New Rules

[chrisj]

A preliminary copy of the revised league rules (to be updated with several changes based on discussions and feedback).

Key changes are in italics..



1. Background / Overview

History

The Canadian Baseball League (CBL) was formed in April of 2002 using the Out of the Park Baseball Version 4 simulation. Currently, it uses the Out of the Park Baseball X simulation that is developed by Out of the Park Developments.

All transactions (lineup changes, setting depth charts, pitching staff, players moving between levels, free agent and contract extensions offers) with the exception of trades are completed in the game. The game is required to be a member of the league.

Structure

The CBL is comprised of 24 teams which are split into two leagues with three divisions in each league.

The setup of the league is as follows:

Eastern League
Atlantic Division
Central Division
Southern Division


Western League
Great Lake Division
Prairie Division
Pacific Division

Regular Season

The league runs a 162 game regular season. The break down is 14 inter-divisional games (7 home, 7 away), 12 games against other teams in the league (6 home, 6 away) and two games against teams in the other league (1 home, 1 away).

Games are simulated four times per week (currently on Sunday night, Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night). Exports for each simulation are due by 10 PM EST. Each simulation will consist of one week of the regular season, giving 27 simulations of the regular season. Should the dates of simulations change, notice will be posted on the league forum in advance.

Playoffs

The top team in each division makes the playoffs. The team with the best record in each league that did not win their division will qualify as a wild card team.

Each of the three series will feature a best of seven series.

Playoff simulations will take place as soon as each team confirms that they are ready, or at a maximum, 48 hours after the previous simulation. Each simulation will be complete until the next off day.

2. Membership

The purpose of the members of teams in the CBL is to have fun - and of course, win. With that being said, the best way to keep the league entertaining for all is to be active. There are numerous ways to be active – trade block boards, posting articles on the league forum, taking part in discussions on the league forum, and even just submitting your exports on a regular basis.

Members who are not heard from for an excessive period of time (one month in real time) may be relieved of their duties to their organization. If you have a reason from being inactive, such as a vacation, please post a message on the league forum letting everyone know.

3. Financial System

Salary Cap

The CBL has a strict payroll cap in place. No teams may have a payroll that exceeds the salary cap at any point in the season. Any team exceeding the cap will face strict penalties. The salary cap will be made up of the contracts of all players with a major league contract.

The salary cap will increase on a sliding scale in the next few seasons. 2032 will see the salary cap will increase to $80 million dollars per team and 2033 will see the salary cap increase to $85 million dollars per team.

Random checks will be completed throughout the season to see if teams exceed the salary cap. See the discussion under “Fines / Penalties” for further information.

Cash Maximum

Starting with the 2032 season, teams will be allowed to maintain $20 million in cash on hand.

Off-Season Marketing Campaigns

Prior to the off-season, organizations can plan to promote off-season marketing campaigns to increase fan loyalty. A team can spend $1 million to promote its team and increase their current fan interest by 1 point (up to a maximum of 5 points).

4. Roster Management

Amateur Draft

The CBL has a ten round player draft. Starting in the 2032 season, the draft will be held on June 1st of the regular season. Rounds 6 thru 10 are non-tradable, and picks will be made automatically through the OOTP X simulation.

The draft will be completed using Getch’s utility. Members need to be sure they are able to make their draft picks in a timely manner or send the commissioner a draft list if they know they will be unable to pick.

At the conclusion of the off season free agent period, the remainder of the draft will be completed using draft lists that should be emailed to the commissioner. If you do not send a draft list, the computer will select the remaining picks for you.

Trades

Trades maybe made anytime before the July 31st deadline. They may include up to five players, along with draft picks and/or cash. If draft picks are included, they are only allowed to be included for the current or upcoming draft.

Players signed to a contract during the previous off-season may not be traded until July 1st of the current year.

All roster moves are completed before the next simulation during the season. Any roster instructions (placing a player into the pitching rotation, etc) should be posted in the trade confirmation post on the league forum.

