As many of you know, I have been toying around with getting 100+ starts and 700+ IP out of the big inning pitchers of the sim. With most of my efforts focusing on Silver King, John Clarkson, and Toad Ramsey. In a current OL I have the '89 Clarkson and someone in the league asked why I'd ever draft him as he doesn't seem like someone who can help you win many games.

I explained it was more about the challenge of getting 105 starts and 850 IP out of him than it was about the winning... and then another owner in the league suggested an all Clarkson theme.

After toying with the idea for awhile, I came up with this:

Upon signup each owner will select one of the 700 IP pitchers. There are 14 of them. So for this league they will be semi-exclusive. There will be no more than two instances of each pitcher and each instance will be in opposite leagues.

I will also be putting up three $10 GC for various accomplishments (detailed below).

So, to the basics:
$80m Cap
No DH
WW (cannot waive your 700 pitcher)
Average Draft Your Own AAA
AAA Salary Cap, Yes (10%)
PA & IP Minimums in effect
No clones

The Pitchers:
1885 John Clarkson - 902 (850)
1885 Hardie Henderson - 802 (850)
1885 Ed Morris - 848 (850)
1885 Mickey Welch - 712 (760)
1886 Tim Keefe - 729 (770)
1886 Matt Kilroy - 721 (770)
1886 Charley Radbourn - 706 (750)
1886 Toad Ramsey - 702 (750)
1887 John Clarkson - 701 (750)
1887 Matt Kilroy - 708 (760)
1888 Silver King - 703 (750)
1889 John Clarkson - 785 (830)
1890 Bill Hutchison - 719 (770)
1892 Bill Hutchison - 747 (800)

The Prizes:
As mentioned above I'll be giving out three GCs for various accomplishments. Now, each of these can be gamed and someone could throw off the whole league just going for the GC, so I'm stating up front that I'll be issuing these only for those that play within the spirit of the theme. So, if someone sets up a pitcher as their starter 1 for the whole season and has their pitcher throwing fatigued and racking up a 16.00+ ERA, .500 OAV, and 4.00 WHIP, but manages to meet the requirements for two GCs, they won't get it. These are the prizes for those who achieve these accomplishments and play within the spirit of the rules.*

Most Games - a $10 GC for whomever can get the most games out of their 700 IP pitcher. If you can get more than 110 (at 90%+ fatigue), I'll even bump this up to a $15 GC.

Highest IP Increase - Next to each pitcher I've listed a target IP in parentheses. there will be a $10 GC to whomever get the highest % increase over this target. If someone can get 800 IP out of the pitchers with less than 720 IP, or 900 IP out of the 740-800 IP guys, or 1,000 IP out of Morris or Clarkson, then I'll bump this to $15, as well (all 90% or better appearances).
 
The third GC may end up going to someone who gets one of the two above, but it's possible someone else may qualify for it... This will go to the person with the most games by their pitcher at 100% (minimum 86 games -- as I can get 85 100% starts without even trying).

Signups:
I'll choose my pitcher after 12 others have chosen theirs.

Bold = Entered into league

1. Trentonjoe - 1890 Bill Hutchison
2. Coolmay_One - 1886 Tim Keefe
3. Batandball - 1885 Hardie Henderson
4. jfranco77 - 1887 Matt Kilroy
5. Je3rd - 1885 John Clarkson
6. Batgems - 1885 Mickey Welch
7. Brianjw - 1886 Charley Radbourn
8. Grizzly_One - 1888 Silver King
9. Disco Dogs - 1888 Silver King
10. Sakensei - 1886 Matt Kilroy
11. Xjchessman - 1887 John Clarkson
12. Reddtrain - 1886 Toad Ramsey
13. just4me - 1887 John Clarkson
14. micki - 1886 Charley Radbourn
15. Legaldh - 1886 Tim Keefe
16. urlglory - 1885 Mickey Welch
17. msheaf1 - 1885 Ed Morris
18. Contrarian23 - 1886 Toad Ramsey
19. byrdmann - 1885 Ed Morris
20. fooolishfool - 1890 Bill Hutchison
21. hockeyhead - 1889 John Clarkson
22. italyprof - 1886 Matt Kilroy
23. yabahos - 1885 John Clarkson
24. mussopini23 -1885 Hardie Henderson

