League Rules
(updated 07/23/07)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Overview
2. General GM Operations
3. Rosters
- Active
- AAA/DL
- LOW
- Rookie Status
4. Player Types
- Non-Salaried Minor Leaguer
- Rookie
- Arbitration Eligible
- Veteran
5. Salary Structure
- Overview
- Salary Charts
6. Roster Moves
- Promotions/Demotions
- Signing Free Agents
- Releasing Players/Demoting Veterans (Waivers)
- Trades
- Overview
- Amateur Draft Picks
- Cash
7. Season Schedule
8. Free Agent Auction
9. Amateur Draft/Rule 5 Draft
- Amateur Draft Overview
- Draft Lottery
- Rule 5 Draft Overview
10. Miscellaneous
- AAA Season
- Rookie League Season
- Injuries
- Player Positions
- Spring Training
1. Overview
Sim League Baseball (hereafter called SLB) is an online simulation league using Sierra's Front Page Sports Baseball '98 as its game engine.
SLB's rules have been created to recreate the real experience of GM'ing a major league baseball team as closely as possible.
The League consists of 2 leagues (American and World), each with 2 divisions (AL: North & South, WL: Euro & Far East) playing a 160 game schedule.
At the end of the season, the 4 division winners plus 1 wildcard team (the non-division winners with the best record) from each league will qualify for the playoffs.
Playoffs consist of 3 rounds (Wildcard Round, Semi-Finals and the World Series). All rounds are best of 7 series.
Current "officers" of the league are:
- Darin Keesing -
League Commissioner
- Tom Hey - Deputy Commissioner, Trade Committee,
Rules Committee
- Jim Masters - Amateur Talent Coordinator, Trade
Committee, Rules Committee
The League is currently full, but if you want to get on the waiting list, email Darin at slbcommish@gmail.com
2. General GM Operations
Game simulations (hereafter called "sims") will be held daily (or as often as is realistic for the commissioner at any given time).
Each sim will comprise of one series as dictated by the league schedule. Thus, a sim could be 3 or 4 games as per the schedule.
After each sim, the commissioner will post updated stats and standings.
Between sims, owners are responsible for roster moves, altering the lineups/pitching assignments, making trades, and signing/releasing free agents.
3. Rosters
Your 40-man roster is comprised of a 25 man "Active Roster" and a 15 man "AAA/DL Roster." The Active Roster is comprised of the 25 players who are in the major leagues, and the AAA/DL Roster is comprised of the salaried minor leaguers and players on the disabled list.
*** You MUST maintain a full 40 man roster at all times during the regular season and playoffs! ***
You must maintain a 25-man Active roster at all times (with
the exception of the off season).
Normally, a team will carry 11 pitchers and 14 batters or 12 pitchers and 13
batters, depending on depth and needs. You need not conform to this, but there
are basic minimums you must adhere to:
You must have at least 8 batters to make up your batting lineup
You must have at least 2 batters who are qualified at catcher
You must have at least 8 pitchers to give yourself the minimum of 4
starters and 4 relievers.
On September 1 of the season schedule, you may expand your
active roster to 40 men. The roster must be cut back down to 25 again before the
playoffs (if your team qualifies for the postseason). Overall, your Active and
AAA rosters may not add up to more than 40 men at any time during the season,
including the September call up.
You have up to 15 slots available in your AAA roster. See
the “AAA” section below for the minimum player requirements to field a minor
league team.
Please keep in mind that this roster doubles as your Disabled List. Thus, adding a player to the DL takes up a roster spot on the AAA 15-man roster. When you put someone on the DL, you will need to fill their spot on the active roster to maintain 25 active players.
Veteran Players (see Free Agency below) cannot be demoted
to AAA unless they clear waivers first.
You have up to 10 slots available in your Low roster.
You do not need to keep a full 10 players in your Low roster.
This roster is reserved for players under the age of 27, and should reflect your less developed prospects.
You may sign Arbitration Eligible players to a Low contract, but you may not sign Veteran players to Low. These players are non-salaried, and can only be promoted.
Players can not be sent from Active or AAA to the Low minors!
