League Setup
- League: Federal Baseball League
- Number of teams: 18 teams, 1 league with 3 divisions of 6 teams each
- DH: Disabled
- Scouts/Coaches: Disabled
- Schedule: 162 games [90 division games (45H/45A), 18 games against other 5 teams of division (9H/9A); 72 games outside division (36H/36A), 6 games against other 12 teams of league (3H/3A)]
- Sims: Tues, Thurs, Sun and 10 days per sim (see sim schedule for specifics)
- Playoffs: Division winners, plus one wild card (team with best non-division winning record) will advance to the post-season. All series will be 'Best of Seven'
- Ratings and Talent set to On, with a 1-10 scale
- 1956 financial/player/stat settings
- No initial draft
League Office
In the event of a dispute between two teams not covered in these rules, the Commissioner will enact a ruling deemed in the best interest of the league as a whole. If the Commissioner is directly involved, a league vote will be held to determine the best course of action.
Commissioner: Jason Dettbarn
- Sim games
- Keeping site and league file up to date
- Process trades
- Moderate league forum
- Other tasks as determined
Director of the Hall of Fame: TBD
- Conduct Hall of Fame votes/discussions
- Track historical votes and eligible players
Ownership
Owners must:
- Own OOTPX
- Operate a financially responsible team
- Play fairly - respect other owners and no cheating. Any suspicion of cheating (collusion, owning multiple teams, etc.) or extreme disrespect of other owners will be looked at by the League Office and may result in loss of ownership.
- Participate in the league.
Participation Guidelines:
- Submit exports, participate in the forums, and/or communicate extended time off to the Commish.
- Since the playoffs are a high turnaround/active time for playoff teams, the commish will not wait for any exports from teams that miss the first playoff sim with no export or communication. Once the active, participating teams are ready, the commish will continue with future playoff sims.
- Failing to export, log on to the forum, or email the commish over the course of 30 days will result in loss of ownership without notice.
- Voting in All-Star, HOF, year-end awards, and league polls is highly encouraged. Failure to do so may shorten the length of time in the above guideline.
- Make your own draft picks, submit a pick list, or provide instructions (pick guidelines or instruct a CPU pick) - just defaulting to a CPU pick through no communication is highly discouraged and frowned upon by all! Failure to somehow make your own pick (through the acceptable methods mentioned above) may shorten the length of time in the above guideline.
- Make an effort to improve your team through trading and/or off-season free agency.
Financial Settings
1956 era financial settings
Cash Cap: $250,000
Avg Attendance: $10,000
Avg Ticket Price: $0.50
Media Contract: $150,000
Owner control over budget?: No
Salary Cap: $1,000,000
Rosters and Transactions
General Roster Rules
- Having a full 25-man roster is encouraged for fair competition. Anything less than 23 players (with no transactions pending) will be addressed by the Commish at his discretion.
- 40 man roster expansion on September 1st of each season
- Any team that fails to get it's roster down to 25 players for the playoffs or the start of the regular season will have players sent to the minors at the discretion of the Commish.
- Waiver period will be set to sim length + 1 day
- Designated for Assignment (DFA) length will be set to sim length x 2
- Players left in DFA for longer than this period will be handled by the CPU, meaning there will be an attempt to place the player on your roster where appropriate (based on contract type, number of option years left, 40-man roster room, etc.) but if that can''t happen the CPU will release your player. (This is a feature of the in-game Commish portal.)
Trades
- Trade deadline is July 31st of each season
- Cash can be included in trades
- Draft picks can be traded for the upcoming draft and first 5 rounds only. (rule put in place for 1959 draft to run through 1962 draft, when it will be re-evaluated by league vote.
- Trades protested by 3 owners will go to the League Office for review (a majority vote will decide)
- Trading opens immediately after the FBL Championship Series
- All trades must be posted and confirmed on the league message board. Trades will be processed:
- Trades posted with roster instructions by both teams get processed before the sim.
- Trades posted without roster instructions by both teams get processed after the sim.
