Here's another flavor of the follow-one-player's-career-and-twist-his-teammates progressive league theme.
I hope my "Share The Wealth" twist is enough to entice a few.
I'm in a league like this and I decided there are three things I'd do differently if I were running one:
(1) Larger pool of available players.
(2) Do something to spice things up when players go through a stretch of seasons with the same very good twistable teammates or with very bad ones. (Robin Yount should occasionally have a chance against Tris Speaker).
(3) Prizes!
Here's how I'm going to address these things in my version. Most of the player-selection rules are pretty standard for this type of league, but pay special attention to the "Share The Wealth" Rule, which is the unique selling proposition of my league here.
First, I'll run the league for 15 seasons. Prizes will be paid out every 5 seasons, with possibly some extra bonuses at the end for 15-season participants. The exact prize structure will depend on how many teams we end up with (all of the following assumes we'll have standard 24), and whether or not people want to contribute GC's to increase the prize pool beyond what is put up by WiS for stable progressive leagues.
Rules for Selection of Franchise Players: Choose your exclusive "Franchise Player" when you sign up. This is the guy whose career you will follow. Any player with 15 different seasons in the WiS database is eligible. Twenty-four players will be selected -- 12 hitters and 12 pitchers. Here are some details:
* Franchise players' seasons will be played chronologically, earliest to lastest.
* If your player has more than 15 seasons in the database, you choose which season to use in the league's first season.
* If your franchise player split a season between two or more teams, you will use only one of those teams (using the player's full season) as you progress through the seasons. You will not repeat the season with the other team(s).
* One franchise's Franchise Player may be used as a twisted teammate on another team, except that a Franchise Player's current season cannot be used by another team (e.g. 1927 Ruth cannot be used by the Waite Hoyt team in the season when 1927 is the current season for Ruth's team)
* You may switch your Franchise Player to any unused 15-season player between seasons. However, (1) you will pay a penalty (see Keeping Score), and (2) you forfeit any player-seasons available to you under the "Share The Wealth" Rule.
Roster-Building
Use your Franchise Player's current season and twist his teammates from that season. We will use below-average AAA (6/2) to help with PA and IP in those lean years. Teammate seasons can be reused season to season (see below!). If you have fewer than 24 twistable teammates (you can use players with fewer than 50 PA or 25 IP--use baseball-reference) fill out your roster with player(s) under $300K from your franchise player's current season.
Share The Wealth in Seasons 2-15
At the conclusion of each season, the 4th-place team in each division (call it Team A) will select one "teammate-season" from the 1st-place team (call it Team B). That player-season would be available to Team A the following season, and not to Team B.
An example might help: suppose 1910 Tris Speaker and 1923 Ty Cobb teams are in the same division. Tris finishes 1st and Ty 4th. At the end of the season, Cobb's owner selects 1912 Joe Wood from the Speaker team. Then 1912 Joe Wood can be used the next season on the 1924 Cobb team but not on the 1911 Speaker team. The Speaker team can use any other Joe Wood season, just not 1912.
Availability for selected player-season switches for one season only, with the following exceptions (see also Keeping Score):
* If Team A finishes in 4th place again, then it can use the selected player-season again the following season. The player-season is also available to Team B in that season, except that:
* If Team B finishes in 1st place again, then the player-season remains unavailable the following season.
Extending the example above with a few different scenarios for the following season (See also Keeping Score):
* 1911 Tris Speaker finishes 2nd, 1924 Ty Cobb finishes 3rd. -- availabilty switches back: 1912 Joe Wood season available to 1912 Speaker, not 1925 Cobb.
* 1911 Speaker finishes 2nd, 1924 Cobb finishes 4th -- 1912 Joe Wood available to *both* 1912 Speaker and 1925 Cobb.
* 1911 Speaker finishes 1st, 1924 Cobb finishes 2nd -- 1912 Joe Wood available to *neither* 1912 Speaker nor 1925 Cobb.
Keeping Score
A point system will be used to keep score for the 5-, 10-, and 15-year prizes. Points will be awarded as follows:
* Points for 1st/2nd/3rd/4th place in division: 10/7/5/2.
>First tiebreaker is head-to-head. Second is "Expected Winning Pct."
* 1 bonus point for wild card.
* 1 point for each post-season series won.
* 1 bonus point if your Franchise Player is MVP or Cy Young (sorry, no relief-pitcher bonuses).
* 1st-place teams receive 1 bonus point for each teammate-season that was unavailable that season.
* 4th-place teams lose 1 penalty point for each teammate-season "borrowed" from another franchise.
* The penalty for switching franchise players is equal to double the number of seasons already played in the current 5-year prize period.
Division Alignment Season One
Teams with hitters for Franchise Player will be randomly assigned to the three American League divsions. Likewise teams with pitchers will be assigned to National League.
Division Alignment Subsequent Seasons
1st and 4th place teams in the NL will remain in their same divisions. They will be joined by AL 1st and 4th place teams from the previous season. Which AL division teams move to which NL division will rotate each season. 2nd and 3rd place teams in the AL will remain in their same divisions, joined on a rotating basis by 2nd and 3rd place NL teams from the previous season.
Salary Cap $100M
No Designated Hitter
No Waiver Wire
AAA: 6/2 below average
Ballpark must be the one your franchise player was in during his "current" season.
Trades: Only AAA.
Please use a team name that indicates Franchise Player, Year, and Team.