Here are the rules for our new 1996 short season draft league. If you’re in my draft league that started in 1969 the rules might look familiar.
How the league is to be played
We will be playing the 1996 season We will be playing under 1996 rules with two exceptions. There will be at least one interleague play to allow each player to play each other player at least one home and away series. There will be no wild cards.
The schedule
We will be playing an 80 game schedule with two series against each opponent.
- 2 Two game series vs interleague opponents
- 2 Three game series vs teams in the same league but different divisions
- 2 Four game series vs division rivals
Frequency of games
There will be one series per week. This will make it easier to get in series vs division rivals and to prevent conflicts with my other leagues.
Number of teams
We will have a fixed number of teams 16.
Division setup:
2 leagues, 2 divisions in each no wild cards.
Trades and waivers.
After the fifth series of the season teams may trade. Any player on the current roster may be traded along with any of the first seven draft picks for the next season If a trade is made that increases a roster beyond the 40 man limit a player must be released before the next series is played. Any trades agreed will not be executed until all the teams involved have the same amount of games played.
Waivers takes place after the sixth series. Teams make waivers picked based on their current record and are made from the undrafted players not on rosters.. If a pick brings a Roster over 40 a player must be released or an injured player not on the DL must be placed there to make room.
Note: Any player who is planning to leave the league at the end of the season is encouraged NOT to trade as it is unfair to both the other teams and the player who will replace him or her.
Early Waivers:
Teams who drop out of the draft early (before round 36 in 1996 season) can qualify for Early Waivers
Early waivers begin after week 1 and end after week 4
- Players who leave the draft before round 36 may pick early waivers after week 4
- Players who leave the draft before round 31 may pick early waivers after week 3
- Players who leave the draft before round 26 may pick early waivers after week 2
- Players who leave the draft before round 22 may pick early waivers after week 1
During Early Waivers the following rules apply
- Players may choose up to two players
- Order depends on when the player left the draft the earlier you left the higher you are in the order
- If two teams picking early waivers left the same round the team who drafted later in the base draft has priority
- Unlike regular waivers teams with a worse record can’t “counterclaim” you get who you pick.
The DL:
The DL WILL count toward your roster but to make up for it we will have a maximum 40 man roster. We will still only draft 35 but players may expand their rosters via trade and waivers.
Playing Games.
All games must be completed before the next scheduled series. the Dynasty system will take over and auto play any games that are not completed one hour before the next scheduled game (even if said unfinished game is in progress) Players are encouraged to use the chat room and the Dynasty message system to reschedule games if needed and are also encouraged to make a manager profile in case a game has to autoplay. Instructions on how to do that are here.
Be aware that if you have your team on AUTO and your opponent requests a rescheduled in the system Dynasty will automatically allow it so keep this in mind when or if you turn auto on. Also be aware if both team are on auto and you reschedule the game will be played automatically so make sure your team is not on auto before you do this.
Expansion
This league will not have expansion. It is designed as a short season to contract with the 1969 league and to give me an easy schedule to make. If you want a longer season and / or a bigger league check out my 1969 league currently playing 1971.
Selecting a franchise:
Players picked from existing franchises keeping two batters and two pitchers the rest go in the draft
Franchise locations and parks
Every team is presumed to have the park their team played in during the season they entered the league.
Franchises whose teams move in real life are not required to relocate their teams. So the Montreal Expos are not required to move to Washington but they retain the option to do so at any time.
Franchises are NOT required to build new stadiums and my continue to play in their old stadiums if they wish. So Houstony can stay in the Astrodome if they wish but they retain the right to move into Minute Maid park at any time If a team chooses to move into their new park in the same city the old park is considered demolished and no other team may use it from that point on.
A team may NOT move into a park that in a different city because the Dynasty system bases the weather on the park used NOT the city that a team’s label claims it is in. .Example from the 1971 league: If the Seattle Pilots want to play in Country Stadium they MUST move to Milwaukee
A team may NOT move into a park in the same city that belongs to a future franchise. Example from 1971 league: If the Seattle Pilots choose to remain in Seattle rather than move to Milwaukee they may NOT move into the Kingdome because it is reserved for the Mariners franchise when it becomes available.
Old parks
A team MAY move into an old park from the same city under the following conditions:
- The park was once the home park of the franchise OR
- The franchise that once owned the park is now located in another city
Examples,
- the Seattle Pilots move to Milwaukee the Mariners if taken MAY move into Sick Stadium.