Contracts

Contracts must be a minimum of $300,000 per year. Contract length is all based on what the player is willing to sign for, up to a maximum of 5 years. A player may not have more than a 5 year deal offered to them unless they are asking for it in the game. In order to offer a contract longer than 5 years, the commissioner must be contacted (either my e-mail or PM on the board) and notified that you will be offering a long-term deal. This allows the commissioner to verify that the player is asking for more than five years.

If the commissioner is not notified, the contract will be nullified, and the team signing the player will lose the cap room for the remainder of the season. This applies to contracts offered during free agency and all contract extension offers.

Contract Incentive Clauses

Teams are permitted to offer contract incentive clauses in their extensions, as well as their Free Agency offers. However, the commissioner will review all contracts signed throughout the season to ensure there is no effort made to “take advantage of the system”.

Incentives that can be offered include At Bats, MVP, Innings Pitched, and Cy Young – with the following limits to keep in mind:

Contracts from $300,000 to $5 million: If you are to make an offer to a player and include incentives in this price range, you are only permitted to offer 50% of the guaranteed amount of the contract as incentive. The amount is determined by establishing what the average annual contract's salary is. In other words, if you offer a player a $3 million, you could offer a maximum of an additional $1.5 million in total performance bonuses (per season). If this rule is violated, you will be required to raise the guaranteed salary to equal the incentives.

Contracts from $5 million and up: If you make an offer to a player in this price range, your total incentives are capped at a maximum of $2.5 million. This means you can never offer more than $2.5 million in incentives at any point. A violation of this policy will create a fine equal to 50% of the average annual salary in guaranteed dollars!

Option Years: You may include option years in your contract offers, the final year may be no more than 125% of any previous season (e.g. if a player earns no more than $1 million in any given season, his option year may be no more than $1.25 million).

Contract extensions can be made any time during the year or off-season as long as you do it before the players file for free agency.

Waiver Wire

The CBL uses the in-game waiver system. The waiver period lasts for 8 simulation days, which allows all members to see who is available on the waiver wire. All waiver transactions (putting players on waivers, claiming, and removing from waivers) must be done within the game itself.

Roster Limits

Roster size will be limited to 25 men until September 1st. At this time, you may then have as many as 40 players on your Major League roster for the remainder for the regular season.

If a player is salaried, they must be on the 40-Man roster.

5. Minor Leagues

The CBL will use three level of minor leagues – AAA, AA and A.

As the goal of A and AA ball is to encourage development, an age restriction has been set on these two level of minors.

A – Only players up to and including 24 years of age on opening day are eligible to play in A ball.
AA – Only players up to and including 26 years of age on opening day are eligible to play in AA ball.

There is no limit to the age of players in AAA ball.

Ghost players are used in the minor leagues so that teams can operate with as many or as few minor league players in their system as they wish.

6. Stadiums

Stadium Ratings

There are limits to what your ratings can be. These limits are:

AVG - between 75 and 125
HR - between 75 and 125
2B - between 50 and 150
3B - between 50 and 150

Although not a written rule, the league will make an effort to maintain average league-wide ratings of 100 for each category.

Stadium Changes

Any requested stadium changes are required to be requested on the message board in the "Stadium Changes" forum. Once requested, the proposed changes will be reviewed. The review will consist of ensuring the stadium meets league rules, and that the overall average rating for the league remains around 100.

The following costs are associated with the following stadium rating changes:

ANY AVG: $75,000 per point change between 90 and 110. $100,000 per point for any other change.

ANY HR: $75,000 per point change between 90 and 110. $100,000 per point for any other change.

2B: $50,000 per point change between 80 and 120. $75,000 per point for any other change.

3B: $50,000 per point change between 80 and 120. $75,000 per point for any other change.

There will also be a cost of $500,000 for any other 'major' changes (grass to turf, adding/removing a turf, etc).