Once a Low player's contract is
purchased, they must stay on the 40 man roster or be released (see Salary
section below).
A player must be promoted to the 40-man roster within 3 years of being drafted or they will be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. (See Rule 5 Draft below)
Rookie Status
Any player with an experience (EXP) of 0 who is called up to the Active (major league) roster will begin gaining experience the following season. Once a player’s experience turns to 1, they will gain a year of experience every season regardless of which roster they are placed on.
The exception to this rule is for September call ups. If a rookie is called up in September (and has not been called up prior to September) he can play without losing rookie status. If he reaches 100 AB's or 35 IP, he will lose his status, but otherwise rookies can be played in September.
4. Player Types
All players fall into one of the following categories: Non-Salaried Minor Leaguers, Rookies, Arbitration Eligible or Veterans.
Non-Salaried Minor Leaguers
This term refers to the players on your Low roster. These are minor leaguers who aren't being paid anything that counts against your salary cap. A player stays non-salaried until his contract is purchased and he is added to the 40 man roster.
Rookies
This term refers to any player on your 40 man roster who has not had enough playing time in any given year to lose his rookie status (see Rookie Status above). As long as these players stay rookies, they will make the league minimum ($200,000/year) and won't start arbitration.
Arbitration Eligible
This term refers to all players on your 40 man roster whose experience (EXP) is 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.
These players have their salary determined by a strict salary structure that can only be affected by winning a postseason award (MVP, Cy Young or Rookie of the Year), or by winning a "title" (batting title, HR title, ERA title, etc.)
There are two different salary structures for Arbitration players (see chart under Salary Structure below). One is for full time players and one is for part time players.
A player can switch between these two structures on a yearly basis depending on playing time in a given year. These players are considered to be in their "option" years, which means they can be sent to AAA as many times as you want during this period.
Veterans
This term refers to all players whose experience (EXP) is 6 or higher.
These players are signed to 1, 2 or 3 year contracts, and become eligible for free agency at the end of every contract.
Free agents are signed during the annual Free Agent Auction (see Free Agent Auction below).
Veterans cannot be sent to AAA unless they clear waivers first.
5. Salary Structure
All teams will begin with a salary cap of $75,000,000. This
number will be altered depending on your team’s success or failure to win (see
Team Modifiers chart below)
No matter the rate of success or failure, no team's cap figure can go below $60,000,000, or above $90,000,000.
***You must be under the salary cap from the end of the World Series until Opening Day. This means you cannot sign free agents or make trades that you can't afford during the off season.***
During the season, you can go over the cap, but there is a "luxury tax penalty" that you can incur. For every dollar you go over the cap, you will incur a cap hit of 50 cents the following year. Thus, if you go $6 million over the cap in 2007, you will start 2008 with $3 million less than the year prior.
This luxury tax is not permanent. It is recalculated on a yearly basis. If you go over the cap in 2007, but not in 2008, your 2009 cap figure will return to it's 2007 figure (plus/minus modifications due to your record...see below)
A player’s base salary is determined by his EXP.
Rookies will make the league minimum of $200,000
Arbitration
Eligible Players will make the Arbitration scale plus bonuses for awards or
titles
Veterans will make whatever is offered to them in the Free Agent Auction.
The penalty or bonus incurred from your team's failure or success on any given year is not permanent. Half of the penalty or bonus can be removed under the following circumstances:
After finishing in last place, you can recoup 1/2 of your total losses if you finish out of last place for 2 consecutive years.
After making the postseason, you can lose 1/2 of your total postseason bonuses if you miss the playoffs for 2 consecutive years.
Each consecutive year that you continue to either finish out of last or miss the playoffs, you will get another 1/2 recoupment/penalty until the 3rd year which will erase the penalty/bonus entirely.
If you make the playoffs after finishing last, or finish last after making the playoffs, the higher cap boost/penalty will be applied. For example, if you finish in last place, but win the World Series the next year, you will gain the $6 million if that is higher than 1/2 of the total losses accrued to that point. Conversely, if you finish in last place after winning the wildcard, the $4 million penalty will take precedence if it is higher than the 1/2 of the total playoff bonuses accrued..
