Franchise Draft Tournament II
This will be a 3-round tournament. There will be sixteen 16-team leagues in round 1. There will be four 24-team leagues (four 6-team divisions) in round 2. The final round will be one 16-team league.
Round 1 Details
Round 1 will consist of 16 drafts (one for each of the original sixteen franchises), with the next draft starting shortly after the previous draft ends. Each draft will have 5 days of scheduled picks (draft specifics below). At the end of each round 1 league, six teams will advance to round 2… the four playoff teams and two wildcard teams. The two wildcard teams will be determined in the following order. (1) The non-playoff team with the best W-L record will advance (Exp Win% will break ties). (2) The second wildcard team is the team with the best Exp Win% among the other eleven teams. The league (NL vs AL) doesn’t matter when selecting the two wildcard teams. It’s possible to have 4 teams from the NL and 2 teams from the AL (or vice-versa) advancing to round 2. Division alignment in round 1 is based on total team salary.
Round 2
The six advancing teams from each of Leagues 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be placed a 24-team league (using the division format from 1969-76, with four 6-team divisions, no inter-league play). The NL franchises will play in NL, the AL franchise will play in AL. This same process will apply to leagues 5 thru 8, 9 thru 12 and 13 thru 16. That means there will be four round 2 leagues. Only the division winners will advance to Round 3.
Round 3
Unlike in the first Franchise Draft tournament, where the best team might not advance due to being unlucky in 1-run games, getting an unlucky division placement and/or a having a poor LCS result, the top six teams from each round 1 league will advance to round 2. After playing another 162 games against each other, the team that wins the round 2 division will have proven itself worthy of round 3. Ideally, round 3 will have the best team from each franchise advancing. Round 3 will be a 16-team league with inter-league play. Division alignment is based on team salary within NL and within AL.
Advancing to each round
You must use the exact same roster and ballpark (that you used in round 1) as you advance to each successive round.
The Draft
You may be wondering, how can we possibly complete an entire draft in just five days? Answer: We are drafting seasons, not individual players. The seasons will be grouped into 25-year periods.
Group A: 1901-1925
Group B: 1926-1950
Group C: 1951-1975
Group D: 1976-2000
Group E: 2001-2025
The 5-round draft order will be set in advance with a third-round reversal (i.e., 1 to 16, 16 to 1, 16 to 1, 1 to 16, 16 to 1). Each person will be scheduled for one pick per day and you will know your time slots in advance. You must draft exactly one season from each of the five groups. You must roster exactly 5 players from each of your five seasons. Not only that, but you must roster 2 pitchers and 3 hitters from Groups B, C, D. For Group A (1901-1925), you can roster 1 pitcher & 4 hitters or 2 pitchers & 3 hitters. You still can only roster a maximum of 500 total innings* from the years 1901-1919. For Group E (2001-2025), you can roster 3 pitchers & 2 hitters or 2 pitchers and 3 hitters. This means, your final roster can have a maximum of 11 pitchers (with a minimum of 9 pitchers).
*1903 Joe McGinnity exception. He may be rostered despite his 506 innings. No other 1903 Giant’s pitcher may be rostered if ’03 McGinnity is rostered.
The draft order for all the franchise drafts will be determined ahead of time, similar to how we did the order for the previous Franchise Draft Tournament. For those playing all 16 leagues, you will have one first pick, one second pick, one third pick, etc.
Prizes
I will contact admin to get them to donate something for prizes. Prizes will be awarded for the two World Series teams in round 3.
Other Specifics
Salary Cap = None
DH = Yes
Clones, WW, AAA, Injuries, Trades = No
Ballpark: Must use a park used by your franchise
Round 1 Alignment: Based on salary
Round 2 Alignment: All teams from same franchise in one division (NL teams in NL, AL teams in AL).
Round 3 Alignment: Based on salary (NL teams in NL, AL teams in AL).
Draft Schedule
This will not be a “fast draft” like the past two draft tournaments that I ran. The draft schedule will be slotted with 45-minute time slots (16 owners x 45 minutes = 12 hours, 11:00 am to 11:00 pm EDT). One pick per person, per day for five straight days. Then a few days off to prepare for the next draft, followed by another 5 days to draft the next league, rinse repeat. I am going to be in the Bahamas April 29-May 5, so we won’t start the official draft schedule before May 6.
You can pick ahead of your time slot only if everybody before you has already made their pick (or if those in front of you cannot take the season you are taking). There is no 2-hour rule or anything like this for this draft. If somebody makes an illegal pick, we won’t skip them… unless your time slot has arrived.
You do not have to commit to all 16 leagues.