I. League Philosophy: The philosophy of the league is summarized in three themes: have fun, each owner takes FULL responsibility for the success of his own team and the league as a whole, and No Whining. This is not a league for owners who have trouble adhering to deadlines, making draft picks on time, keeping track of their roster, or getting keepers in on time. As the rules below will make clear, it is expected that owners will meet deadlines, take full responsibility for accuracy in their keeper lists and draft picks, and act with integrity at all times. Also, this league uses limited draft randomization to discourage tanking. Full details below.
II. Rules: Commissioner reserves the right to settle all disputes and to rule on any situation not explicitly covered in these rules. As with all rules, the “No Whining” theme applies to commissioner’s rulings. Changes to the rules may be proposed (within reason) and will be implemented if approved by 2/3 (11) of the owners.
III. Teams: There will be 16 teams initially, for the 1946 season. Expansion may be considered in the future but will require a 2/3 vote of league owners.
IV. WIS Rules: No DH(Effective for the 1973 season and thereafter, by an 11-5 vote the DH was approved for both leagues), No WW, No Salary Cap, No Live play. Injuries off. Trades will be permitted as discussed below. Once the league reaches 1973, league owners will vote as to whether to allow the DH in both leagues, one league, or not at all.
V. INITIAL DRAFT (No longer applicable)
VI. SUBSEQUENT DRAFTS
KEEPERS
The commissioner will set up a keeper thread in the private forum after the 120 game mark of each season. Keeper lists are due by the 135-game mark of each season; any owner that fails to do so runs the risk of losing his team. Teams may keep up to 25 players each year, plus injured reserve. Each team is allowed an unlimited number of IR slots for players who are not WIS-eligible in any given year. Each owner is responsible for keeping track of his IR players and making sure each year’s keeper list is correct. Failure to list a player as a keeper means that player will be added to the available draft list, and you risk losing the player. At the 135-game mark, all keeper lists are final; any subsequent roster corrections must be posted directly in the league forum AND sitemailed to the commissioner.
DRAFT PICKS
Unlike some progressives, you do NOT need to drop players to account for traded draft picks. (Some leagues have a rule whereby a team that, say, trades its 2nd round pick can keep no more than 23 players, in order to “free up” the traded 2nd round pick; the NWP does not use this rule.) Each team will be allotted as many draft picks as necessary to reach 25 players, based on the total roster size of each team at the start of the draft. If, because of trades occurring during the draft, a team finds that it needs additional picks, those picks will be slotted at the very end of the draft.
AVAILABLE PLAYERS
Each season the commissioner will post a list of available players for the upcoming draft. This list will be compiled from the list of all WIS-eligible players in the given season, subtracting out all players listed as keepers. The available player list will be published shortly after the 135-game mark. Since the draft will not start until after the conclusion of the regular season, owners will have at least 9 days in which to verify that the available player list is correct.
The available players list is considered final once the draft starts – even if it contains mistakes. IT IS EACH OWNER’S RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT NONE OF HIS KEEPERS ARE LISTED AS AVAILABLE. In the event that a mistake is made by the commissioner, and a keeper is listed on the available players list, that player WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO BE DRAFTED. Obviously, owners should help each other police the list – if you see someone listed as an available who looks too good to be true, it is likely that a mistake has been made; please point it out. However, if someone slips through the cracks and is drafted, the new owner will get to keep the player and the original owner will lose him.
Similarly, if a player who should be eligible for the draft is not listed on the available list, he may not be drafted. Such a player will be added to the available list for the following season.
DRAFT ORDER.Tanking will be discouraged by the following measures: 1.There will be a random weighted (4 chances for the team with worst record, 3 chances for next worst etc) lottery among the 4 teams (bottom 25% of the league) with the worst record to determine draft order for the first round only. 2. Despite the results of the lottery, no team that fails to win at least 40 games during the regular season will draft higher than 3rd in the first round. This rule will be waived for a new owner who takes over a team which failed to meet the 40 win minimum. 3. All other teams will draft in inverse order of their regular season record . All rounds subsequent to the first will be in inverse order of their regular season record . Ties will be broken by run differential during the 162 game regular season-i.e. runs scord less runs allowed. The team with the worst differential will draft highest among tied teams. Effective with the 1947 draft, following the end of the draft, there will be an add/drop round where owners may drop players and add undrafted players on a first come/first served basis. Players taken during the current years draft may NOT be dropped.
DRAFTING
The draft will proceed as a standard draft with the exception that owners do not have to wait for missed picks to be made up once round 1 is completed. Once round 1 is complete, as long as the owner before you has picked, you may pick. Proxies will be handled exactly the same way as in the inaugural draft. Drafting will be in 30-minute time slots, Noon to 7:30 PM, Eastern Time, Monday through Saturday. The commissioner will update the available players list and draft board as often as possible, but each owner is ultimately responsible for keeping track of who has been picked. If you make a mistake and pick a player who has already been selected or is otherwise not eligible, your pick will be considered “missed” and can be skipped.
VIII. PARKS
You must use the park that your franchise used each season, and you must change it when they did. No exceptions. As MLB expands in real life (starting in 1962), owners will be eligible to trade in their park for a new one. To do this, an owner must post a notice with his keepers indicating that he is “dropping” his current park. Each owner who wishes to drop a park will be allotted one additional draft pick in the offseason draft; this pick must be used to pick an eligible park, and this can occur in any round of the draft. Remember that parks are exclusive, and that NL teams must have NL parks, etc.
IX. TRADES
Draft picks may be traded up to 2 seasons in advance. For example, during the 1946 season, teams may trade 1947 or 1948 draft picks. During the 1947 draft, teams may trade picks for the current draft, or for the 1948 or 1949 drafts, etc. During the initial draft only draft picks may not be traded for future year draft picks
There will be no trade vetoes. All trades will be permitted, even ones that seem to be somewhat one-sided. On the off chance that there is a grossly imbalanced trade (eg a team trading stars for bench players, with no other players or draft picks in compensation) one or more owners may flag the trade as questionable. If an owner flags a trade as questionable, it will be put to a league-wide vote. A vote of 2/3 of the non-trading owners will be sufficient to overturn the trade. Please only invoke this rule if you believe that the imbalance is flagrant. Trades in which one team gets more value than another are part of baseball.