I'm toying with the idea of starting a new prog in the Ruth era, and would be grateful for any advice from experienced prog owners on a couple of topics:

1.) How do you handle the Federal League?  Are owners allowed to keep/use players who are on FL rosters?  Can FL rookies be drafted?  Can FL parks be used (I'm not even sure there are any)?  If you use FL players, how does the 2 year expansion affect progressive league play?  If you don't use FL players, do you consider MLB players who defected to the FL to be on IR for those two seasons?

2.) How much does the presence of Ruth disrupt competition?  Do teams with Ruth tend to win disproportionate shares of titles?  If so, any good ideas for dealing with this (eg salary cap, etc)?

3.) I'm concerned about tanking for the 1915 draft (Ruth, Hornsby).  I am very familiar with general anti-tanking rules like lotteries, expected-win formulas, salary-weighted formulas, etc.  My question is has anyone done anything unique for the 1914-15 seasons in order to specifically discourage tanking for that 1915 draft?  One idea I'm considering is allowing owners to "bid" for Ruth in a market-based way by giving up current or future draft picks.

1. We just used the Federal League guys....average team salaries increased about 20% or so.

2. Not much and no...

3. We did have a fair amount of tanking before the 1915 draft.   It is what it is, while having Ruth is significant it isn't THAT much better than having Pete Alexander, Walter Johnson, Hornsby or the other super stars of the era.

I wouldn't worry about Ruth too much.  We're in the 23rd season of a progressive in which Ruth's team only made it to the playoffs several times during his career.  He was finally traded (for a couple good prospects) to a contender in his last couple seasons, and finally appeared in a WS.  Ruth will slug his way to HR & OPS records, but an owner still has to build a good team around him.  

I'm in about 10 progressives... He makes a difference... but I don't ever remember a Ruth team winning a championship. Johnson and Alexander seem to make a bigger difference... at least in the teens.

Mensu1954 just started a progressive at 1920/1970 and skonley picked Ruth a #1. Will be interested to see how his team does in the first season. Interesting note, he also picked Hank Aaron too.

Thanks guys.  Appreciate the input.