SimLeague Baseball Player's Guide

Playoffs

With 24 teams split into a total of six divisions in two leagues, each division champion automatically makes the playoffs along with one Wild Card from each league. The Wild Card team is the team with the best record out of the non division winners.

Once the field is set, the four teams remaining in each league square off with the top seed (team with the best regular season record) facing the Wild Card and the second best team playing the third best in a best-of-five series. If the Wild Card and top seed are from the same division, they will not meet in the first round of the playoffs.

The second round (League Championship Series) is a best-of-seven series where the two winning teams from each league in the first round square off with a berth in the World Series on the line.

The SimLeague Baseball World Series is also a best-of-seven series.

For situations in which teams tie in the regular season, the real-life rules are used to determine seeding and/or one-game playoff scenarios.

At the start of the playoffs, all players have their underlying fatigue numbers (the numbers that derive fatigue) adjusted so they begin the playoffs having used up at least 95% of their season allotment of plate appearances and pitches thrown. This adjustment is made to prevent the abuse of low usage players from dominating in the playoffs.

Teams receive 1 day of rest in between each round of the playoffs. If a team defeats their opponent in less games than their upcoming opponent, they receive additional rest. For instance, if a team wins the first round of the playoffs in 3 games but their next opponent wins the first round in 5 games, the team receives an additional 2 days of rest. All rest is applied at the time the next round of the playoffs is generated.

Each round of the playoffs also resets your pitching rotation. That means, your first listed starting pitcher will earn the start for the first game in the series regardless of his fatigue/autorest combination. This allows managers to set their rotation right up until game time.