Four Leagues: Leagues are broken up into different era’s and both N.L. and A.L. are found in each. There won’t be any separating the two.

I went through and pulled all of the two-year “dynasties” since 1901 and put them in chronological order. A two-year dynasty as it plays in this theme is this: One of the two seasons involved had to have finished the season with a minimum Winning Percentage of .600. The year directly before or after it must have had a Winning Percentage of at least .590. There ended up being 165 of these “duos” so I split them up as evenly (but fairly) as I could. For example, there’s either 43 or 44 selections to choose from in Leagues 2, 3 and 4 and 35 to choose from in League 1. I did it that way so that all of the deadball teams would have their own league.

The Top 8 owners in Round Four will get to choose which league they would like to play in, what duo they want to select and what division they choose to be in. Once they've chosen, the four individual league draft boards will be set up. The draft order for each of the four leagues will be determined by each owner’s W/L record from Round Four.

Added Bonus: Once you’ve selected your duo, you can now add one Pitching Free Agent and one Hitting Free Agent from either of the two years that your duo covers. The key is that any Free Agent can’t come from a team that’s available to be chosen in the draft. For example, you could select the 1901-1902 Pirates. Since the 1901 Athletics and the 1902 Blues aren’t available to be chosen in any duo, you can use 1901 Nap Lajoie (Athletics) and 1902 Bill Bernhard (Blues) as your Free Agents. However, if you choose the 1915-1916 Red Sox, you cannot take 1915 Pete Alexander as a Free Agent since the 1915-1916 Phillies are available to be drafted. 1915 Alexander however is available as a Free Agent in the 1914-1915 time-frame draft since the 1914-1915 Phillies are not an option. Regardless of whether or not a particular duo ends up getting drafted, players from that duo are still not eligible to be chosen as Free Agents in that particular time-frame. This rule applies to each league individually. I know I’ll get asked this so I’ll address it now: If someone chooses one of the 1919-1920 duos in League 1, then yes, 1920 Babe Ruth is available as a Free Agent since the 1920 Yankees aren’t included in any duos “in League 1.” They are in League 2, however, so he wouldn’t be available in League 2 as a Free Agent.

FREE AGENT DRAFTING: Each league will have their own Free Agent Drafts – one for each two-year duo that’s chosen by someone. If you are the only person who selects a particular two-season duo, then you simply get to choose which Free Agent Pitcher and Free Agent Hitter you want from those two years – as long as they don’t come from a duo that was available to be chosen during that two-year time-frame. For example, in League 1: If you choose the 1904-1905 Cubs and no one chooses the 1904-1905 Giants, you can go ahead and pick which Free Agent Pitcher and Hitter you want – as long as neither come from the 1904-1905 Giants. Any other team during that two-year stretch is fine.

If more than one owner selects a duo from a particular time-frame, they will have to draft their Free Agents in a separate thread. Once all duos have been selected and you know who and how many others are also in that two-year time-frame, you will move to a separate thread where the Free Agent drafting will take place.

IMPORTANT: There will be no snake-style drafting. The draft for Free Agents for each two-year time-frame will go in reverse order of the teams taken. For example, in League 1: If Owner 1 selects the 1908-1909 Cubs, Owner 2 selects the 1908-1909 Pirates and Owner 3 selects the 1908-1909 Giants, then Owner 3 will select his two Free Agents first, followed by Owner 2 and then Owner 1.

Any Free Agent can only be selected once in each two-year time-frame. Again, for example in League 1: If both of the 1907-1908 teams are selected, only 1 of them can take the 1908 version of Addie Joss. If the other owner wants the 1907 version of Joss, that’s fine. Then, in the 1908-1909 time-frame draft, 1908 Joss is available in that draft as well. Each draft will be separate from the others.

As in previous rounds, we'll have a 24-hour window once the draft boards are posted for anyone who would like to explore a trade of their draft spot/position.

Particulars:

CAP – None – build the best team you can with your two seasons.

Clones: None.

Designated Hitter: NO in Leagues 1, 2 and 3. YES in League 4.

Injuries – Turned On
Waiver Wire: No
Trades: No
A.A.A.: No

You may use either partial or full season stats of any player who had a split season - as long as the stats indicate it was for your franchise.

Stadium – You must use a ballpark that was the home ballpark for whatever franchise you’re playing during your two-year period.

