The Homecoming Progressive League:
Basics:
16 teams, 4 divisions. Alignment will be based on real-life NL/AL affiliation.
No DH
No WW
Trades OK
H2H for current series only
255 M. cap
AAA: Starting in 1947, each team will be given 6 AAA position players and 6 AAA pitchers to use as they wish.
Ballparks/team names:
Teams must use the ballparks and team names that their corresponding real-life franchise used in 1946. They will have to change stadiums and relocate when their real-life franchises did (ie: the Braves will move from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953).
Initial Draft:
The initial draft will be run through the forums and will consist of all players in the sim for the 1946 season. The draft will run in a serpentine format (1-24, 24-1) and the order will be made randomly. Obviously, players will be exclusive to their teams. Draft picks may be traded, including during in-season play, or while in off-season mode. They can only be traded from the current season or the following season.
Future Drafts:
Future drafts will consist of all unprotected players and rookies for subsequent seasons and will be conducted in a straight format (1-24, 1-24). To prevent tanking, the worst four teams in the league at the 120-game mark will be entered into a draft lottery to determine who will have the first four selections in the rookie draft. The rest of the order will be determined by inverse order of regular-season record. If an owner misses their first round pick, the commish will make a pick for them at the end of the day so their team doesn't get behind. Subsequent rounds will be in inverse w-l record order.
Keeper Lists:
There are no restrictions on keeper lists, you may keep or cut as many players from your previous year roster as you want.
Injured Reserve:
If a player is not listed in the WIS database, he will be placed on the I.R. so he doesn't take up a roster spot. It is up to each owner to list any non-listed players on the IR list when they post their keepers. Any players not listed as IR will become free agents when they return to the sim.
Trading Draft Picks:
You may only trade draft picks from the current year or ones from the next year.
Player Positions:
Regarding positions, everyone seems to be in agreement that we need the flexibility to use players out of position. I'm ok with that, and considering the quality of owners we have signed up, I'm not going to enforce any specific rules about it. Instead I will ask that everyone use out of position players in a reasonable way. What is reasonable you might ask? Well, as I've said before, using anyone at 1B is pretty safe. Sticking someone in LF is usually alright as well. Moving third basemen over to shortstop or second usually isn't too bad, nor is moving shortstops over to 2B. The only kinds of things I want to avoid is an owner putting a player somewhere they have no business being just for the sake of getting their bat into the lineup. Playing any non-catcher behind the plate is usually a disaster, as is, say, playing a 1B at SS. I remember one league where an owner used a DH who was unrated at any position at 2B, and the player had something like 200 errors on the season. That kind of stunt hurts the integrity of the league. So just use good judgment and we should be alright. If after season one we think there needs to be some specific rules put into place, we'll discuss it then, but for now I think we'll leave it up to each other.