1. League Structure
A. The Municipal League consists of two leagues, American and National. Each league has ten teams with 2 divisions. American will play with a DH, National will not. There will be limited inter-league regular season play. The home team will determine whether a DH is used (i.e. DH in American League Parks).
B. The Muni will play a 162 game regular season schedule.
2. Franchises
A. Team location and nickname are determined by the team owner and must be approved by the Commissioner.
B. Team location and nickname may only be modified during off-season.
C. If an owner is determined to be inactive by the Commissioner, the respective team shall be opened to new ownership.
3. Team Rosters & Manager Profiles
A. Each team roster will consist of a minimum of 22 and maximum of 27 players.
B. Team Rosters shall be submitted by a specified deadline before season play begins.
C. If a Team Roster is not submitted on time, the Commissioner shall set the roster so that season play can begin.
D. Manager Profiles shall be submitted by a specified deadline before the season play begins.
E. If a Manager Profile is not submitted on time, the Computer Manager shall control the Manager Profile until the team owner submits one.
F. Changes to Team Rosters and Manager Profiles must be received by the Commissioner by 12 noon on each Monday and Thursday, to guarantee that the Manager Profile is used. Profiles received after the 12 noon deadline may or may not be used for that week's simulation.
G. For the 2012 season, injuries will NOT occur based upon player ratings. Also a player's performance will decline after they exceed their MLB actual innings pitched or batter plate appearances.
H. Player claims and drops will occur on each Wednesday with the deadline at noon.
4. Player Usage
A. Position Players may play at any position, including those they are not rated for.
B. Any Pitcher may start or relieve regardless of their start/relief rating.
5. Drafts
A. The draft will be organized, scheduled and supervised by the Commissioner.
B. One draft will take place during each off-season.
C. The Draft will be a serpentine style draft. The draft order will be determined by finish the previous season with worst to first.
D. A club is expected to draft for himself/herself, however if unable, the DMB software can electronically make the picks for the franchise. In the case of an all-time season that uses a salary cap a draft card will be required prior to the start of the draft.
E. Exceptions – Salary Cap
1. A salary cap shall be used when the all-time greatest set of players is used, which will be the case for the 2012 season. Each team may carryover or protect upto four players from the previous season at the new season player value. 2. The beginning of the draft will consist of the top four rounds being run in reverse order of the previous seasons record. For each protected (keeper) player, the team shall forfeit their pick. For example the Savoy Specials retain two players, they will forfeit their picks in round one and two.
3. Rounds five through the end of the draft will be serpantine.
5*. Hall of Fame Rule For Use In All-Time greatest series only.
A. If a player is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, he shall have a one year bonus value for the team that owns him for the next regular season. For the 2012 season the two eligiable Hall of Famers are Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven.
B. If a team drafts or retains a newly inducted Hall of Fame member, a million dollar bonus will be added to his salary cap. For example the Saint Paul Saints draft newly inducted Robbie Alomar for their team, the Saints salary cap is now $101 million dollars.
C. The million dollar cap bonus follows the player. If he is traded, the Saints lose the million dollar bonus, but the new team earns the bonus.
6. Free Agents with All-Time greatest series database.
A. A player is a Free Agent prior to being claimed.
B. Free Agents may be signed after the Draft is completed and before the last day of the regular season.
C. Free Agents are signed on a "first-come, first-serve" basis.
D. Salary Cap Affecting Player movement.
1. Players will retain their full drop value prior to the start of the regular season and during the amnesty period.
2. During the season, any player dropped will lose half of their face value. For example, Mark McGwire face value is $12 million. If he is dropped, his value to his club will be $6 million.
3. All free agent players will have full value.
4. Amenesty Period can be declared at a date to be determined by the Commissioner prior to the start of a season.
a. During the amnesty period a dropped player will retain his full face value for his team.
7. Trades
A. Trades, if deemed lopsided, can be declared null and void by the Commissioner. I.E. no trading players for a bag of Dorito's or in case of Paul Donna, government securities.
B. Once terms have been reached among two or more teams, the Commissioner shall be notified by both teams for the trade to become official. This can be done via email (john.moosey@gmail.com) or the league forum/ or contact.
C. Teams may not trade a Draft Pick more than one year in advance.
D. "Players to be named later" are not permitted.
E. Salary Cap and Trades
1. Salary Cap must be taken into account with all trades.
2. Trades between unequal value is permitted.
a. the value of the player follows to their new team
b. an uneven value trade will alter the teams cap for the balance of the season. In example Austin Powers trade Ed Roush (valued at $4 million) to the Zane Grays for Wally Berger (valued at $7 million). With this trade Austin Powers new salary cap for this season will be $103 million, concurrently the Zane Grays salary cap for this season is now $97 million.
8. Injury Rule
A. The Real Life Injury rule will NOT be used for the 2012 season.
B. DMB understanding of injuries: Injury rating
Players who played almost every game have an Iron rating, those who missed many games (more than 10% of the season) are Prone, and others are Normal. The Very Prone rating is reserved for the most fragile players, those who missed more that 25% of the season due to injury. The injury system in DMB is quite mild compared with real life. In real-life, it's not unusual for players to miss several months or an entire season as a result of a single injury. In DMB, however, even a Very Prone player won't miss much more than a few weeks at a time, and isn't guaranteed to get hurt at all. The length of injury depends on the Injury rule you are using. If the rule is set to Random, injury duration is determined randomly. If it is set to Injury Rating, a single injury will not exceed the number of real-life games missed (for any reason) by the player during the season.
9. Game Simulation Rules
A. Games will be simulated on a centralized computer by the Commissioner.
B. The Commissioner may authorize another league member to perform simulations in case of anticipated absence.
C. Both leagues will play using the following DMB simulation rules: No Warm-Up, Weather Effects On, Real Life Injury Rule not used, American League DH, National League no DH. World Series home team decides use or non-use of DH.
10. Post-Season
A. The League Champions will meet in a Best-of-Seven. Winners will advance to the World Series.
B. Depending on league size and playing schedule League Playoffs will be determined prior to the season.
C. For the 2012 season, the playoffs will consist of the two division winners and one wild card (remaining team with the best record). The wild card will pay the division record with the least best record in a five game series. The division winner with the best record will have a first round bye. Home field for the wild card v. division winner will go to the division winner despite the record. League Championship round will be seven games with the home field given to the team with the best record.
D. In the World Series, home-field advantage will go to the team with the highest regular season winning percentage. If winning percentages are equal, records against each team's respective league will be compared starting with the 2nd place team and working down the standings.
11. Ballparks
A. Ballparks will be drafted a minimum of one week prior to the player draft in the first season. A squad can always retain his stadium or flip it prior to any season. Parks can be dropped or traded (bag of chips and/or other financial considerations are acceptable for this one exception).
12. Awards
A. League owners will vote on annual awards.
B. The awards will be regular season MVP, Cy Young (best pitcher), Golden Slugger (top hitter), fireman award (top reliever) and Top General Manager (Connie Mack).
C. Monthly awards will be given by the Commissioner or commissioner designee.