The following scale will be used for Rookies and
Arbitration Eligible base salaries:
| Fielders and Starting Pitchers | | Relief Pitchers, Part-Time Hitters (less than 250 at-bats) or Starting Pitchers with less than 100 IP |
|
EXP |
Base Salary |
EXP |
Base Salary |
|
0 |
$200,000 |
0 |
$200,000 |
|
1 |
$500,000 |
1 |
$300,000 |
|
|
$1,000,000 |
2 |
$400,000 |
|
3 |
$2,000,000 |
3 |
$600,000 |
|
4 |
$3,000,000 |
4 |
$800,000 |
|
5 |
$4,000,000 |
5 |
$1,000,000 |
| 6+ |
Auction |
6+ |
Auction |
|
|
These are the modifiers for both team and player achievement:
| Team Modifiers |
|
End of the Year Awards | ||
| Team Finish | Bonus/Penalty | MVP award* | $2,000,000 | |
| World Series Title | $6,000,000 | Cy Young* | $2,000,000 | |
| World Series Runner Up | $3,000,000 | Rookie Hitter/Pitcher of the Year | $500,000 | |
| Division Title | $2,000,000 | AAA MVP/Pitcher of the Year | $250,000 | |
| Wildcard | $1,000,000 | Rolaidstm Reliever of the Year | $250,000 | |
| Second-Fourth Place | No Change | Comeback Player | $250,000 | |
| Last Place | (-) $4,000,000 | Division MVP | $250,000 | |
All bonuses reflect total bonus for reaching that level. Bonuses do not add up (eg you don't get $2,000,000 for the division PLUS $6,000,000 for winning the World Series.) |
||||
| Batting, HR, RBI, ERA and K title | $500,000 | |||
| * - Carries over throughout career | ||||
6. Roster Moves
As stated earlier, you are responsible for maintaining a
full 40-man roster (25-man Active roster, plus 15-man AAA/DL roster). You must
make all promotions and demotions for your team. If you send in a lineup that
doesn't comply with the rules, it will be sent back to you for revisions.
When a player becomes injured mid-sim, the commissioner will substitute the next most qualified player on your major league roster into the lineup to complete the sim. The commish will not put players on the DL, nor will he promote players from the minors to fill in for injuries. The commish will not alter your lineups mid-sim either. You must make all of these moves yourself.
As stated before, any player who is a Rookie or Arbitration Eligible (i.e. 0-5 EXP) can be moved between Active and AAA as you please. Any player who is a Veteran must clear waivers before they can go to AAA. (See below)
If you want to promote a player from the Low roster to the
40-man roster, you must "purchase his contract". This means the player
will cost your $200,000 (Rookie salary) or his Arbitration level salary (if not
a rookie) and you must release another player to
make room on your 40-man roster.
At any time during the season you may sign free agents out of the free agent pool. All signings must be accompanied with a corresponding roster move to free up the roster space for the new player.
If more than one team makes a claim for a free agent on the same day, the team with the worse record gets the player.
Rookies and players under the age of 27 with an EXP from 1-5 can be signed to the Low roster and not cost anything against the cap (but will be up for the Rule 5 draft that season. See below).
Arbitration Eligible players will cost the corresponding amount on the salary scale to their EXP.
Veterans signed out of the free agent pool will receive a 1-year contract for $2 million. Relief pitchers and part time players will get a 1-year, $1 million contract.
If a player is signed mid-season, the 1-year
contract will run only through the end of that season.
Veterans signed out of the free agent pool after the All-Star Break will cost 1/2 of the above figures.
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT RULE. If you release a player
mid-season from your roster, you are still responsible for that player’s
salary for the remainder of the season. This includes all players from Veterans
down to Rookies.
When you want to release a Veteran player from your 25 man Active Roster, he will be put on waivers for 10 days of the schedule.
An announcement will be made to the league to inform other
owners that a player has been placed on waivers.
The other owners will then have
until the 10 days are up to make a claim for that player.
At the end of the 10
days, the team with the worst record (at that point in the season) who
made a claim will get to sign the player.
