League Rules:
16 team league. 4/4-4/4 format with interleague play. No clones. 25 man rosters. No team salary cap. No DH. No partial seasons.
Drafting Players:
When you draft a player you will choose a consecutive seven year span from that player's career. That span can start as early as the first season that player appears on Whatifsports or as late as their last Whatifsports season but all seven seasons must be within those two frames. (For example, Brandon Webb played from 2003-2009, a seven year span, but 2009 is too small a season to show up here and he has no seasons after it. Webb therefore only has a max of a six season span of eligible seasons and thus cannot be chosen for this league.)
Any player with at least seven years from their first season on Whatifsports to their last is eligible for the league. You can draft a player with missing seasons so long as those seasons are within their first and last year here. (For example, Ted Williams' career was from 1939-1960, but from 1943-45 he was off to war and missed complete seasons. You could still choose a seven year span like 1941-47 if you wanted to.)
A player's seven year span can only be chosen when that player is drafted and is not reset at any other time, including trades.
Assigning Seasons:
Each season we play each player will be assigned a random season from within their seven year span. If that season is one they have missing, you will be allowed to grab a replacement player from a small pool of serviceable but uninspiring "Replacement Players." No clones of replacement players. If you need something specific that isn't on the replacement list you can ask the commissioner to add a new player to it.
Each player will become a free agent the season after they have accumulated 40 million dollars worth of "Service Time" in the league. Service Time is defined as the salary cap value of a player's season, rounded down to the nearest million. So a player with a salary of 5.9 million will count as 5 million towards his service time. The season after a player reaches 40 mil they become a free agent.This number resets to zero for a player whenever that player is drafted.
Trades do not reset service time. Different players will obviously accumulate service time at different rates...this is intended to be part of the value equation for each player. Cy Young may give you way more value per season than Mariano Rivera will, but it will take Rivera a lot longer to reach free agency. You may cut players at the end of each year if you wish, but there are no random free agents.
Seasonal Drafts:
After each season we will draft from the free agent pool. Each team will get as many picks as they need to return to a 25 man roster. The draft order for the twelve teams that did not make the playoffs will be fully random each round, while the playoff teams will be randomized for picks 13-16
ST Adjustments:
Every player on the World Series winning team each year will be given a "Championship Hangover" in the form of a 5 million increase to their ST, which may cause some of them to become free agents. This is to increase competitive balance in the league and to help pay for the championship parades.
Each team that posts their keepers within 24 hours of the final game of the World Series will be eligible for a random drawing to select one of their players to receive a 10 million reduction in ST. Two teams will win the lottery. The chosen player cannot be one who has already reached 40 mil ST and free agency.