DM Classic IV - Rules Thread

[J W]

Here's a thread for the rules side of things, which will be stickied in this forum.

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CURRENT OWNERS AND DIVISIONAL ALIGNMENT
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William Hulbert Division
Buppers Badgers (buppers) - Anahiem Stadium
JW Skipjacks (JW) - Memorial Stadium
Lew's Legends (catcher24) - Shea Stadium (free move used)
Windy City Thunder (Windy City Fan) - Oakland Collesium

Henry Chadwick Division
Emerald City Corsairs (leecemark) - Kingdome (formerly Shoeless Joes)
Las Vegas Gamblers (rmadchick)- Riverfront Stadium
Milwaukee Irons (jaybird) - County Stadium
San Diego Spikes (mwiggins)- San Diego Stadium

Ban Johnson Division
EB Gold Sox (Erik Bedard) - Veterans Stadium
Leecemark Knights (Leecemark) - Tiger Stadium
Sockeye Angels (Sockeye) - Astrodome
Pheonix Dust Bunnies (dust bunnies) - Commiskey Park

Alexander Cartwright Division
Jersey Blues (kardinal) - Busch Stadium (formerly Diablos)
Mac's Hard Cider (mac195 on LOA/Jaybird overseeing club) - Yankee Stadium
Chautauqua County Lumberjacks (cacther24) - Royals Stadium (formerly Cloverleafs)
Portland Beavers (rmadchick) - Wrigley Field

[J W]

DIAMOND MIND CLASSIC KEEPER LEAGUE RULES

1. LEAGUE STRUCTURE
There will be 16 teams, with two leagues. Each league shall consist of two divisions, with four teams in each division. Each team will be run by an active owner.

2. LEAGUE SEASON REPLAYS
A. SALARY CAP
There will be a 100 million dollar salary cap for the duration of the league. The total of all player salaries cannot exceed this limit at any time.

B. ROSTERS
After all player raises/nontenders/signings (See # 3 ), each owner will pick a 25 man active roster. Owners shall submit lineups, depth charts, pitching rotations, bullpen roles and managerial profiles to the league commissioner. Players on the team but not on the active roster will be assigned to the “farm”. Once the season has started, it shall be permissible for a team to have more than or less than 40 men on their roster. This situation could result from a 1 for 2 trade; adding an additional player(s), etc.
C. GAMES
The season will be 168 games long. Most days during the season a full 3 game series will be played. Game results and injuries are reported after each series. Normally these results will be accompanied by either team pitching reports, team batting reports, league batting leaders or league pitching leaders. Owners may change their lineups, rotations, put injured players on the disabled list, change manager profiles or take other such actions by advising the commissioner via a post on the current season’s roster thread. Alternatively, if an owner has the Diamond Mind Game, he may make any adjustments to lineup, rotation, profile, promotions/demotions to the farm in the game and email the appropriate file to the commissioner. AT NO TIME WILL ANYONE USING THE DM GAME RELEASE PLAYERS OR SIGN FREE AGENTS! These actions MUST be done by the commissioner to prevent corrupted data. Owners using the game will inform the commissioner of their intent to release a player or sign a free agent via post on the season thread or email. The commissioner will then make these adjustments in his (commissioner’s) master data base, and the appropriate file will then be sent to the manager.
D. PLAYING TIME LIMITS
1. Maximum playing time limit: During the course of a simulated season, any batter exceeding 120% of their real life Plate Appearances or pitcher exceeding 12)% of their real life Batters Faced will be ineligible for further play during that season, including the playoffs. This will be reduced to 115% in 1976 and to 110% in 1977 and going forward.
2. Minimum playing time limit: Players with less than 50 PA or BF in real life for the particlar season being played will be eligible only as replacements for a player at their position who goes on the DL. Players with less than 100 PA or BF will be eligible only as injury replacements and as September call ups. This will apply to each season going forward. Players with less than 100 PA/BF will not be eligible for the postseason under any circumstances.
E. PLAYOFFS
At the end of the regular season, the four division winners and the non-division winner in each league with the best record (wild card position) will compete in the league playoffs. The team with the best record in each league will receive a first round bye. The other division winner and the wild card team will play off, with the winner then playing the team with the first round bye for the league championship.



