I. The Sydney Baseball Championship
A. The PBF brings together Out of the Park Baseball (OOTP) owners to compete for its Championship.
B. The PBF is free to all.
C. The PBF will use Out of the Park 16, and at the discretion of the commish will or will not transition to new OOTP versions as they are released. Most likely we will transition each version.
D. The league will start in 1980 and sim 20 years to 01 January 2000 at which stage human GMs will take over with an inaugural draft
II. Commissioner
A. The Commissioner will NOT be running/managing a team in this league.
B. The Commissioner’s duties include:
1. Setting the league schedule
2. Running the in-OOTP game league
3. Following owners’ management instructions
4. Updating the league website
5. Running drafts
6. Resolving all disputes and questions
7. Encouraging league participation
8. Improving the league
9. Filling ownership vacancies.
10. Processing trades
C. The Commissioner may change any rule.
D. The Commissioner has final say in all matters.
III. Owners
A. Owners must be active, by:
1. Submitting team exports
2. Communicating with the Commissioner
3. Posting in the league forum
4. Participating in all drafts in a timely manner
5. Responding to trade offers
6. Running their organisation responsibly for the betterment of the league
7. While not mandatory, owners are encouraged to post news/stories about their organisation
B. Owners must play fair and try to win, however rebuilding is of course allowed
C. Owners must follow all rules.
IV. League Settings (overview – more detail in the Addendum to the rules at the bottom of this page)
A. Financials ON
B. Designated hitter – ON IN BOTH LEAGUE AND MINOR LEAGUES
C. Fictional players
D. Franchises – 12 in total (2 leagues of 6 teams)
1. Major League and minor league team locations and team names determined by the Commissioner and selected by GMs through a lottery system to begin the league
2. Two levels of minors (AAA & AA)
E. Coaches OFF
F. Scouts are ON
G. Rating scale
1. Potential only (1-10 scale)
2. Stars for overall potential
H. Playoffs (no playoffs in the minor leagues)
1. The division champion plus second place make the post-season in each league
2. For the purposes of a tie-break for seeding, a 1 game playoff will be played
3. The League Cup will be a best of 5 series with Seed 1 having home ground advantage over Seed 2. The series will be split 2H, 2A, 1H
4. The Maui Shield will be a best of 7 game series with the highest seed (based on record) having home ground advantage over the lowest seed. The series will be split 2H, 3A, 2H
I. Sim schedule
a. 7 days per regular season sim
b. Off season and pre-season sim lengths to be determined
c. Sims to occur everyday (M, T, W, T, F, S, S) unless commish provides advance notice of absence
d. Exports due no later than 6am Central Standard Time – note the sim will be run anywhere between 6am and 9am CST – these times may change as Daylight Savings Time adjusts the time difference between USA and Australia (where the commish is based)
V. Stadiums & Relocation
A. No relocation allowed, team locations are fixed for all time
B. Stadiums are preset by the Commissioner, GMs will be allowed to adjust ONE of the SIX park factors each year. Each change cannot increase or decrease a park factor by more than 0.030
C. No park factor can go below 0.700 or above 1.300
D. Maximum capacity of stadiums is defined by the population of the team location defined in the original team selection
E. All stadiums will be set to their respective capacity defined in the original team location selection
F. Additional seats cannot be added (this might be revisited in time)
G. All adjustments to stadium seating and park factors must be provided to the Commissioner BEFORE the end of the Maui Shield series in preparation for the new season
VI. Free Agents
A. 3 service years required for salary arbitration
B. 6 years service time minimum for free agency
C. Minor league free agency is active at 6 years
D. No compensation for lost FA’s
E. 2012 CBA rules are not in effect
F. All free agent claims are made in game with the following rules in place:
1. Maximum contract length of 6 years for any player
2. Free agents can only be signed during the regular season, off-season or pre-season window. FA’s cannot be signed during the playoffs by any teams.
