Complete League Rules
Player Pool
The league begins with the ‘50/’75 seasons and progresses forward to ‘51/’76, ‘52/’77, and so on. Each team will be allowed to use the current season or previous season of player on their roster.
Players available to play in any given season are those players that had a WIS-eligible season in the current or previous season. This means that in the ‘52/’77 when Ted Williams would be on IR in other leagues, he can still use his eligible ’51 season to play for your team.
Injured Reserve
An IR list will be maintained for players that miss a season due to injuries or whatever. There is no limit on the number of players that can be on IR.
To be placed on IR, a player must be owned by the team and must have played in a previous season. In other words, a player cannot be drafted and placed directly on IR.
A player may, however, be placed on IR as long as the current or previous season would qualify as an IR season under the above criteria. This means that in ‘53/’78 when Ted Williams has just 117 PA’s and ’52 was an IR-eligible season, the team may put him on IR for the ‘53/’78 season.
Draft and Draft Positions
The initial draft will be a serpentine (1-24, 24-1, 1-24, etc.), 26-round draft where each team will draft 25 players and one exclusive stadium. Draft position will be determined based on a random sequencing of all owners (using ramdom.org).
Drafts after Season 1 are NOT serpentine. Subsequent seasons will have a draft using cut players and all other players in the database from the current or previous season that aren't keepers on someone's roster or IR list.
For Season 2 and beyond, the 1st round draft order will be randomly determined using a weighted team distribution based on the W-L records at the 120-game point. The weighted distribution will be determined based on the number of games behind the top team any given team is after 120 games. The formula will be as follows:
· Each team will get a number of chances equal to the difference between their win total and the win total of the top team(s), but not more than 40 chances.
o For example, say the top team has 80 wins. If your team has 55 wins, then your team gets 25 chances. If your team has 45 wins, your team gets 35 chances. If your team has 40 or fewer wins, your team gets 40 chances.
Once the number of chances per team has been calculated, 1st Round draft position will then be determined through a random sequencing (using random.org) of all the chances identified through the above formula. However, no team will be allowed to drop more than 6 spots below its position in an inverse ranking of W-L records. In other words, if a team had the worst record in the league at the 120-game mark, by rule it could not drop lower than the 7th pick in the 1st Round draft sequencing. Additionally, no team may move up more than 6 spots.
All subsequent rounds will be based on W-L record with ties broken by giving the better position to the team that had the worse position in the 1st Round.
Note: While no system is foolproof, this system is intended to for the most part eliminate any advantage to purposely losing (a.k.a. Tanking). It also is intended to recognize the fact that the difference between a team that is 41-79 and a team that is 40-80 is in reality negligible, and the 40-80 team should not necessarily be rewarded for having the good fortune of having lost 1 more game out of the first 120 than the other team.
Draft Schedule
The draft will generally be timed to conclude at about the same time the previous season’s playoffs are finished. As much as is possible drafting will be conducted “off the clock”. If the draft is not moving fast enough and it appears that it will not be completed before or soon after the conclusion of the playoffs, a schedule of timed picks will be established and communicated to ensure the time between seasons is minimized.
Keeper Lists
Owners may cut up to 10 players at the end of each season. It is not mandatory that owners cut anyone. Keeper lists are to be posted under the appropriate thread in the league forum one week after the 120-game trade deadline is reached in the current season.
Once posted, keeper lists are considered final and can only be changed with the commissioner’s approval to correct an error. Keepers cannot be contingent on any trade proposal or draft pick.
Draft Picks
Each team will be awarded as many picks in the draft as are needed to complete their 25-man roster. In other words, if you keep 23 players, you get 2 draft picks. If you keep 16 players, you get 9 draft picks.
Note: See “Unbalanced Trades” below for more information on how draft picks are impacted by trades.
Trading of Draft Picks
Draft picks may be traded in-season or during the offseason (see definitions of in-season and off season below), including during the draft itself. Future draft picks may also be traded, but only for the next season.
Owners who traded away a draft pick in-season must cut at least as many players from their keeper list as the number of draft picks traded. In other words, if a team trades away two draft picks for the next season, that team must drop at least two players when it comes time for the affected draft.
In-Season and Offseason
“In-Season” begins with the end of the Offseason, and ends once the trade deadline is reached (120-game mark).
