The No Whining Progressive is a unique single-season progressive league currently at the halfway point of our 34th season (1994).

We do not have openings very often, and we usually fill spots from a word-of-mouth waitlist, but we now need 2 exceptional owners to take over the New York (NL) and Oakland (AL) franchises - rosters below. Both of these teams have had long term owners who have done a good job keeping their teams competitive. Neither of these clubs is in dire straits...they just both have owners who are cutting back on their time at WIS or just taking a break for a while.

If you are new to progressives, you are welcome to join, and experienced progressive owners are of course welcome too.

There are a few important things to know about this league, as it is different from most other progressives out there in a few key ways:

1.) Our philosophy is summarized in the name of the league; no whining here. All owners take complete responsibility for their teams, and for the well-being of the league as a whole. If you miss a draft pick, we move on without you. If you leave a player off your keeper list inadvertently and someone else drafts him, you lose the player. Don't get the wrong idea - we're not a group of sharks. We just expect everyone to be accountable. We've all been in leagues where a couple of owners take forever to hit deadlines, or are sloppy with their keepers, and just expect everyone else to put up with it. Not here.

2.) Tanking is not rewarded in any way. Our draft order is completely randomized (though non-playoff teams draft ahead of playoff teams in each round). There is absolutely no incentive not to put your best effort into winning, and many of us take pride in winning more games than we "should" based on our payroll in any given season. Note that this means unlike most leagues, you can't just rebuild by waiting around for good draft picks, because there is no guarantee you will get them. NY and OAK's draft positions have not been determined yet; they will have an equal chance of drafting anywhere from 1st-16th (if they don't make the playoffs) or 17th-24th if they do. Please only express interest if you are willing to take the team regardless of their eventual draft position.

Please make sure you are comfortable with the idea of a completely random draft order before joining this league. This rule is not subject to change, and whining about it is not tolerated.

Some of the things that have happened in the past and likely will continue to happen in the future include:
-- You have a terrible team, and you draw awful draft slots three years in a row.
-- When you finally do get a good pick, it will be in a season when there is no great talent available (hello 1980).
-- Your main division rival has a good team and draws great draft slots three years in a row
-- The same owner draws the #1 pick in the years that Maddux, RJ, and Pedro are available
-- After 35 seasons the overall "luck" for each franchise has not come close to evening out...some clubs have definitely done better than others

You get the idea - all of these things have happened, and in the NWP this is part of the deal.

3.) Because of the above rules, and in general just having a great group of owners, we trust each other. So another rule for example is that vetoing trades is not allowed. Trades in which one team gets the better of another are a part of baseball history, and we don't police those trades out of existence.

Other rules are pretty straightforward: 24 teams in standard OL format, interleague play, no cap, DH in AL only, etc.

We also draft our own AAA from the leftover 1995 players and we do not allow SIM-generated AAA players at all.

Sitemail me if you're interested and I'll add you to the league forum where you can see our league history, previous drafts, complete rules, etc.

New York (NL) plays in Shea Stadium and has the following players available.
NY has been claimed.

You may keep up to 25 of these players, and will be allocated as many draft picks as necessary to get back up to 25 players. (So if you keep 25, you get zero draft picks; if you keep 24, you get 1; etc.)

After the regular draft, once each team has a full complement of 25 players, we then have a 5 round AAA draft in which teams draft 2 players per round from the remaining pool of 1995 players to serve as our AAA.

NY has not traded or acquired any picks.

C: Ron Karkovice, Mike Stanley, Ron Tingley
1B: Wally Joyner
2B: Craig Biggio, Jeff Treadway
3B: Gary Gaetti, Mike Pagliarulo, Doug Strange
SS: Cal Ripken
OF: Jeff Conine, Bernard Gilkey, Tim Raines, Reggie Sanders, Devon White
P: Rene Arocha, Jerry Dipoto, Tim Fortugno, Jason Grimsley, Mike Ignasiak, Danny Jackson, Mark Langston, Jeff Nelson, Darren Oliver, Paul Quantrill, Bob Scanlan, Greg Swindell, Mike Timlin, John Wetteland

NY also has the following players who are eligible to be on IR in 1995:
C: Jesse Levis
P: Larry Casian, Omar Daal, Dwight Gooden, Mike Mohler

As you can see, this team has a top-notch offense, but needs some help on the mound. There's a lot to build on here, and some good trade options as well.

