Before we get into round 2, a determination needs to be made on which 96 teams advance. Per the rules, exactly 6 teams from each franchise will advance (the four playoff teams and the teams with the next two best records). Also, per rules, no person can have more than 8 teams advance. In this round, that only comes into play for 3dayrotation, footballmm11 and myself (as we're the only ones with more than 8 teams).

If anybody has more than 8 teams that are *qualified* to advance, the lowest ranking team(s) are dropped and the franchise (the dropped teams are from), will get a the team with the next best record to advance. In no instance will a franchise get more than 6 teams to advance to round 2.

The 96 teams will be ranked by (1) W-L record over 162 games (2) Expected Winning% (3) Home field win%. Any teams that get "moved up" from non-qualifying to qualifying status due to somebody having to drop teams, those teams will rank behind the qualifying teams, regardless of their W-L record.

It may seem unfair that the seventh best Yankees team won 87 games and doesn't advance when the seventh best Braves team won only 77 games and advances because footballmm11's 9th (and lowest ranked) qualifying team is from the Braves franchise and is dropped, but every franchise will get exactly 6 teams to advance.

Once the 96 teams are determined, a draft order will be calculated. The order will be based on the Round 1 rankings defined above. The top 8 teams will get to pick which franchise and season they want to start their round 2 roster build with. Once that selection process has completed, the rest of the 96 teams will be slotted into the open spots, according to a predefined algorithm. Trading picks will be allowed before and during the draft.

Since there are 4 leagues in round 2, and 8 teams per person is the max, no person will be allowed to have more than 1 team per franchise. Also, for those with multiple teams, your teams must be split up into different leagues. For example, if you have 5 teams, that equates to one team per league for three leagues (and 2 teams in one league, opposite sides, of course). If you have between 2-4 teams, than you can not have more than one team per league.

These are how the four leagues will be aligned.

League 1: NL: Astros / AL: Rangers (62-63 teams per franchise)
League 2: NL: Mets / AL: Angels
League 3: NL: Expos / AL: Royals (55 teams per franchise)
League 4: NL: Padres / AL: Brewers

Within each franchise, there will be a 4-round draft, where you will draft 3 single-season teams (from your franchise). The fourth round is a single player draft (from any of the undrafted seasons from your franchise). You must roster exactly 8 players from each of your three drafted teams. The single player you select in round 4 is your 25th player. You still get one clone (can come from the drafted teams or the 25th player from round 4).

The draft is a normal serpentine draft
Round 1: 1-12 (pick a year) --> the draft order is based on the round 1 rankings
Round 2: 12-1 (pick a year)
Round 3: 1-12 (pick a year)
Round 4: 12-1 (pick a player from an undrafted team)

(The single-season team's real-life winning% is irrelevant this round)

Other Details
Salary Cap: None
DH, WW, AAA, Injuries: No
Clones: Only one clone allowed.
Ballpark: Must be a park one of your selected teams played in (during that season)..
Division Alignment: Based on total team salary (highest salary in East)

The top 6 teams from each franchise will advance to round 3. Similar rules apply regarding the maximum number of teams one person can have. That maximum is 4 teams (2 per league).

Just to be clear- what are the rules on complete and partial seasons for a given year.?

You can use partial or combined seasons.

When do you expect Round 2 selections to begin, schwarze?

Tonight, after game 162, I will post the final standings
then start the thread for the Top 8 to select their league and franchise/season.

After the top 8 are selected, whic Ii assume will take a day or two, then i will post each league's draft order.

I haven't started looking at round 2. I guess I should see if I'm in the top 8 ...

Ok cool, I'll make sure I'm ready to go. thanks

Regarding alignment, is it aligned irrespective of franchise? Or will all of the Astros be in the NL and all of the Rangers be in the AL for example?

Astros in NL, Rangers in AL.

schwarze, does your Free Agent's season count for ballpark selection?

No.

Ballpark: Must be a park one of your selected teams (i.e., season).

Got it. Yeah just wasn't sure if "team" meant full season or included the free agent's team. Thank you!