The 1996 Team Icon League is almost finished with the 1995 season and is considering expansion to 24 teams (so we could move to three divisions in each league and pick up the Wild Card) starting with the 1996 season. The basic premise of the league is that you can only have players on your team who played for your team at some point in their career. The current teams in the league are as follows:

NL East	NL West
Chicago Cubs	Atlanta Braves
Montreal Expos	Cincinnati Reds
New York Mets	Houston Astros
Pittsburgh Pirates	Los Angles Dodgers
St. Louis Cardinals	San Francisco Giants
.	.
AL East	AL West
Baltimore Orioles	California Angels
Boston Red Sox	Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians	Oakland Athletics
Detroit Tigers	Tampa Bay Devil Rays
New York Yankees	Texas Rangers

The current defunct teams are

NL
Arizona Cardinals, Colorado Rockies, Florida Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres

AL
Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays

We are looking to add two NL and two AL teams. Divisional Alignment will be as close to real life as possible based on the teams that we have. We would like these to be new owners and not owners from our league that currently own a team to have two.

If you are interested in joining with one of our defunct teams please let me know below.

Here are the rules we have in place for the expansion draft and the 1996 Rookie Draft.

1) Expansion draft/Protecting players. In each round of the expansion draft, existing franchises must make players available to the new teams. First round teams may protect up to three players, but must leave at least two players available. In the second round, teams may protect two additional players (5 total) but must leave at least one player unprotected. In the final round, teams may protect one more player, while leaving one player unprotected. In round three, if expansion teams wish, they may select a franchises 3rd round draft pick rather than a player. Additionally, there will be no add/drop period after the draft. If you roster a player prior to the expansion draft and that player is not selected by an expansion team, you have to keep him or trade him.

2) One-year transitions for current career keepers. Any player who is currently a career keeper because he played for a once defunct, now active franchise, may be utilized on your roster according to career keeper guidelines for one season only. Beginning in 1997 that player would have to be on an active roster or cut. For example, prior to 1997 Carlos Delgado was a Team Icon for the Mets, because the Blue Jays and Marlins were not in our league. According to the rules, Delgado could be placed on IR in 1996 because he played for the Brewers. That's fine for one more season. In 1997, he is no longer a career keeper and should be cut or rostered. Of course, the Mets could make him available in the expansion draft if one of those teams are picked as an expansion team.

3) 1996 Draft - In real life drafts, whenever there are expansion teams, they select at the end of the round in their first draft. So the four new teams will pick in picks 21-24. This order will be in the opposite order of the expansion draft.

Basic Rules:

Salary Cap - None

AAA - 12/6 Below Average (Any Career Keeper/Team Icon with fewer than 60 IP/ 150 PA may be placed in AAA or on the MLB roster to start the season). Beginning in 2000, we will switch to 6/4 Below Average.

DH – AL only

Trades - Allowed and almost needed. Teams can only trade for eligible players though. Draft picks may be traded 2 years in advance. Players to be named later (future random AAA players) may also be traded.

IR - Unlimited. Restricted to any player without a WIS season, or any CK/TI that did not play for your franchise at all during that season (at owner’s discretion).

WW - No

Keepers - Unlimited. Any players who were assigned to your roster as career keepers, team icons etc. must be kept for the duration of their career.

Draft Order - Will be determined at the transaction deadline (120 games). 40 wins are needed to qualify for a top 3 pick.*** Teams that do not reach 40 wins will be slotted from the 4th spot on by most wins. The rest of the draft (including top 3 picks) is inverse order of record. The first pick in rounds 2-4 belongs to the team with the fewest wins and continues in inverse order.

Divisions – As close to real life as possible

Team Names and Stadiums - Same as real life. If your team changes names or moves parks, then you must do the same.

Specific League Rules:

Keeper Rules - All players that fall in to the 3 keeper categories below will be forced on their respected franchise. They can not be traded or cut.

CAREER KEEPERS - Any player who has played his entire career for one team (or entire WiS career) will belong to that team. If a player has played for several teams but has only racked up 50 AB or 25 IP in a season for one team he will also belong to the team for which he played the bulk of his career. So if Player A plays four full seasons for the Dodgers, then goes to the Cubs where he only nets 30 ABs and is traded to the Mets where he gets another 30 he will be still be considered a Dodgers Career Keeper.

TEAM ICONS - Any player whose first ten or more eligible WIS seasons are with the same team, and who has had no more than 3 full WIS seasons with other teams (including defunct teams) will be designated a Team Icon and belong to the team whom he played 10 years for.

-Any player who racked up more than 25 IP/50 AB with only one active franchise, regardless of seasons with other active or defunct franchises (ARI, COL, FLA, KCR, MIL, MIN, PHI, SDP, SEA, TOR) will be the property of the active franchise.

- Any Team Icon being may be placed on IR any season he did not play for your franchise.

- Any player who played every game for a defunct team or has fewer than 25 IP/50 AB with a single active team will not be eligible to be drafted by any team.

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*Every other player who does not fall in to one of these rules will be eligible to be drafted by any team he appeared in 1 game for (any team that shows up on his B-R page at the time of the draft).

*Edited 7/12/2015 to add all defunct teams to the Team Icon Definition for clarity.
*Edited 8/1/2015 to remove MON & add PHI to the Defunct Franchises.
*Edited 8/13/2016 to remove TBD & add KCR to the Defunct Franchises.

