This is a theme I played in a while ago. I’d give credit to whoever ran it back then but I don’t recall. If you know please say who. It's a theme that provides a fun little challenge to build a roster, so if that's your thing...

baseball-reference.com has a feature called the Oracle of Baseball that is inspired by the Oracle of Kevin Bacon (aka Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon). In the Baseball version you put in any two MLB players and the Oracle generates a list of teammates that connect the two players. For example, when I put Ty Cobb and Derek Jeter into the Oracle it generated this list:

Ty Cobb played with Jimmie Foxx for the 1927 Philadelphia Athletics
Jimmie Foxx played with Granny Hamner for the 1945 Philadelphia Phillies
Granny Hamner played with Diego Segui for the 1962 Kansas City Athletics
Diego Segui played with Rick Honeycutt for the 1977 Seattle Mariners
Rick Honeycutt played with Derek Jeter for the 1995 New York Yankees

Here is a link to the Oracle of Baseball: http://www.baseball-reference.com/oracle/

In this theme teams will be built based on an Oracle of Baseball chain. Owners select beginning and end players (Cobb and Jeter above). To build your team you may twist all players who appear in the chain to any year of their career. The rest of the roster comes from players on the connecting teams, and those players may not be twisted. So in the example above I could twist Cobb, Foxx, Hamner, Segui, Honeycutt, and Jeter. Other players must come from player-seasons on the ’27 A’s, ’45 Phillies, ’62 A’s, 77 Mariners, and ’95 Yankees.

Other assorted rules:

• $100 mil salary cap
• 24 team league in the regular format – un-balanced, interleague
• No DH, clones, trades, AAA, WW.
• Beginning/end players are unique as beginning/end players.They may show up on other teams if they are connecting players or played on the connecting teams in another owner’s sequence. I’ll pick my end players after 12 owners have picked theirs.
• If players on the connecting teams played partial seasons you may use either the partial for that team or the whole season. (But not the partial with the other team.)
• You must have at least one player-season from each connecting team. This may be one of the connecting players if you choose his season from the connecting team.
• There is no $200k exemption, all players must come from the Oracle chain.
• Please include your beginning and end players in your team name.
• League alignment will be based on the number of years between the first and last connecting teams.
• Use the home stadium of any one of the connecting teams
• When you post your beginning and end players please also post your chain, like the one shown above. I’ll need it to check rosters.

That’s a lot of rules, sorry. But as I said at the beginning, some of the fun is the challenge of building a roster.

Owners:

1. sevenfifty5
2. midknight - Honus Wagner to Bryce Harper - 97 years
3. thebubbaq - Dan Brouthers to Vida Blue - 80 years
4. greggo72 - Lou Gehrig to Chipper Jones
5. dlchow - Russ Ford to Joe Blanton - 93 years
6. redcped - Billy Hamilton (1888-1901) to Billy Hamilton (2013 - 2017) - 119 years
7. mllama54 - Mike Donlin to Matt Harvey - 112 years
8. finn2030 - Nick Maddox to Greg Maddux - 77 years
9. good_beef - Ralph Garr to Earle Combs - 45 years
10. magicdreamer - Mordecai Brown to Pedro Martinez
11. reddtrain - Bill Burns to Mike Napoli - 100 years
12. pmwksw - Jack Coombs to Mike Bordick - 83 years
13. rswift30 - Herb Pennock to Gary Sanchez - 88 years

owner list: sevenfifty5; midknight; thebubbaq; greggo72; dlchow; redcped; mllama54; finn2030; good_beef; magicdreamer; reddtrain; pmwksw; rswift30;

I'll play - Honus Wagner to Bryce Harper - NL Please

• Honus Wagner played with Bobby Schang for the 1915 Pittsburgh Pirates
• Bobby Schang played with Fred Frankhouse for the 1927 St Louis Cardinals
• Fred Frankhouse played with Hank Majeski for the 1939 Boston Bees
• Hank Majeski played with Brooks Robinson for the 1955 Baltimore Orioles
• Brooks Robinson played with Dennis Martinez for the 1977 Baltimore Orioles
• Dennis Martinez played with Mark DeRosa for the 1998 Atlanta Braves
• Mark DeRosa played with Bryce Harper for the 2012 Washington Nationals

Glad to have you midknight.

Is there a minimum or maximum number of players allowed in the chain?

I am in for this will have my players shortly

Bill Dineen to Vida Blue
Hold on gotta look at chain a little more but this is my combo

Posted by schwarze on 5/28/2017 9:59:00 AM (view original):
Is there a minimum or maximum number of players allowed in the chain?

There is no min or max, but you need to use a chain that has the fewest players possible according to the Oracle. That is, if the Oracle can find chains with four connecting players you may not play a chain with five connecting players. Other than that, no mins or maxs.

If I choose not to twist one of my links, and instead use the exact season he's linking with, do I have to choose anybody else from that team?

Posted by schwarze on 5/28/2017 4:49:00 PM (view original):
If I choose not to twist one of my links, and instead use the exact season he's linking with, do I have to choose anybody else from that team?

Nope. That's the situation I was trying to describe with this:

• You must have at least one player-season from each connecting team. This may be one of the connecting players if you twist/choose a season from the connecting team.

I'll Take Lou Gehrig to Chipper Jones

Chain of Teammates From Lou Gehrig to Chipper Jones

I'll play. Russ Ford to Joe Blanton.

Russ Ford played with Ray Caldwell for the 1911 New York Highlanders

Ray Caldwell played with Luke Sewell for the 1921 Cleveland Indians

Luke Sewell played with Bob Feller for the 1939 Cleveland Indians

Bob Feller played with Hank Aguirre for the 1955 Cleveland Indians

Hank Aguirre played with Don Sutton for the 1968 Los Angeles Dodgers

Don Sutton played with Mark McLemore for the 1986 California Angels

Mark McLemore played with Joe Blanton for the 2004 Oakland Athletics

Bill Dinneen played with Tris Speaker for the 1907 Boston Americans
Tris Speaker played with Lefty Grove for the 1928 Philadelphia Athletics
Lefty Grove played with Ted Williams for the 1939 Boston Red Sox
Ted Williams played with Jim Pagliaroni for the 1960 Boston Red Sox
Jim Pagliaroni played with Vida Blue for the 1969 Oakland Athletics

Bill Dinneen played with Tris Speaker for the 1907 Boston Americans
Tris Speaker played with Al Simmons for the 1928 Philadelphia Athletics
Al Simmons played with Elmer Valo for the 1941 Philadelphia Athletics
Elmer Valo played with Deron Johnson for the 1960 New York Yankees
Deron Johnson played with Vida Blue for the 1974 Oakland Athletics

Final Answer I promise

"Final Answer I promise"

I don't know, part of the fun is exploring all the different options. I think I changed my choice three or four times when I played this theme. This is all to say I'll put you down for this chain but if the mood strikes you later, feel free to change it.