The MBL Guide

League Purpose

Each active member (hereafter referred to as a manager) plays one team through a 162-game schedule spread over six months. The team's roster of players is controlled continuously by the manager from year to year, varying only at his whim and the realities of some occurrences in real-life baseball. Each team is connected in a literal and spiritual way to its Real-Life counterpart, the two teams sharing the same name and the same minor league system. At the discretion of the manager, he may adopt a previous name of his real-life counterpart, i.e. Minnesota Twins ->Washington Senators, Texas Rangers ->Washington Senators.

League Government

The officers currently consist of:
Commissioner: Jack Buchanan
Newsletter Editor: Jack Buchanan
Statistician: Bob Biermann
Trade Reporter: David Conner

The Commissioner will monitor the Rules of the league and, as the need arises, will change them to facilitate ease of play and fairness to all. League members will be consulted for ideas and advice in these matters. The Commissioner may create special arbitration boards whose purpose is to arbitrate specialized problems (such as disagreements involving members of the board or rules interpretations.) A manager may also propose a rule change, but all changes are the ultimate decision of the Commissioner.

• maintain the rosters and adjudicate and monitor all trades and waiver claims;
• help adjudicate all waiver claims in concert with the Commissioner;
• maintain each team's league bank account;
• issue a report in the newsletter each month detailing all transactions made during the previous month. More timely reports will be posted to the league web page.

MBL Organization

Connie Mack League
Rogers Hornsby Division:
Atlanta (AT), California (CA), Chicago (CH), Milwaukee (MI), Seattle (SE)
Joe McCarthy Division:
Kansas City (KC), Minnesota (MN), Montreal (MO), New York Mets (NM), Oakland (OA)

Player Control

Example: Philadelphia is playing series #2 in April. They have already finished series #3 in April, but haven't yet played series #1. During series #2, the software notes Denny Neagle is injured for 12 days (12 games in MBL parlance, i.e. 2 starts). Those 12 games theoretically involved some games in series #3, which has already been played and in which Neagle took his normal turn. Thus, those games to be lost are delayed until series #4, skipping the series already played. Neagle's games missed couldn't be missed in series #1 since that chronologically already would have occurred.

No trades which involve loaning of players is allowed. If, at any time, a trade is deemed (even after the fact) to have been a loan of a player, those managers involved will be suspended and fined at the discretion of the Commissioner.

After the season's start, any trades made involving players need not pay attention to salaries as their salaries have already been paid.

Claiming is done on a team-by-team basis, one claim per team per round in order until all teams have claimed all the players they desire. When submitting multiple claims, teams must specify, in order, the relative importance of each would-be selectee. Where none is specified, the Trade Reporter will assume they are listed in order of significance, most-to-least.

Waiver claims cost the player's pro-rated annual salary.

All waiver claims take effect as of the first reporting period following the claim.

There will be no waiver claims allowed from the final month of the real baseball season until the first issue of the HPP is published during the next MBL season.

As a matter of courtesy to fellow managers, if you are going to be late sending an automanager to your opponent for whatever reason, it is your responsibility to notify the opposing manager and the Commissioner as soon as possible. Inoperable electronics equipment will not be considered a reasonable excuse for failure to notify of anticipated tardiness. If your modem is broken, use the phone.

Grass/Turf
All teams must use grass or turf as appropriate for their actual real-life home park.

Injuries
We play with the Injuries Option on.

Pitcher Rest
We play with the Pitcher Rest Option on. Clear all rest between series except when you play them in the exact order they appear in the schedule. Only pitchers who actually appeared in the bullpen are allowed in the bullpen.

Season Schedule

Doubleheaders will occur as the schedule indicates. For purposes of pitcher rest (both starters and relievers), Doubleheaders are treated as two games being played on the same day.

Playing Games

The first half of each month's schedule must be played by the 11th of the month. The second half of each month's schedule must be played by the 21st of the month at the latest. The two managers should set firm dates to play the games as early in the month as possible.

Mail Play
Games may be played by e-mail with automanagers. It is the responsibility of the road manager of any series to have an auto-manager already in the hands of the home manager by the 1st/15th of the month. If the automanager is late, the road manager may incur a fine and the home manager may play the series at his leisure with a set of instructions provided by the commissioner or statistician. It is assumed that the league member awaiting road managers will make a reasonable effort to call the visiting team manager and the Commissioner in reference to the tardy manager. Any problems in this area should be referred immediately to the Commissioner. The League Office cannot help in this area unless you let us know immediately when manager is late.

For the late fines mentioned in this section, no fine will be assessed unless the home manager informs the Commissioner.

Some pitchers are termed swing men. Any pitcher whose real-life starts divided by appearances falls between .60 and .40 shall be deemed a swing man. For swing men ONLY, relief appearances can be traded for starts at a 4:1 ratio. Starts CANNOT, however, be traded for additional appearances. It is up to each manager, prior to the start of the season, to notify the league office which pitchers are being so designated.

Pitchers with an ERA above 5.90 are unlimited in their usage, pending only normal time missed due to injury or pitchers rest requirements, but not to exceed 90 games or 40 starts.

Naming Series
The schedule handed out prior to the season will include the name for each series that should be used.

In addition to the developmental fee, each rookie protected by a franchise costs the team its highest slotted draft pick. Protecting three rookies means that franchise's slot in the draft grid is filled for the first three rounds, six rookies-the first six rounds, etc. Any picks acquired through trade cannot be used to protect rookies until a team's own picks are exhausted.

The free agent draft proceeds as follows:

• Step 1: At the end of every season, the Waiver List is purged of all players not getting cards.
• Step 2: The remaining people on the Waiver List form the beginning of each year's Free Agent pool.
• Step 3: Non-protected rookies from MBL teams and all rookies from non-MBL major league franchises are added to the draft pool.
• Step 4: The Free Agent Draft is conducted at the Winter Meeting or at a time set by the Commissioner. The draft lasts ten rounds. Once a team passes in a given round, their subsequent picks are cancelled. They may still trade for another team's selection in a later round.
• Step 5: If any MBL team rookies remain unselected after the draft is over, they are offered back to their original team without the development fee being charged. As with other players, a team must fit any reclaimed rookies on its 35-man roster.
• Step 6: Teams now cut to 35 players and are charged the sum of their players' salaries. All released players join any remaining players in the Free Agent pool, together forming the new season's Waiver Pool. The first Waiver claims occur after the first month's newsletter is published.

League $$$$

In addition, the Commissioner is empowered to fine league members for late automanagers, statistics, or other items at his discretion.

Post-Season Rosters The Playing roster for any post-season play is 25 players. Every one of those 25 must have appeared for the team in at least 1 game during the season prior to September. Players who are on the disabled list as the play-offs begin may be activated during the post season as soon as their injury expires. The playoffs begin two days after the conclusion of the regular season.

Play-off Player Usage
The player use limitations which apply in each postseason series are:

• Batters: Those who are limited to 300 or less at-bats during the season are limited to (their at-bat totals times .05) at-bats. All others are unlimited.
• Pitchers: The maximum number of starts is equal to their Real Life starts divided by 10 (rounded down). The maximum number of appearances is set at their Real Life appearances divided by 10 (rounded off normally).
• At-bats accrued by limited players which are used to replace an injured regular do not count towards at-bat limitations.