MTBaseball Rules Page

MTBaseball League Rules

Last modified: 5/8/2007

The league will use OOTP 6.5 as the simulation engine.
The league will begin in 1901, using historical players—including Negro Leaguers—throughout the life of the league.
Ownership of OOTP is required. An AOL Instant Messenger account is highly recommended.
Coaches/Scouts are disabled.
Arbitration and Minor League Options are enabled.
There is a $50 Million Cash Max. This is mainly just to prevent any massive stockpiling of cash through trading or keeping a low, uncompetitive payroll..
Nobody is allowed to own more than one team at a time.
Team nicknames, cities, and stadiums will change as they did historically.

Sims will be carried out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5pm EST, or as close as the commish can make it.
We will sim half a month at a time. In 31 day months, the first sim of that month will cover 15 days, the second 16.
I will import all rosters, run the sim, and then process all transactions on the league form.
Added 1907 - Transactions will now be processed pre-sim during the regular season (commish reserves the right to process transactions at his convenience in the off-season, provided they do not affect the competition in any way). Any GM wishing a newly acquired player to take a certain spot in a lineup, rotation, depth chart, etc. will need to notify the commish via e-mail or on the forum.

Owners are to keep a 75% rate of submission for their exps. An e-mail to the commish, with a good reason for missing the sim, will count as a submission; provided it is not a chronic problem. An e-mail to the commish, stating no changes are needed, will count as a regular exp submission.
Submitting an exp on Opening Day of a season is REQUIRED. Failure to submit an exp on Opening Day will likely result in your removal from the league. The commish will consider any explanations for missing this exp before making a final decision about removal.
Owners are to be respectful of their fellow GMs at ALL times.
Owners who repeatedly fail to attend the live draft or send a list for the majority of the live draft, will be replaced.
Owners should be sure to have the latest version of OOTP. We're using 6.5 now, but that could change.
All owners should set a password in their team setup screen.
Do NOT give your password to ANYONE for ANY reason. (The vMLB Rule)
Batters should have their positions set to the one they play the most innings at. MRs should be set to SPs if they will end up pitching more then a 1/6th of the team's games.

Trading of picks is not allowed.
Trading of cash on the other hand, IS allowed.
A team may NOT receive cash in a trade if they already have more than $20 Million in cash reserves.

The draft will be held on the 1st of June during the season. (* No longer a rule as of 1913 season * )
Effective 1915 - The top 8 picks in each draft will be determined via lottery. The lottery will be weighted with chances ranked according to how close a club finishes to a .375 Win Pct. (*No longer effective as of 1930 season).
Draft order is determined first by last year's record, with Pythagorean record as a tie breaker.
The first two rounds will be simmed live in an AIM chatroom. The 3rd and subsequent rounds will be resolved via list.
The draft will last 10 rounds, or until all players are selected.

No rating may be set below a 3, or above a 7 in spring training.
Failure to submit a spring training exp, will result in "5s across the board", not CPU management.

The Salary Cap is currently at $70 Million. This MAY change as time goes on, but will likely be more than adequate for the beginning of the league.
I personally will not do any special enforcement for the cap, so if OOTP allows you to do something while over the cap, I will as well.
All teams will have 4-year National and Local Broadcast deals. They will be staggered in such a way as to not end in the same year. When the contracts are renewed, all teams making less than $12 Million in Local revenue will have their's raised. Everyteam will have their National deal edited to the league average in this department. *No longer enforced due to changes in OOTP*
Added 1907 - Salary Cap changed to $65 Million.
Added 1917 - Salary Cap raised to $70 Million.

If more than one team claims the same FA from the pool during a sim period, the team with the worst record will receive the player.
Added 1907 - A team will only get "first-dibs" on one player during any sim period. As an example, suppose we have teams A, B, and C all making claims on players during FA. Team A has the worst record, followed by B, and then C. Team A will be awarded the first player it claimed that period (based on post time or GM's indication in the post), then go to the back of the queue. Then B will be awarded their first claimed FA. Then C gets their first claimed FA. The order cycles back after all teams are awarded a FA.
Added 1933- Teams will be allowed to sign a maximum of three FAs per sim.

When a position player is offered either an extension or FA contract, I will change their position to the one they played the most innings at.
MRs who have started a 1/6th or more of their team's games, WILL be set to starters when signing contracts.
During the deadball era, all CL should be set to MR for their roles during contract negotiations.