This is the 4th iteration of a league originally created by NebHusker, who authorized me taking over.
You draft a player from each franchise in the 1969-present configuration (2 players with your 1st pick, playing in their division and stadium). The current regular season will end on Dec 14 - I will treat non-returners as wait listed through Dec 14. I hope to start the draft over the holidays to begin the regular season in January.
People loved this draft in Feb, June & October! There are important changes - and non-changes.
KEEPING
1 We will again go in pick order (each person's 5th pick is due in the same window, but from a different team). That includes the "double pick" for your round 1 team (which is how we get 25 players from 24 franchises).
2 We will keep the "Full/Partial seasons only" rule to avoid the possibility of duplication with combined seasons.
3 We will keep the $120m salary cap.
4 We will explicitly allow owners to register for a 2nd team but will again put them in a separate division without back to back draws. We will use 2nd owners as needed - depending on the speed at which the league fills. If your post says you are willing, I will add you to that list as well.
CHANGING
1 We will accelerate the draft - since many people worked ahead last time. The schedule will have TWO picks per day, one MORNING pick (due by 3pm eastern) and one EVENING pick (due by 3am the next day, eastern). If you miss your window, the next person can pick ahead of you - but you can't slide back more than one position for each 12 hours. You can still pick ahead if all rounds ahead of you for that team have been selected.
2 The 24th round is the ONLY round where you can mulligan - because no one else's picks were altered by your final pick. In your early picks, consider some players who had BOTH an awesome season AND also 1+ cheap seasons (so that you can have some flexibility in building your final roster).
3 When you enroll, please list all past PRIMARY franchises you've played. There will be a system after the random draw to make sure no owner repeats a primary franchise within 5 seasons of franchise draft. Here are links to the prior drafts:
FD #1 https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=545039&page=1
FD #2 https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=546350&page=1
FD #3 https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=547523&page=1
RULES:
Franchise Draft 3, 1969-2025
This will be a 24 round draft, drafting from a different franchise each round. Once we get 24 owners, we will randomly assign a first round draft order, and each owner will be randomly assigned a “Double 1st Pick” franchise (franchises listed below). 1st pick will be adjusted if an owner previously played that team with their 1st pick.
We will then conduct a 24 round draft where each round, each owner selects a player from the franchise assigned to them for that round (1969-2024 only). Two rounds per day. Twice each day, the player picks from their team for that round. I will update the front page frequently and will accept a volunteer to create a spreadsheet with columns for each team.
Owners will ultimately get one pick in each position (1-24) and one pick from each franchise (2 players for 1st round pick).
Players are exclusive WITHIN franchises, but are not exclusive across franchises.
Example – During the Boston round, once Pedro Martinez gets selected, he is off the board for the rest of the Red Sox picks. However, if you are picking from the Mets franchise or the Montreal/ Washington franchise, someone can select a version of Pedro each from those franchises. This means clones ARE allowed, as someone could possibly take 2 or more versions of a player with different franchises. There was a team with several Beltrans in v1.
Obviously, a normal draft won’t work here as each owner gets a #1 pick and each owner gets a #24 pick and everything in between. We will draw a random order for round 1, and then simply slide everyone down one pick every round (1 moves to 2. . . .2 moves to 3. . . .etc, with 24 moving to 1). You can trade picks with someone so long as both players pick in all 24 slots and from all 24 franchises.
The strategy here is interesting. . . .with a $120M cap and with everyone's 1st pick on day 1, you can decide whether to grab an awesome starter or a cheap bench player. To up the strategy factor, we WILL use a DH.
Your ballpark will be based on whatever franchise you get for your #1 double pick, you can take any park that franchise used between 1969 – 2024. Yes, this means if you get the Cubs as your franchise, you will play in Wrigley. If you draw the Dodgers, you are in Dodger Stadium. The nice part is you will know what park you are in before we draft. For that matter, you will also know which other owners/parks will be in your division.
To keep with the spirit of the theme, combined seasons will NOT be allowed, we will use Full or Partial only. When you are researching, use the box for "Season Type:" and select full/partial. You are NOT allowed to use combined seasons, so if you do the search correctly, you can exclude seeing those results.
Standard 24 team league
$120M salary cap.
YES to clones, but only from different franchises.
YES to DH.
No WW.
No AAA.
No trades
Full/Partial seasons only (no Combined)
Alignment – See below (Astros & Brewers go back to 1969 roots)
Ballpark – any park used by your franchise (1969-2024 only)
Yes to injuries
Draft Franchises – (Listed by Divisional Alignment)
Orioles (Bal 1969-2024)
Red Sox (Bos 1969-2024)
Tigers (Det 1969-2024)
Yankees (NY 1969-2024)
Indians/Guardians (Cle 1969-2024)
Royals (KC 1969-2024)
Twins (Min 1969-2024)
White Sox (Chi 1969-2024)
Angels (Cal 1969-1996. . . .Ana 1997-2017. . . .LA 2018-2024)
Athletics (Oak 1969-2024)
Brewers/Pilots (Sea 1969. . . .Mil 1970-2024)
Rangers/Senators (Wash 1969-1971. . . .Tex 1972-2024)
Braves (Atl 1969-2024)
Mets (NY 1969-2024)
Nationals/Expos (Mon 1969-2004. . . .Wash 2005-2024)
Phillies (Phi 1969-2024)
Cardinals (StL 1969-2024)
Cubs (Chi 1969-2024)
Pirates (Pit 1969-2024)
Reds (Cin 1969-2024)
Astros (Hou 1969-2024)
Dodgers (LA 1969-2024)
Giants (SF 1969-2024)
Padres (SD 1969-2024)
12/12/2025 7:04 PM (edited)