If no other teams claim that player after 10 days, the player has “cleared waivers” and can be either sent to AAA or released.
***Any player placed on waivers must stay on the Active Roster until they are claimed or they clear waivers.***
If another team signs the player you released, that team
will only have to pay $500,000 (or his yearly salary if under $500,000) for him for the remainder of the season ($200,000
for rookies).
The team that released the player cannot re-claim them for the 10 day waiver period.
Any Veteran that clears waivers and is claimed by a new team must join the 25 man Active roster of that new team. The new team must put the player through waivers to demote them to AAA.
You may unconditionally release any player from AAA without having to clear the waivers process. You will still be liable for the player's salary, even if another team claims that player from the free agent pool, but you will have the roster spot available immediately.
If you cut a Non-Salaried Minor Leaguer, they do not have
to clear waivers. They will immediately be put in the free agent pool. Any team
that claims a Non-Salaried Player must either put them in Low, or
"purchase" their contract and add them to their 40-man roster (at
which point the Non-Salaried player will turn into a Rookie and earn $200,000,
or earn their Arbitration salary if not a rookie).
At the end of the season, your financial obligation towards
any cut player ends, no matter where in his contract he is. If the team that
signed your player wants to keep him, they will have to take on the remaining
years of his salary for the remainder of his contract at full price or release
him no further financial obligation.
You may cut anyone you wish in the off-season without having to clear waivers, however Veteran players who are in mid contract will have to be "bought out" of their contract.
A portion of that player's salary will count
against your cap for the remainder of the upcoming season, regardless of what
other team might sign that player later.
If the player has 1 year left on
their contract, you will have to pay 20% of that player's salary.
If the player
has 2 years left on their contract, you will have to pay 40% of their salary.
You may cut any Rookie or Arbitration Eligible player without having to but them out.
IMPORTANT - This rule DOES NOT mean that the next team to sign that player will get them at a 20% or 40% discount. The new team signs a new contract with the player that has nothing to do with the contract buyout.
This rule has been implemented to deter owners from driving up free agent prices during the auction, signing players to huge contracts, and then cutting them after 1 year. Fiscal responsibility is part of this league's salary system, so you have to be held responsible for every signing you make.
***All off-season player cuts must be made before the Free Agent Auction, as the cut players will become part of that Auction Pool. No roster moves can be made during the Free Agent Auction or Rule 5 Draft. Afterwards, you may release a player during Spring Training without going through the waiver process. Veteran players must be bought out after the auction, while Rookie and Arbitration players can be released with no financial penalty***
You may trade anyone on your rosters at any time from Spring Training until the trading deadline of July 31 of the season schedule, as well as the Winter Meetings between the end of the World Series and the Free Agent Auction.
All trades must be submitted by both owners to the commissioner.
The trade will then be reviewed by the trade committee and either approved or denied. All denials would be accompanied by an explanation and suggestions on how to make the trade work better. The trade committee will consist of myself, Tom Hey, and Jim Masters.
When you trade a player, the player’s contract is
transferred to the new team, thus relieving the old team of that player's
salary.
When you receive a salaried player in a trade, you may place them in AAA without having to clear waivers. You may not place a salaried player on the Low roster.
You may trade Amateur Draft picks.
You may only trade picks for the current or next
calendar year.
You may not trade a draft pick straight up for cash.
You may not trade away your first round pick in
back-to-back years.
You may not hold the rights to more than 3 picks in any
given round.
Picks may be made "conditional" as per the owners involved in the trade.
You may not trade Rule 5 Draft picks.
You may trade cash in any transaction during Spring Training or the regular season.
Maximum amount of cash you may exchange per trade is $5 million.
Any cash you trade gets subtracted
from your maximum cap figure and gets added to the receiving teams cap figure.
Any sent and/or received cash will be returned to the
original owners at season's end
Your salary cap may not go over $95
million or under $50 million via cash trades (however your team payroll may be
under $50 million)
You may only trade cash for the
current season.
No future season cash considerations.
You may trade a player for cash
alone, or include cash as part of a multi-player deal.