- The Cardinals may move into sportsman park because it was once their old stadium.
- Both the Yankees and the Mets may move into the Polo Grounds because the park is in NY and both teams were once based there.
Franchise Moves and or Replacement players or teams
A player may decide to take a different franchise after playing one season under the following rules
The player who movies will get the city and park of the new franchise at once but will NOT get the rookies for said new Franchise until the season AFTER the move
Example: Boston decides to move to California after the 2010 season. he does NOT get the rights to Mike Trout but retains the rights to any RedSox player who has their first card in 2011. If Boston makes the move to California in 2009 then after keeping the Boston rookies for 2010 in 2011 Mike Trout is his as a rookie (see rookies below)
If due to circumstances in the real world a player has to temporarily drop out of the league their team will be put on auto until a substitute can be found. Said substitute shall take over the team and play games until the original player can return but may not make trades or drop players from the roster (excepting for injury).
If at the end of the season the base player can’t return the substitute has first rights to the team and gets full control over it.
If a player has to drop out permanently the team will go on auto until a substitute or replacement player can be found. Said player will get full rights to the franchise unless they declare that they will only be a substitute till the end of the season.
If no replacement player is found during the season a new player will be recruited for the next season. Said player will retain the franchise and draft picks of the player he is replacing. If said new player wishes to move the franchise he can per the limitations listed above, namely he retains the rookies of the current franchise for his first season and then get the rookie rights to the new franchise the following year.
Example The Yankees drop out of the league due to illness. A substitute is found to play their games. The sub places the games until the Yankees recover. If they do not recover sufficiently to return to the league the substitute may over the Yankees franchise permanently
Example 2: A replacement player is found for the Yankees in the above example but is a big Texas fan. Said substitute can move their franchise to Texas but will retain the Yankees rookies for the 1997 season. Starting in 1998 they will have rights to Texas rookies.
Rookies
A “Rookie” is define as any player who did not have a card for the previous season.
A rookie is considered to be part of the team listed on their card regardless of who they actually played their first game for (Dynasty lists cards based on who a player finishes a season with thus any rookie that was traded by an MLB team in his first season will have their card listed for the team they were traded to NOT the team they played their first game with.
All teams retain rights to their rookies prior to the draft and rookies for a franchise are not eligible to be drafted in any expansion draft.
A Rookie becomes a part of a team after said team names their protected players for the draft. They count toward the 35 man roster
Any team that doesn’t want to retain a rookie may release them before the draft to open up a roster spot but once release all rights to said player are surrendered.
Players retained list
At the end of a season teams may retain a number of players based on their finish in the previous one The players retained list for 1997 is
- World series winner 4 players
- World series runner up 5 players
- Division winners that don’t go to the series 6 players
- Teams with the 5th and 6th best records that didn’t win a division 7 players
- Teams with the 7th and 8th best records 8 players
- Teams with the 9th and 10th best records 9 players
- Teams with the 11th and 12th best records 10 players
- Teams with the 3rd and 4th worst records 11 players
- Teams with the worst and 2nd worst record 12 players
NOTE: If a player on your current Roster does not have a card for the next season due to injury, military service etc but WILL the following year a team may choose to retain the rights to said player but will have to spend a protected spot for it and will have to keep a space for him all season.
Example: Rheal Cormier was out the entire 1998 Season. If a team has him after the 1997 season and wants to keep him they can choose to hold his rights when his season ends and keep a roster spot for him. He will play 1998 with 39 players and in 1999 will hold the rights to Cormier.. If at any time he chooses to release him Cormier will be considered a rookie for Boston because
- He had no card the previous year
- No team held his rights
- His 1999 card says “Boston”
The draft order of teams for each season will be based on their finish the previous season. Any team that is not retained will of course not be drafting BUT If a team holds the draft pick of a team that is no longer in the league he will draft those picks as if that team was still in the league in the round that he holds them.