Who Moves On?

Once Round FIVE is complete, the owners who own the eight playoff teams in each league will earn a spot in Round SIX. 8 x 4 = 32 spots. That leaves 16 spots to fill. The final 16 spots will be awarded to the teams who had the most wins across all 4 leagues (who didn't make their league's playoffs). The tie-break (should it come into play) will be (1) Highest Exp. %, and (2) Most Home Wins.

The Leagues are broken up like this:


LEAGUE ONE:

Pirates (1901-1902)

Pirates (1902-1903)

Americans (1903-1904)
Cubs (1903-1904)
Giants (1903-1904)

Cubs (1904-1905)
Giants (1904-1905)

Cubs (1905-1906)
Giants (1905-1906)
Pirates (1905-1906)
White Sox (1905-1906)

Cubs (1906-1907)
Pirates (1906-1907)

Cubs (1907-1908)
Pirates (1907-1908)

Cubs (1908-1909)
Giants (1908-1909)
Pirates (1908-1909)

Athletics (1909-1910)
Cubs (1909-1910)
Giants (1909-1910)

Athletics (1910-1911)
Cubs (1910-1911)
Giants (1910-1911)

Athletics (1911-1912)
Cubs (1911-1912)
Giants (1911-1912)

Athletics (1912-1913)
Giants (1912-1913)

Athletics (1913-1914)

Red Sox (1914-1915)

Phillies (1915-1916)
Red Sox (1915-1916)

Indians (1919-1920)
White Sox (1919-1920)





LEAGUE TWO:

Indians (1920-1921)
Yankees (1920-1921)

Giants (1921-1922)
Yankees (1921-1922)

Giants (1922-1923)
Yankees (1922-1923)

Giants (1923-1924)

Senators (1924-1925)

Yankees (1926-1927)

Athletics (1927-1928)
Cardinals (1927-1928)
Giants (1927-1928)
Yankees (1927-1928)

Athletics (1928-1929)
Cubs (1928-1929)

Athletics (1929-1930)

Athletics (1930-1931)
Cardinals (1930-1931)
Senators (1930-1931)

Athletics (1931-1932)
Senators (1931-1932)
Yankees (1931-1932)

Senators (1932-1933)
Yankees (1932-1933)

Giants (1933-1934)
Yankees (1933-1934)

Cardinals (1934-1935)
Giants (1934-1935)
Tigers (1934-1935)
Yankees (1934-1935)

Yankees (1935-1936)

Giants (1936-1937)
Yankees (1936-1937)

Yankees (1937-1938)

Yankees (1938-1939)

Reds (1939-1940)

Cardinals (1941-1942)
Dodgers (1941-1942)
Yankees (1941-1942)

Cardinals (1942-1943)
Yankees (1942-1943)

Cardinals (1943-1944)

Cardinals (1944-1945)

Cardinals (1945-1946)





LEAGUE THREE:

Dodgers (1946-1947)

Yankees (1947-1948)

Red Sox (1948-1949)
Yankees (1948-1949)

Red Sox (1949-1950)
Yankees (1949-1950)

Indians (1950-1951)
Yankees (1950-1951)

Dodgers (1951-1952)
Giants (1951-1952)
Indians (1951-1952)
Yankees (1951-1952)

Dodgers (1952-1953)
Indians (1952-1953)
Yankees (1952-1953)

Dodgers (1953-1954)
Indians (1953-1954)
Yankees (1953-1954)

Dodgers (1954-1955)
Indians (1954-1955)
White Sox (1954-1955)
Yankees (1954-1955)

Dodgers (1955-1956)
Yankees (1955-1956)

Braves (1956-1957)
Yankees (1956-1957)

Braves (1957-1958)
Yankees (1957-1958)

Yankees (1960-1961)

Reds (1961-1962)
Yankees (1961-1962)

Dodgers (1962-1963)
Yankees (1962-1963)

Yankees (1963-1964)

Cardinals (1967-1968)

Orioles (1969-1970)
Twins (1969-1970)

Orioles (1970-1971)

Athletics (1971-1972)
Pirates (1971-1972)

Reds (1972-1973)

Dodgers (1973-1974)
Reds (1973-1974)




LEAGUE FOUR:

Reds (1974-1975)

Reds (1975-1976)