3. OFF SEASON ACTIVITIES
At the conclusion of each season there will be a three week dormant period. No player movement will be allowed during this time. After the three weeks an offseason thread will be started. Once the offseason thread is put up, trades may be made and posted at any time. Additionally, the following activities will occur on a schedule posted by the commissioner:
A. HOME TOWN DISCOUNT BIDS
Teams with qualifying players will submit an offer to retain said player. Other teams will have 72 hours to top that bid by 20%, sending the player to the free agent auction, or he will be resigned by his original team. HTD bids will include the number of years offered and this also must be matched by any topping bidder.
B. NONTENDERS
Each owner will submit their list of nontendered players (players who will not be offered a new contract). Any player not listed as a nontender will be assumed to be remaining on the roster.
C. ROOKIE DRAFT
1. The date, time and procedure for bidding for the rookie draft shall be set by the commissioner in a post to the offseason thread.
2. Players who debuted in the real major leagues in the upcoming replay season will be drafted through a Rookie Draft. Only players who made their first major league appearance in the coming season are eligible for the Rookie Draft. The order of the first round of the draft will be set by a lottery of all non-playoff teams. The worst record from the previous year will get 10 tickets, the next worse 9 and so on to one ticket for the best team to miss the playoffs. The rest of the draft will be in inverse order of the previous year’s final league standings and will be a straight draft. Salaries for drafted rookies will be as follows:
1-4: 3M
5-8: 2.5M
9-12: 2M
13-16: 1.5M
17-24: 1M
25-32: 750K
3rd round: 500K
4th and later: 250K


FREE AGENT AUCTION
1) PFA and secondary auctions combined
2) No minmium years on contracts (except for HTD players who will be bid at the outset of the offseason with no change to procedure).
3) Maximum for players under 5M is 3 years, 5M allows an option for a 4th year, 8M allows an option for up to 5 years
4) Buyout provision would no longer be needed (one last opportunity to buy out deals in 1975)
5) Preliminary bidding runs for 48 hours with 250k bid increments; then
a) first official list of bids is posted - if not topped (still 250K) within 24 hours those players are signed
b) New free agent list is posted - if not topped at increments of 500K those players are signed
c) New free agent list is posted - if not topped in 24 hours at increments of 1M those players are signed
d) Live bidding on all remaining players. Bidding increments remain at 1m, but bidding is closed on any players who don't have their bid topped within 10 minutes


F. OVERBID PENALTIES
1. If an owner exceeds the 100 million salary cap in the course of either free agent auction their highest bid will be disallowed and the player they bid the most on will be lost to them (the owner cannot have the player he bid the most for). He will also have a 5M reduction in salary cap imposed upon his team for the subsequent season (for example, if the overbid occurred during 61-62 offseason the penalty would be enforced in 1963). If multiple bids must be rescinded to get under the cap then the reduction will be 5M for each bid that is in violaton.
2. Any player(s) for whom a bid is disallowed due to cap violations will be offered to the second highest bidder at their last bid price if they are still in a position to and want to sign that player. If the second highest bidder can't take the player or chooses not to sign the player then that player will be placed in the secondary free agent auction if the violation occurred during the Premium Free Agent Auction. The player will be made available to any interested owners via sealed bid if the violation occurs during the secondary free agent auction phase."
3. If a new manager takes over a team that is due to have a salary cap penalty imposed due to the above, the penalty shall not be imposed.
F. ADDITIONAL PLAYER SIGNINGS
After the Rookie Draft, Premium Free Agent Auction and Secondary Free Agent Auction, any team may sign any remaining player at the minimum wage (250K). Should two teams put in a claim for the same player at the same time, he will be awarded to the team with the worst record at the time of the claim.
G. FULL ROSTER
At the conclusion of this entire process every team must have 40 players under contract. Any team with less than a full 40 man roster will have 250K in salary assigned to each vacant roster spot. At no time during this process may a team exceed the 100 Million dollar salary cap.
H. LINEUPS
Submit lineups, pitching assignments and managerial profile to the commissioner. Season begins.


4. FREE AGENCY
A. Beginning with the 1967-1968 off season, players will be eligible for free agency following their sixth season (i.e. the rookie class of 1962 will be free agents for the 1968 season; class of 1963 will be free agents in 1969, etc).
B. Free Agent “HOMETOWN DISCOUNT” Rule
1. Any player taken in the Rookie Draft who is still with their original drafting team when they become eligible for free agency
(end of sixth season) will have a “hometown discount” option applied to them for the free agency auction.
2. The hometown discount will allow the original draft team (hometown team) to submit an opening bid prior to the free agent
auction. Any other team wishing to bid on that player will have to beat this opening bid by at least 20%, rounding up to
stay with 250K intervals. If the hometown team’s inital bid is surpassed by a bid at least 20% higher by any other team
(rounded up to next 250K), then the auction will proceed as normal with no further advantage to the “hometown team”.
3. If the “hometown team” resigns the player, the same option will be available to them when the first free agent contract
expires, assuming the player is still with the “hometown team”.
4. The “Hometown Discount” will only apply to players taken in the Rookie Draft who remain with their original team.
Players obtained via trade or signed as free agents will not be eligible for the hometown discount.
5. The “Hometown Discount” option will be increased to 30% effective with players drafted in 1975.
6. If the hometown team chooses not to bid on a player entering free agency, that player will be auctioned in the normal
fashion.
D. Players signed as free agents, including HTD players, are eligible for multi-year contracts. Contract length will depend on the salary paid, as follows:
a) Players signed for 8 million or more may be signed for up to 5 years.
b) Players signed for 5 million or more may be signed for up to 4 years.
c) Players signed for less than 5 million may be signed for up to 3 years.
LENGTH OF THE CONTRACT IS AT THE OWNER’S OPTION AS LONG AS IT IS PROPER UNDER THE ABOVE GUIDELINES.

