You like Scoresheet since it is more realistic, right? But which MLB team has ever consistently kept its 13 best players? Or could not keep young developmental players?
What if there were a better system? Would you be interested in a private league that uses a non-financial system that attempts to mimic MLB-style player movement?
Stars will become free agents, and you can develop your own farm system. This can make trading more interesting...Do you trade your farm for that stud ace in the last year of his deal and go for the championship? Do you extend a contract to a player in his prime or let him go and use that spot for younger, but less established players?
Do you want to be on the ground floor of a new league and start your franchise from the beginning? No need to pick up an orphaned team. No need to enter a league trying to catch up to the other owners. Now is your chance to start fresh with a new twist and create the dynasty of your dreams!
We already have 15 owners (many of whom will attest to this set-up), so act now to get involved. If we have enough interest, we may even create a second league!
Welcome to the NCML!
Below are the basic rules as it existed a few years ago under a different simulation system. We are currently in the process of tweaking the rules to fit better in the Scoresheet model, but the basic concepts are the same.
NCML Rules/Constitution
Overview
The purpose of this league is to have as realistic of a set-up as we can in terms of roster movement and other elements for a simulation league within the context of Scoresheet Baseball. Particularly, roster rules will not be set up in a way that mirror actual MLB rules so much as creating an environment where results of our rules help mimic MLB player movement. Rather than protecting the best 13 players, stars will become free agents and young players easier to keep. Rather than a financial system that results in owners seeking bargains rather than the best player, the ‘currency’ of this system is contract years, which are limited by a set of rules governing how they can be applied. The spirit of these rules will remain intact, but actual rules will sometimes be modified in an effort to be able to implement this league’s system within Scoresheet’s framework. Where not stated or otherwise modified, rules will defer to the way Scoresheet rules work.
Structure
This will be a 20 team AL/NL mixed league divided into 2 conferences with 2 divisions (DH rules will be in effect). All division winners will automatically reach the play-offs. Two wildcards will make the play-offs from each conference with the two division winners having the 1 and 2 seeds depending on who has the better record. The wildcard team with the better record will be the 3 seed and the team with the lessor record will be the 4th seed. Each post-season series will be a best of 7 series.
Franchise Mode
Ideally, we would hope for everyone to select at least mid-sized cities without MLB teams already. Just think of it as if we are attempting to create a competing league with MLB. Certainly, we want to be as flexible as possible and do not even want to begin to tell people how to name their teams. That said, we do think it is in the spirit of league’s purpose to try to pick realistic cities and nicknames and hope owners have the same idea. Since in real life many franchises take great pride in selecting a nickname that represents their city, we also hope owners do the same. There is a list available of some suggested cities to choose from, but we are completely open to new ideas if you think of one not listed. The point of this is to make the league more fun, not more restrictive.
Contract System
The contract system is one where contract years are allocated to players to determine whether and how long a team can keep them, or whether a player will become a free agent. It works this way: Each team will have a certain amount of years available to allocate to its players each off-season. Having a certain number of years allocated to a players indicates how many more seasons a team has his rights before becoming a free agent. As with MLB, younger players’ rights are automatically retained and do not need contracts All the details, including various options and restrictions are documented below.
Contract Years:
Years available:
Season 1 - 40 years
Season 2 - 45 years
Season 3 - 50 years
Beyond - 50 years
The maximum contract a team can give to any one player is 6 years.
2) 1 year contract rule: For players needing contracts, owners allocate contract years by opening day (some leeway might be granted in the first season or when an owner is new). Any player not assigned a contract will be given a 1 year contract, but 1 year contracts DO NOT COUNT against the annual limit. Worth noting, when a player has two years left, once the season ends, you get 2 years back to allocate to other players.
3) Rolling over contract years: Saving years and not allocating them serves no benefit other than keeping those years open for future acquisitions. If you allocate only 20 years during season 1, or if you allocate all 40 seasons, you will still end up with 45 years available during the off-season before season 2 like every other team. Teams would not be permitted to add unused years to future seasons.
4) Contract year enforcement: Teams are not permitted to trade contract years to other teams. However, within a season a team may have players under contract well exceeding the contract limit. During the off-season, this team would have to make trades or releases to get back under the limit, as that is the period when the limits are recognized and enforced. Once the protection period has started until free agent contracts have been assigned, teams must be below the limit. Certain frozen periods of non-trading will be implemented while contracts are assigned.
5) Automatically protected players: In general, players will not need a contract until the beginning of their 3rd full major league season (If a player’s rookie status expired in 2011, he would not have needed a contract until before the 2013 season).
6) Inaugural Draft Exception: One major exception is the inaugural draft. Any player without rookie status must be given a contract to avoid free agent status.
7) Franchise Tag - each team will receive one franchise tag to assign to a player. This tag enables a team to assign a second contract to a player once the initial contract has expired. When a player is tagged, the contract years do not count against a team’s limit. While the tag itself cannot be traded in isolation to another team, a tagged player can be traded to another team. In this instance the tag remains with the player until the initial contract expires and then returns to the original team to assign to another player. A player can only be tagged once by a team, and a team can hold onto a tag without applying it. Releasing a player with a tag does not remove the tag or bring back the tag
8) Minor Leagues - Each franchise can keep up to 15 MiLB players across the protection deadline. These players are defined as players that have had a contract within a minor league system (college and international players are not eligible...yet) that have no MLB playing experience. As soon as a player has MLB playing time, he must be protected through processes available on the major league roster, even if they player is currently in the Minors in real life. Inside a regular season, teams can trade and exceed the 15 man limit of MiLB players, but during the off-season the 15 man limit would be enforced. While teams can and will take MiLB players during regular Free Agent Draft, two MiLB drafts will take place during the season, including one after the MLB amateur draft. Even if individual owners do not keep track of Minor Leagues, automatic drafting of these players will keep a pipeline in place that will minimize any disadvantage to not following MiLB closely.
