What if Baseball Hadn’t Expanded!



The purpose of this league is to replay modern history as if MLB never expanded. There will be 2 leagues of 8 teams (no divisions). The NL winner will play the AL winner in the World Series, old school style.

The league's 1st year will be 1962 (we will be drafting for 1966).



Standard Rules:

· 6/4 Below Average AAA

· NO DH (at least until 1973, then we can vote)

· Stadiums must be unique and have been used in 1962. You can keep the stadium as long as you like.

· Initial draft will be snake style, 26 rounds (25 players + stadium).

Non Standard Rules:

· Future drafts 1st round order will be set first to worst for the non playoff teams. The team with the best record who DOES not make the playoffs will get the #1 pick in the next year’s draft. The WS winner will draft 16, the loser will draft 15. The 2nd round and on will be worst to first at the conclusion of the season (WS winner still 16th).

The purpose of this is to prevent tanking. The rule would also be in effect to reward the teams that normally "would" be in the playoffs. My hope is that the draft order would really encourage trading. It'll give real incentive for the last place teams to trade players to the 2nd and third place teams. (Trading is not any more frequent than a regular progressive....oh well, it's still cool)

· If an owner drops out, the new owner will get a bonus pick at the end of the 1st round. This will only go into effect if the new owner picks worse than 6th. The purpose of this is to make it easier to recruit new owners.

· Starting in 1963, owners will be allowed to keep 27 players. In 1969, this will expand to 29. In 1977, this will expand to 31. The purpose of this is to allow people to keep players who have futures but aren’t good right now.



For as many seasons as I can, I will supply a excel file of all available player to any owner that wants one.