...why, yes, it's quite possible that I'm insane, thank you for asking!
I've tried to synthesize a lot of things that I like about different theme leagues and progressive leagues I'm played since I've started on WIS into one cohesive progressive theme. The vision is clear in my head, but I'm not sure I'll be able to explain it clearly on my first pass - so PLEASE ask questions if there is something that does not make sense.
The basics:
24 teams. My preference would be for balanced 6/6 divisions without interleague play and 4 playoff teams, but I'm also open to the standard WIS format (4/4/4 with interleague play and 8 playoff teams). I'll put this up for a vote among interested owners.
DH: My preference is no DH, but I'll hold a vote for AL-only DH at the same time as league format.
No AAA. You draft 25 players, and that's who you have for the season.
$100M salary cap. This is enforced every season, not just the first season. This is enforced throughout the season as well - a trade that takes a team over $100M will be denied. There will be enough talent available to create superstar squads - placing a cap on salaries makes the teams look more like realistic teams. It also creates decision points, which is something I find very interesting.
With this format it will often be difficult to spend close to the max cap every season (not to mention unwise in many cases). For each $500K a team is below the $100M salary cap (based on higher of pre-season salary or salary at transaction deadline), the team will receive $100K in accumulated roster compliance penalty mitigation (see roster compliance below). This is a tradable asset. Seasons in which a penalty is applied do not qualify for accumulation.
Players and ballparks are exclusive. Owners may choose partial or combined seasons for players in the inaugural draft so long as it is in the correct year.
Teams will be randomly assigned to leagues/divisions unless there is an AL-only DH - then teams will be randomly assigned to divisions within their own preferred league.
Season 1:
We will be drafting players from the following seasons ONLY: 1890, 1895, 1900, 1905, 1910, 1915, 1920, 1925, 1930, 1935, 1940, 1945, 1950, 1955, 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010. Each round will correspond to a year, and the draft will be chronological. After the 25th round there will be a draft for exclusive ballparks. A team can only draft a ballpark in which a rostered player played his home games.
Draft order: Each team will be given 1000 points total to bid on the draft order for 26 rounds (25 players and ballpark). These bids (minimum 1 unit) will be blind and submitted to me before the draft starts. (I will submit my bids to a non-participating owner before asking for bids to be submitted.) The owner bidding the most for 1890 will start the draft, with selections down from there. This means that each round is extremely likely to have a different draft order - but it's totally based on how important owners decide different rounds are.
Tie-breaking procedure: I will have a non-participating owner generate a randomized list of numbers to assign to owners. Ties will be broken first by number of points, and then chronologically. When two or more owners tie, they will be assigned draft spots based on this list, When a tie is broken, each owner in the tie will be moved behind the owner with the lowest tie-breaking spot.
I know I did a FANTASTIC job of explaining that, so let me give an example:
Teams are randomly arranged into an ordinal list 1-24.
The first tie has teams 6, 10, 13, and 19 tied. They will be assigned to draft in that order, but the order for the next tie-breaker will be: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 13, 10, 6, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.
The next tie is between teams 2, 10, and 14. Team 2 will get the first pick, then 14, then 10, with the new tiebreak order being: 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 13, 10, 14, 2, 6, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.
Draft pace: Since each round is a separate but interlinked universe of players, all picks in a given round must be completed before advancing to the next round. The nature of this draft will wind up with owners having different pick times for most rounds, but this will be clearly delineated before the start of the draft. Liberal use of proxies and/or draft guidelines is advised for owners who cannot pick in a particular time frame. Owners with skipped picks will have until the stated beginning of the next round to make a pick - otherwise I will make one for them based largely on salary for the next two seasons and hypothesized positional need
Keepers: Each player progresses to the next season, Every team must keep 20 active players. Not 19, not 21 - 20 exactly. A player that has an interruption in their career has his rights maintained by its current team unless explicitly waived, but the owner must still keep 20 active players. Max salary on the kept players is $98M (to ensure the ability to find players to complete the roster under the salary cap). Keeper deadline is Game 120.
2nd and subsequent seasons:
By Game 81: The identities of the pools for the 5 offseason drafts will be announced. The first will be the next 5 year grouping, so season 2 will be 2015, then 1885, 1890, etc. The other 4 draft pools will consist of randomly-selected pools of at least 50 team-seasons. Every team-season from 1885-2016 will be included in one and only one pool. When 2022 is added, that window will slide to 2017, etc. I'm planning to split the franchise history of the original 16 clubs into two different pools at 1960 - so Detroit Tigers 1901-1960 will be one pool, and Detroit Tigers 1961-2016 will be separate. The teams that entered in 1961-62 will be their own pool. 1969 and later will be combined with American Association, Players' League, Federal League, and miscellaneous seasons that don't fit any other category in order to make other pools.
Game 120: Transaction deadline.
Game 129: Keeper submission deadline.
Game 150: Draft positioning bid submission deadline. Each team will be allocated bid points based on the standings after Game 120. A team with 40 wins at Game 120 will have 250 bid points. Each win above 40 will subtract 3 points; each win below 40 will subtract 5. Each draft has a minimum bid of 1 - but starting after the initial draft, teams that do not allocate their entire point pool to bids can carry over 1 point to the next draft for every 2 points forgone in the current draft.
After Game 162: The draft begins. In a round from a season, the version of the player does not have to be announced. In a team-season pool, any season for that player can be chosen as long as it is in the eligible pool. The five drafts will be handled in the same way as the inaugural draft, with the five drafts one after the other based on the number of bid points allocated. If there is a tie in aggregate bid points allocated, the tie will be broken in the order that the draft pools were selected (with the season being the first). Ties among teams within a draft order will be broken by highest percentage of draft pool used for this bid, followed by record after 120 games, followed by fewest runs allowed, followed by most runs scored, followed by a Hamilton-Burr style duel in New Jersey (everything's legal in Jersey).
Ballparks: Any team that does not have a player who played his home games in the current park must relocate. Ballparks are still exclusive - draft will occur after the player draft. Order will be based on worst record first. Any team that still has one or more players playing in that ballpark may not relocate.
Draft pick trading: Each team will be making 5 draft picks every year, so trading future picks makes no sense. Between the bid results and the beginning of the draft, teams may trade picks for the upcoming draft so long as they receive the same number of picks in return as they send out.
Realignment: Division winners stay in their divisions. Other teams are randomly realigned, either within their league (if AL-only DH) or between leagues (no DH).
Roster compliance: I will do my best to alert teams about their potential roster snafus for the upcoming season. However, it is ultimately each owner's responsibility to ensure a viable roster each season. Teams with returning owners will be penalized with a $2M salary cap deduction for the upcoming season for each player they need to add beyond the 5 mandated changes, and must have $400K in salary cap space available for each roster vacancy. Replacement owners will not face the salary cap deduction. Additional picks will be completed after the regular draft but before the ballpark draft.
I realize this is a big wall of text. I also realize I'm likely to have omitted something. I'm interested in hearing comments, questions, concerns, sanity checks...