We had one owner drop out at the last minute. Please skip to the final posts in this thread - where you will see everything you need to know to decide if you want to join. You can ignore everything below this sentence in this post - since we have already done the rules draft, none of this matters any more for this season.

Looking for something a little different? This might be for you. What are the theme rules? Well, you get to help decide them.

This will be a 16-team league (4 divisions) in which we will build the theme rules from scratch. Once we have 16 owners, I will generate a random order, and each owner in turn will add a rule to the theme. These can be basic things, like a salary cap or whether we will use AAA. Or they can be things that relate to roster creation (like “AL players only”). We will end up with a league with 16 rules, that will apply to all of us. This league will continue as long as there is sufficient interest, and each season should end up being completely different from the ones that came before. Our first four seasons have proved this out; each one ends up with very different rules, requiring very different strategies.

The spirit of the theme is that we are trying to create a series of unique themes, each of which should force owners to be creative in compiling their roster. We are NOT trying to create an impossible roster building puzzle that will take hours and hours of research.

Essentially anything goes, but I would like to stipulate a few things:

1. If you sign up, please be committed to playing regardless of how the theme rules end up working out. This whole thing falls apart in a hurry if an owner backs out because he doesn’t like a rule that is subsequently added. You will almost certainly see at least one rule that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Deal with it.
2. We will not have trades or waiver wire. Note that the "no waiver wire" rule effectively means we can't use the "cash infusion after X games" provision - as there will be no way to spend the money.
3. When I go to set up the theme, if there are any decisions to be made for which we have not created a rule, we will use whatever the default setting is, EXCEPT FOR transaction deadline, minor league salary cap, and clones. Clones will not be allowed unless someone makes a rule expressly permitting them. And if we do end up using AAA, I will set minor league salary cap to OFF and will set the transaction deadline as late as possible to allow for maximum flexibility.
4. The first owner in our random order MUST specify the salary cap: anything between 70M and 255M. If this league continues to run for several more seasons, I envision eventually lowering the minimum cap to 60M. But for now, 70M is the minimum.
5. The second owner in our random order MUST specify whether we will use AAA, and if so, under what parameters. So you must decide: will we use AAA, and if so, how many AAA position players and pitchers will we have, what quality (below average, average, above average, or way above average) and will they be SIM-generated or draft-your-own. Note that if we use draft-your-own, then all AAA players MUST comply with all other rules. If we use SIM-generated, then AAA do NOT need to comply with all other rules.
6. Our default rule will be no DH. However, an owner in the 3rd through 16th slot may choose to use their proposed rule to overturn this and make our league a DH league. If you do this, the DH will be active for the whole league. No "AL only" DH rule.
7. Owners in the 3rd-16^th spots in the random order may make pretty much ANY rule related to roster creation or ballpark selection. Creativity is encouraged, but please be mindful of a few things:

• • Your rule must be ONE rule, not two. For example, you could say “no switch hitters allowed” or “each team must roster some version of Yogi Berra” but not “no switch hitters allowed and each team must roster some version of Yogi Berra.”
  • If you are blacklisting players or parks, you may blacklist 1 specific player (or park) or a specific class of players (or parks). But you may not list more than 1 specific players (or parks.) “Blacklist Derek Jeter” = OK. “Blacklist any pitcher from pre-1920” = OK. "Blacklist Fenway Park" = OK. "Blacklist any park with a PF < 1.0" = OK. “Blacklist Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds” = not OK. “Blacklist Jeter and any pitcher from pre-1920” = NOT OK. "Blacklist Fenway and any park with a PF < 1.0" = NOT OK.
  • No rules that require player drafts.
  • No “meta rules” are allowed. In other words, no rules about the rules. You can’t say something like “each owner is allowed to disregard one of the rules.” Your rule needs to be specifically about roster creation or ballparks.
  • No rules that require a specific outcome during our season. For example, you can’t say “each team must hit 200 HR in order to be eligible for the postseason.” Nor can you say “each pitcher on the roster must pitch at least 25 innings.” Nor "you have to use every player at only their primary position." Once the season starts, owners can use their players however they choose.
  • Please consider whether your rule will work with previous rules. An obvious example of a rule that doesn’t work would be one that directly conflicts with a previous rule. A less obvious example would be one that makes the player pool so restrictive that rosters either become unbuildable or will be too similar.
  • Please also consider how easy it will be for me to verify rosters.
  • If any clarification of a rule is needed, I reserve the right to issue such clarification. I also reserve the right to reject a rule if I think it is unworkable or does not meet the spirit of the theme.

I'll play. Sounds like fun.

Both fun and challenging,

I'll try this.

i'll take a spot

Just need 1 more!!

I'll join

AWESOME.

We are full - I will get things started this evening - stay tuned for sitemails

Will gladly take a waitlister or two...if I can't get you in this round, you'll have first dibs on any open spots next season.

Well, unfortunately, we had an owner apparently not the read the opening post very well, and said owner has dropped out at the 11th hour.

So, if there is a hardy soul out there who would like to join, here's the deal. We have a set of (user-generated) rules that apply to all rosters. I will share a simplified version of those rules in this post (simplified just means that for clarity, and where it makes sense, I have combined multiple rules that apply to the same concept. What you see below represents the totality of the roster restrictions for this round:


--140M Cap; no AAA; no clones, trades or WW (however based on the other rules below, I expect this play more like a 100M cap league)
-- Park must have been in use during the 1970s
-- All players must come from the modern era expansion teams - the 14 franchises that started in MLB in 1961 or later. Each team must have at least 1, and no more than 3, players from each of those 14 teams.
-- Every team must roster Frank Howard, and which version of him you choose, every other player on your team must have fewer real life HR than Howard did in the season that you choose for him.
-- You must roster at least one rookie with either 500+ PA/162 or 150+ IP/162
-- You must roster one hitter and one pitcher with the exact same first name, as used in the WIS database (i.e. since you have Frank Howard, you might choose Frank Tanana). Exact same first name means just what it says. "Dave" = Dave, not David. "Tom" = Tom, not Thomas, etc.
-- All position players must have RL AVG < or = .280 (this is AVG, not AVG#)
-- All pitchers must have WHIP > or = 1.00 (this is WHIP, not WHIP#)
-- Any pitcher with < 140 IP/162 must have IP/G < 4.0 (this effectively eliminates all low-IP starting pitchers)

Lastly there are two rules that are a little tricky. Workable, but will almost certainly require you to tweak your last few roster spots:
-- The total RL walks for your hitters must be within +/- 50 of the total RL walks allowed by your pitchers. (Note for 2020 and other short seasons: we are using the ACTUAL totals, not the totals prorated to 162 games)
-- Each teams salary must end in an odd number (weird rule, but what the heck, it ain't that hard to comply with)

If any intrepid souls would like to give this a try, post here or sitemail me and I will add you to the league forum and send you the league number. I can be VERY flexible with how long you need to enter your team, since you are doing us a huge favor.

Thanks all.

I'll play again.