9) Waivers and Supplemental Drafts - Depending upon which form these are taken (this will apply to regular waivers or standard supplemental drafts), players without any MLB experience are not eligible to be selected. Players will all be assigned 1 yr contracts initially that do not count against the yearly contract limit. While these players will be given free agent status at the end of the season, there are options available to keep them on the roster past the current season. Players with contracts that are released maintain their contract status in-season, as long as they have a regular contract. That is if a team releases a player signed to a 3 year deal, a team acquiring him also picks up the 3 year contract. Exceptions are players with contract types with penalties associated with them (+5). If a player is released in the off-season, they become free agents without any ties to their previous contract status. More info on that will be given during Free Agent Types.
10) Free Agent Draft - All players without contracts, released, not retained for whatever reason within the context of the contract rules are placed in the FA Draft. This works in a standard fashion with teams drafting in reverse order of finish, with World Series participants drafting last. Otherwise, it is a reverse of winning pct. There will be a minimum of 10 draft rounds which could be raised as high as 15 in these FA Drafts, where roster balancing can occur in the latter rounds of the FA draft to address roster size disparity. By the end of the FA Draft, teams should have at least 35 players under their rights, with the possible exception of recent trades. The commissioner has the right to implement roster balancing moves during this part of the season to get all teams to minimum number of players during the free agent draft.
PLAYERS DESIGNATIONS
This will be a brief overview of all the player designations, including all roster options available to an owners. This is particularly critical during the off-season, but can also have impact on roster planning and strategy during the season.
MiLB: These are players that have no MLB playing experience. A max of 15 can be protected during the off-season, while that number has no upper limit inside the regular season. Once these MiLB players have MLB experience they will be regarded as Rookies.
Rookies/Post-Rookies/Young Players - Players in their first three Major League seasons have rights automatically retained by the franchise. These players will be designated as R1, R2, and R3 to indicate what their status is. Players designated as R3 entering their 3rd full MLB season must receive a contract prior to the season or they will automatically receive a 1 year contract and have Free Agent status at the end of the season. Note that R2 players must be given a contract following the inaugural draft but are otherwise protected players from that point forward.
Franchise Player - This is the player that has the franchise tag, allowing for a 2nd contract to be assigned after the first one expires. Contract years for this player do not count against the yearly limit.
Regular Contract Players - These players are under contract for the number of years indicated. They can be traded or released to get rid of contract years without penalty.
Extended Players - These are players * who had expired contracts extended by the team. There are specific limitations and penalties in each case to trading or releasing these players, depending on the method used to extend them.
Free Agents - These are players either without contracts, or who have had expired contracts. Based on their original method of acquisition, options for extending them and associated penalties are listed below
FA1 - These are players that went undrafted in the Free Agent (or Inaugural) Draft. These players can be given up to a 3 year contract once the season ends without any penalty. Once this contract expires, the player will have n FA3 designation.
FA2 - Players taken in the back half of the draft, or the last number of specific round determined by the commish can have one player given a contract up to 5 years without penalty. Only one player with this designation can be extended without penalty. All others would need to be extended via the regular FA3 method and the +5 rule. If the player extended in this fashion is traded before July of the following season, the contract years stay on the books of both teams until the player’s contract expires. This is to avoid having a team agree to extend a player for another team who would otherwise become a free agent.
FA3 - These are players who were taken in the free agent draft and whose contract has expired. These players will go into the Free Agent Draft unless extended with a ‘+5 penalty’. The way this penalty works is that the new last year of a contract cost 5 years of contract limits, the second to last year cost 6 years. The third to last year cost 7 contract years, and the fourth to last cost 8 years. The maximum contract given for this type of extension is 4 years and the cost are (1 season = 5 years, 2 seasons = 6 years, 3 seasons = 7 years & 4 seasons = 8 years). Teams can trade these players, but the contracts stay on the books for that season and half of the remaining contract years (rounded down) stay on the books for the duration of the contract. The acquiring team gets all of the years on their books. A team can only extend a contract one time.
FA4 - These are players that have already been extended via a +5 penalty and cannot be extended again. These players cannot be prevented from becoming free agents.
Player Protection Caps - While team may have any number of players under their rights the maximum number they can protect (outside of the MiLB roster is 25). The minimum in which teams are required to protect is 10.
Governance - This is a league designed to have a unique culture and a specialized set of roster rules designed to mimic MLB player movement. In order to preserve and maintain these rules, the commissioner has the right to modify these rules as seen fit. There might be league votes on certain matters and input on various matters from owners is essential to the success of the league. However, the effort here is to avoid having a litigious league voting on a bunch of rule changes, and maintaining this contract system takes insight into how it works rather than opinions. Therefore, while there will be ways to address changes proposed by league members in a constructive and inclusive way, final say for rule changes shall be reserved for the commissioner.
For information or to register, email
ncmlcommish@gmail.com. Thank you!