(This theme was created by crazystengel, and he has graciously allowed me to take over Commish duties for Season Two.)

The league is dedicated to the forgotten players who made it to the Big Leagues but did not accumulate enough AB/IP to make it to our database. Let's honor the ghosts who have been flushed out of WIStory!

Here's the idea: Find a player at baseball-reference.com who never got to 50 at-bats or 25 innings in a single season. It's okay if this player played more than one season, so long as he never batted/pitched enough to be in the WIS database. Choose one team that he played on, and twist his teammates into an $80M team. (All pre-1920 players are blacklisted; you are allowed to choose a pre-1920 team, but all the twisted players must come from seasons after 1919.)

Now the kicker: Each owner will receive 60 AAA batters and 20 AAA pitchers, all of them Way Above Average. You will select one of these rookies -- AND ONLY ONE -- and rename him (with your ghost player's name), and call him up. Because this rookie is Way Above Average, and because of our relatively low cap, he will be an impact player in this theme. But choose carefully: this is the only rookie you will have access to all season.

NOTE: If your ghost was a batter in real life, you must call up an AAA batter; if he was a pitcher, you must call up an AAA pitcher. I won't be a stickler for exact positions (C or OF doesn't matter, nor SP or RP), but on the batter/pitcher issue there's no leeway.

ALSO: Your "25th" player (the one you send down to the minors to make room for your ghost) can be either a real life teammate or any 200K player in the database; however, if he is the latter, he must never appear in a game. Use of ineligible players will result in automatic forfeits.

SUMMARY
No: DH, WW, Clones, Trading
1920-2016 players only
$80M Cap
60 AAA batters/20 AAA pitchers -- Auto, Fictitious Names, Way Above Average
Park must be the one your ghost's team played in
Random Alignment
Ghosts/Teams are exclusive

NOTE: The one change I’m going to make from Season One’s rules is that franchises/selected seasons making the playoffs will be blacklisted for all future seasons. (Ex. If you make the playoffs with Ozzie Canseco – 1990 Oakland Athletics, the 1990 Oakland Athletics will be blacklisted for future seasons. A team could, however, choose Ozzie Canseco – 1992 St. Louis Cardinals for the following season.)

By the way, here are the salary ranges for Way Above Average rookies:

BATTERS: $3,875,000 to $9,651,076
STARTING PITCHERS: $3,450,000 to $9,174,893
RELIEF PITCHERS: $2,775,000 to $5,246,064

Rookies will be auto/fictitious names. Using the AAA thread, you should be able to ID all of them.

OWNERS LIST:

1. abnmp - Rudy Miller (1929 Philadelphia Athletics) - batter
2. zdedalus - Joe Sprinz (1933 St. Louis Cardinals) - batter
3. shysters - Floyd Newkirk (1934 New York Yankees) - pitcher
4. reddtrain - Jim Asbell (1938 Chicago Cubs) - batter
5. razorclams - Joe Shipley (1960 San Francisco Giants) - pitcher
6. combalt - John Miller (1966 New York Yankees) - batter
7. mars2010 - Jimy Williams (1966 St. Louis Cardinals) - batter
8. joerat1 - Roe Skidmore (1970 Chicago Cubs) - batter
9. 0soup4u - Terry McDermott (1972 Los Angeles Dodgers) - batter
10. cpdpoet - Larry Fritz (1975 Philadelphia Phillies) - batter
11. dlchow - Kerry Dineen (1975 New York Yankees) - batter
12. jgaleo062066 - Dennis Sherrill (1978 New York Yankees) - batter
13. farleyfustle - Ken Smith (1982 Atlanta Braves) - batter
14. ETSTim - Tim Ireland (1982 Kansas City Royals) - batter
15. gyrene - Tony Mack (1985 California Angels) - pitcher
16. cpdpoet - Greg Legg (1986 Philadelphia Phillies) - batter
17. burningcouch - Gordon Dillard (1988 Baltimore Orioles) - pitcher
18. mars2010 - Marty Pevey (1989 Montreal Expos) - batter
19. jmcraven74 - Phil Lombardi (1989 New York Mets) - batter
20. matt121888 - Chris Jelic (1990 New York Mets) - batter
21. jmcraven74 - Eddie Zosky (1992 Toronto Blue Jays) - batter
22. eschwartz67 - John DiSilva (1993 Los Angeles Dodgers) - pitcher
23. paulives - Joe Aryault (1996 Atlanta Braves) - batter
24. gees51 - Bry Nelson (2002 Boston Red Sox) - batter

I do a lot of theme leagues, and this was one of the most entertaining themes I had done in a long time. It was a blast seeing Howard Hilton (a guy who appeared in two games for the 1990 Cardinals) become a 17-game winner in this league. Do you have some legend from your hometown who only managed to get a cup of coffee in the big leagues? This is your opportunity to immortalize him in WIS History!

Correction there mars2010, I'm taking the 1933 Cardinals.

Posted by zdedalus on 6/24/2017 7:51:00 AM (view original):
Correction there mars2010, I'm taking the 1933 Cardinals.

Gotcha.

I'm taking Tim Ireland (batter) with the 1982 Royals. Because we share the same name his 1 major league hit will never be forgotten by me.

Posted by mars2010 on 6/24/2017 7:13:00 AM (view original):
I do a lot of theme leagues, and this was one of the most entertaining themes I had done in a long time. It was a blast seeing Howard Hilton (a guy who appeared in two games for the 1990 Cardinals) become a 17-game winner in this league. Do you have some legend from your hometown who only managed to get a cup of coffee in the big leagues? This is your opportunity to immortalize him in WIS History!

Completely agree mars, this is my new favorite league. Reasonable cap, plenty of competitive teams but most importantly, the hype waiting for your ghost in the aaa draw. Very fun.

Kerry Dineen - batter. 1975 Yankees

My friend eschwartz67 turned me onto this and I will give it a shot....

1978 Yankees ghost player Dennis Sherrill-batter

My Player is John DiSilva - Pitcher. 1993 LA Dodgers

I'll go with Blaine Beatty Pitcher 1989 Mets

I've had multiple requests to add a <$300K exception to allow owners with limited numbers of players to choose from in their franchise's selected season to fill those voids with players from the franchise from other seasons. If we make this change, I'm inclined to limit it to no more than one <$300 pitcher and one <$300 batter. I'd appreciate any input (yea or nay) from those that have already committed.

There are plenty of teams to choose from and making the bench/bullpen fit is part of the challenge plus we already get one 200k guy for our ghost. Id say it should only be allowed if you literally do not have 24 roster players to choose from on your team/season, otherwise no.

Posted by zdedalus on 6/26/2017 1:44:00 PM (view original):
There are plenty of teams to choose from and making the bench/bullpen fit is part of the challenge plus we already get one 200k guy for our ghost. Id say it should only be allowed if you literally do not have 24 roster players to choose from on your team/season, otherwise no.

I'd say that virtually all of the responses I've gotten back on this issue sound a lot like zdedalus's. So we're going to keep the rules as originally written. No <$300K exceptions for this season.