Super 1981 Franchise Progressive League (With a Twist)
Im a huge 80's Fan, having grown up in the ERA loving baseball, so I wanna start in 1981, but wanna add a slight twist or two to make things new and interesting.
In 1981 there were 26 teams (14 AL, 12 NL), This will be a 20 Team league with 6 teams not in use, these teams will be used as a draft pool which will help the weaker teams out since they will draft first. When more expansion happens, those teams will be added to the draft pool as well.
You will initially pick a franchise from 1981, first come, first serve. You will be starting with that roster. From then on, you will receive each season, any rookie that came up with your franchise(First WIS eligible season) via Baseball Reference.com, and keep them until you cut them or they retire, you wont lose them if they got traded or signed as a free agent in real life, so the Cubs will get Maddux, and, sorry Braves, you will never know his greatness! But the Cubs will never see Andre Dawson or Sammy Sosa come to town either. Once a player comes up to the majors, as long as they qualify for a WIS season, he will stay with the parent team, unless you decide to cut, or trade him.
Also, at the beginning of each season, we will draft the rookies of the teams not being used, and any player cut, with the worst records the season before drafting first. So the teams with bad farm systems still get new blood coming in. Think it over, see what your teams lacks or needs, and bring it back!
Trades are allowed, including draft picks, even your twist is open if you dare trade away such a gem.
No clones, No AAA, Use Correct Stadium for your franchise and season, No Salary Cap, DH is IN USE.
In the case that a player has a gap in playing time, you keep his rights on IR unless you cut him.
To get your Initial team, Load your teams roster from 1981, if a player appears on more than one team in 1981, all those teams get to use him for his entire career, as IPs and ABs may get tight, and I don't want to limit anyone to start off with. That will be the only clones for this league.
As a Twist, you may zoom into the future of your franchise, to 2001, 20 years ahead of our starting time,--OR--go to 2011, 30 years ahead of our starting time, and bring back 1 player, from your teams roster, as long as he actually started with your team, to stay inside our rules, and teleport him back to 1981 and start his career with whatever year you wish, he will then progress one season at a time, just like every other player until he retires or is traded or cut. You will also still get him back when he becomes a rookie, with a 20 year span, we shouldn't reach his rookie year before he is gone, but just in case, the rule will be, once he has a WIS eligible season for your team, you must take his rookie season and start him over.
Will keep divisions as close to real as possible, but will probably have to make some changes due to team choices.
Rookie Draft-Between each season, we will draft rookies that come up with the 6 teams not being using, this will only consist of 1 round, as there will not be a ton of rookies each season, will go to 2 rounds when expansion happens. Order, reverse of finish, tie breaker head to head, coin flip thereafter.
Since some teams start off pretty bad, I don't want someone who CAN'T win 40 games to miss out, thats what these first couple years are about, so we will do this:
Order will be reverse order of standings at the 150 games mark, with a 40 win floor to get top pick, otherwise you drop to 3rd automatically, if 2nd guy dosen't make 40 wins, he will go to 4th, etc.
With only a small initial draft, and small draft in between each season, we should have a quick turn around every season!
12/12/2019 6:42 AM (edited)