ballparks used by your teams is available?

You must use WhatifSports park if all three parks are unavailable.

Posted by redcped on 3/31/2023 5:35:00 PM (view original):
$70 Million - Khris Davis Appreciation League

(1) All batters must have a batting average of .247 or less. You do not have to roster Khris Davis.

(2) All pitchers must have a HR/9 rating of 0.50 or higher. This will eliminate the majority of dead-ball pitchers.

(3) To minimize the chances of a death fatigue spiral inflating the W-L records of teams lucky enough to be in the same league as the fatigued team, you must roster at least 1250 innings.

Salary Cap: $70 Million
Seasons: Any
DH: No
Clones: No
Ballpark: Any

Really don't love the innings minimum here. It's the WISC, I feel teams should be able to roster teams how they want. 1150 or 1250 a bad owner will still have a death spiral if they give up and don't manage their team.

Posted by chargingryno on 4/17/2023 5:10:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 3/31/2023 5:35:00 PM (view original):
$70 Million - Khris Davis Appreciation League

(1) All batters must have a batting average of .247 or less. You do not have to roster Khris Davis.

(2) All pitchers must have a HR/9 rating of 0.50 or higher. This will eliminate the majority of dead-ball pitchers.

(3) To minimize the chances of a death fatigue spiral inflating the W-L records of teams lucky enough to be in the same league as the fatigued team, you must roster at least 1250 innings.

Salary Cap: $70 Million
Seasons: Any
DH: No
Clones: No
Ballpark: Any

Really don't love the innings minimum here. It's the WISC, I feel teams should be able to roster teams how they want. 1150 or 1250 a bad owner will still have a death spiral if they give up and don't manage their team.

I see owners with 1450+ IP in death spirals in OL all the time. Pitch counts and roster management are significantly more important for mitigating fatigue that IP counts. Especially in this cap range and lower.

Your points are valid, which is why we used the words "to minimize the chances." We're trying to reduce the likelihood of a team that wins 30-40 games and throws off competitive balance. Keep in mind many owners never play caps this low.

Posted by redcped on 4/17/2023 5:49:00 PM (view original):
Your points are valid, which is why we used the words "to minimize the chances." We're trying to reduce the likelihood of a team that wins 30-40 games and throws off competitive balance. Keep in mind many owners never play caps this low.

Then my question would be, why only the $70m league? Imo the $70 is the league owners could best use a strategy of lower IP and succeed without fatigue issues. The chances of a team going into a death spiral are probably most likely in the $100m-$120m leagues. Heck, the worst fatigue I’ve ever had in the WISC was from a league that had mostly $200m rosters. If the reason for the minimum is to prevent a death spiral, why not apply a minimum IP pitched for all leagues?

Posted by redcped on 3/31/2023 5:36:00 PM (view original):
$110 Million - Two Clones & Teammates

You can clone one hitter and one pitcher as many times as you like. But all the other players on your roster must be teammates of your clones (i.e., same season, no twisting). So if your hitter clones has 4 versions and your pitcher clone has 3 versions, that's 7 different teams you can pull your 25-man roster from. You do not have to roster a teammate from every clone you use. This theme will use the post-expansion era. The DH will be in use.

Salary Cap: $110 Million
Seasons: 1961-2022
DH: Yes
Clones: Yes (limited, per rules listed above)
Ballpark: Must use a ballpark that one of your cloned players played in during that season.

if a teammate was traded part way through the year (or traded for) are we limited to partial, or can we use combined season?

Posted by chargingryno on 4/17/2023 7:39:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 4/17/2023 5:49:00 PM (view original):
Your points are valid, which is why we used the words "to minimize the chances." We're trying to reduce the likelihood of a team that wins 30-40 games and throws off competitive balance. Keep in mind many owners never play caps this low.

Then my question would be, why only the $70m league? Imo the $70 is the league owners could best use a strategy of lower IP and succeed without fatigue issues. The chances of a team going into a death spiral are probably most likely in the $100m-$120m leagues. Heck, the worst fatigue I’ve ever had in the WISC was from a league that had mostly $200m rosters. If the reason for the minimum is to prevent a death spiral, why not apply a minimum IP pitched for all leagues?

Last year in the two lowest cap leagues, $70 & $80m themes, there were 5 teams that finished with less than 50 wins, Two with less than 30 wins.

In the two highest cap leagues, $120m & $140m themes, there were 7 teams that finished with less than 50 wins, three with less than 30 wins (and even one with 5 wins).

In 2021, the 3 lowest Themes had 6 teams with less than 50 wins and the 3 highest had 5 teams with less than 50.

In 2020, the 3 lowest themes had 6 teams finish with less than 50 wins, the 3 higher cap themes finished with 7.

So, my thoughts are if the goal is to prevent those types of teams from ruining the competitive balance, it seems the higher caps are a bigger issue, if not equal, to the lower caps.

I think the thought is more that a lot of people haven't played $70M caps. So they may think "rosters with weak hitting, I'll just roster 1000 innings of Kershaw type pitching and be fine." And then they hit the death spiral. I think it's lack of familiarity, rather than saying low cap leagues are most prone to death spirals.

Still, we’ve had $70m themes each of the last few years and haven’t really seen that issue. I think a “if you’re not familiar with this cap we recommend 1250ip to help manage fatigue” would be enough.

I get it’s a rule and it is what it is, but the reasoning makes no sense to me when taken into context the last few years and only limiting the $70m cap

Posted by just4me on 4/17/2023 8:12:00 PM (view original):

Posted by redcped on 3/31/2023 5:36:00 PM (view original):
$110 Million - Two Clones & Teammates

You can clone one hitter and one pitcher as many times as you like. But all the other players on your roster must be teammates of your clones (i.e., same season, no twisting). So if your hitter clones has 4 versions and your pitcher clone has 3 versions, that's 7 different teams you can pull your 25-man roster from. You do not have to roster a teammate from every clone you use. This theme will use the post-expansion era. The DH will be in use.

Salary Cap: $110 Million
Seasons: 1961-2022
DH: Yes
Clones: Yes (limited, per rules listed above)
Ballpark: Must use a ballpark that one of your cloned players played in during that season.

if a teammate was traded part way through the year (or traded for) are we limited to partial, or can we use combined season?

Combined seasons are allowed