I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'd like to finally try it out. As we have all experienced, there is quite a bit a variance in this game. I'm in the middle of a multi-round tournament where the same exact player in a similar playing environment performs wildly different from league to league. I've done a "Same Roster Challenge" previously, but in that version, I had more than nine full-time offensive players on the roster so owners could decide if they wanted to use A-Rod or Boudreau at SS, etc. That version was really to see who could do the best job managing the roster. This version will be different. I want to see how much variance there is so I am taking steps to eliminate as many variables as possible. Here is how it will work.
Roster
Each team will use the same 25 players. How the roster will be determined will be described below. But this will play out similar to a $120M league (no DH) where there are only eight full time players along with a few cheap bench players (pinch hitters and defensive replacements). The pitching staff will have 4 starters and 7-8 relievers. There will be no rules on how you use these pitchers, but there will be enough innings. I don't want fatigue to pollute the results.
Ballpark
Every team will use WhatifSports ballpark. I don't want ballpark effects to pollute the results.
League Format
We will use the standard 24-team 16-team league with interleague play. There will be three leagues (played simultaneously). If you are interested, you must be willing to play three identical teams (one per league). I have created a division alignment grid for three leagues, where your division placement is with 3 different owners in each league. In other words, you will have 9 unique division mates.
Prize
The owner with the most cumulative regular season wins (162 games only) across the three leagues wins the 6-pack (donated by me). Any one-game playoffs are not included. Post-season results are also not included (unless there is a tie). If there is a tie for most cumulative wins, then the person with the team that advanced the furthest in the playoffs wins. If still tied, then we go to the team that had the second best playoff advancement, etc.
Other Details
Clones = No, AAA = No, WW= No, Injuries = Yes
Player Selection
Here's how player selection will work. At first, I was going to just manually select the entire roster, but then I decided to give some input to all the owners who participate in this. I will pick one position. I will list the search requirements, and each owner (using these search requirement) will site-mail me a player from that search that they want to roster. I will review all the submissions, then choose three players from this and the entire group will vote which player to roster (via a forum poll). I will repeat this for each position, each bench player and each pitcher until all 25 players have been selected. I will not submit a vote unless there is a tie, and in that case, I will break the tie.
Comments:
My goal is to eliminate as much variance as I can with the roster creation. There will be some managerial decision making (such as lineup order and relief pitcher usage) but I am going to eliminate as much managerial decision-making as I can. For the starting lineup, I want players that only play one position. I want eight full-time batters that won't fatigue (no platoons). The pinch hitters will bad defensively and the defensive replacements will be bad offensively. The relief pitchers will have IP/G < 5 (no short-inning deadball SPs).
Who is up for this challenge? Sign up below. I will start the roster selection once we get 24 16 signed up.
4/5/2026 3:27 PM (edited)