Any cash traded in Spring Training will adjust that season's cap figures, meaning both teams must now be under the new cap figures for Opening Day.
7. Season Schedule
The following is the season schedule from the end of one season through the end of the next:
| EVENT | WHAT HAPPENS |
| End of Regular Season | Voting begins for post-season awards. |
| Playoffs | Votes due by end of World Series. |
| End of World Series | Post-season Awards announced. Salary caps adjusted based on season/post-season performance. Any traded cash will be restored to original owners. Owners may change their AAA team's city/nickname. Owners may change members of their coaching staff. After the 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, etc. seasons, owners may change their stadium model (selections must be made from the available models.) After 2008, 2013, 2018, 2023, etc. owners may apply for relocation to a new city. |
| Start of new Calendar Year | Commissioner announces player retirements. Players gain 1 year of experience and some rookies lose rookie status (see Rookie Status above). Player ratings are adjusted (by CPU). Owners select 2 eligible free agents to labeled as "restricted" for the Free Agent Auction. Owners may release/buy out other contracts prior to the auction to free up cash/roster spots. |
| Winter Meetings | Brief period prior to Free Agent Auction when owners can make trades. |
| Free Agent Auction | Roster moves are frozen. No cutting or buying
out of players. Owners participate in the auction, adding players as needed. Owners may not go over the Salary Cap. |
| Rule 5 Draft | Roster moves still frozen. Commissioner will post a list of eligible players for the Rule 5 draft, and the draft will commence via email. Owners may not participate in the draft if they have no available roster spots on the 40 man roster. Owners may not go over the Salary Cap. |
| Spring Training | Owners can set lineups daily for Spring
Training simulated games. Owners may select one player to learn a new position (see bottom of the rule page for details). Players from any roster can play in games without any waiver processes. Players from Low Minors can play without having to purchase their contracts. Players may be signed/cut/bought out at this time. Trading opens. Owners may not go over the Salary Cap. |
| End of Spring Training | Trading freezes. Spring training ratings adjustments are made (by CPU). Owners must submit their 3 rosters, plus lineups and pitching rotations for Opening Day. Players may be placed in either Active or AAA without having to go through waivers. 40 man rosters must be full at this time. |
| Opening Day | Opening day sim run and posted by the commish. Trading re-opens. Owners may go over the Salary Cap (with luxury tax restrictions...see above.) AAA sims start at this time. |
| June Amateur Draft | 3 round draft held to add new rookies to
teams. AAA season ends. |
| Rookie League | Rookie League sims start shortly after the Amateur Draft. |
| Trade Deadline | July 31 of the season schedule marks the
trade deadline. After this date, no trades may be made until Spring
Training of the next season. Waiver moves are also frozen. Veterans can no longer be sent to AAA or released. AAA players may still be released and Low players may have their contracts purchased. |
| September 1 | Owners may expand their Active Rosters to up
to 40 players. The overall 40-man roster may not exceed 40 players, however, so if an owner wishes to add players from the Low minors to the Active Roster, corresponding cuts must be made. |
| End of Regular Season | Go back to the beginning of this chart. |
8. Free Agent Auction
All Veteran players whose contract has expired at the end of the year, whose contract has been bought out, or who was claimed on waivers but their contract was not picked up will enter the Free Agent Auction.
Additionally, any player whose EXP goes from 5 (Aribtration Eligible) to 6 (Veteran) will enter the Free Agent Auction.
The order that the players will be bid on will be determined by the owners. Owners select the next player to be bid on in reverse order of finish from the previous season.
***Prior to the Free Agent Auction, each team can designate up to 2 of their eligible free agents as "Restricted Free Agents". This means that for those two players, the original team has the right to match the highest offer in the auction to keep that player. So for those two players, you can be outbid but still get the player back if you are willing (or able) to match the highest priced bid.***
The top players will be bid on in a live auction, held in an AOL IM chat room.
Players are bid on by owners until no one wants to bid any higher. Winning bids are based on the total value of the contract.
If a player is a restricted free agent, the owner who restricted him may match the highest bid to keep that player.
