Rules Page Update (2nd)

Here.

I neglected to mention two more rules update. 1) We have also expanded eligible pitchers, and 2) Year criteria has been moved from 1883-2010 to 1871-2010

Further, I have eliminated the "10 FA Moves per year rule". This limit has been approached once in the past several years and frankly it isn't worth the hassle of tracking team by team.

See below for the fullset of rules that govern ATB XII

Rules for ATB XIII

LEAGUE MAKEUP

- Multiple divisions dependent upon the total number of owners.

- Division winners plus three wild card teams make the playoffs (6 total).

- DH's will be used in both leagues

ROSTERS/TEAM OPTIONS

- 30 Player Rosters (all active). The 5 additional players are necessary because of injuries that occur during the simulation.

- Positional makeup is entirely up to the owner. You can carry as many pitchers or batters as you would like, as long as you have 30 total.

- Park can be any year, for any stadium 1871 through 2010.

- Team Name is entirely up to owner

STADIUM SELECTION

- Any park from 1901 till know is fair game

- Please submit the year and the park you want (park factors change from year to year)

- DMB uses different PF's for each combination of handedness and hit type (LH/RH for 1B, 2B, 3B, HR).
- In the off chance two owners select the same park, preference will be given to the owner with the worst draft slot.

- We can't have two of the same parks (two Fenway's, two Yankee stadium's, etc) even if owners request different years.

PLAYER POOL

• Any batter with at least 450 PA is eligible.

• Any pitcher with 50 IP is eligible.

• Only pitchers with at least 20 Games Started can be considered a full time starter in ATB.

• Any pitcher is allowed to spot start, even if they do not meet the 20 GS minimum.

• There are 5 negro league players eligible as well.

Exceptions have been introduced as of the ATB XIII season. These exceptions are designed to allow more players who do not meet the above requirements (because they are from the 1800s and strike shortened seasons) a chance to be drafted.

1) For teams with less than 100 games in a season, a player from that team is only eligible if he has appeared in 95% of his teams games. For teams with more than 100 games, a player is only eligible if he has appeared in 85% of his teams games.

2) Catchers need only have 370 Plate Appearances, instead of the 450 currently required.

3) Pitcher's who have appeared in at least 30% of their team games are now eligible even if they have less than 50 IP.

4) Reminder that all eligible players are posted on the ATB Home Page.

- POSITION REQUIREMENTS. As an owner, I want to have the ability to start a player out of position if I want to. If I want all offense and no defense, I should be allowed to start by first basemen in the outfield and be damned with the consequences. The problem of course is knowing what the limits are. Since defensive ratings are determined by me at the time the player is created, it leaves too much leeway as go guessing. If a player happened to get garbage time in 1 game completely out of position should he be eligible for that position in DMB? If so, how should I determine ratings after just one (or a handful of games played)?

However, the DMB engine does allow for this, and has a built in mechanism to downgrade defensive ratings when players are out of position. It just needs a little help and so the following rules are in place:

* Any player who appears in at least 45% of his "real-life" games played a the position will not suffer a penalty

* For players with more than two rated positions, this percentage is dropped to 20%

* If, and only if, an owner wants to break this rule, I will remove the DMB rating from this second position and allow DMB to automatically downgrade as they see fit.

* If exemption is not requested, all ratings remain as is and owners are free to keep these players in back up positions.

2 Position Examples:

- Jim Hickman played 74 games at 1B and 79 in CF - 48% and 52% respectively. He is eligible at both positions.

- Dick Allen. played 91 at 3B, 47 in LF - 66% and 34% respectively. He is only eligible to start full time 3B

3 Position Examples

- Stan Musial. 41 LF, 64 CF, 76 RF - 23%, 35%, 42% respectively. Eligible to start full time at all three.

- Randy Ready. 51 2B, 52 3B, 16 LF - 43%, 44%, 13% respectively. He is only eligible to start full time at 2B and 3B.

DRAFT DAY

- Draft Order determined randomly by commissioner using the Excel "Random Number Generator" function.

- 30 Round Draft

- Each owner is pre-assigned a specific 10 minute block of time to make a selection. If you miss your block of time, you are skipped, and the next owner is allowed to make a selection once his block of time has started. The skipped owner can go back and make the missed selection at any time thereafter.

- In general, the draft runs from 9 AM to 10 PM each weekday. For those who can't make early picks you can email me your pick the night before.

- Owners can also submit lists to me, in order of preference, and I will post a pick for them if they wish. This is not recommended, but can be accommodated.

TRADES AND FREE AGENTS

- Unlimited Trades, Free Agent, and DL Moves

WEEKLY SCHEDULE

- 15 Days Simulated Per Week over the course of 12 Weeks

* Sunday - Lineups and Free Agents Due 8 PM+ 3 Days Run

* Monday - Thursday - 3 Days Run per night

* If for whatever reason games can not be run on a given day, they will be made up the following day. This has no impact on owners as there is no ability to submit lineup changes between game days. Spreading games out over multiple days is simply for enjoyment purposes.

- If you request a Free Agent (straight add drop or DL) - assume you are going to get him and insert into your lineup. If something goes haywire and more than claim is submitted for the same player, we'll just delay the first day of sims by 24 hrs and straighten out the owner who missed out.