VII. Trades
A. The commissioner may cancel a deal if it harms team or league integrity.
B. All trades must be posted on the league message board.
C. Both parties must agree to the deal before it is processed.
D. Draft picks CANNOT be traded.
E. Recently drafted players CAN be traded.
F. Trading is closed between the trade deadline (31st December) and the last game of the Maui Shield series
G. Veterans cannot veto trades
H. Cash can be included in trades
VIII. Roster Rules
A. 25 man limit on ML roster, 35 man limit for both AAA and AA teams
1. The active roster will be extended to a limit of 40 for Spring Training, the roster must be down to 25 men for the opening day sim of each season. A special ‘roster moves’ sim will be scheduled between the end of Spring Training and opening day
B. ‘September’ callup options are in effect
C. Secondary roster set to 25 man
D. ‘International Complex’ limited to 20 players
E. Minimum of 4 man rotation for regular season games and 3 man for playoffs
F. All pitchers set to start in the rotation must be set to SP, MR/CL can only start if set to ‘Emergency starter’ and the AI has them replace an SP injured during a sim
G. There is no Rule V draft
IX. Amateur Draft
A. Before each season there will be an Amateur Draft (17th of March)
B. The draft will consist of eight (8) rounds with players for 10 rounds generated
C. Draft Order
1. The non-playoff teams will draft in inverse order of winning percentage. Ties will be broken based on head-to-head record (better record drafts first), then a coin flip if required
2. The playoff teams that do not reach the Maui Shield will draft in inverse order of winning percentage. Tiebreakers remain the same as above
3. The Maui Shield loser picks 11th
4. The Maui Shield winner picks 12th
B. The league will hold the Amateur Draft using the Statslab utility. The draft pool will be released approx. 180 days prior to the Draft to allow lists to allow drafting to begin in the utility. All picks must be made through the Draft Utility or by emailing the Commissioner detailed instructions
X. Contract Extensions
A. All game created contracts in 2000 will be honoured
B. Contract extensions
1. Maximum contract length of 6 years for any player
XI. Debt Relief
A. A one time debt relief program will be in effect for any GM/team who experiences financial hardship, full rules can be found in the forums
Addendum – League Settings
Scouting
1. Accuracy ‘High’
2. Monthly scouting reports
Suspensions/Injuries/Fatigue
1. Suspensions ON (NORMAL)
2. Drug suspensions OFF
3. Injury frequency LOW
4. Delayed injury diagnosis NEVER
5. Injury rating HIDDEN
6. Position player fatigue LOW
Ratings
1. Potential ONLY 1 to 10 (no current ratings)
2. Show ratings > Max NO
3. Show Potential < Actual NO
4.STARS for potential ratings ONLY (no current ratings)
5. Overall rating based on ALL players, not positions
6. Current ratings shown for speed, position, fielding, bunt, hold runners, stamina etc.
Financials
PBF will have its own financial model with a gradual inflation model (0-5% each year). The financial model is designed to force choices about where/how to spend money.
1. Average attendance 17,500
2. Fixed ticket price $1.71 fixed for all teams (will adjust as time progresses)
3. Visiting team’s gate share 30%
4. Fixed national media contract $20,500 (will adjust as time progresses)
5. Average local media contract $0 (will not adjust)
6. Average merchandise revenue $5,000 (will adjust as time progresses)
7. Owner does NOT control budget, all revenue available
8. Revenue sharing by luxury tax (50% of payroll over 115% of the league average)
9. Cash maximum DISABLED
10. Average player development budget $342,856 (will adjust as time progresses)
11. Average scouting budget $342,856 (will adjust as time progresses)
12. No salary cap, limited by budget available
13. Average profit calculations are meaningless according to the PBF financial advisor
International and Amateur Free Agents
1. International amateur free agents (few 6)
2. International amateur signing cap $171,428
3. International scouting discoveries per team (few 2)
4. International established free agents (few 2)
5. Free agents from independent leagues (default 2)
Schedule
1. 120 games (120 games in the minor leagues)
2. NO inter-league
3. Typical series is 3 games (24 games against each league rival 12H & 12A)
4. Typically one off day per week – 2 series per week with 1 rest/travel day
5. Season starts in May for ML and minor leagues
6. All Star break gets its own week with only that game played to allow selections to rest for regular season PBF games
Development and Aging
1. Batter Aging Speed .600
2. Batter Dev. Speed 1.000
3. Pitcher Aging Speed .700
4. Pitcher Dev. Speed 1.000
5. Talent change randomness 80
6. Morale system ON
7. Personality ratings ON
Feeder Leagues
1. Feeders will be on feed the ammy draft pool to ensure greater depth of stats for evaluation of players
Fan Interest, Loyalty & Market Size
1. Market size will be stable and adjusted back to starting default values at the beginning of the off-season
2. Fan interest will have a floor of 10pts (1-100 scale) below the starting value, all fan interest that falls below will be reset to the floor at the start of the off-season
3. Fan loyalty will have a floor of 1pt (1-10 scale) below the starting value, all fan loyalty that falls below will be reset to the floor at the start of the off-season
League Strategy Modifiers
1. A random selection of a year between 1960 & 1979 will be applied for each season; this will NOT be communicated to GMs and will remain hidden under the hood
Miscellaneous
1. Storylines OFF
Park Factors
1. Stadiums are preset by the Commissioner, GMs will be allowed to adjust ONE of the SIX park factors each year. Each change cannot increase or decrease a park factor by more than 0.030
2. No park factor can go below 0.700 or above 1.300
3. All adjustments to park factors must be provided to the Commissioner BEFORE the end of the Maui Shield in preparation for the new season
Post your park factor adjustments in slack in the format of “AVG LHB +0.030 to 1.030”
Only these 6 factors can be adjusted
AVG LHB
AVG RHB
Doubles
Triples
HR LHB
HR RHB
Please ensure you add a + or – when posting your factor changes.