Owners may only bid what they can pay for. In other words, if you are only $15 million under the cap, you can't offer a 3 year, $50 million contract, as that would be more than $15 million/year.
Additionally, owners may only bid on the number of player they can fit on their roster.
Contract bids can be 1, 2 or 3 years in length and for any amount of money you can afford. If you want to spend your entire surplus of cap money on one player for one year, that's up to you. In this system, the owner sets the price of the players.
Contract bids must be in increments of $250,000 if the contract is over $1,000,000 per year, or $100,000 if it is under $1,000,000 per year . Bids cannot be below $200,000/year, as that is the league minimum salary.
Any player who has won an MVP or Cy Young award at any point in his career will have his salary bonus added onto the winning bid.
Contract bids are for the same amount of money each year. You can't back load a contract or defer money to the end of the contract.
After the live bidding, any remaining players will be auctioned off via email in two groups (the second group simply consisting of those players not given bids in the first group).
Each group will be up for auction for 1 day. Any owner who is interested in a player(s) in the free agent pool will submit bids to the commissioner. After the 1st day, all bids for each player will be posted on the website. The owners in the top 1/2 of the bids (by total contract value) will move on and get to bid again based on the bids posted. The 2nd phase of bidding will be just one day, with the final "winner" of each player announced at the end of the 3rd day. Then the next auction group will begin.
If you are in the top 1/2 of the bids for a player but feel like the price will be too steep, you can decide not to bid in the second phase.
EXCEPTION: If you are the top bidder after the initial bidding round, you MUST re-bid at least the same amount you bid in the initial round.
The top 1/2 of the bids are based on the total value of the contract, not the number of years. This means a 1 yr/$15 million bid beats a 2 yr at $5mil/yr contract (total value $10 million).
** If you win a bid on a player, you MUST sign him. You may not opt out of a winning bid. **
**After the second round of bidding, the GM who makes the
bid for the highest overall contract value will win.**
**If a restricted Free Agent receives no bids, the player's original team may
sign them to a 1, 2 or 3 year contract for $2 million per year ($1 million for
relievers)**
**Any player that isn't bid on in the auction will go into the free agent pool and can be re-signed to a 1-year veteran contract as described in the "Signing Free Agents" section above. The player's original team has first rights to the unsigned player.**
9. Amateur Draft/Rule 5 Draft
Amateur Draft
Every June there will be an Amateur Draft where teams may add new talent to their rosters.
Each year, the rosters and statistics from a 42 team NCAA league will be posted.
Only seniors (EXP 4) on NCAA teams will be eligible for the draft each year.
The draft order is determined by the previous year's order of finish, and altered by traded draft picks and the Draft Lottery.
DRAFT LOTTERY - The 10 non-playoff teams will have a number of "ping pong balls" for the #1 overall pick as determined by their order of finish
The worst team will have 10 chances, the 2nd worst 9 chances, etc. to the 10th worst team having just 1 chance
Three ping pong balls will be drawn to determine the top 3 picks
Picks 4-10 will be determined by the reverse order of finish of the remaining 7 teams.
The rearranged draft order will affect Round One only.
A team does not need to have roster spots available pre-draft. The owner may make cuts post-draft to accommodate new draftees.
Newly drafted players may not be cut right after the draft.
Drafted players can be put on any roster. If the player is put in Low, he will become a Non-Salaried player. If he is put on the AAA or Active roster, he will become a Rookie and earn $200,000. Additionally, players will have to be released to make room for drafted players if placed on the 40-man roster.
Rule 5 Draft
Non-Salaried players in the Low minor roster must be promoted to the 40-man roster within 3 years of entering the league or be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft.
In addition, any player in the Low roster who is not a rookie will be available for the draft, regardless of age.
Anyone who reaches the age of 27 who is still on the Low roster will be eligible for the draft.
Any player who is added to the Low roster via the free agent pool will be Rule 5 eligible in 2 years instead of 3.
The draft will be just 1 round, meaning each team will get 1 pick.
The Rule 5 Draft will happen right after the Free Agent Auction. The draft order is determined by last year's order of finish.
