We're heading into the 2004 season of the Empire Progressive League. At the moment, we have two teams available - Atlanta and Detroit. (See below for rosters.) The league has been going strong since the 1977 season (27 seasons), with most 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.

2004 Atlanta Braves

C - Gary Bennett, Bengie Molina

1B - Sean Casey,

2B - Bill Hall

3B - Vinny Castilla,

SS - Julio Lugo

OF - Raul Ibanez, Tim Salmon, Vernon Wells, Randy Winn


SP - Mark Buehrle, Kelvim Escobar, Ben Sheets, Josh Towers, Jeff Weaver

RP - Rick Bauer, Giovanni Carrara, Felix Heredia, Tim Redding, Francisco Rodriguez, Brian Shouse


IR - 3B Garrett Atkins [2005], P Colby Lewis [2007]


Draft picks: #4 pick in rounds 1, 2, 4, 5, ...  (no third-round pick)

2004 Detroit Tigers

C - Michael Barrett, Miguel Olivo, Vance Wilson

1B - Robin Ventura

2B - Nick Punto, Todd Walker

3B - Geoff Blum, Ty Wigginton

SS - Derek Jeter

OF - Jason Bay, Roger Cedeno, Magglio Ordonez, Juan Pierre, B.J. Surhoff,


SP - Ryan Drese, Roy Oswalt, Carl Pavano, Odalis Perez, Javier Vazquez, Victor Zambrano

RP - Brandon Backe, Kerry Lightenberg, Mike Stanton, Scott Sullivan


IR - none


Draft picks: #13 pick in rounds 1, 3, 5, ...  ; #12 pick in rounds 2, 4, 6, ...

Sitemail me if you are interested.

Bump

Have an owner for Atlanta, so we just need someone to take the Tigers!

2004 draft starts next week!