Thanks to CALHOOP for allowing me to use this excellent theme for the upcoming Sixth Round...

It's called the "Diamond Clones" because your final roster composition will be shaped like a diamond.

Round 1 - This player will be used 1 time
Round 2 - This player will be used 2 times
Round 3 - This player will be used 3 times
Round 4 - This player will be used 4 times
Round 5 - This player will be used 5 times
Round 6 - This player will be used 4 times
Round 7 - This player will be used 3 times
Round 8 - This player will be used 2 times
Round 9 - This player will be used 1 time

All players are exclusive. Once Babe Ruth gets taken (most likely in the first round) the owner gets to play one season of Ruth. In the unlikely event that he goes undrafted until Round 5, that owner must play 5 different seasons of him. Obviously, every cloned player will have to come from a distinct season.

The theory is that the super-premium players will be picked in the first couple of rounds and that should keep things balanced as we get into the middle rounds.

Two 24-team leagues. League One will consist of players from 1898 - 1960. League Two will consist of players from 1961 - 2023. These are only 9-round drafts so they should go pretty fast. The drafts will be run in the Theme League forum.

DRAFT ORDER:

Round 1: 1-24
Round 2: 24-1
Round 3: 24-1
Round 4: 1-24
Round 5: 24-1
Round 6: 1-24
Round 7: 24-1
Round 8: 1-24
Round 9: 24-1

FIRST THINGS FIRST:

The Top 4 owners in Round Five will get to choose which league they would like to play in and what draft position they want to select from. Once they've chosen, the two individual league draft boards will be set up. The draft order for each of the four leagues will be determined by each owner’s W/L record from Round Four. The first leg of the draft will be choosing which draft position you want to select from. For example, if you have the third pick, you may think that there's seven or eight players that are equivalent in their skill and so you may want to move down to the ninth or tenth spot, therefore, giving you a higher draft position when the draft order gets reversed (i.e., 24-1, etc.). Once the draft positions are finalized, the player drafting will begin.

OTHER PARTICULARS:

Salary cap: None
No: Trades, AAA or Waiver Wire
Yes: DH
Full, Partial and Combined seasons are all usable
Stadium: All participants will use WhatifSports Park.
Injuries: On
Alignment: Given the choice of draft positions, this adds yet another strategy element

Love this theme!

I also love the third round reversal! It will make for some interesting decisions on where to draft. Is it better to have first overall pick or better to be the first person to take 2, 3 and 5 players?

It's not clear, but based on your comment for alignment, I assume the division alignment is based on draft order. (Picks 1 thru 4 in the NL East). Is this correct?

Correct!

Cool theme. Curious as to why the years 1885-1897 are omitted.

I'm not a big 600-900 IP fan for one. Also, I just figured League 2 would begin with expansion in 1961 and, with the round beginning with (I assume) the 2023 stats available, that gives League Two 63 years to play with. Then I went back 63 years from 1960 and fell on 1898. Nothing scientific about it.

Am I reading this right that there is basically a Round 0? After the top four owners choose their spots, you'll assign everyone else to a league with an order. And then we will do a round of drafting for draft order, preceding Round 1?

You read it correctly. Just think of "Round 0" as Round 1....Round 1 as Round 2, and so on. I've said before, English and grammar were never my strong suit.

Just to be clear, if someone drafts Willie Mays in League 1 they can use any of his seasons up to 1960, and another owner in League 2 can use Mays in any of his seasons from 1961-forward?

In his case, he has at least 5 on both sides, but obviously this will matter for anyone whose career straddles the line.

That is also correct.

it's my belief that this next round won't have much of correlation between draft pick number and W-L record, which is totally fine.

Since a number of us are going to have multiple teams advance, the draft slot process will results in something like this...

For example, in League 1
footballmm11 ends up with draft spots 3, 5, 20, 24
pedrocerrano ends up with draft spots 1, 6, 19, 22
schwarze ends up with draft spots 2, 12, 13, 23

For those with more than 2 teams advancing to round 5, we will all have to avoid putting two teams into the same division.

Good point.

Posted by schwarze on 9/7/2023 2:23:00 PM (view original):
it's my belief that this next round won't have much of correlation between draft pick number and W-L record, which is totally fine.

Since a number of us are going to have multiple teams advance, the draft slot process will results in something like this...

For example, in League 1
footballmm11 ends up with draft spots 3, 5, 20, 24
pedrocerrano ends up with draft spots 1, 6, 19, 22
schwarze ends up with draft spots 2, 12, 13, 23

For those with more than 2 teams advancing to round 5, we will all have to avoid putting two teams into the same division.

Given the "Round 0" where your initial draft slot is just to pick which draft pick you'll get in Round 1, you shouldn't need to do any adjustments right?

We will have to make sure that owners police themselves into the correct leagues/divisions like we've done in other leagues. "schwarze has one pick left but already has an AL team so needs to take the last NL spot"

Your second sentence is what I'm talking about. Except it's more like schwarze already has a team in the AL West (pick 21-24) so his fourth team needs to be in the AL Central (pick 17-20) since the AL East is full and his other two teams must be in the NL.

Ah got it. Yes, we are in agreement.

Wow. I am just seeing this and am honored. I knew it was possible that thejuice6 was going to use this, or some derivative of it as a theme here.

Too bad for me that I flamed out miserably round after round and will not get to participate.

Coincidently, without knowing about this I posted a similar concept in the classifieds yesterday, without knowing about this. I call that one "Diamond Letters". Check it out. Plenty of spaces are available.