5. FRANCHISE PLAYERS
Beginning with the 1970 Rookie Draft, each team may designate one player as a Franchise Player per decade (1970 to 1979; 1980 to 1989; 1990 to 1999; 2000 to 2010). Rules concerning Franchise Players are:
A. The player must be one that was originally drafted as a rookie and retained by the designating team.
B. The designation of Franchise Player shall be made after the player’s fourth season. Once the Franchise Player designation is given a player, he is automatically given a three year contract at 12M per year. Once this original three year contract expires, the designating team may continue to sign the Franchise Player to one year contracts, each at 12M per year.
D. The Franchise Player remains with the designating team for as long as the team owner desires, at the 12M per year salary. The player does not become a free agent after his sixth season.
E. A Franchise Player who is traded by his original team loses the Franchise Player tag and is treated as follows:
1. If the player is traded during his three year contract period (player years 5 thru 7), the contract remains in effect for it’s duration, and the player becomes a free agent when the contract expires (end of player year seven).
2. If the player is traded once he is on a one year contract at 12M (past the sixth player year):
a. If traded during the season, his current contract for 12M will be valid through the end of the season. The team trading for the player has the option of signing the player to a contract extension, based on the salary structure outlined in section b below. If they choose not to resign the player, he becomes a free agent.
b. If traded during the off season, the acquiring team must sign the player to a contract. The amount of the contract will depend on the number of years the player is signed for: one year contract, 13M per year; two year contract, 14M per year; three year contract, 15M per year; four year contract, 16M per year; and five year contract, 17M per year. The player may not be signed to a contract for more than five years. When the contract expires, the player becomes a free agent.

6. STADIUM MOVES
An owner gets one free stadium move over the life of their franchise. Moves may also be made with a change of ownership or if your stadium went inactive in real life. Any stadium move requests not covered by this section shall be dealt with on a case by case basis and may result in a salary cap deduction to pay for the move.

7. UNRATED PLAYERS
--Every owner is expected to fill their roster with enough plate appearances to have a player rated at each position available for every game. Some exceptions have always been allowed. Moving a centerfielder to a corner is never a problem. If you best 2 corner outfielders both played only the same corner in real life you can shift one of them. A SS can cover 2B or 3B. Pretty much anybody can play firstbase. What is not allowed is moving a player up the defensive spectrum to cover a spot he is unrated at.
--You may ONLY use a player at a more difficult spot than he is rated at if he has recent experience at that position. For example, Rico Petrocelli was the Red Sox (and Gamblers) regular SS in 1970. The Red Sox moved him to 3B in 1971 and he did not play SS at all and was thus unrated at the position. He was a free agent that offseason and the Thunder signed him at kept him at SS. It was perfectly reasonable to assume he could still play there at some level (Craig also PMed the Commisioner before making the signing, which would be a good idea before you commit to any unrated player).

7. AMENDMENTS TO RULES
These rules may be amended at any time by a majority vote of active owners.

[leecemark]

1) We will add 4 teams , one to each division, whenever we are able to find sufficient owners to do so.
2) These teams will be stocked by an expansion draft off existing teams roster, the rookie draft and free agency
3) The new teams will get the first 4 picks in the rookie draft
4) There will be interleague play and awards will be divided by league
5) we be allowed to protect 14 players. After each of the first 3 players you lose you can add 2 more to your protected list. After that you could pull one back for each player picked until you have lost a maximum of 9, at which point your roster would be off limits to further expansion choices. This would result in each team losing the 15th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th, 29th, 31st and possibly (not every team would lose 9) 33rd best player off your roster. That would leave each original team with 20 of their top 25 players and provide at least 60 decent major leaguers (15 per team) to each expansion club.
6) The expansion draft will last 25 rounds, with the new teams getting additonal roster filler and/or long term projects in the later rounds. None of us would really be breaking up the core of our team and the expansion teams should have a chance to be reasonably competitive.