Offseason begins once the trade deadline is reached (120-game mark), and ends when the last scheduled draft pick is posted by the owner making that pick.
Note: Because there will be time between the last pick of the draft and the beginning of the season, there will be a period when no trades can be made (until the league is fully set up and the schedule generated).
In-Season Trades
In-Season trades made during the season will be made using the SIM trade function. During the season, if 6 or more owners reject a trade, then it is officially vetoed.
Offseason Trades
Offseason trades can only be proposed after all teams involved in the trade have officially posted their keeper lists.
Offseason trades are to be sitemailed to the commissioner. Upon receipt, such trades will be reviewed by the commissioner to ensure that all draft implications are fully identified. Once all implications are fully understood, trades will be approved/disapproved immediately, and communicated back to the owners involved as well as the rest of the league owners. The commissioner's decisions are to be made with the intent of maintaining the best interests of the league in terms of competitive integrity. The commissioner’s decision is final.
Unbalanced Trades
Unbalanced trades will be compensated for to ensure rosters include but do not exceed 25 players.
Critical Points related to unbalanced In-Season trades:
- An unbalanced in-season trade is any trade where the number of current roster players exchanged is uneven; for example, 2-for-1 trades or the trading of a player for a draft pick
- To balance such trades, AAA players may be included in the trade or may be brought up from the minors (WIS does this automatically in some cases)
- Although trades that result in AAA players on active rosters are allowed, those AAA players are not allowed to appear in any games – such players must be set to “Rest”, and should be removed from all player hierarchies (e.g. Player Rest, Defensive Replacements, Pinch Hitting)
Critical Points related to unbalanced Off-Season trades:
- An unbalanced off-season trade is any trade where the number of non-IR keeper list players and current draft picks exchanged is uneven; for example, 2-for-1 non-IR player trades, trades of a non-IR player for an IR player, 2-for-1 current draft pick trades, trades of a current draft pick for a future draft pick, etc.
- To balance such trades, after the trade is approved, owners giving up more players/picks will be awarded compensatory or supplemental draft picks at the end of the draft schedule and owners receiving more players/picks will have their last scheduled draft pick(s) removed to ensure all rosters will have 25 players by the end of the draft
- Compensatory/Supplemental rounds at the end of the draft will be conducted in the same drafting order as the regular rounds regardless of when the original trades occurred
Additional Trade Rules
Trades between teams owned by the same person will not be allowed. This includes 3-way trades involving two teams owned by the same person, and “chained” trades or “pass through” trades where separate trades are made close together involving some or all of the same players ultimately having the effect of moving players between two teams owned by the same person. The commissioner will nullify any such trades deemed to be in violation of the intent of the rule.
Stadiums
Any stadium in use from 1950 or later may be chosen. Stadiums will be exclusive (original team stadiums will be selected as a part of the inaugural draft). Teams may change stadiums no more than once every 10 seasons.
Additional Rules
AAA or minor league players will not be allowed to play in any games under any circumstances. AAA players will be available to facilitate In-Season trades of draft picks only. Teams using AAA players in games will be subject to loss of draft position in subsequent drafts as deemed appropriate by the commissioner.
The Designated Hitter will be in effect for both leagues (NL and AL).
There will be no Waiver Wire.
Full or partial player seasons may be used
SLL restricted to next scheduled series ONLY
Team name should be consistent from season to season and should be based on the location of your stadium. It doesn’t have to be the MLB city name, but something appropriate to represent the team’s geographic location.
Prizes/Awards
Every 5 seasons, WIS Admin will kick in $50 if the ownership within the league remains stable. “Stable” in this case, means that at least half of the owners who began the 5 season period are still in the league.
Provided the league qualifies to receive the $50 bonus, at the end of each 5 season period the teams (owners) with the best individual records in each of the qualifying 5 seasons will receive a $10 prize.
To receive a prize, the owner “must be present to win”. In other words, the owner will forfeit the prize if he/she leaves the league before the beginning of the next season following the prize period.
A League with Class
This league is intended to be fun and entertaining to all who participate. As commissioner, I will ask that all communications associated with the league as well as all team names used within the league be “G” rated. Let’s make this a classy league that maintains a focus on the game.