We're heading into the 2006 season of the Empire Progressive League. At the moment, we have one vacant team (Milwaukee) plus three teams that are being managed by the owner of another team (St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Boston).  See below for rosters  The league has been going strong since the 1977 season (29 seasons), with many of the original owners still participating. Also, we use a salary cap, which makes it interesting. Sitemail me if you are interested.

Here are some of the key rules for this league...

SALARY CAP: We have a two-level salary cap - $80M and $85M. Your initial 25-man roster at the start of the season needs to fit under the $80M cap. We also allow the drafting of real-life ML players that start the year at AAA. The salaries of those guys don't count against the $80M cap, but they do count against the $85M cap. Once the season starts, your entire roster - 25-man plus AAA needs to fit under the $85M cap. This additional cap space can be used to pick up better players via trades. As far as going over the cap, the system won't let you do that. (Hopefully, this all makes sense.)

AAA: We do not allow the "imaginary" AAA players to be used. However, as stated above, we do allow the drafting of up to three real-life players that start the season on your AAA roster. You don't have to draft any extra players, but it's an option.

DRAFT ORDER: The draft order is based on the standings at the 120-game mark of the previous season. This allows us to draft while the previous season is completing and start the next season shortly after. We also have a win floor rule to prevent tanking. If a team doesn't reach 30 wins by the 120th game, they get bumped down to the 6th pick.

DH: No designated hitter.

PROSPECTS: A prospect is a player who played in the major leagues in a given season, but isn't yet become WiS eligible for that season. For instance, in the 1995 draft, Derek Jeter was a prospect. He played for the Yankees in the '95 season, but didn't accummulate enough ABs to be WiS-eligible until 1996. So basically, someone can draft him and then they own his rights until he becomes WiS-eligible. He doesn't occupy a roster spot until that point. You can only draft prospects in the first round and you can only have one prospect at a time.

DRAFT PICK TRADES: You can trade picks one year ahead.

2006 Milwaukee Brewers

C - Sandy Alomar Jr., Chris Snyder, Yorvit Torrealba

1B - Adam LaRoche

2B - Alex Cora, Craig Counsell, Pete Orr

3B - Jeff Keppinger, Melvin Mora

SS - Yuniesky Betancourt

OF - Brady Clark, Nelson Cruz, Jose Cruz Jr., Chone Figgins, Grady Sizemore

DH -

P - Ryan Franklin, Trevor Hoffman, Cory Lidle, Kyle Lohse, Darren Oliver, J.J. Putz, Brad Radke, Brian Shouse, Andrew Sisco, Jason Vargas, Ron Villone, Pete Walker, Brandon Webb

IR - P Brian Lawrence [2007]

Retired - SS Alex S. Gonzalez

Draft picks - Have the #19 pick; traded away second round pick

2006 Boston Red Sox

C - Robert Fick, Yadier Molina

1B - Mike Jacobs, Dan Johnson, Casey Kotchman

2B - Jamey Carroll, Tadahito Iguchi

3B - Mike Lowell

SS - Jose Reyes

OF - Emil Brown, Corey Hart, Mark Kotsay, Matt Murton, Rondell White

P - Tony Armas Jr., Heath Bell, Armando Benitez, Matt Cain, Brandon Claussen, Jeff Francis, Danny Haren, Ron Mahay, Arthur Rhodes, Nate Robertson, Scott Schoenweis, Claudio Vargas, John Wasdin

IR - P Zack Greinke [2007], OF Jody Gerut [2008]

Retired - none

Draft picks - Have the #5 pick; traded away their third round pick

2006 St. Louis Cardinals

C - Henry Blanco, Sal Fasano, Brian Schneider

1B - Todd Helton, Eduardo Perez, Mark Sweeney

2B - Mark Grudzielanek

3B - Aramis Ramirez

SS - Jimmy Rollins

OF - Jeromy Burnitz, Jose Guillen, Luke Scott, Gary Sheffield, Shane Victorino

P - Rheal Cormier, Brian Fuentes, Livan Hernandez, Roberto Hernandez, Randy Johnson, Esteban Loaiza, Mike Myers, Kirk Saarloos, Scot Shields, Matt Thornton, Steve Trachsel, Derrick Turnbow, David Weathers

IR - P Octavio Dotel [2007], P Frank Francisco [2007]

Retired - 2B Frank Menechino, P Julio Santana

Draft pick trades - Have the #21 pick

2006 Pittsburgh Pirates 

C - Mike Piazza, Javier Valentin

1B - Chris Gomez, Robb Quinlan

2B - Marlon Anderson, Ryan Theriot, Rickie Weeks

3B - Adrian Beltre, Robb Quinlan

SS - Jack Wilson

OF - Jeff DaVanon, Jeff Francoeur, Torii Hunter, Craig Monroe, Alex Rios, Jason Tyner

P - Chad Bradford, Kiko Calero, Jorge De La Rosa, Adam Eaton, Kyle Farnsworth, Josh Fogg, Aaron Harang, Rich Harden, Jason Isringhausen, Byung-Hyun Kim, Ted Lilly, David Riske, Russ Springer

IR - 1B Carlos Pena [2007], P Buddy Carlyle [2007], P D.J. Carrasco [2008]

Retired - none

Draft pick trades - Have the #4 pick

Our draft order has been finalized and the actual draft positions for the available teams have been updated above