*Calrification on "The Spirit of the Rules": The goal is to first try to find the best way to utilize these pitchers, and to secondarily find a way to get value out of them. If the only way to get full value out of them is to allow them to pitch fatigued, even down to 70, or 60%, then that's fine. In fact, I fully expect several of these pitchers to be in games at 70%. So, on the spirit of the rules, I just don't want someone sticking a guy at starter 1 and never checking their team again while their pitcher gets 162 starts and 880 IP, but is 3-159 with horrible stats. I want owners to actually try to get value out of the pitchers. If a guy is trying and is 56-106 and throwing his pitcher at 70%, and he qualifies for a GC, he'll get it, but if these guys are starting in the red regularly then someone else will get it. Because, let's face it, these guys shouldn't ever be in the red.

And, just to be clear, I'm also disqualifying myself from the GC prizes. So, someone out there will win prizes...

[Edited to add: As for the 90%, that only qualifies for the extra $5 on the GC, as that seems like a much more difficult challenge.]

in

Awesome! Glad to have you TJ! Feel free to select your semi-exclusive pitcher whenever...

in. 1886 Tim Keefe 

Great to have you as well, coolmay_one!

In with 1885 Hardie Henderson.

Excellent, thank you!

I'll give this a try with Matt Kilroy 1887

I have a question about the spirit of the rules though... most of the time if you want to start a guy in back-to-back games, he'll be in the 80s for that second game. Now I realize that the "goal" of this league is to find a way around that, but are you saying that ANY appearances below 90% would disqualify you from all the bonuses? Or just repeated abuses?

(I'm in either way. Just wondering. I've never done anything like this so I'll probably suck at all aspects of it)

Posted by jfranco77 on 2/6/2012 1:30:00 PM (view original):
I'll give this a try with Matt Kilroy 1887

I have a question about the spirit of the rules though... most of the time if you want to start a guy in back-to-back games, he'll be in the 80s for that second game. Now I realize that the "goal" of this league is to find a way around that, but are you saying that ANY appearances below 90% would disqualify you from all the bonuses? Or just repeated abuses?

(I'm in either way. Just wondering. I've never done anything like this so I'll probably suck at all aspects of it)

First, welcome!

Second, on the spirit of the rules thing: the goal is to first try to find the best way to utilize these pitchers, and to secondarily find a way to get value out of them. If the only way to get full value out of them is to allow them to pitch fatigued, even down to 70, or 60%, then that's fine. In fact, I fully expect several of these pitchers to be in games at 70%. So, on the spirit of the rules, I just don't want someone sticking a guy at starter 1 and never checking their team again while their pitcher gets 162 starts and 880 IP, but is 3-159 with horrible stats. I want owners to actually try to get value out of the pitchers. If a guy is trying and is 56-106 and throwing his pitcher at 70%, and he qualifies for a GC, he'll get it, but if these guys are starting in the red regularly then someone else will get it. Because, let's face it, these guys shouldn't ever be in the red.

And, just to be clear, I'm also disqualifying myself from the GC prizes. So, someone out there will win prizes...

[Edited to add: As for the 90%, that only qualifies for the extra $5 on the GC, as that seems like a much more difficult challenge.]

i have always wanted to try something like this...i will take 1885 Clarkson

just, i will try 1885 Mickey Welch, very interesting league.....

Awesome! Welcome to je3rd, and Batgems, good to have you in another league!

I'll try Charlie Radbourn.

Will you have limits on how much salary can stay in AAA at any one time? I'm happy to play either way, but I just wanted to check before putting a team together.

Posted by brianjw on 2/7/2012 9:59:00 PM (view original):
I'll try Charlie Radbourn.

Will you have limits on how much salary can stay in AAA at any one time? I'm happy to play either way, but I just wanted to check before putting a team together.

I am going to have AAA salary limits as I want to try to mimic an OL as much as possible -- with the exception of the draft your own AAA, as I wanted to remove the luck element from AAA. I'll add the limit to the rules above so it's clear. 

Posted by grizzly_one on 2/9/2012 1:40:00 AM (view original):
I'm in give me the Silver King.  Also, are there PA and IP minimums like an OL?

Very glad to have you, and unfortunately, yes... I will have the PA & IP minimums, since that is the environment in which these players are generally used, so that will give us the most realistic challenge insofar as trying to gain value from them.

Rules will be amended to reflect this as well.