The Best First League

For anyone who likes leagues that are different and not the same usual boring leagues over and over, take a look.
If you like progressives but hate having to play a lot of seasons before new players you draft can make an impact on your team then this league may be for you. Instead of players progressing from their first season to their last season they will progress quite differently. This league will also have a few other unique features unlike a regular progressive. Give it a try if you like the idea!

16 Teams - Format E, 4/4 w/interleague

To start, we'll have a 1 round draft. Everyone will pick 1 Team from either 1940, 1975, or 2010, your choice. You will start the league using the players from the Team you pick. We'll use the last 2 digits of each owners rating at the time the league has all 16 spots filled to determine draft order. Lowest will go first to highest last. If you have less than 25 players on your Initial drafted Team you'll fill out your roster with $200-300k players. Those players must be cut and replaced at the end of the first season.
We'll do a reverse order to select Stadiums. All players and Stadiums are exclusive. If a player appears on more than 1 roster due to the Initial draft then he will be the exclusive property of the Team that selected first.

Roster construction:
Players will progress from their most expensive season First, down to their cheapest season Last.
So for season 1, using the Team you drafted, you will Twist and start each player to the most expensive season of their career. Starting with season 2 and beyond, each player will progress downward in Salary. (Example: Sandy Koufax - you'll use his 1965 season 1st, then 1963 2nd, then 1966 3rd, then 1964, then 1961, continuing down to his 1956 season last).
Keep in mind that sometimes a players most expensive season is not his BEST season but that is how we'll determine his FIRST season. You cannot skip over any seasons as you progress downward in Salary.

Free Agency:
To incorporate a bit more fun and add the element of modern day Free Agency everyone will have 3 players randomly chosen to become Free Agents every year. They will be added to the draft pool each season and will continue from the season they have progressed to if they are drafted back onto a Team.
You always have the option to draft your Free Agents back onto your Team if they are still available when it is your turn to pick.

Franchise Tags:
Everyone will be able to assign a Franchise Tag to 1 Hitter and 1 Pitcher on their roster. The Franchise Tag will allow you protection from losing those 2 players to Free Agency. In addition to protecting those 2 players, if a Tag player is selected to be a Free Agent, you will gain back all of the used portions of their career and start that player over again using his most expensive season. You can change who your Franchise Players are at the beginning of each season.
So, while you may not want to have some players selected to become Free Agents, you will want your Tag player/s to be selected since you will be able to keep them and start them all over again.

Subsequent Drafts:
Each year 2 randomly chosen seasons from 1920 to 2017 will be drawn to draft new "Rookie" players from. "WIS 1st season" players and the Free Agents from your League (NL or AL), will make up the draft pools. Teams in the NL will draft players from 1 of the randomly chosen seasons and Teams from the AL will draft from the other season.
This means only 8 Teams will be drafting from each season so drafts will go much more quickly and the talent level will be better for everyone, even those drafting towards the bottom of the round. If there are any players currently in the league from the 2 seasons that are drawn, they cannot be drafted.
Drafts will be done Off-the-Clock during the season starting sometime after the All-Star game.
A random draft order will be done each season. There will be no incentive to tank.
If you draft a player that has seasons before 1920, the pre-1920 seasons cannot be used. Those you must skip over.

Cuts/Keepers:
You will Cut players during the draft. So you make your selection and announce who you are Cutting to make room for your pick. It will be up to you when you stop drafting. Just remember that for every player you draft you also have to Cut a player from your roster.
Cut Players cannot re-enter the league again unless their rookie season is drawn.

Trades: won't be allowed.
IR: won't be needed since you only use available WIS seasons.

No Salary Cap.
Yes DH.
NO AAA. No Clones. No WW. Injuries Off.

Alignment:
Random each season. This will mix up Teams for the drafts and eventually provide a good mix of players to everyones roster.

Owners in:
bheid408; midknight; scottharra; pmars2001; northof49; calhoop; marcstuart; cyclonejim; Inshoots; royhobbs09; thunderkat; Cheno5; cstrohmier; rejay; grayfoxx; DodgerDon

Another creative concept from one of the best. I'm in.

The players we draft from one of the random years, also start with their most expensive season, correct?

Posted by grayfoxx on 3/3/2019 12:48:00 PM (view original):
The players we draft from one of the random years, also start with their most expensive season, correct?

yes

I've never done a Progressive League before but I'll give it a try.

What about players from 2010 that develop *better* seasons down the road ?

Take Kershaw, for example. We would use 2013, 2015, 2014, 2011, in that order.
What if his 2019 or 2020 season tops the ones that are left over?
Do we insert those seasons, or dont we get to use them at all, just like the seasons before 1920 ?


And what about partial seasons? Can we skip a $4mil partial so that we can use his $2mil partial when it's turn comes up??
Or do we get to use the $4mil and then use the $2mil when their turn in the order comes up?

I'm in. Great concept. Nice touch for random drafts each season.

Franchise tags/free agency pretty much allows you to potentially keep a player and kick-start his career from the most expensive season if you get a little lucky.

Posted by grayfoxx on 3/5/2019 1:21:00 PM (view original):
What about players from 2010 that develop *better* seasons down the road ?

Take Kershaw, for example. We would use 2013, 2015, 2014, 2011, in that order.
What if his 2019 or 2020 season tops the ones that are left over?
Do we insert those seasons, or dont we get to use them at all, just like the seasons before 1920 ?


And what about partial seasons? Can we skip a $4mil partial so that we can use his $2mil partial when it's turn comes up??
Or do we get to use the $4mil and then use the $2mil when their turn in the order comes up?

You'll insert those seasons if they are more expensive than where you have progressed that player to.

As for partial, combined or any kind of season or version, you will play them all in order from most expensive to cheapest. If 2 versions of the same season have the same dollar amount you'll play both versions.

Thanks guys, 2 more in puts us past half way to being full.

interesting concept, I'm IN

Only 6 spots left

Hey, I got an idea for those of you who prefer to play in regular progressives and take over abandoned teams that have no chance of winning because they need to rebuild for the next 8 to 10 seasons. Why not try this league that will give you the best seasons of your players immediately after drafting them and could make your team a winner the very next year?

I have a question....

What will you be using to determine the initial rosters? Will it be the SIM or will it be Baseball Reference. Several teams have some pretty good players that had a cup of coffee with them according to BBR, but in all likelihood would not generate enough stats to show up in the SIM. I would suggest that since you are twisting seasons, whether or not they show up with #'s for 1940, 1975, or 2010 really isn't significant. Just a thought.

I am very interested in the concept.

Posted by thunderkat on 3/8/2019 10:07:00 AM (view original):
I have a question....

What will you be using to determine the initial rosters? Will it be the SIM or will it be Baseball Reference. Several teams have some pretty good players that had a cup of coffee with them according to BBR, but in all likelihood would not generate enough stats to show up in the SIM. I would suggest that since you are twisting seasons, whether or not they show up with #'s for 1940, 1975, or 2010 really isn't significant. Just a thought.

I am very interested in the concept.

Thanks for bringing that up. Yes since we are twisting those players we will be using baseball-reference.com.
Just keep in mind that any players on more than 1 Team go to the owner who drafted their Team first.