Phillies (1976-1977)
Yankees (1976-1977)

Red Sox (1977-1978)
Yankees (1977-1978)

Orioles (1979-1980)

Mets (1985-1986)

Athletics (1988-1989)

Athletics (1989-1990)

Pirates (1991-1992)

Braves (1992-1993)

Braves (1993-1994)

Braves (1995-1996)
Indians (1995-1996)

Braves (1996-1997)

Braves (1997-1998)
Yankees (1997-1998)

Astros (1998-1999)
Braves (1998-1999)
Yankees (1998-1999)

Athletics (2001-2002)
Yankees (2001-2002)

Athletics (2002-2003)
Braves (2002-2003)
Giants (2002-2003)
Yankees (2002-2003)

Braves (2003-2004)
Yankees (2003-2004)

Cardinals (2004-2005)

Angels (2008-2009)

Phillies (2010-2011)

Cubs (2015-2016)

Astros (2017-2018)

Astros (2018-2019)
Yankees (2018-2019)

Athletics (2019-2020)
Dodgers (2019-2020)
Rays (2019-2020)
Twins (2019-2020)

Dodgers (2020-2021)
Rays (2020-2021)

Dodgers (2021-2022)

Question: Using your 1920 Ruth example, if both of the duos that include 1920 get drafted, can both of those owners use 1920 Ruth if they want? Or do the FA get drafted and used uniquely?

Damn it! I was hoping to get the thread changed/updated to include the drafting of Free Agents. As soon as I get my ideas to the point where I can think straight and put them down on paper, I'll amend the original post above.

Okay, the original thread is updated. Hopefully it's not too confusing. Any other questions, fire away...

Just to be clear, free agents are unique to each specific 2-YEAR time frame. So in the following example below, '53 Warren Spahn can be drafted exactly twice, once by a team in the 1952-53 time frame and once by a team in the 1953-54 time frame.

Dodgers (1952-1953)
Indians (1952-1953)
Yankees (1952-1953)

Dodgers (1953-1954)
Indians (1953-1954)
Yankees (1953-1954)

Correct.

How will it be determined which division each team will be in?

"The Top 8 owners in Round Four will get to choose which league they would like to play in, what duo they want to select and what division they choose to be in."

I believe we choose the division at the same time we choose our 2-year team.

Correct again.

Another question.

It's easiest to provide a real life example, before asking the question...

Cubs (1904-1905)
Giants (1904-1905)

Cubs (1905-1906)
Giants (1905-1906)
Pirates (1905-1906)
White Sox (1905-1906)

I understand that the 1905-06 Cubs cannot select 1905 Frank Smith from the White Sox since 1905-06 White Sox is one of the teams in this group. But can the 1904-05 Cubs select 1905 Frank Smith, since the 1905 White Sox are not part of this two-year grouping? Or does the grouping not matter with respect to eligible free agents?

He would be eligible to be drafted in the 1904-1905 draft since the White Sox weren't offered in that two-year time-frame.

Strategizing these drafts will involve a lot of game theory, and there's going to be a "screw your neighbor" element as well, even if not on purpose. This is going to be maddeningly fun.

Can Federal League players be used as free agents?

Absolutely!

Looking forward to this draft and the writeups that follow.

It's going to be interesting to see how others researched for this. Sure, you can build all the teams and start comparing their stats, but the free agent draft makes it tough to know exactly who your free agents will be (for groupings with 2+ choices). In some cases there is one really strong free agent hitter and/or pitcher, and the drop-off to the second best is significant.

This "game theory" analysis doesn't always work out logically. For example, there could be two teams in a grouping, where one team is really not very good and shouldn't be drafted, so somebody drafts the other team, figuring he can pencil in the two really strong free agents. Then somebody at the bottom of the draft decides to take the other team anyway (and takes the two really strong free agents).. Sure, that person still ends up losing 96 games (because the team chosen sucked), but he also screws over the other person's team in the process.

This is kind of what happened in this round in League 7 when somebody drafted a 7th Reds team instead of the 6th Phillies team, thus indirectly helping all the Phillies teams get stronger while screwing over the other Reds teams. That person is on a pace to lose 100 games, while pedrocerrano's Phillies team is ranked #1 overall. And of the seven Reds teams, only one is (barely) above .500.

I can't always assume people will make the correct / logical decisions.