Oakland (AL) plays in Oakland Coliseum and has the following players available (the AL uses the DH).

You may keep up to 25 of these players, and will be allocated as many draft picks as necessary to get back up to 25 players. (So if you keep 25, you get zero draft picks; if you keep 24, you get 1; etc.)

After the regular draft, once each team has a full complement of 25 players, we then have a 5 round AAA draft in which teams draft 2 players per round from the remaining pool of 1995 players to serve as our AAA.

OAK has not traded or acquired any picks.

C: Darrin Fletcher, Benito Santiago
1B: Gregg Jefferies
2B: N/A
3B: Jeff Branson, Jeff Cirillo, Travis Fryman
SS: Jay Bell, Chris Gomez
OF: Joe Carter, Ron Gant, Tom Goodwin, David Justice, Al Martin, Bip Roberts
DH: Chili Davis
P: Tom Candiotti, Mike Fetters, John Franco, Pat Hentgen, Dennis Martinez, Kirk McCaskill, Jose Mesa, Eric Plunk, Zane Smith, Russ Springer, David Weathers, Rick White

Oakland has no IR-eligible players in 1995

Like NY, Oakland has a lot of depth and talent on offense, but is weaker on the mound. Still, there's 3 fulltime starters there in Candiotti, Martinez, Hentgen, and with a little work this team should also be a contender.

Two very good teams here...typically when you find a prog team advertised it's a mess...both of these clubs have a lot to work with.

Now that I've listed all the ways that a randomized draft order can (and will) screw you over, let me give the top 5 reasons why I'll never play in another league that uses reverse-order-of-finish drafting...and why I much prefer this draft process:

-- I like to win. Nothing at WIS is worse (to me) than having a team in a down season and being punished every time they win a game. In the NWP, you can take your 60-win team and try to get them to 70 wins...without shooting yourself in the foot in the process.
-- Same vein...if you have a good player in one of your down seasons, you can rejoice in his numbers without silently cursing that he's killing your chances of getting a good pick.
-- You know that nagging feeling you have in most leagues that some of your fellow owners are...shall we say...not putting their best foot forward? Playing guys out of position when they don't need to. Having guys who want 10-for-20 in real life stolen base attempts make 75 attempts in your league? Setting their ace pitchers to a 5 pull rating? Using ridiculous lineups? I'm not going to say that stuff never happens in the NWP...but it pretty much never happens...and when it does, the owner who does it is not benefiting from it.
-- When you get the lucky roll of the dice and pick up a hall of famer in the draft the season after you won 88 games and just missed a playoff spot...bliss.
-- There is literally never an ounce of energy expended in the NWP talking about tanking. The draft order renders it completely irrelevant.

I'll take the New York team.

Welcome asufan04. Glad to have you.

Still need one owner for Oakland

Very good team available here folks...a lot to work with.

I'll take Oakland

Oakland is once again available.

I'll take Oakland Contrarian.

Sitemail sent.

Oakland is claimed for now...will gladly take other signups for our waitlist

Sorry new to this, Contrarian, So everyone on OAK is the 1994 version of themselves? and if I keep any or all of them they then become the 1995 versions of themselves? and if I cut any they can be drafted and we draft all 1995 players other than the people that kept their guys from 1994 correct?
let me know if I got this wrong. Now can we wait to see what draft order is before we select our keepers? i'm sure draft order would have some decision making on keeping certain guys. anyway sorry but a newbie at this, i did read the rules up top and am good with em. So i need to first research all my current 1995 guys right then research all the 1995 Rookies coming in since no one could have a 1995 - on player yet right. SOOO who wants to trade me 1995 Greg Maddux? hmmm you know you do... LOL, I think i got everything but just want to be sure.

Jeburnett