Rule 5 Draft picks can't be traded.
Owners must have a roster spot available on the 40 man roster in order to participate in the draft. They also must have at least $200,000 available under the cap.
Any player not chosen in the Rule 5 draft will be retained by his team for one more season. If he is not promoted to the 40-man roster by the draft the next season, he will enter the pool again.
A team may not choose their own player in the Rule 5 Draft.
***Any player picked in the Rule 5 Draft must be added to the new team's 25-man Active roster. If at any time the new team can't afford to have the player on the Active roster, that team must offer the player back to his original team. If the original team wants him back, that team can put the player back in Low for the remainder of the year. If the original team does not want the player back, then the player will be put through waivers to go to AAA.***
10. Miscellaneous
AAA Season
All players in your minor leagues (AAA and LOW) will play an 86 game schedule against the other team's minor leaguers.
Between your AAA and Low rosters, you must have at least 8
hitters and 5 pitchers to field a team. Ideally, your minor league team
won't have a lot of guys playing out of position, and with the rule mandating
that your 40 man roster stay full at all times, it shouldn't be difficult to
keep players on the team.
AAA sims will run every day. The AAA season runs from Opening Day
through the Amateur Draft. Players chosen in the Amateur Draft won't get AAA playing
time until the next season.
Rookie League Season
After the Amateur Draft, all of the players on your Low Roster (regardless of EXP) plus any rookies on your AAA roster will join the Rookie League and play a short 38 game schedule. This will allow you to see some of your draft picks in action before September call ups.
The rest of your Rookie League roster will be filled out with computer generated players (and will be indicated by a * next to their names).
Computer generated fill-ins cannot be promoted to your 40 man roster.
If a rookie is promoted/traded/cut from your Low or AAA roster and not replaced with another rookie, a computer generated player will take their place in the Rookie League.
Injuries
During the course of the season, players get injured. Their are two types of injuries: a % injury, and an OUT injury.
A % injury is a minor injury that still allows a player to play. The % number listed with the injury is the amount that a player's rating will go down if they play during the injury. For example, a player with an 80 PH will have the rating go down to 66 if they have a 20% injury. Players with % injuries will heal faster if they are benched or sent to AAA.
OUT injuries are injuries that the player cannot play through. The injury page will list the approximate amount of time that player will be unable to play. Players will heal faster if placed on the DL.
Once a player is placed on the DL, they must remain their for 15 days. If the player heals prior to 15 days, they still cannot come off the DL until the 15 days are over.
Player positions
Players may not play any position that they are not qualified for.
** Due to a glitch in the software, RF is never listed as a secondary position on roster pages or the free agent pool. The main page of the league website has a link called "RF Ratings" where you can see if your player qualifies to play RF.
Spring Training
Player ratings will change at two times during the year. In the "off season" between the end of the World Series and Spring Training, player ratings may go up or down based on age, experience, etc. The second period of rating adjustment occurs at the end of Spring Training.
In addition, any rookie player (age 26 or under) who
finishes in the Top 10 of certain statistical categories will receive bonus
ratings "boosts":
- Players will receive 3 additional
points for finishing in the Top 10, or 5 additional points for finishing first
overall (up to the potential rating).
- The ratings that will increase are
linked to the following statistical categories:
- CH - Batting Average
- PH - Home Runs
- SP - Stolen Bases
- AS - K/9
- CO - BB/9
- Pitches - ERA
However, one player per year can "train" for a new position during Spring Training. His base FA for the new position will be 10+ 1/2 of his primary positions FA rating. Thus if you have 1B with a 60 FA who wants to train to be a RF, his base FA for RF would be 40. This position could then improve each year in spring training.
Any player can't train for any position, however. Here are which positions each position can train for:
| Primary Position | Can train to be: |
| C | 1B, LF, RF |
| 1B | LF, RF |
| 2B | 1B, SS, 3B, LF, CF, RF |
| 3B | 1B, 2B, SS, LF, RF |
| SS | 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, CF, RF |
| LF | 1B, CF, RF |
| CF | 1B, LF, RF |
| RF | 1B, CF LF |