- Worst team (12)
- 2nd worst team (12)
- 3rd wort team (11)
- 4th worst team (11)
- 5th worst team (10)
- 6th worst team (10)
- 7th worst team (9)
- 8th worst team (9)
- 8th BEST team (8)
- 7th Best team (8)
- Team with the 2nd Best record that didn’t win a division (7)
- Team with the best record that didn’t win a division (7)
- Division winner not in WS with worst record (6)
- Division winner not in WS with best record (6)
- World series loser (5)
- Word series winner (4)
NOTES
If there is a tie the advantage will go to the team that drafted later
The first tiebreaker for non-playoff teams with identical records is head to head matchups
The 2nd tiebreaker if teams had identical records AND split their season series is draft order for the previous season
For our 1st season the actual records of the teams will determine the order of the picks
- Pirates worst record of teams selected one game worse than Bluejays
- Blue Jays 4 games worse than Twins
- Twins two games worse than Marlins
- Marlins one game worse than Reds
- Reds one game worse than Astros
- Astros Three games worse than Red Sox
- Red Sox Tied for best record of remaining teams with worst finish in division
- Mariners tied for Best record of remaining teams with best finish in division who joined ahead of Chicago)
- White Sox tied for Best record of remaining team with best finish in division and last to join
- Dodgers division series loser with the worst record of league teams)
- Padres Division series loser with 2nd best record or finish in division
- Indians Division series loser with best record or finish in division
- Orioles LCS loser with worst record or worst finish in division
- Cardinals LCS loser with best record or best finish in division
- Braves World series loser
- Yankees World Series winner
The rest of the teams aren’t filled in because we don’t know what team the final player will pick but 11-16 will not be affected by the pick made
Examples: If San Diego traded the NYY their 3rd round draft pick last season but are not an active team in 1997 then during round 3 the Yankees would get a pick in the sport where SD would have been had they played..
When all teams have drafted that will be considered the end of a round and the next round will commence.
Teams will continue to draft in this order until:
- Their team reaches 35 men OR
- A team with 25 or more players on their roster voluntarily drops out
Once a team has dropped out of the draft they may not re-enter it and must increase their roster either through trades or waivers.
Draft on designated Draft day(s):
A date and time will be set for the initial rounds of the draft. It will almost certainly be a Saturday or Friday as those are the days I have off. Because my schedule is particularly full till April 16th this may be delayed. If/When a designated draft day is set All teams will be expected to be either:
- Available in the slack chat room (preferred)
- Available by phone
- With me in my home at the time of the draft
- Have a list of players to be drafted submitted
All currently players are presumed to have looked over the card(s) for 1996 online or at least looked up stats by draft day. All teams are encouraged to start doing so at once.
- There will be one designated draft day per week.
- On a designated draft day a strict 5 minute limit will be allowed to make a pick.
- If a team misses their pick will be moved to after the next player on the list who will be considered on the clock and allowed to pick. Example San Diego misses their pick and Cleveland is next, Cleveland is allowed to pick and San Diego picks after them
- If a team who has been skipped has to be skipped twice their pick can be made any time before the end of the round. Example San Diego is scheduled to pick 11th They miss their pick If they figure out who they want they can make a pick or submit a list any time before the end of the round and that pick will be valid.
- If a team that has been skipped has not picked by the end of the round then a pick will be made for them by me. Said pick will be the player from your franchise who played the most games that season based on their card. Example: Boston does not pick or submit a list for round 5 I will look at the Roster for the actual 1996 red sox to see who is available. If John Valentin has the most game played among unpicked players he will be Boston draft pick. If Boston already has 2 shortstops that will not matter Valentin becomes the pick.
- The opening Scheduled draft days will go on for 100 picks. Other scheduled draft days will be 60 picks. Once the number of picks is reached the clock is turned off
BE AWARE THAT EVEN WITH A FIVE MINUTE LIMIT THAT CAN MEAN 100 MINUTES FOR 20 TEAMS TO PICK IN ONE ROUND. PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DRAFT TO CUT DOWN ON THE TIME REQUIRED. The more prepared everyone is the faster things will go.
Picks off the clock and on non-draft days
Because of my hectic schedule until April 17th this draft will begin as an “informal draft” which will mimic the system that takes place after a the formal draft with the clock is turned off or 100/60 picks are made
During the informal draft a team has 24 hours to make a pick. Picks can be submitted in the draft room or via the Dynasty message system or in person if the person picking is local or via the phone to me.
Once the pick is made and recorded on the draft sheet and the player moved to the roster I will announce the pick in the slack chat room and inform the person up, the person on deck and the person in the hole to be prepared to pick. Until you see that announcement the pick is not official.
The season will begin one week after the draft is complete.
If you have any questions not covered here please let me know.
Update: Casual / Informal draft now gives people 24 hours to make a pick or provide a list before the rules of the timed draft apply
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