Draft Order Tiebreak:

In case of a 2-way or 3-way tie between teams in the same league:
1. Head-to-head
2. Expected win percentage (higher pct gets higher pick
3. home winning percentage (higher pct gets higher pick)

In case of a 2-way or 3-way tie between teams in different leagues:
1. Head-to-head between the two in the same league knocks one of them to 3rd.
2. Expected win percentage (higher pct gets higher pick)
3. home winning percentage (higher pct gets higher pick)

In case of a 4-way tie between teams in any league:****
1. Exp. Win %
2. Head to head (if relevant) between tied teams
3. Finish in previous season (worse record gets higher pick)

Amendments:

I. No deadline on call-ups from AAA, may be utilized all season. Trade deadline will remain at 120 games.
II. Placement of Career Keepers in AAA will be optional.... must have 60 or fewer IP and 150 or fewer PA.
III. Any player who played his entire career with an expansion franchise will be prohibited from league play.
IV. For recruitment purposes, teams that do not own a 1st round pick and change ownership will receive a supplemental pick at the end of 1st round.
V. Career keepers or Team Icons with ERA over 6.00 and hitters with OPS under .600 may be placed in AAA, if they have fewer than 100 IP or 300 PA.
VI. One year Career Keepers are AAA eligible.
VII. You may now trade draft picks up to two years in advance of the current (or immediately upcoming) draft. I.E. during the 1996 draft you may trade picks from 1996, 1997 or 1998.

1996 Top Prospects
Derek Jeter	Yankees Icon
Edgar Renteria	STL, FLA, SFG, ATL, BOS, CIN, DET
Jason Kendall	PIT, OAK, MIL, KCR, CHC
Tony Batista	BAL, TOR, ARI, OAK, WSN, MIN
Bill Muellar	SFG, CHC, LAD, BOS
Jermaine Dye	KCR, CHW, OAK, ATL
Brian Giles	SDP, PIT, CLE
Mike Sweeney	Royals Icon, OAK, SEA, PHI
Darin Erstad	Angels Icon, CHW, HOU
Luis Castillo	FLA, MIN, NYM
Rich Aurilia	SFG, CIN, SDP, SEA
Andruw Jones	ATL, LAD, TEX, CHW, NYY
Scott Rolen	PHI, STL, CIN, TOR
Nomar Garciaparra	BOS, CHC, LAD, OAK
Doug Glanville	PHI, CHC, TEX
Chan Ho Park	LAD, TEX, SDP, NYM, PIT, NYY, PHI
Ugueth Urbina	MON, DET, BOS, TEX, PHI, FLA
Francisco Cordova	Pirates CK
Shawn Estes	SFG, SDP, ARI, NYM, CHC, COL, CIN
Billy Wagner	HOU, NYM, PHI, ATL, BOS
Paul Byrd	PHI, ATL, CLE, KCR, NYM, BOS, ANA
James Baldwin	CHW, BAL, MIN, NYM, TEX, LAD, SEA
Justin Thompson	Tigers CK

1997 Top Prospects
Tony Womack	ARI, PIT, CHC, COL, STL, CIN, NYY
Mike Cameron	SEA, CHW, NYM, BOS, SDP, CIN, MIL, FLA
Jose Cruz Jr.	TOR, LAD, ARI, TBR, SFG, BOS, SDP, SEA, HOU
Deivi Cruz	DET, SFG, SDP, MON, BAL
Vladimir Guerrero	MON, LAA, BAL
Dmitri Young	DET, MON, CIN, STL
Jorge Posada	Yankees Icon
Bobby Abreu	PHI, LAD, NYY, NYM, HOU, LAA
Jose Vidro	Expos Icon, SEA
Magglio Ordonez	CHW, DET
Todd Helton	Rockies Icon
Miguel Tejada	OAK, BAL, HOU, KCR, SFG, SDP
Mark Kotsay	SDP, OAK, FLA, BOS, CHW, ATL, MIL
Derrek Lee	CHC, FLA, PIT, ATL, SDP, BAL
Matt Morris	STL, PIT, SFG
Livan Hernandez	MON, SFG, FLA, ARI, MIN, NYM, COL, ATL, MIL
Cory Lidle	PHI, TBD, OAK, NYY, NYM, CIN, TOR
Jeff Suppan	KCR, STL, BOS, MIL, ARI, PIT, SDP
Bartolo Colon	CLE, LAA, NYM, OAK, CHW, ATL, BOS, MON, NYY
Kevin Millwood	ATL, TEX, PHI, COL, CLE, SEA, BAL
Chris Carpenter	TOR, STL
Derek Lowe	BOS, LAD, ATL, TEX, CLE, NYY, SEA
Keith Foulke	CHW, BOS, OAK, SFG
Kelvim Escobar	TOR, LAA

Also as you can see in our league the Devil Rays are there even though they didn't start play until 1999. If you would like to pick the Diamondbacks you can do so. They will obviously have a bit of a limited draft pool until they actually start play, but it's definitely doable. I run the Devil Rays and we're actually fighting for a playoff spot in the AL West in 1995.

A good chance to build your own team. Trades are hit and heavy. It's my favorite theme progressive. Join up and build from the ground up! Some great players could be yours for free. Helton, Gwynn, etc.

I would be interested in the Phillies.

Awesome! Welcome aboard!

Just need three more and we'll be all set. With the Phillies adding to the NL a Western team would be great (Arizona, Colorado, San Diego) and then two AL teams are we're good to go. If someone really wanted Milwaukee they could go either AL or NL.

So are players exclusive once drafted? Or does a new team get to come in and fill their roster up any way they want provided they use players that played for their franchise at some point? Just trying to get a clearer picture of how roster construction will work.

Once you draft a player he's yours to keep until you decide to cut or trade him. You can still only draft/trade for players who played for your team at some point in their career though.

Jtpsops has agreed to take the Padres, so now we just need two AL owners and we'll be good to go.

coyote6pack is taking Seattle so we just need one more AL team and we're set. Jump in now to be able to build your team from the ground up!