7. Fines and Penalties

Salary Cap

Random checks will be done on a regular basis to see if teams exceed the salary cap. If a team exceeds the cap, the following penalties will be assessed:

(1) upon initial identification of exceeding the cap, a warning will be issued on the league message forum;

(2) two simulations subsequent to the warning being issued, the commissioner will follow up to ensure the team is under the cap. If not under the cap, a cash penalty of $2.5 million will be assessed;

(3) if the team continues to exceed the cap, they will lose their 1st and 2nd round draft pick in the following draft, and an additional penalty of $2.5 million will be assessed.

[chrisj]

Again - rules are not set in stone - please feel free to provide feedback. If the league as a whole feels strongly that a specific rule needs to be changed, we can look at changing it.

[Claybor]

Looks pretty good, but you definately have a bit more work to do.

[chrisj]

Looks pretty good, but you definately have a bit more work to do.

Can you be more specific to what you are referring to?

[Claybor]

I meant to keep up with the new rules you will have more work to do over the course of a season.

[kq76]

I meant to keep up with the new rules you will have more work to do over the course of a season.

Yeah, that's something that I meant to say in my comments, but now that I think about I think I forgot to mention it that one thing you should keep in mind with rules is not to give yourself too much stuff that you have to do. When you're writing rules there might be some great things you'd like to do, but if it's just going to burn you out doing them then it's probably best to drop them. While it probably doesn't hurt to be reminded of this from time to time, I'm sure Chris knows to keep this in mind. After a quick look at what he posted it looks like he did take some things out that I didn't think were needed.

[kq76]

"Members who are not heard from for an excessive period of time (one month in real time) may be relieved of their duties to their organization."

Should we go with something a little more strict for declaring when a team is open, especially considering the current Toronto situation? A month in real time is a pretty long time in game time. Two weeks might be good. Maybe two weeks if you're a new member, a month if you've been in the league longer than a season?

[creed]

"Members who are not heard from for an excessive period of time (one month in real time) may be relieved of their duties to their organization."

Should we go with something a little more strict for declaring when a team is open, especially considering the current Toronto situation? A month in real time is a pretty long time in game time. Two weeks might be good. Maybe two weeks if you're a new member, a month if you've been in the league longer than a season?

I second this notion. Folks that join new leagues are (usually) pretty pumped to be here, and while i can see real life giving a kick to the family jewels, most times in leagues disappearances usually are folks that just decided its' not for them but never told anyone.

Which sucks. OOTP seems to have a heck of a time attracting Canadian based online players for some reason it seems.

[BaldwinIntheCapital]

Its because we're a hockey country. Outside of the guys I still play ball with, I have a tough time finding a handful to even talk MLB with.

I'm actually excited playing with (against) a bunch of countrymen...

Only one other time, have I had another Canadian in any of my leagues. I actually play in a league that has 4 Brits...

[creed]

Its because we're a hockey country. Outside of the guys I still play ball with, I have a tough time finding a handful to even talk MLB with.

I'm actually excited playing with (against) a bunch of countrymen...

Only one other time, have I had another Canadian in any of my leagues. I actually play in a league that has 4 Brits...

I think it's also the recent decable with the lockout and the Expos that pretty much extinguished the flame. I mean look back twenty years ago at this time. The two MLB clubs were doing well, and we had AAA clubs in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and lots of lower A clubs scattered all over from Ontario West.

[Afino]

Conversely, as an American who is as obsessive with hockey as Canadians are (probably has something with being born in Buffalo), I like being able to mix in my baseball with hockey. Can't do that elsewhere in OOTP online leagues

[chrisj]

A couple of things to add with respect to the draft and trades, to make things easier from an admin point of view:

- On April 1, you can trade draft picks for the following season (e.g. on April 1, 2034, you can start trading draft picks for 2035 - no earlier than that).
- Once a draft pick has been selected in the utiltiy, the player and the pick cannot be traded until after the draft takes place in the game (that being June 15th).