- Please keep your financial situation in mind when making all deals
Signing Free Agents (In-season)
All in-season free agent signings will be done in-game through team exports. Free agent signings are not instant, so the player will consider your offer and make a decision at a later date. Since players decide where they will play, there is no limit to how many FA offers you may make or FA signings per sim.
Waivers & Releasing Players
- Waiver claims and releasing players will be handled in-game through roster exports.
- If you release a player, you will be stuck with what ever is left on his contract. If releasing, the player does not have to pass through waivers first.
- If a player is claimed off waivers, the claiming team is responsible for the player's contract.
- If the player goes unclaimed, the team will have the remaining DFA period to re-assign the player or release them outright.
- Irrevocable Waivers are used to get a player off your 25-man roster (if the player refuses assignment)
- Revocable Waivers are used to remove a player from your 40-man roster. When putting a player on revocable waivers, the game will ask you if you''d like to pull back the player from waivers if they are claimed by another team. If Yes is selected, the team''s waiver claim will be denied.
Re-signing own players during season (extensions)
All player extensions will be done in-game through team exports. There are no limits to length or timing of extensions.
Off-Season Free Agency
Bidding on off-season FAs will be much like in-season free agent bidding. Contract offers are submitted via team export and players will consider offers on their own schedule. Free Agency will take place in the month proceeding Spring Training. See the sim schedule for more details.
Ammy Draft
A 10 round Ammy Draft (5 rounds by GM; 5 via in-game list) will take place each year near the beginning of Spring Training. The player pool will be released to the league before the draft.
Draft order for non-playoff teams will be determined by win-loss record (worse record, better pick).
Playoff Draft Slots
The four playoff slots ending the round will be determined by record and finish:
- 15 - Determined by record, lowest winning percentage of non-Chapionship Series team
- 16 - Determined by record, best winning percentage of non-Chapionship Series team
- 17 - FBL Championship Series runner-up
- 18 - FBL Champion
Draft Order Tie-breakers
In case of teams having similar winning percentages, we will use these guidelines to break the tie:
- Pyt Record - worst Pyt Record gets better draft slot
- Games behind division leader - the team farthest behind their division leader gets better draft slot
- Coin Flip - two teams will be sorted alphabetically A to Z, with the first team getting 'heads' and the second 'tails'. The winner of the flip will get the better draft slot.
Awards and Recognition
All-Star Game
All All-Star players will be selected by the league ownership and recorded in-game each season.
Seasonal Awards
All awards will be selected by the league ownership at the end of the season. Since the 1956 season will be the league's first year, the league will not name a Rookie of the Year that season.
- Mason Award - given to the most valuable hitter, named after the Mason brothers from the original FBL.
- Mitchell Award - given to the most valuable pitcher, named after Jason Mitchell from the original FBL.
- Rookie of the Year Award - given to the best first-year player
- Glove Wizard Award - given to the best fielders at each position
- Ace Reliever Award - given to the league's best relief pitcher
Hall of Fame
A player shall become eligible to be nominated for election upon official retirement as stated in the League News at the start of each new season. Players may be nominated by any member of the FBL. The nomination process will begin after the 1965 season.
- Owners will vote by poll on the FBL league forums. If someone feels that an eligible player who is not on the ballot deserves a vote, write-in votes are welcome.
- Any player who receives 75% of the votes cast in any year will be elected.
- Any player who is not elected in their first year must receive 1 vote to stay on the official ballot. Each subsequent year, an additional vote is required to stay on the ballot (1st year-1 vote, 2nd year-2 votes, 3rd year-3 votes, etc). Players who have fallen off the ballot due to lack of supporting votes may still receive write-in votes until they've reached the maximum number of years post initial eligibility.
- Players are eligible for election for 10 seasons post retirement.
Cuban Professional League
The Cuban Professional League has signed an agreement with the FBL that allows FBL teams to sign CPL players in order to showcase the Cuban baseball system in America. Cuban players will now be allowed to prove their talent amongst the finest baseball talent in the country.
Major League Baseball
A fictional MLB will run in the background. All eligible MLB players will be available via free agency, however finances are set in a way that FBL teams will not be able to compete with MLB teams when signing star players. However, mid-level players (or below) will be willing to change leagues if the price is right.
