Before we get into round 3, a determination needs to be made on which teams advance. Per the rules, exactly 6 teams from each franchise will advance (the four playoff teams and the teams with the next two best records). Also, per rules, no person can have more than 8 teams advance.

If anybody has more than 8 teams that are *qualified* to advance, the lowest ranking team(s) are dropped and the team with the next best record (in that same league) will advance. In no instance will a franchise get more than 6 teams to advance to round 3.

The 96 teams will be ranked by (1) W-L record over the 162 game regular season (2) Expected Winning% (3) Home field win%. Any teams that get "moved up" from non-qualifying to qualifying status due to somebody having to drop teams, those teams will rank behind the qualifying teams, regardless of their W-L record.

Once the 96 teams are determined, a draft order will be calculated. The order will be based on the Round 2 rankings defined above. The top 8 teams will get to pick which league they want to be in (and should select their team ahead of the regular draft). Once the "Top-8" selection process has been completed, the rest of the teams will be slotted into the open spots according to a predefined algorithm. Trading picks will be allowed before and during the draft.

Since there are 4 leagues in round 3, and 8 teams per person is the max, no person will be allowed to have more than 1 team per franchise. Also, for those with multiple teams, your teams must be split up into different leagues. For example, if you have 5 teams advance, that equates to one team per league for three leagues and two teams in the fourth league, (opposite sides, of course). If you have between 2-4 teams, than you can not have more than one team per league.

These are how the four leagues will be aligned. A total of 12 seasons from each franchise will be selected in the draft.

League 1: NL: Mets / AL: Angels
League 2: NL: Astros / AL: Rangers
League 3: NL: Padres / AL: Brewers
League 4: NL: Expos / AL: Royals

The rules for round 3 are exactly the same as round 1, except the franchises being used include the 1961 and 1969 expansions franchises.

Twist & Clone Rules
Upon sign-up, you will select a single season team (1961-2024) from one of the eight expansion franchises). Using baseball-reference.com as a guide, you can twist any player that appeared in at least one game for that single season team. And you get to clone any of your players one time (i.e., you can use up to two versions of any player from that roster). You aren't required to clone every player you use, but you cannot have three versions of a player.

Other Details
Player Seasons: Any (You are allowed to twist or clone a player to a season prior to 1961)
Salary Cap: None
DH: Yes
WW, AAA, Injuries: No
Clones: Allowed (but no more than two versions of any player)
Multi-Team Seasons: You may use partial or combined season
Ballpark: Any ballpark from any franchise from any season will be allowed.
Division Alignment: Chronologically

It's never too early to start researching for round 3.

Bump