What are the various league formats (I know that they have letters from A to F) and where can I find them listed?

Only when starting a progressive league do I see them listed, but by then, if one is planning a league ahead of time, or playing around with ideas for the future it is too late. 

In particular, are there any options available for leagues with fewer than 16 teams - for example a progessive league that could then expand to 16 later? 

Are there provisions anywhere or in some way for leagues where rosters do not have to reach up to 25 for the DC to allow the teams to be created (say during the 1880s when no teams had anything like 25 players and most had only 2-4 pitchers)? 

Does WIS have any provisions for leagues with divisions (and therefore playoff options) at 16 teams ? Or only beyond 16?

Also, do we know why the players from before 1885 are not listed? In OOTP Baseball there are players from 1871 on, so apparently there is enough statistical data to make this possible. 

For example: 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/spaldal01.shtml

and

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/ansonca01.shtml


So on an OOTP team I have Candy Cummings, inventor of the curveball. Why can't we do that here? 

If I think of any more questions I will let you guys know. 


 

Knowledge Base Article #729 has what you're looking for RE: the league size. (Short Answer: C and D are 12-team leagues. B and E are 16-team leagues with divisions.)

There is currently no provision in the SIM for rosters smaller than 25. Most leagues that run out of players fill their rosters with 200K and set them to rest/send them down for random below average AAA to fill.

I don't have a citation for this, but I believe Admin has said/implied that the reason the cutoff is 1885 is a combination of a few factors:
1: Perceived unreliability of data sets
2: Unacceptably increasing levels of pitcher/position players causing problems (right now, all players are somewhat arbitrarily assigned to be one or the other and cannot be used in the other capacity). This factor would be fixed if they found a way to allow pitchers to be used as position players out of position. (In which case, all players that reached 25 IP would be pitchers that you could then put in the field.)
3: Imbalance due to ever-increasing IP/162 counts

Thanks so much uncleal. 

I have been playing OOTP with early players, getting to know them better (King Kelly is a lot of fun to hang with, just don't get him mad), and have half an idea to start a new prog with only 12 teams, which might make it possible to just start with the available players from 1885 here and not need AAA or 200k. 

Still working on the math of it. 

You would think they could just do something with the pitcher-players like give them an additional name: Bob Smith Pitcher instead of Bob Smith and the team that drafted Bob Smith would choose whether they wanted the Pitcher or Batter.